Keeping up appearances without being boring.
Discussion
OP: you already said you wish to preserve savings and rating for a house purchase, so why care what others may think?
We've 2 cars in our house: 2014 Fiesta ST and a 2017 Skoa Octavia RS wagon. All our friends and neighbours are badge snobs - BMW, Audi, MB, Porsche, etc., but they all bought boring diesels and know eff all about cars in general.
Balls to the snobbery or embarrassment. Sort your house first, car later.
We've 2 cars in our house: 2014 Fiesta ST and a 2017 Skoa Octavia RS wagon. All our friends and neighbours are badge snobs - BMW, Audi, MB, Porsche, etc., but they all bought boring diesels and know eff all about cars in general.
Balls to the snobbery or embarrassment. Sort your house first, car later.
They all look like your middle of the road, not really great etc.
A) I don't think most people care
B) If your driving a 2 seat cheap 'fun' car, people will assume that is what it is. They will imagine you have something more expensive for less fun times.
I suspect if they see your current car - it will be more along the lines of that looks fun, not that looks cheap....
A) I don't think most people care
B) If your driving a 2 seat cheap 'fun' car, people will assume that is what it is. They will imagine you have something more expensive for less fun times.
I suspect if they see your current car - it will be more along the lines of that looks fun, not that looks cheap....
People's perceptions are sometimes misguided. When my TVR Chimaera was my only transport, I would often turn up in it to meet clients or visit building sites and the most common comment was along the line of "they must be paying you far too much to drive a car like that...."
If I'd turned up in a new-ish diesel Golf or similar, they'd have said nothing, even though the car would have been worth twice as much.
It is a fine balance though; you don't want customers to see your car and think they're going to get fleeced to pay for it, nor do you want to turn up in a banger and for them to think you're not doing very well. In your case, I'd stick with what you've got.
If I'd turned up in a new-ish diesel Golf or similar, they'd have said nothing, even though the car would have been worth twice as much.
It is a fine balance though; you don't want customers to see your car and think they're going to get fleeced to pay for it, nor do you want to turn up in a banger and for them to think you're not doing very well. In your case, I'd stick with what you've got.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-57-BMW-325I-AUTO-CO...
Something like this? Still a RWD, six cylinder petrol, and modern enough that it doesn't quite look its age.
Something like this? Still a RWD, six cylinder petrol, and modern enough that it doesn't quite look its age.
Your image is you. Drive what you want. If someone wants to be negative about what you drive you can't control that. I did consultancy for many years and drove flash cars every time coz I want to! If I pulled up in a clients car park and the CEO drove an Austin Maxi - i believed it said absolutely nothing about their character or how I should approach them. People drive the same type of cars with widely different personalities for reasons you'll never fathom.
austinsmirk said:
the assistant chief ex of the company I work for, cycles to work.
I cycle a lot too: we talk about bikes and the ride in etc, when in the changing/shower rooms, as well as work.
he must earn 4 x what I do: no one is asking where his image projecting car is.
Yes, but he spent £5000 on a bicycle, didn't he? I cycle a lot too: we talk about bikes and the ride in etc, when in the changing/shower rooms, as well as work.
he must earn 4 x what I do: no one is asking where his image projecting car is.
Stick to your guns. If anything, add a roll bar and bucket seats, just to give it a bit more of a manly presence!
I had a MK1 MX5 I used to take to site. It was a struggle even fitting PPE equipment and all my other cr*p in the boot. Once, whilst parked on a slight hill, the handbrake failed and it gently rolled into a builders' van. How I didn't mark the paintwork on my front bumper I'll never know.
As an aside, I work with Building Consultants in the South East, providing spec work on flat roofing refurbs / extensions and new builds. Be interested to know what practice you work for and whether we could help out!
I had a MK1 MX5 I used to take to site. It was a struggle even fitting PPE equipment and all my other cr*p in the boot. Once, whilst parked on a slight hill, the handbrake failed and it gently rolled into a builders' van. How I didn't mark the paintwork on my front bumper I'll never know.
As an aside, I work with Building Consultants in the South East, providing spec work on flat roofing refurbs / extensions and new builds. Be interested to know what practice you work for and whether we could help out!
Whilst criticising you for not being immune to perceived societal pressures like all of us other PH men's men, we've all forgotten that part of being a powerfully built multiple directorship man's man is having dominion over the womenfolk whose lives you grace with your presence.
The simple answer is you tell her to drive a manual and to shut up about it whilst you take the Range Rover
Naturally, everyone on the internet is such a free-spirited powerful force of personality that they drive what they want, where they want and can't possibly understand how you could be so weak minded.
To try to help explain, I presume OP felt a bit like turning up to a board meeting in a tracksuit.
Sure, wear whatever makes you comfortable, your image is you, not your clothes, the losers in the power suits are the ones who should be embarrassed, that's all great, but the other people aren't insightful free thinking worldly wise individuals. They'll probably be sniggering at your crocs and Adidas stripes when you leave, whether it's justified or not.
Of course, as the head of such a bouyant multi-national conglomerate you can simply choose not to do business with such people, but perhaps OP just has to play the game by the unspoken rules in order to feed his family, just like the other poor b
ds in their suits and executive saloons.
To answer your question OP, for £5,000 you could just rent a BMW for the day every now and then quite a few times? Keeps the capital for the house move too
The simple answer is you tell her to drive a manual and to shut up about it whilst you take the Range Rover
Naturally, everyone on the internet is such a free-spirited powerful force of personality that they drive what they want, where they want and can't possibly understand how you could be so weak minded.
To try to help explain, I presume OP felt a bit like turning up to a board meeting in a tracksuit.
Sure, wear whatever makes you comfortable, your image is you, not your clothes, the losers in the power suits are the ones who should be embarrassed, that's all great, but the other people aren't insightful free thinking worldly wise individuals. They'll probably be sniggering at your crocs and Adidas stripes when you leave, whether it's justified or not.
Of course, as the head of such a bouyant multi-national conglomerate you can simply choose not to do business with such people, but perhaps OP just has to play the game by the unspoken rules in order to feed his family, just like the other poor b
ds in their suits and executive saloons.To answer your question OP, for £5,000 you could just rent a BMW for the day every now and then quite a few times? Keeps the capital for the house move too
Any car in immaculate condition looks good, so that is one route...
but you can't control perception - to some my e39 M5 is just an old BMW - to others it is a classic M5... to some my z3 cost / is worth more than the M5 because it is a) a convertible and b) a sports car whereas the M5 is a boring saloon - yet the price difference is huge and the M5 cost c. 5x the z3 purchase cost - you can only control perception by being the same as everyone else and that is boring!
but you can't control perception - to some my e39 M5 is just an old BMW - to others it is a classic M5... to some my z3 cost / is worth more than the M5 because it is a) a convertible and b) a sports car whereas the M5 is a boring saloon - yet the price difference is huge and the M5 cost c. 5x the z3 purchase cost - you can only control perception by being the same as everyone else and that is boring!
I have recently had the same with my business moving into new horizons. I was driving around in a Rover 214 for years and loved its character but would often feel like an outsider turning up into a carpark full of Mercedes and BMW and I did, in fact, get the odd comment.
I did give in to be honest and went out and bought a 55 plate BMW 530D for 4k. all perfect apart from a few bits of paint here and there which I got fixed for a beer. Now the comments are "wow a BMW, your doing well for yourself" ...as they get out of a brand new car that has cost them many many times what the BMW has...
I know what you mean in that you can afford but dont want one, I am and was the same but in the end, the business image need was greater than my want to stay in a classic/"old" car.
I keep the 214 now as my weekend car.
I did give in to be honest and went out and bought a 55 plate BMW 530D for 4k. all perfect apart from a few bits of paint here and there which I got fixed for a beer. Now the comments are "wow a BMW, your doing well for yourself" ...as they get out of a brand new car that has cost them many many times what the BMW has...
I know what you mean in that you can afford but dont want one, I am and was the same but in the end, the business image need was greater than my want to stay in a classic/"old" car.
I keep the 214 now as my weekend car.
Hoofy said:
austinsmirk said:
the assistant chief ex of the company I work for, cycles to work.
I cycle a lot too: we talk about bikes and the ride in etc, when in the changing/shower rooms, as well as work.
he must earn 4 x what I do: no one is asking where his image projecting car is.
Yes, but he spent £5000 on a bicycle, didn't he? I cycle a lot too: we talk about bikes and the ride in etc, when in the changing/shower rooms, as well as work.
he must earn 4 x what I do: no one is asking where his image projecting car is.
actually, no- as we're Yorkshire men, we both got £1000 bikes on the cycle to work scheme ! maybe its different elsewhere-in the country, but as an example, one of the lads who works for me has a 3.0l petrol bmw 5 series.
he is endless taken the P out of, with his expensive, costly, hard to run and unreliable car. now on here (PH world), he's a driving god. in the real world- what an idiot for having a car like that. no one is impressed. there's some very wealthy people here (at work)- no one is tooling about in fancy motors showing off impressing other light footed men. all anyone asks him is, why haven't you got something sensible and diesel ?
another good example- as well as being employed, I have another business. my business partner got rid of his bentley. too flash and didn't like the attention it brought. we're quite grounded in Yorkshire
piemuncher said:
If you had a budget of £5k (perhaps up to £10k if very good), what fun, preferably convertible, preferably RWD and most importantly NON EMBARRASING car would you get?
S2000 Fun - howling NA engine with 9k redline
Convertible - check
RWD - check
NON EMBARRASSING - check (but subjective)
10k will see you into a nice example of a car that is now appreciating.
For example: https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...
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