Cheap sports car as a second car - worth it?

[VeeFource]

Old MX5s, MGFs, S2ks, MR2s etc as a second car can seem very tempting at their low prices... maybe not much the S2k anymore. But given the tax, insurance & MOT add up to over £500 a year, bits will regularly fail and most of their undersides look like the deck of the Titanic; are they really worth the hassle? Especially if you already have a motorcycle?

I like working on the oily bits of a car as much as the next bloke but the idea of stripping down struts and subframes etc to wirebrush, rust convert, prime, paint and underseal doesn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm. It's probably why they're so cheap in the first place I guess.

Also doesn't help I cycle to work and barely get to drive my hot hatch as much as I'd like. First world problem for sure but thoughts welcome as I've never owned one before.

Edited by VeeFource on Saturday 13th June 21:14

[DaveCWK]

Get yourself a recently imported MR2 or MX5 and there will be no rust to worry about. I'd say cars such as this are definitely worth it. I used to have an MR2 Turbo, it offered so much for such little £££.

[Monkeylegend]

Well it seems like you have talked yourself out of it before you even start

I have always had a sports car in the garage and with all of mine that's where they stay most of the time. I just can't be bothered to move the other cars around to get them out, easier to just jump in the daily to go anywhere.

I had TR6 for nearly 15 years and it was only on the road for two of those. That was a waste and something I regret but I never learn my lesson.

I have done less than 4k miles in nearly 5 years in my current one and only 400 miles in the last 18 months, not helped by the current situation though. I spend more time looking at it than driving it

Knowing it is there if I want to have a roof down drive is enough to justify it for me though.

[mundo-kombi.com]

Do your research but from what I understand early Boxster's are the place to put your money, if it's that part of the market your are looking to invest in,

Mid engine, Porsche build quality (although this car is no 964 or 993), a flat 6 and 200 to 250hp, there's nothing else that comes close. The car's you mentioned, although all great, have nothing on the Boxster. Not forgetting the brand appeal. Remember the old Porsche ad "As a kid did you grow up dreaming of one day owning a Toyota etc. etc."

And the prices of these are only going one way. And there's enough of them for you to be choosey.

4K should get you into a nice one. Being mid engine they're more costly to maintain but if it's been used regularly of late and has a stack of receipts it should be OK. Avoid something that hasn't had much use over the last x years. The 1999 model year didn't suffer from the IMS bearing failures that the 2000 upwards models did, although most of these should've been retro-upgraded by now.

Just a thought

[51mes]

I have an s2k, it is garaged for 5 or 6 months of the year saving me tax which at 560 a year forms a major part of a full year's running costs. I'm over 50 now so insurance for 3k a year is under 200, and as its a Honda is just works. I've owned it for coming on 7 years and have spent a few hundred a year on specialist maintenance, but a further 3-4k on things like suspension refresh, undersealing and titillation - refreshed seats, engine cover respray & a stereo, . The car will never be perfect -but I love it & never see me getting rid!

There is just something special about a sunny day top down motoring around the UK...

[VeeFource]

51mes said:

I have an s2k, it is garaged for 5 or 6 months of the year saving me tax which at 560 a year forms a major part of a full year's running costs. I'm over 50 now so insurance for 3k a year is under 200, and as its a Honda is just works. I've owned it for coming on 7 years and have spent a few hundred a year on specialist maintenance, but a further 3-4k on things like suspension refresh, undersealing and titillation - refreshed seats, engine cover respray & a stereo, . The car will never be perfect -but I love it & never see me getting rid!

There is just something special about a sunny day top down motoring around the UK...

Does sound good. Is it possible to get 6 months insurance yet or are we still in the dark ages with that? I have somewhere secure to store it so not fussed to insure it for winter

[VeeFource]

mundo-kombi.com said:

Do your research but from what I understand early Boxster's are the place to put your money, if it's that part of the market your are looking to invest in,

Mid engine, Porsche build quality (although this car is no 964 or 993), a flat 6 and 200 to 250hp, there's nothing else that comes close. The car's you mentioned, although all great, have nothing on the Boxster. Not forgetting the brand appeal. Remember the old Porsche ad "As a kid did you grow up dreaming of one day owning a Toyota etc. etc."

And the prices of these are only going one way. And there's enough of them for you to be choosey.

4K should get you into a nice one. Being mid engine they're more costly to maintain but if it's been used regularly of late and has a stack of receipts it should be OK. Avoid something that hasn't had much use over the last x years. The 1999 model year didn't suffer from the IMS bearing failures that the 2000 upwards models did, although most of these should've been retro-upgraded by now.

Just a thought

That is a very interesting prospect. What about this Porsche tax I keep hearing about? I didn't think there was such a thing as a cheap Porsche?

[Krikkit]

mundo-kombi.com said:

Do your research but from what I understand early Boxster's are the place to put your money, if it's that part of the market your are looking to invest in,

Mid engine, Porsche build quality (although this car is no 964 or 993), a flat 6 and 200 to 250hp, there's nothing else that comes close. The car's you mentioned, although all great, have nothing on the Boxster. Not forgetting the brand appeal. Remember the old Porsche ad "As a kid did you grow up dreaming of one day owning a Toyota etc. etc."

And the prices of these are only going one way. And there's enough of them for you to be choosey.

4K should get you into a nice one. Being mid engine they're more costly to maintain but if it's been used regularly of late and has a stack of receipts it should be OK. Avoid something that hasn't had much use over the last x years. The 1999 model year didn't suffer from the IMS bearing failures that the 2000 upwards models did, although most of these should've been retro-upgraded by now.

Just a thought

As good as the boxster is it's a strange choice for a cheap 2nd car.

Parts are generally expensive and they're going to need more maintenance as they age, like everything else.

[Baldchap]

Motorbike.

[The spinner of plates]

Krikkit said:

As good as the boxster is it's a strange choice for a cheap 2nd car.

Parts are generally expensive and they're going to need more maintenance as they age, like everything else.

You think?

I’d bet that more than 2/3 of the 986 cars out there are garaged weekenders.

[VeeFource]

DaveCWK said:

Get yourself a recently imported MR2 or MX5 and there will be no rust to worry about. I'd say cars such as this are definitely worth it. I used to have an MR2 Turbo, it offered so much for such little £££.

Apparently it's not so easy anymore now the bottom's fallen out of importing. Also a well informed friend has advised a lot of UK insurance companies want nothing to do with them and they have different OBD protocols etc. Shame as would be a good call otherwise

[Earthdweller]

VeeFource said:

51mes said:

I have an s2k, it is garaged for 5 or 6 months of the year saving me tax which at 560 a year forms a major part of a full year's running costs. I'm over 50 now so insurance for 3k a year is under 200, and as its a Honda is just works. I've owned it for coming on 7 years and have spent a few hundred a year on specialist maintenance, but a further 3-4k on things like suspension refresh, undersealing and titillation - refreshed seats, engine cover respray & a stereo, . The car will never be perfect -but I love it & never see me getting rid!

There is just something special about a sunny day top down motoring around the UK...

Does sound good. Is it possible to get 6 months insurance yet or are we still in the dark ages with that? I have somewhere secure to store it so not fussed to insure it for winter

I have a Z4 30Si very similar use to the above

Very cheap to run and maintain

Annual insurance is peanuts through a specialist insurer why would you bother with only insuring it for 6 months ?

Tax on the Si is £340 a year .. I only tax it for the months I’m using it, so it’s less than £200 pa usually

[Krikkit]

The spinner of plates said:

Krikkit said:

As good as the boxster is it's a strange choice for a cheap 2nd car.

Parts are generally expensive and they're going to need more maintenance as they age, like everything else.

You think?

I’d bet that more than 2/3 of the 986 cars out there are garaged weekenders.

Probably, but when they need the rads or air condensers replacing it's a pretty penny, same with a suspension refresh or replacing the exhaust, all things which every car will need, and that's before you get to the difficult stuff.

I'd have one in a heartbeat, but I work on my own cars which makes them cheap enough to be reasonable.

[Ecosseven]

I have a 2010 MX-5 as a second car. I've owned it for 7.5 years. Although it's a second car I use it as a daily driver between April and November and it usually covers around 8k miles a year (It will be less this year for obvious reasons!).

Can't really fault it. Apart from the usual consumables its needed nothing other than serving in the last 7.5 years and 61k miles. It hits the sweet spot for me in terms of costs, looks, handling, performance, practicality, and comfort. The only thing I can see me replacing it with is a ND2 in a few years.

[Mr Tidy]

As Earthdweller said a BMW Z4 has to be a good option as they don't seem to suffer much from rust, and you can have a generally bullet-proof petrol straight 6 which is a bit different.

I had 3.0 litre Coupes for 5 years and had no real issues with them.

[Jakg]

If you don't want to deal with rusty cars... don't buy one?

I'm happy to work on cars myself but rust is something I just can't deal with, and irrationally puts me off a whole car - it's literally disintegrating while parked up.

I bought a £3.5k BMW Z4 3.0 for this reason - it doesn't rust (or at least, they aren't known for rusting - unlike the typical Jap suggestions) and being an BMW E46 underneath means a lot of parts are cheap and guides plentiful.

I wanted a convertible, but had a practical hot hatch to move my dogs around. I couldn't get one car to do both, but didn't want to spend loads in case I never drove it, and of course I was already going to paying for another set of tax / insurance.
Obviously a Boxster is a more focused car, and had I of known what a success it'd be I'd probably of saved up for the newer, more powerful Z4 3.0SI - but I think I made a sensible low risk choice.

Or at least I would've done, if I hadn't of then spent £x,xxx on it afterwards...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[190bhp]

I have mk2 and mk3 mr2, they do need work on age related replacement of parts if not already replaced by a caring owner, which can be difficult at times on the Mk2 turbo engine . But the mk3 roadster is relatively easy to work on. Defiantly worth the effort,when I take them out on a great drive around Cumbria /Northumberland.
Never had a breakdown or large bill with either of them. Mk3 parts can be pretty cheap as they share some parts with a Toyota Yaris.
The MK3s don't tend to rust as badly as the MK2s , they do rot the rear subframe, but as long as they weren't a coastal car, their undersides can be solid for their age, Just patches of surface rust.

Edited by 190bhp on Sunday 14th June 12:59

[ZX10R NIN]

Rust will be an issue if you go for an older car but if you go for an NC it shouldn't be an issue so I say yes it'll be a worthy addition to the garage:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

Or I'd also look at an early Z4:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202...

[aka_kerrly]

VeeFource said:

Apparently it's not so easy anymore now the bottom's fallen out of importing. Also a well informed friend has advised a lot of UK insurance companies want nothing to do with them and they have different OBD protocols etc. Shame as would be a good call otherwise

Your friend is not well informed, there are plenty of UK insurers who cover imported cars, you can even arrange insurance with just a VIN so that the car can be insured whilst it is in the port awaiting collection/registration.

Secondly a OBD port is an international standard, the whole point of it is so that all cars from 1992 have the same port and from 1996-now obd2 so your mates argument makes no sense whatsoever. Granted there are times with an import car where cross referencing part numbers is a bit of a pain but to get a good example of a car never sold in the UK you have to make a few compromises.

[Weekendrebuild]

I pay £160 a year fully comps for my mr2 all mods declared runs just over 720bhp so not hard to insure at all . You won’t get a turbo for 2k !! 8 k will get you a rough one 10/12k a tidy example with most things done .