The time has come...

[Matt UK]

Van for work + toy for weekends gets my vote.

[okie592]

MK1 RS.

[swakelin91]

I would rule out getting a van at the moment, as I don't have enough room for a van and then a weekend car as well, so it does need to be a daily driver.

I do occasionally have access to my dad's car which could potentially be used when needed for taking equipment to shoots etc; which does make something like the Elise or VX220 more desirable.

[DanDC5]

C2james said:

Just did an insurance quote for a tvr chimaera and it came up as £2500 but a Renault Clio 200 is only £750.

TVR's are generally cheaper with more specialist companies like kit car specialists. I did a quote last year for a Tuscan, 24yo at the time, 3 years NCB, 12k miles a year and parked on the drive. £930.

[schmalex]

Boxster?

There is a surprising amount of luggage capacity when you use both boots

ETA. Looking at A/T, £8k will put you in a nice early S. With a bit of a haggle, you may even get a facelifted (52 plate onwards) S at that price.

Edited by schmalex on Tuesday 7th February 15:35

[PaperCut]

Another vote here for an E46 M3. I was driving one regularly at 19 (it wasn't mine - my Uncle's!) and it was fantastic. It's pretty much everything you want from a car - power, handling, noise, build quality, looks, and even decent practicality - plus given the fact it was always mentioned in the same breath as a 996 (albeit Carrera 2) and given the performance means it's relative bargain - both to run and buy.

Having said all that(!) an Elise does sound tempting too...can't you put all the equipment in the passenger seat under a blanket (to hide it from thieves that is)?

[sebhaque]

Before I bought my house I was looking at chucking the money into a Gallardo/V8V as well - great minds and all that. Interestingly the insurance quotes for them were far higher than an M3. In fact, I remember being seriously torn between an M3 and a VXR8, both of which were almost the same price to buy and insure. Only picked the M3 as I got a good deal on my VXT (i.e. straight swap!)

WRT my financial status - I'm a bit of a wrong'un turned good (still a , don't worry!). Left school at 16 and got involved with the wrong crowd for a year before realising I had better things to do than sleeping on a park bench - I got a job at Rolls-Royce (aerospace) and climbed the ranks. I now work on the F-35B project and while I'm not loaded, I live a comfortable life. No directorships just yet!

[FreeLitres]

DanDC5 said:

TVR's are generally cheaper with more specialist companies like kit car specialists.

+1

TVR Chim 500 (modded)
Comparison website = £950
Specialist insurer = £300

I went with the latter!

[D1bram]

Managing to climb the ranks as an engineer within Rolls Royce by 21 is pretty impressive TBF.

My mate is a design engineer for RR, has a MEng from Durham (4 years full time, graduated at 23) is now 29 and is still on less than £35k.

[C2james]

FreeLitres said:

+1

TVR Chim 500 (modded)
Comparison website = £950
Specialist insurer = £300

I went with the latter!

What specialist insurance companies did you look at?