Does your choice of car reflect how much you drive?

[dibblecorse]

I have a 2010 Z4 that does about 2k a year, just the odd errand and day out, could have something more expensive / faster / flashier but this suits me, when i bought it I was doing c10k a year, were I buying a car now, I'd just get an EV, an I3 or something .....

[Limpet]

martin mrt said:

I’ve got an M140 that I have had for nearly a year, it’s done less than 4000 miles in that time which includes a round trip to Orkney (500 miles) and a Trip to St Andrews and Stirling which are around 250 miles each.

I use mine as a daily. 33,000 miles in 26 months, probably 30,000 miles of which involved schlepping down motorways or other boring routes that probably would have been done just as effectively, for half the cost, in a 118d. But I couldn't bring myself to opt out of the car scheme and take the cash, and then get something that I could have got on the car scheme anyway. It was a good opportunity to do something a little bit different, although I still needed something comfy and practical. And my man maths just tells me the company actually covers most of the running costs.

[Davie]

I always had two cars... a sheddy estate for day in, day out abuse and then a catalogue of 90's performance stuff and used to do the whole club events / shows down south / random drives on a fairly regular basis. I've not long got rid of the last car suited to such antics and have reverted to sheddy estate as my sole car. It's less about the choice of car but more a change of life - now married, small human, work and new house so the time to drive is seriously limited and thus, having something quick and interesting was not only useless but also a frustration. I keep looking a cars, thinking I need to tick those old boxes but the sad fact is, I don't. That and the roads are so congested, ruined and monitored that it's just a chore. I still love driving, just not in the same sense as I used to and so the cars are now softer and lazier to reflect.

[Mr Tidy]

I starting running 4 cylinder turbo-diesels in 2005 when I started getting a car allowance and was doing business miles.

Business use stopped in 2010, but I kept the same car as I'd only had it 2 years. But by 2014 it had started to produce some big bills and it was still depreciating. Luckily I was able to take a pension early with a lump sum so I sold it and bought a car I had always fancied, a 2006 BMW Z4 Coupe!

I only seem to do about 4,000 miles a year as I've stopped working, but I need to have a 2nd car for elderly parent taxi duties so I've had a few 6 cylinder petrol BMWs for that, the latest being a 2005 E90 330i. So two cars with the same engine, which I really like.

The 330i does about 7,000 miles a year, but neither of them gets subjected to a commute or rush hours so they both manage well over 30 mpg.

OK they're both over a decade old so will throw up the occasional bill, but depreciation is pretty minimal so I can live with that.

I like N/A engines, manual gearboxes and RWD so I'm running out of options - until I can afford a V8 Mustang maybe!

[RTB]

Davie said:

I always had two cars... a sheddy estate for day in, day out abuse and then a catalogue of 90's performance stuff and used to do the whole club events / shows down south / random drives on a fairly regular basis. I've not long got rid of the last car suited to such antics and have reverted to sheddy estate as my sole car. It's less about the choice of car but more a change of life - now married, small human, work and new house so the time to drive is seriously limited and thus, having something quick and interesting was not only useless but also a frustration. I keep looking a cars, thinking I need to tick those old boxes but the sad fact is, I don't. That and the roads are so congested, ruined and monitored that it's just a chore. I still love driving, just not in the same sense as I used to and so the cars are now softer and lazier to reflect.

It does get harder with kids on the scene. I've had my Exige for 9 years now. My eldest son is nearly 11 and has no interest in cars, my youngest son (7) is obsessed by cars. When the weather's nice (like now) my youngest and I go out for a drive in the Exige after dinner looking for interesting cars, he's developing an encyclopedic knowledge of cars. I just wish he'd put as much effort into his school work as he does memorising the vital statistics of every car ever made

I came close to selling the car when my youngest came along, but I'm glad I didn't. If I had sold it, the money would have disappeared a bit at a time and I now wouldn't have the funds to buy another one. Then again I live in the Peak District and within 5 mins from my house are some superb empty un monitored roads to enjoy. So I guess life changes and where you live play an important role in you what you drive and how you enjoy your driving.

You'll be back in something interesting.

[Fiisch]

This is currently a big struggle in my head.

Commute 14 miles each way to the station along B roads, and have a FK2 Type R (financed, balloon due in November). It is the perfect car for tight twisty roads, if a little overpowered, and very expensive to run.

We also have our "family car", a Seat Leon, which is similarly sized and perhaps a little small now our daughter is coming up to 2.5 years and thoughts are turning to a second.

I keep thinking about sacrificing the Type R for a cheapish daily (Clio 182?!) and getting something a bit nicer for the family car which does the weekend family trips and wife pottering about during the week. But then I know I would be tempted to run 3 cars and kept something really impractical as a toy as well...

This is the never-ending conundrum of being a petrolhead. I don't think there is a perfect use/car model Life is short, drive what you enjoy, but don't compromise yourself financially for the important stuff.

[Mr Tidy]

Fiisch said:

This is currently a big struggle in my head.
This is the never-ending conundrum of being a petrolhead. I don't think there is a perfect use/car model Life is short, drive what you enjoy, but don't compromise yourself financially for the important stuff.

Sound advice - that I may be about to ignore when I go to look at a car next week.

Well we're only here once after all!

[Second Best]

rayyan171 said:

Wow, a R-Class. Very different choice! How is it? Is it more like a SUV or more like a MPV? Always wanted to know, as always have considered one of these for a 7 seater for us.

Sorry for the delay in replying, been away on business the past few days.

Thanks for your comment. The R drives like an SUV but has the practicality of an MPV. It's not exactly built for a track day, but it's very competent at being an incredibly practical long distance cruiser. Mine's the 6-seater variant and is affectionally called "the business class" by friends, as it's quite a nice way to transport 6 people in comfort.

I always found it amusing how the R-class was somewhat touted as a more practical S-class, yet ended up as a family bus for the most part. I bought mine from a good friend of mine, who used it as a school run car, and you'd have no idea it carted kids around for the majority of its life.

Cost-wise, I bought it for about £5500 and have had to replace one of the suspension sensor units (about £300) in a year's motoring. Fuel consumption is 26mpg, although that's mostly around town - on motorway runs it's around 33mpg.

The only downside I'd say is the sheer size of the car. It's got parking sensors and is relatively manoeuvrable, but being roughly the size of a Range Rover, isn't exactly easy to parallel park on a busy street in London. The rear doors are enormous as well, in my local supermarket I can't open them sufficiently if a car's in the space next to me.

[wibble cb]

I don't use my car to commute, which is just as well, as its a 1959 Sprite, it rarely works anyway!

[deltashad]

Elise is perfect as a daily. I'm 45 and feel like I'm 20. No problem getting in and out of the car. It's economical and easy to park.
Bumpy roads and lack of aircon don't bother me the slightest.
I used my integrale as a daily for many years. I enjoy driving and want to enjoy every drive.

[rayyan171]

Second Best said:

Sorry for the delay in replying, been away on business the past few days.

Thanks for your comment. The R drives like an SUV but has the practicality of an MPV. It's not exactly built for a track day, but it's very competent at being an incredibly practical long distance cruiser. Mine's the 6-seater variant and is affectionally called "the business class" by friends, as it's quite a nice way to transport 6 people in comfort.

I always found it amusing how the R-class was somewhat touted as a more practical S-class, yet ended up as a family bus for the most part. I bought mine from a good friend of mine, who used it as a school run car, and you'd have no idea it carted kids around for the majority of its life.

Cost-wise, I bought it for about £5500 and have had to replace one of the suspension sensor units (about £300) in a year's motoring. Fuel consumption is 26mpg, although that's mostly around town - on motorway runs it's around 33mpg.

The only downside I'd say is the sheer size of the car. It's got parking sensors and is relatively manoeuvrable, but being roughly the size of a Range Rover, isn't exactly easy to parallel park on a busy street in London. The rear doors are enormous as well, in my local supermarket I can't open them sufficiently if a car's in the space next to me.

Thanks for the reply, really interesting to know what these cars are like. I guess our XC90 did a similar job, but the rearmost seats were never that big. I imagine with the air suspension and V6 diesel the R class was rather quick in comparison. We did consider a R-Class facelift second time around when we bought our newer 7 seater, but wanted something that was really fast so settled for a X5! Saying this, you do get very good MPG, we rarely see 23-24mpg average and that is with a good mix of motorway miles thrown in as well.

[Orillion]

rayyan171 said:

It has the supercharged V6 from the S4/5 and pushes 290hp.

I'm looking around for a retirement car at the moment, and this sounds as if it would fit the bill. Does this A6 have a particular name or designation? It would help greatly when hunting through Autotrader.

[GeorgeB93]

I’m doing 22k miles a year, in a 2002 VW beetle, at the moment it’s more like 700 miles a week for various circumstances.

I really need to go down the second car route as I would love something ‘nice’ for weekends and sometime to take instead of the beetle.

But it’s so expensive running two cars

[rayyan171]

Orillion said:

I'm looking around for a retirement car at the moment, and this sounds as if it would fit the bill. Does this A6 have a particular name or designation? It would help greatly when hunting through Autotrader.

They are lovely cars, couldn't recommend them any more.

To search for them, the best way to filter it down was to apply these filters

Make:Audi
Model:A6 (Saloon, Avant and Allroad - have only seen one all road with this engine
Year:From 2008 onwards
Fuel type:Petrol
Drivetrain:Four Wheel Drive
Engine Size: Minimum 3.0L

This should do it. Autotrader shows 10 for sale!

There are many knocking about with the exact same spec as the one we have - I think Audi had a fleet of demonstrators as it looked like ours remained within the dealer system for a bit.

We have a Readers Cars thread documenting our A6, check it out if you want to see what they are like. Don't let fuel economy put you off, they aren't as bad as we actually thought. Also ensure thermostats are done.

[51mes]

I used to do 25K plus miles a year - living up north and commuting to the thames valley weekly in some years & quite often ran a diesel, other years not so much working in london all week. It saw me see sawing in and out of economic cars - more as an excuse to change than need - and yes it did cost, but it's my only real vice....

These days I'm doing about 3-4K in my S2000 for sunny days out, 1K or so in my classic MG, and about 9-10K tops in the V6 Supercharged Jag XE.

I work at home, most days the only travelling I do is to walk 10 minutes into town to get some lunch if I've time or meet the missus for a bit.
However when I do travel it's 200 miles minimum round trip - often twice that, so want something quick and comfortable - the Jag certainly does that.
Next week it's a 220 mile round trip to the airport with work.

Keep thinking I should get something small and frugal- like the 100HP I ran as as second car beside a 911 a few years back - or a fiesta ST, or a
something cheap 'n' cheerful for work mileage - like a duster... but just cant bring myself to do it. I just like the comfort, luxury Fit & Finish of the Jag.

S.

[Buff Mchugelarge]

I think I'm doing it the other way round to most on this thread.

I have one car I use for everything (commuting 6 miles, Autosolo competitions, 500 mile+ motorway journeys )
but its actually a city car.
My little Seicento gets run up and down the country and abused daily.

Its got an Autosolo in Westernzoyland in Somerset this weekend after being driven there from Grimsby

[Orillion]

rayyan171 said:

They are lovely cars, couldn't recommend them any more.


>Snipped

We have a Readers Cars thread documenting our A6, check it out if you want to see what they are like. Don't let fuel economy put you off, they aren't as bad as we actually thought. Also ensure thermostats are done.

Thanks. Most helpful.