Buying out-of-your-depth cars...?
Discussion
As a long time reader of PH i thought i'd join and share with you the mentality of a couple of friends of mine to see what you think ;
My good friend i've known from school (we're both 21 now) phoned me a couple weeks ago to announce his new purchase, i was thinking it would be the ST170 he'd always talked about upgrading to from his first car (a 1.4 Fiesta), but no he went on to tell me with some excitement he'd bought a 2000 X-reg Mercedes-Benz CL500 V8 completely wiping out his savings - he only got £100 for the fiesta! - and bought it for £4,995. Yep, he has bought a 165k mile CL at the lower end of the market, and while i applaud his bravery i can't help thinking it's going to be a bit difficult to pay for things if they go wrong, which i hope they don't but an auto-box on a Merc... he lives at home and gets paid less than £9k a year with a part time job (yes). I don't know if he's crazy or a brave, or whatever..
Then is get another phone call from our other mutual mate (also 21) to say he has just bought a BMW 840Ci for £4k in some sort of one-up-manship retaliation to my other mate's purchase.
Now they're pier pressuring me into buying a £5k XK8 to join them with big expensive, ageing GT cars. Help!
My good friend i've known from school (we're both 21 now) phoned me a couple weeks ago to announce his new purchase, i was thinking it would be the ST170 he'd always talked about upgrading to from his first car (a 1.4 Fiesta), but no he went on to tell me with some excitement he'd bought a 2000 X-reg Mercedes-Benz CL500 V8 completely wiping out his savings - he only got £100 for the fiesta! - and bought it for £4,995. Yep, he has bought a 165k mile CL at the lower end of the market, and while i applaud his bravery i can't help thinking it's going to be a bit difficult to pay for things if they go wrong, which i hope they don't but an auto-box on a Merc... he lives at home and gets paid less than £9k a year with a part time job (yes). I don't know if he's crazy or a brave, or whatever..
Then is get another phone call from our other mutual mate (also 21) to say he has just bought a BMW 840Ci for £4k in some sort of one-up-manship retaliation to my other mate's purchase.
Now they're pier pressuring me into buying a £5k XK8 to join them with big expensive, ageing GT cars. Help!
Chrisw666 said:
Your mates sound like proper petrolheads posers. You only live once and if you can smoke about in a huge V8 GT while fuel is still under £2 a litre then why the hell not.
Hardly sensible, but hey, you're only young once... 
On the other hand, why buy old men's cars when you're 21...?
M.
That is brave, and whilst you can't take it with you, that would have me feeling pretty nervous. But then, I don't like having 2k invested on a car, let alone 5.
A friend of ours upgraded from a 2.0 Astra SRI, to the 2.0T Cabrio to a 1996 BMW 840, the one with the pop up headlights. Lovely to look at, but cost hom £500 just to re-shoe, and he says it's off the road waiting for parts more often that he drives it, and a work commute is about £20 each way in fuel. Luckily he's not too scratchy and shares with his missus.
Not for me, though. I prefer my approach of 4 old Vauxhalls. Not as fast or glamorous, sure, but cheap to run and there's always a spare car somewhere! And I'm not scared to take them out at Combe for a damn good thrashing.
A friend of ours upgraded from a 2.0 Astra SRI, to the 2.0T Cabrio to a 1996 BMW 840, the one with the pop up headlights. Lovely to look at, but cost hom £500 just to re-shoe, and he says it's off the road waiting for parts more often that he drives it, and a work commute is about £20 each way in fuel. Luckily he's not too scratchy and shares with his missus.
Not for me, though. I prefer my approach of 4 old Vauxhalls. Not as fast or glamorous, sure, but cheap to run and there's always a spare car somewhere! And I'm not scared to take them out at Combe for a damn good thrashing.
Listen, soon these cars will be illegal.
A very good acquaintance of mine is looking to move on his vgc e32 750i - last night and despite its vintage - it dallied with a modern hot hatch (labelled VXR) and bloodied that wee chancer's nose.*
It's like an old relative who is an ex-Para - he may leak a bit and exhibit characterful bouts of wilful truculence but at the end of the day - he could still take out the trash if some imbecile wearing pants with a faulty belt tried to knick his wallet.
(* Shall I point him in your direction?
)
A very good acquaintance of mine is looking to move on his vgc e32 750i - last night and despite its vintage - it dallied with a modern hot hatch (labelled VXR) and bloodied that wee chancer's nose.*
It's like an old relative who is an ex-Para - he may leak a bit and exhibit characterful bouts of wilful truculence but at the end of the day - he could still take out the trash if some imbecile wearing pants with a faulty belt tried to knick his wallet.
(* Shall I point him in your direction?
)
Brave but ultimately stupid. If you've cleaned yourself out buying and insuring something like that you'll be in a bad position when something goes wrong (and it will). Add to that increasing petrol costs and you've got a pretty bad mix.
It'd be like buying an old M5 and being hit with £1000 bill for every corner of suspension that goes pop. These lads seem to be well out of their depths here, buying bottom of the market premium cars. If you ask anyone in the smoker barge thread you'll see there is a certain art to buying this kind of car and even those who have been at it for years have still been hit with big bills. Heaven knows my bargain barging has run into trouble before.
It'd be like buying an old M5 and being hit with £1000 bill for every corner of suspension that goes pop. These lads seem to be well out of their depths here, buying bottom of the market premium cars. If you ask anyone in the smoker barge thread you'll see there is a certain art to buying this kind of car and even those who have been at it for years have still been hit with big bills. Heaven knows my bargain barging has run into trouble before.
Or...
Buy a classic that is more easily affordable to run AND to maintain. Thinking classic Jag territory or American V8.
Buy something you personally like driving and based on your ability to afford and to run it. Drive it whenever you want to without worry. I'm thinking classic Golf, MX5, etc..
Have a big car like theirs by all means, but don't be a hostage to wither fuel costs or reliability. They won't be able to afford to run either for long. The first major thing to go wrong on that Merc will crucify your mate and then he won't be able to afford to drive it.
Surely the point is a balance of craziness and drive-ablity within your limits of funding. Better to have a more reliable car AND be able to afford a Top Gear style challenge to France, etc, than a CL Merc on the drive that you can only look at and dream?
Buy a classic that is more easily affordable to run AND to maintain. Thinking classic Jag territory or American V8.
Buy something you personally like driving and based on your ability to afford and to run it. Drive it whenever you want to without worry. I'm thinking classic Golf, MX5, etc..
Have a big car like theirs by all means, but don't be a hostage to wither fuel costs or reliability. They won't be able to afford to run either for long. The first major thing to go wrong on that Merc will crucify your mate and then he won't be able to afford to drive it.
Surely the point is a balance of craziness and drive-ablity within your limits of funding. Better to have a more reliable car AND be able to afford a Top Gear style challenge to France, etc, than a CL Merc on the drive that you can only look at and dream?
Genius. Pure genius. You only live once and sometimes you have to take a risk.
Your new purchase:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...
HTH.
Your new purchase:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...
HTH.
as long as they are entering into this with eyes wide open, then they should.
Pretty soon, it will be illegal to own such cars, nevermind drive them (no hydrogen fuel cell capability), nowhere to put the gps device, and even if there was, you'd get a letter asking what was the purpose of the drive early on saturday, where you didnt go anywhere, just in a big loop on wiggly roads, and you didnt stop. We believe this is a hoon, not an "essential non-green transport journey" and as such, you owe HM Government £60 please (think of the environment, etc etc)
Go for it. Our Grandchildren will be amazed that we were allowed to buy such vehicles...
Pretty soon, it will be illegal to own such cars, nevermind drive them (no hydrogen fuel cell capability), nowhere to put the gps device, and even if there was, you'd get a letter asking what was the purpose of the drive early on saturday, where you didnt go anywhere, just in a big loop on wiggly roads, and you didnt stop. We believe this is a hoon, not an "essential non-green transport journey" and as such, you owe HM Government £60 please (think of the environment, etc etc)
Go for it. Our Grandchildren will be amazed that we were allowed to buy such vehicles...
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