Own 2 cheap cars or 1 costlier all rounder?
Discussion
Hi everybody,
I'm not the world's biggest car expert so any help would be much appreciated. Ok, I have a new job which involves a commute equating to about 15,000 miles per year. I own a 2002 Focus 1.8 Ghia which as far as I'm concerned is a perfectly good commuting car; it's reasonably economical and has a little bit of power, just passed MOT without any issues even though it's 11 years old and has done 115,000 and I know it's been well looked after for its whole life (bought from a family member.)
However, I'm starting to itch for something a bit more exciting and at 28, seems like the ideal time to do it. I wouldn't want to get an impractical, expensive sports car that would bankrupt me on fuel costs at 15,000 a year but something cheap that would serve as a fun weekender? As far as I see it, I'm thinking my options are
1) Get shot of the Focus (I'm aware I'd be lucky to get £500 for it) and drop the cash on something economical but classier and with more power i.e. a BMW 3 series for around £8,000 and run it for 5-10 years
OR
2) Keep the Focus as my day to day grinder until it busts and drop £2-3000 on something a little flashier like an old MR2 or MX5 as a weekender just to get it out of my system? Even with added insurance and maybe the odd repair it'd still work out much cheaper than dropping £8,000 for one car.
I'm not the world's biggest car expert so any help would be much appreciated. Ok, I have a new job which involves a commute equating to about 15,000 miles per year. I own a 2002 Focus 1.8 Ghia which as far as I'm concerned is a perfectly good commuting car; it's reasonably economical and has a little bit of power, just passed MOT without any issues even though it's 11 years old and has done 115,000 and I know it's been well looked after for its whole life (bought from a family member.)
However, I'm starting to itch for something a bit more exciting and at 28, seems like the ideal time to do it. I wouldn't want to get an impractical, expensive sports car that would bankrupt me on fuel costs at 15,000 a year but something cheap that would serve as a fun weekender? As far as I see it, I'm thinking my options are
1) Get shot of the Focus (I'm aware I'd be lucky to get £500 for it) and drop the cash on something economical but classier and with more power i.e. a BMW 3 series for around £8,000 and run it for 5-10 years
OR
2) Keep the Focus as my day to day grinder until it busts and drop £2-3000 on something a little flashier like an old MR2 or MX5 as a weekender just to get it out of my system? Even with added insurance and maybe the odd repair it'd still work out much cheaper than dropping £8,000 for one car.
I would say keep the Focus and run it into the ground if doing 15,000 a year. If you're happy with it and it's up to the task you'd be crazy to get rid for £500. Buy yourself something interesting for the weekend that you'll do limited mileage in but you'll really look forward to driving.
No point in compromising both tasks and also putting big miles on a more expensive car will just depreciate it massively and cost a lot more to run.
Something like a MK3 MR2, MX-5 or maybe even a high mileage first gen Boxster/S2000 would be my choice.
No point in compromising both tasks and also putting big miles on a more expensive car will just depreciate it massively and cost a lot more to run.
Something like a MK3 MR2, MX-5 or maybe even a high mileage first gen Boxster/S2000 would be my choice.
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