£50,000 unicorn?

[Sterillium]

I'm looking at the idea of getting something fast and fun for a year or so, budget up to £50k, but the catch is, I'd use it as a daily driver, doing around 2000 miles per month, but... I'd like to lose as little as possible during ownership. Any suggestions?

[boyse7en]

Alpine?

[ZX10R NIN]

Sterillium said:

I'm looking at the idea of getting something fast and fun for a year or so, budget up to £50k, but the catch is, I'd use it as a daily driver, doing around 2000 miles per month, but... I'd like to lose as little as possible during ownership. Any suggestions?

The reality is that if you buy a sports car (4C/Evora/Cayman/911/R8) & then start adding 24k per year to the current mileage then you're going to lose a lot in depreciation & pay out a fair bit in maintenance costs too.

If you want to lose as little as possible spend 40-45k on the toy & 5-10k on a nice daily.

That's not to say you can't mix the usage so you can add 10k per year to the fast/fun car whilst keeping the depreciation/running costs sensible.

Edited by ZX10R NIN on Sunday 19th December 22:13

[barryrs]

I think a 991 is probably going to loose the least; maybe £5k?

[Sterillium]

ZX10R NIN said:

Sterillium said:

I'm looking at the idea of getting something fast and fun for a year or so, budget up to £50k, but the catch is, I'd use it as a daily driver, doing around 2000 miles per month, but... I'd like to lose as little as possible during ownership. Any suggestions?

The reality is that if you buy a sports car (4C/Evora/Cayman/911/R8) & then start adding 24k per year to the current mileage then you're going to lose a lot in depreciation & pay out a fair bit in maintenance costs too.

If you want to lose as little as possible spend 40-45k on the toy & 5-10k on a nice daily.

That's not to say you can't mix the usage so you can add 10k per year to the fast/fun car whilst keeping the depreciation/running costs sensible.

Yep, you're right - I think a tiny voice in my head was saying the same thing but I didn't want to listen...

If I buy two more cars at this point, my other half will make it so I don't survive to see the New Year...

[23.7]

ZX10R NIN said:

Sterillium said:

I'm looking at the idea of getting something fast and fun for a year or so, budget up to £50k, but the catch is, I'd use it as a daily driver, doing around 2000 miles per month, but... I'd like to lose as little as possible during ownership. Any suggestions?

The reality is that if you buy a sports car (4C/Evora/Cayman/911/R8) & then start adding 24k per year to the current mileage then you're going to lose a lot in depreciation & pay out a fair bit in maintenance costs too.

If you want to lose as little as possible spend 40-45k on the toy & 5-10k on a nice daily.

That's not to say you can't mix the usage so you can add 10k per year to the fast/fun car whilst keeping the depreciation/running costs sensible.

Edited by ZX10R NIN on Sunday 19th December 22:13

The reality of a daily + fun car has never really worked for me. Yeah for sure the fun car is even more thrilling because of occasional use, but it's offset by having to make excuses to use it.

[MDL111]

Manual 997.2 coupe - best would be a C2S, but a 2, 4, 4S would also be fine
Comfortable and fun plus quite frugal

[MDL111]

And I wouldn’t buy 2 cars. What’s the point of having a nice one and not driving it 90 percent of the time

[samoht]

I think interesting stuff usually stops depreciating somewhere between 10 and 20 years old, so going for something from c.2010 would help limit your losses.

Since you're putting 24k miles on the car, I suggest buying a higher mileage car to start with - going from 110k to 134k will lose less value than going from 50k to 74k, since it makes proportionally less difference. A well maintained high miler bought at a discount to the price of lower mileage cars should mitigate the value impact of adding those miles.

What practicality do you need? Do you want fast and comfortable, or fast and thrilling?

[fflump]

MDL111 said:

Manual 997.2 coupe - best would be a C2S, but a 2, 4, 4S would also be fine
Comfortable and fun plus quite frugal

Great car and a nice fun/ daily compromise
Prices unsurprisingly are eye watering these days-no gen2s on autotrader less than £40k!
Seems to be around a £10k premium on the gen1 which look better value especially if the ims is sorted and maybe a boroscope done though TBH the chances of engine borkage happening in the 2 yr window of ownership of a 12 yr old car are slim

[fflump]

Other options at the right part of the depreciation curve (circa 10 yrs old) are Aston V8V/DB9/Rapide, Audi R8, Gen 2 Bentley Continental, Nissan Gt-R

[Gareth1974]

M2 Competition probably won't be as mileage sensitive as other options.

[ZX10R NIN]

Sterillium said:

Yep, you're right - I think a tiny voice in my head was saying the same thing but I didn't want to listen...

If I buy two more cars at this point, my other half will make it so I don't survive to see the New Year...

Saying that as others have said spending less & getting a fun daily that's at the lower/bottom of it's depreciation curve will get you a car that you can enjoy everyday not suffer massive depreciation & see you survive to see 2022

Evora

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107094...

V6 F Type

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202109167...

4.3 Vantage

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111239...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111049...

Granturismo 4.7S

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202109167...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202110208...

997 Carrera

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111259...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111159...

R8

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275047118265?hash=item4...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275050634124?hash=item4...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112010...

[Smurfsarepeopletoo]

Alfa Giulia with the Ferrari engine

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/12563799

[rosejem]

I would consider a Lexus LC500, the miles you're doing, you will be spending many hours sitting behind the wheel. Comfort & beautiful ambience would be important to me.
It may deprecate more than the others but overall running costs should be less.

[Venisonpie]

boyse7en said:

Alpine?

Will hold up residual wise but also be frugal on fuel/ servicing etc.

[Caddyshack]

MDL111 said:

And I wouldn’t buy 2 cars. What’s the point of having a nice one and not driving it 90 percent of the time

You are allowed to drive it whatever % you like but a super comfy modern car is great for daily duties and then savour the special car more plus weekends. It keeps the ownership fresh too.

[TameRacingDriver]

Venisonpie said:

boyse7en said:

Alpine?

Will hold up residual wise but also be frugal on fuel/ servicing etc.

Almost a no-brainer. The ride quality is also sublime on these apparently, so that will be ideal for a daily / toy car. I really like these, they tick a lot of boxes.

[Pistonheader101]

Rs6

[Caddyshack]

TameRacingDriver said:

Venisonpie said:

boyse7en said:

Alpine?

Will hold up residual wise but also be frugal on fuel/ servicing etc.

Almost a no-brainer. The ride quality is also sublime on these apparently, so that will be ideal for a daily / toy car. I really like these, they tick a lot of boxes.

That car would have been a slam dunk if it had the option of a manual gearbox and ideally a sonorous n/a engine.