Have you/would you ever own 2 of the "same" car at once?
Discussion
As in same model/generation but not necessarily the same spec/engine/bodystyle. It may have just been a quirk of my neighborhood growing up but I seemed to know lots of families who owned two of the “same” car: Skoda Estelles, Astra SRi/GTE 16v, Volvo 740 Estates and notably our direct neighbours who had his and her's Uno Turbos for many years! It’s never really appealed to me, as I do like to have a bit of variety on the fleet. The closest that I got possibly was buying a 4th gen Polo for my fiancée (now my wife) back in the days of the scrappage scheme and cheap VAT, as I already had a 5 door diesel one that I got on a cheap PCP deal the previous year and thought that I might be able to get a good deal on a 3 door petrol one for her. However, the 5th gen Polo was about to come out and they couldn’t get me a 4th gen 1.2 3 door in red, so we went a different way but no regrets, as I think that I preferred the car that we actually got (Fiat 500). My own car is due for replacement soon and in the absence of many newer small estate car options, I do quite admire my wife’s Mazda CX5 as a potential replacement. She has the 2.5 petrol AWD version and although far from exciting, it is very pleasant, comfortable, has a bit more cabin space than my Golf (if a little less boot space) and would be very pleasant to live with on a daily basis and less annoying than most modern vehicles. It’s not particularly economical (not really an issue as my wife doesn’t do many miles) and I do more but I probably wouldn’t go with the diesel, as Mazda diesels tend to have some reliability issues. It is certainly an option and I like it better than other vehicles of that type that I have driven but I still think that I will go in a different direction when the time comes.
It is however surprisingly difficult to think of a combination of 2 models of the same generation that I would like to own at the same time. For instance an Escort Cosworth is a car that I would love to own but any of the other mk5/6 Escorts, no thanks. You really need a good “base” car that’s practical, reliable and economical to run and then a more special variant that’s different enough to justify having both. More modern cars seem to struggle with this a bit. A Golf R probably feels too similar to a mid spec Golf and a BMW M340i xDrive is probably a bit too close to a modern M3 in that it’s still a very quick car, sounds better IMHO and yet will be cheaper to run and probably easier to live with most of the time, unless you do a lot of track driving (but then a near 2 tonne saloon/estate car would not be my first choice as a track car). I guess a 911 Dakar and a manual 911 GT3 are about as diverse as you can get within a single model range but neither have rear seats and like when you buy 2 of the same style sweaters because they’re on a deal, there’s inevitably going to be one that you end up driving 90% of the time (which would probably be the Dakar for me actually)! Having thought about this, these are probably the 2 car same model/generation combos that I think would best compliment each other and that I could see me using both regularly.
Mk4 Golf – I know that these aren’t the best but I still have a bit of a soft spot for them (although the one that I bought was totally the wrong one – 2.0 GTi). However, I think that the styling has aged really well and I would still happily daily drive a GT TDI 130 5 door and have a 3 door “deep blue” R32 in the garage as a “special” car.
In the same vein, mk1 Focus – a 5 door 1.6 Zetec if not rusty would still be a fine car to daily drive with a mk1 Focus RS alongside for best.
E46 3-Series – another car that has aged really well. A 330i Manual Touring would still be a fine daily driver and a manual E46 M3 coupe is probably still the M3 to have IMHO.
W204 C-Class – a C250CDI Estate “workhorse” and a C63 AMG coupe would still be an excellent fleet I think (at a stretch I’d take a similar combo in the next W205 generation but the 6.2 V8 C63 is really “the one” that you’d want).
E60/E61 5-Series – controversially, I’m picking the E60/E61 5 Series over the E39, as although as much as I would love an E39 M5, I’d want a practical estate as my other car and I don’t think the E39 Touring has aged as well as the E39 saloon/E61 Touring and the engines in the E61 are better. So an E60 M5 saloon please and for when that is (inevitably) broken, a 535d Touring to drive every day.
8V Audi A3 – I guess a 2.0 TDI S-line Sportback and an RS3 saloon would be a more up-to-date version of the mk4 Golfs.
Going back a little further but a bit less usable due to their age.
Sierra XR4x4 and a 3 door Cossie
E30 BMW 325i Touring and an E30 M3
Peugeot 205 diesel and 205 GTi 1.9. The passage of time has yet to dull my desire for a 1.9 even if 130 bhp isn’t much to right home about these days. The diesel variant was also a great student car. Stylish, fairly practical, reliable and very cheap to run and being so light, not that slow really compared to equivalent small petrol cars. I never owned one as a student but I probably should have. I’m not sure if the 205 has ever been beaten as an all-round small car package really. A mk7 Fiesta might come close and the mk7 ST is the spiritual successor to the 1.9 in my eyes but I wouldn’t want a 1.0 “Ecoboom”, so it would have to be an earlier 1.6 NA Fiesta and then I’d probably just use the ST most of the time anyway.
So, have you ever owned two of the “same” car at the same time and if you were to own two of the “same” car at the “same” time, what would you go for?
It is however surprisingly difficult to think of a combination of 2 models of the same generation that I would like to own at the same time. For instance an Escort Cosworth is a car that I would love to own but any of the other mk5/6 Escorts, no thanks. You really need a good “base” car that’s practical, reliable and economical to run and then a more special variant that’s different enough to justify having both. More modern cars seem to struggle with this a bit. A Golf R probably feels too similar to a mid spec Golf and a BMW M340i xDrive is probably a bit too close to a modern M3 in that it’s still a very quick car, sounds better IMHO and yet will be cheaper to run and probably easier to live with most of the time, unless you do a lot of track driving (but then a near 2 tonne saloon/estate car would not be my first choice as a track car). I guess a 911 Dakar and a manual 911 GT3 are about as diverse as you can get within a single model range but neither have rear seats and like when you buy 2 of the same style sweaters because they’re on a deal, there’s inevitably going to be one that you end up driving 90% of the time (which would probably be the Dakar for me actually)! Having thought about this, these are probably the 2 car same model/generation combos that I think would best compliment each other and that I could see me using both regularly.
Mk4 Golf – I know that these aren’t the best but I still have a bit of a soft spot for them (although the one that I bought was totally the wrong one – 2.0 GTi). However, I think that the styling has aged really well and I would still happily daily drive a GT TDI 130 5 door and have a 3 door “deep blue” R32 in the garage as a “special” car.
In the same vein, mk1 Focus – a 5 door 1.6 Zetec if not rusty would still be a fine car to daily drive with a mk1 Focus RS alongside for best.
E46 3-Series – another car that has aged really well. A 330i Manual Touring would still be a fine daily driver and a manual E46 M3 coupe is probably still the M3 to have IMHO.
W204 C-Class – a C250CDI Estate “workhorse” and a C63 AMG coupe would still be an excellent fleet I think (at a stretch I’d take a similar combo in the next W205 generation but the 6.2 V8 C63 is really “the one” that you’d want).
E60/E61 5-Series – controversially, I’m picking the E60/E61 5 Series over the E39, as although as much as I would love an E39 M5, I’d want a practical estate as my other car and I don’t think the E39 Touring has aged as well as the E39 saloon/E61 Touring and the engines in the E61 are better. So an E60 M5 saloon please and for when that is (inevitably) broken, a 535d Touring to drive every day.
8V Audi A3 – I guess a 2.0 TDI S-line Sportback and an RS3 saloon would be a more up-to-date version of the mk4 Golfs.
Going back a little further but a bit less usable due to their age.
Sierra XR4x4 and a 3 door Cossie
E30 BMW 325i Touring and an E30 M3
Peugeot 205 diesel and 205 GTi 1.9. The passage of time has yet to dull my desire for a 1.9 even if 130 bhp isn’t much to right home about these days. The diesel variant was also a great student car. Stylish, fairly practical, reliable and very cheap to run and being so light, not that slow really compared to equivalent small petrol cars. I never owned one as a student but I probably should have. I’m not sure if the 205 has ever been beaten as an all-round small car package really. A mk7 Fiesta might come close and the mk7 ST is the spiritual successor to the 1.9 in my eyes but I wouldn’t want a 1.0 “Ecoboom”, so it would have to be an earlier 1.6 NA Fiesta and then I’d probably just use the ST most of the time anyway.
So, have you ever owned two of the “same” car at the same time and if you were to own two of the “same” car at the “same” time, what would you go for?
Yup. Two E46 330Ci convertibles. It was early in lockdown and it seemed like a good idea at the time. One is a pre facelift, SE equivalent, all original parts, slightly grandad-spec. The other is a facelift Sport, couple of mods and shiny black seats and trim. They're actually quite different to drive, but ideally I'd cut down to one at some point.
A couple who live near me have identical cars, white Suzuki vitara's, only thing separating them is the last three digits on the number plates. I can understand liking the same car but I would have thought one of them may have chosen a different colour, but each to their own, or maybe not in this case.
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