Live in London but love driving...

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So I live in the London burbs, have done pretty much my whole 38 years.
Between my wife and I we have 5 cars now, luckily we can park them...for now. I don’t have a garage and I don’t really like selling cars, I enjoy fixing them when they go wrong (sometimes not possible without a garage), and I seem to be constantly looking at the classifieds so no doubt it won’t be long before I buy again (I may have some form of addiction but I can’t find a car specific one on google).

So, late thirties couple, no kids, one cat, owned our place for c15 years. Should we move out of London for a small detached house with a huge driveway and double garage that I could possibly put a lift in?

Concern is the boredom of being away from the bright lights, selection of restaurants, friends and importantly my business which is based in zone 2 and impossible to move due to its local nature.

I figured one day we’d get to the age that it would happen but honestly the only thing pushing me is the space for cars and workshop. And I know once I’m out there ain’t no coming back due to prices.

Big decisions...

Eta: needless to say I dont get to stretch the legs of my fleet being stuck in constant traffic, speed humps, 20 zones etc.

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Currently working on perfecting the art of two days a week at the office and the rest working from home.

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Finchley so pretty far north. When we moved here it was much quieter but the amount of development that has happened and is still happening has made it very busy on the roads.

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Exige77 said:

OP, are you going to get a drivers car to add to your fleet ?

Good point. Just added a bmw 135i coupe this week. Nice little rocket ship in a good shade of red. Need to update my fleet

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gtr_jonathan said:

Driving in London itself is mind numbingly tedious hence I do most of my miles outside of London with various road trips.

Absolutely agree but needs must, so I am building a fleet in order to mix things up and not lose the love of cars and driving. Took the 135i for a hoon after work today up in herts as suggested above. Was great fun but I definitely need some quality tyres on it - much more twitchy than my old 335i.

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gtr_jonathan said:

I’m just a stone’s throw away from the aforementioned roads! Pic from an outing by various London-based PH members in June 2018.

How does one get an invite to one of these events?

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gtr_jonathan said:

They weren’t formal events as such, just random London-based PHers meeting up very early to go for a Sunday drive. Junkalus used to organise these drives but I suspect he has decided to retire from the role!

I’m happy to sort something out if there is enough interest? I’m also doing the following events / trips over the coming weeks and months if anyone wants to join in.

Sunday 25th August @ 9am - Surrey Car Meet, Buckmore Park Kart Circuit, Kent ME5 9QG

Sunday 8th September @ 10am - Low Collective, Stonham Barns Leisure & Shopping Village, Suffolk IP14 6AT

Friday - Sunday 13th to 15th September - Weekend roadtrip to Nürburgring via some nice driving roads. Full TF session on Saturday 14th September so I have booked a track car + instructor from Apex. My mate will also be going in his BMW 1M.

Sunday 6th October @ 9am - Sunday Scramble, Bicester Heritage, Oxfordshire OX26 5HA. Might combine it with a lunchtime visit to Caffeine & Machine near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Brilliant, thanks. I’ll see if I can make it down to one of the local ones.

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Cheib said:

It’s not the same. I lived in London for 21 years from 1994 until 2015,...lived in a nice part of NW London, could be on the M1 in 10 mins from my door and on country lanes in say 30 mins. Moved out of London in 2015...live in The Chilterns so reachable from where I used to live in 45 mins. I can now drive out of my driveway and enjoy great driving immediately. It’s nowhere near the same. I drove into London yesterday, since I have moved out 20 mph zones are all over the place, there are more and more average speed camera zones and the general level of traffic is just getting worse. On a suimmer’s evening I can put the kids to bed and then have two hours driving around pretty much deserted roads....every night of the week. You just can’t do that living in London.

OP...if you love driving in my opinion there’s only one choice

This was my original thought, but my concern is will I get bored? No kids, all our social life based around London and my office is in London and a long commute wouldn’t be attractive.

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Cheib said:

Commuting is st that’s an absolute given...it’s really about where your priorities are I suppose. Anything over a half hour commute really starts eating into your day (more so in the evening) and driving in to London is a nightmare unless you aim to be at your destination before 7am.

I still go out in London once a week and commuted for four years but have recently quit full time work so only go into London once a week.

All in all for us moving out has been brilliant but we have kids of school age so there are other things that make it a huge plus for us.

Appreciate the comments. Basically exactly as I thought - I think the commute would make life miserable so finding a way to step back from the biz would probably be the only way to make it work.