What next?

-

Shopping trolley + weekend fun = £12k. Solve for x.

Now that I’m getting a place with a garage and a driveway, I can seriously think about owning 2 cars and not worry about where I would keep them. As I’d like to reduce my carbon footprint, one car has to be a fuel-efficient shopping trolley for commuting and... well, shopping. The other would provide the fun. I reckon I’ve got a budget of the Mini plus £2.5k, making a total of £12k. The question is, where do I spend the money?

Here are a few options I’m considering:

Option 1 would be to go for an ultra-cheap banger and couple it with an aging S2000, VX220, Elise, or similar. On the up-side, I would get to own a proper RWD sports car. The fun car would even be practical enough to use day to day, should I need to. On the downside, the fun car would be getting into the high-maintenance phase of its life and there’s a good chance the banger would give me a load of grief too.

Option 2 would be some kind of Caterfield for around the £5-6k mark, plus either something utterly reliable and average (Focus? Golf? Diesel?) for the same sort of money. Or I could maintain my style-conscious motoring theme and go for something über-funky like an imported Nissan Cube for the commuting option. I have to admit, that option really appeals to me. I’m just not sure the Caterfield would see enough use to justify it, especially during winter.

Option 3 would be to get a fairly old, well-maintained classic like an E30 3-series BMW for under £2k and kit it out purely for track work, coupling it with a luke-warm diesel for the day-to-day. Actually, knowing my impatience and lack of mechanical knowledge, I’d probably be better off buying an E30 that’s already track-prepared. They’re not even that much more expensive and someone else would’ve already had all the hassle getting it sorted.

I’m sure there are plenty more combinations out there than this. I’ve even considered getting a sub-£1k van as the run-around. It would be cheap to buy, cheap to run, and have plenty of practicality (except in the passenger department). I don’t know. I bet it’ll still take me ages to decide anyway. And the key to it all is selling the Mini — something I’ve got a really bad track record on! Place your bets...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Driving the Tank

-
I don’t normally give cars nicknames. With the Zed, however, I’m tempted to call it The Tank. Not because of its size or muscularity, but as an abbreviation of sensory deprivation tank. Yep, that’s right — and it’s not a good thing. The test-drive concerns I had about the 350Z being too comfortable a car are still with me. Except now, I’ve translated that nebulous feeling of unease into a sense that it simply doesn’t provide enough feedback. Journeys at night and in wet weather can be absolutely exhausting. I find myself trying to heighten my senses to the tiniest cues coming through the steering wheel, chassis and pedals. Often I’ll end up leaning forward in my seat, as if listening to a quiet friend in a noisy pub. Thankfully, however, it’s not like that all the time. When you put your foot down and hustle it a bit, the car starts talking again. You begin to feel you’re dictating things rather than reacting to them. Sadly, I’ve had very little opportunity to grab the bull by the
Read more

Windfall

-
You get a £500 bonus at work — how do you spend it? The big decision for half of my colleagues appears to have been XBox 360 or Playstation 3? Myself, I’ve opted for a front bumper respray. Of course, as soon as I said as much, I was told, quite earnestly, that I really need to stop thinking about cars so much. Hehe. Well, it made me laugh anyway. :) Yes, I might well be chucking money away — I doubt the work will add the equivalent value to the car come the day I sell it — but it won’t half improve my enjoyment of the car. As it stands, the polka-dot affair I’ve got at the moment (courtesy of Bill Heaney’s crap finishing) makes my heart sink every time I approach the thing. In just a week’s time, I’m going to be smiling again instead. It’s been at least 6 months since that last happened (the lack of blogging here in that time is no coincidence) and maybe it’ll reinvigorate me full-stop. Dammit, I love driving too much to feel depressed about my car. Roll on the good times. Oh, a
Read more