How much have you spent on a fun car before you felt bad

almoststew1990 · 22 Oct 2019 at 13:30

How much have you spent on a fun car before you feel guilty or bad?

I ask this as thanks to my booming illegal drug and Jaffa Cake trade I am in a position where I have £15,000 of savings that I want to spend on a fun car. However, I am not very good at spending money without feeling bad so I was wondering what other people have done with what for me would be the largest unnecessary purchase I have made by a factor of 15! Did you have buyers remorse?

I rationalise it that some people will spend hundreds of pounds a month on a not fun or interesting basic A-class or something and have nothing to show for it after 3 years other than the (albeit necessary) service the car provided and look bling in the car park. (We already have a normal boring car which we own outright).

Also the cars I am interested in would not depreciate much if at all (but I would not be buying thinking of it as an "investment"). It would be insured so £15k isn't going to disappear if a tree falls on it.

As the worst case I would assume the car I buy for 15k would sell for 12k.

But at the same time it's a lot of money which is scary. Also maintenance.

It's all about the context, so I do own a house although being the dirty peasant that I am it is semi-detached .
I have a student loan and mortgage but that's it for debt and significant monthly payments that I could pay off - no car finance of credit card backlog.
I don't have any kids and not for a few years.
The £15,000 is cash I have and not a loan.

The sort of cars I am looking at are:

8 series
M5/6 V10s
Early 90s Supra
Mercedes W124 Coupe (a lot cheaper than £15k)
Late 90s and early 2000s Jaaaag XKR or XKR-R or whatever it is called

Basically interesting and reasonably fast cars. I just like cars.

So cars that are usable every day, and I would do maybe 2,000 miles a year, mostly longer trips rather than a daily driver to the shops.

I would have £350 a month for maintenance.

Would you do it?

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 22 Oct 2019 at 13:38

Personally I never made the extra fun car work, same with my mate at work who occasionally comes in thinking to buy something semi exotic and then we do the maths.
We always come to the same conclusion, just get one car, it may be slightly less "special" than the one off car, but you get to use it all the time so the slightly less ends up being a lot more when you consider how you get to use it

A lot of the cars you listed are probably going to cost less running them frequently than leaving them sitting unused frequently.
Road tax, MOT, servicing, insurance all these things lead you to pool the funds and drive something better every day.

Just my 10p

AiiR · 22 Oct 2019 at 13:44

Caterham

vanpeebles · 22 Oct 2019 at 13:49

Can you twirl spanners? Else £350 a month maintenance will get whomped down like lightning.

GravyMonster · 22 Oct 2019 at 14:04

So cars that are usable every day...

M5 V10s
Late 90s and early 2000s Jaaaag XKR or XKR-R or whatever it is called

They will be usable in the sense that you can sit in them every day, but they probably won't move.

Dis86 · 22 Oct 2019 at 14:18

Urgh, all too old for my liking.

Kenai · 22 Oct 2019 at 14:25

I think you'd feel less bad if you were spending it on something you truly want and have lusted after for a long time.

You've picked a list of cars that scream "I need to spend £15k on a car but I don't know what I want" so it's not surprising you feel bad about the idea. You're spending £15k for the sake of spending £15k, not because something you desperately want happens to cost £15k.

Edit - would I do it? In your position, no. You don't know what you want and you'll regret buying (or be underwhelmed with) whatever you randomly pick.

Nasher · 22 Oct 2019 at 14:27

I want to buy a Caterham or similar at some point. Good thing about those is they dont really depreciate after a point.

ci_newman · 22 Oct 2019 at 14:29

So, don't just look at initial purchase cost but consider a "slush" fund for if something fails too.

Case in point - I bought my Westfield in April last year. In April this year the bottom end failed completely and totally wrecked the engine. My £6k car became a £1k car. I'm having to spend £3k to rebuild / replace the engine to make it a £6k car again.

I have disposable income and I can afford it, but if you buy a 90s Supra, could you afford for the engine to munch itself and repair it? How would you feel about having to drop £3k on it in order to keep it roadworthy?

[Edit] All those cars you listed have potentially eye-watering repair costs if something major breaks

almoststew1990 · 22 Oct 2019 at 15:06

So basically it is a tempting but risky idea, based on how much I could set aside per month and the likely maintenance and insurance /tax costs

in a year's time I could probably drop 3k on an engine / gearbox or whatever but it would clean me out.

The 8 Series is the one I've lusted after for ages and made me think about it seriously, rather than "I want a new old car".

The semi-interesting daily driver is a good idea but my partner doesn't want anything bigger or faster than a slow ass golf. I have thought about an R32 and telling her it is just a body kit but she might notice it has more than 70hp. (that's a genuine "might" not a sarcastic "might")

AiiR · 22 Oct 2019 at 15:08

Kenai said:
I think you'd feel less bad if you were spending it on something you truly want and have lusted after for a long time.

You've picked a list of cars that scream "I need to spend £15k on a car but I don't know what I want" so it's not surprising you feel bad about the idea. You're spending £15k for the sake of spending £15k, not because something you desperately want happens to cost £15k.

Edit - would I do it? In your position, no. You don't know what you want and you'll regret buying (or be underwhelmed with) whatever you randomly pick.

This is a very good point.

15k for the level of car you've listed isn't a lot. They will all most likely be money pits.

You won't get an 8 series for 15k unless you lease one.

wedrum · 22 Oct 2019 at 15:13

c63 amg
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes...726504?hash=item21631c66e8:g:SfoAAOSwIeNdenoT

naefeart · 22 Oct 2019 at 15:14

ci_newman said:
[Edit] All those cars you listed have potentially eye-watering repair costs if something major breaks

The Supra and the Merc I have no experience of, but the others... well the M5/M6 are going to be really costly to run and with no warranties I wouldn't even take the risk. The Jags, less so but reliability could be a big problem here.

Personally I'd sidestep the lot and look at a Lexus ISF. It's rare, interesting, has the performance but crucially has exceptional reliability. Honestly, if it were my cash I wouldn't spend it on any of these cars, especially if I was a student. Buy a nearly new Fiesta ST or similar, you could then save the 350/month for a rainy day.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 22 Oct 2019 at 16:09

almoststew1990 said:
So basically it is a tempting but risky idea, based on how much I could set aside per month and the likely maintenance and insurance /tax costs in a year's time I could probably drop 3k on an engine / gearbox or whatever but it would clean me out.

The 8 Series is the one I've lusted after for ages and made me think about it seriously, rather than "I want a new old car".

The semi-interesting daily driver is a good idea but my partner doesn't want anything bigger or faster than a slow ass golf. I have thought about an R32 and telling her it is just a body kit but she might notice it has more than 70hp. (that's a genuine "might" not a sarcastic "might")

Nothing to stop you getting something semi exotic and getting it mapped with switchable maps. You could have a real low power map and a tuned map for you.

Martynt74 · 22 Oct 2019 at 16:38

What about a cheap fun car?

Get something like a Mk3 MR2 or older MX5. Or even a Clio 172.

Least that way you could see if a "fun car" works for you and you wouldn't lose much/anything when coming to move it on in a year or 2.

Nasher · 22 Oct 2019 at 17:18

ci_newman said:
So, don't just look at initial purchase cost but consider a "slush" fund for if something fails too.

Case in point - I bought my Westfield in April last year. In April this year the bottom end failed completely and totally wrecked the engine. My £6k car became a £1k car. I'm having to spend £3k to rebuild / replace the engine to make it a £6k car again.

I have disposable income and I can afford it, but if you buy a 90s Supra, could you afford for the engine to munch itself and repair it? How would you feel about having to drop £3k on it in order to keep it roadworthy?

[Edit] All those cars you listed have potentially eye-watering repair costs if something major breaks

That's not a lot compared to an engine exploding on an AMG

If you want purely fun and won't make you bankrupt keep it simple. Complicated electronics etc are a big libility when they get old.

ttaskmaster · 22 Oct 2019 at 17:20

almoststew1990 said:
However, I am not very good at spending money without feeling bad

Why would you feel bad?
It's your money, so you do whatever you like with it.
Just because you have saved more money than some people get for annual salary is nothing to feel bad about. Just the opposite, in fact.

almoststew1990 said:
so I was wondering what other people have done with what for me would be the largest unnecessary purchase I have made by a factor of 15! Did you have buyers remorse?

For me, it wasn't a car that took up an insane amount of money, but a wedding. Buyer's remorse... sometimes, yeah. Most of the time I get to look at my purchase and enjoy it, though... the loud noises, shoddy performance and the monthly maintenance costs only bother me occasionally.

almoststew1990 said:
We already have a normal boring car which we own outright.

Define normal.
Define boring.

almoststew1990 said:
I would have £350 a month for maintenance.
Would you do it?

If you have to set aside that much a month, I'd tell it to go **** itself. I probably wouldn't mind dropping £15k on a really nice car that I utterly adored and couldn't wait to drive everywhere on a daily basis.... but not if I'm only doing 2k miles in a year and certainly not if it's going to cost another third of the purchase price every year!!!

mjt · 22 Oct 2019 at 17:33

Caterham.

/thread

almoststew1990 · 22 Oct 2019 at 19:03

vanpeebles said:
Can you twirl spanners? Else £350 a month maintenance will get whomped down like lightning.

Nope, no good at all with wrenching. I think I'll do some forum browsing to see how much it's costing people.

Spunkey said:
They will be usable in the sense that you can sit in them every day, but they probably won't move.

Isn't that a little bit of an exaggeration? Do / have you own a similar kind of car? I was thinking it was likely to descent into a pit of niggles rather than catastrophic failures.

AiiR said:
This is a very good point.

15k for the level of car you've listed isn't a lot. They will all most likely be money pits.

You won't get an 8 series for 15k unless you lease one.

Money pits, yes. But I don't think it is really scraping the barrel that much:

There are 50+ XK-8s for sale nationally under £15k
There are 22 8 series' listed; 10 are under £14k and they start at 7k, climbing steadily. The sub 70k miles attract the premium understandably.
32 M5s 2003-2010 or so
W124s are like £3k for a 230 and £5k for a 300/320 but they're a different animal compared to the rest

It's more like the mint ones attract a huge premium, and then there is everything else, and then the bottom of the barrel is like £sub 10k (for the 8 series)

naefeart said:
The Supra and the Merc I have no experience of, but the others... well the M5/M6 are going to be really costly to run and with no warranties I wouldn't even take the risk. The Jags, less so but reliability could be a big problem here.

Personally I'd sidestep the lot and look at a Lexus ISF. It's rare, interesting, has the performance but crucially has exceptional reliability. Honestly, if it were my cash I wouldn't spend it on any of these cars, especially if I was a student. Buy a nearly new Fiesta ST or similar, you could then save the 350/month for a rainy day.

I'm not a student! Hot hatches are not really my scene. But yeah maintenance, maintenance, maintenance

The only ISF under £15k is £15k; there are 27 for up to £30k so that probably will be scraping the barrel. Although a barrel-scraped ISF might well be a better buy than a average 8 series or XK-8...

Marvt74 said:
What about a cheap fun car?

Get something like a Mk3 MR2 or older MX5. Or even a Clio 172.

Least that way you could see if a "fun car" works for you and you wouldn't lose much/anything when coming to move it on in a year or 2.

This might be the most sensible way to go but no hot hatches. My second more realistic want is a W124 coupe so that is perhaps more reasonable.

everyone said:
Caterham

No Caterhams! I said interesting not fun! Except the title, and several times in the OP, yeah alright but no. I'm more into coupés / grand tourers.

Anyway overall conclusion seems to be horrendously expensive to maintain

I might have a look at £3-4k cars to see if there is anything interesting but that really would be spending money for the sake of it (other than the W124 coupe which I've liked for a while)

Oh God, do I sound like old Acme?

robj20 · 22 Oct 2019 at 19:24

I spent silly amounts on my Series 2 RS Turbo.

Yellow/Black leather interior
Paint in prairie yellow with blue pearl laquer.
Compomotive alloys.
Hispec big brake kit.
Lots of silicone hoses and chrome in the engine bay.
Full 3" exhaust.
Cosworth t3 turbo.
Gotech ECU and full EFI conversion.
Stage 3 gearbox with shotpeened gears, larger 220mm clutch.
Lightened flywheel.
Cosworth fuel pump.
Spax coilovers.
Fully polybushed.

Lots more I'm sure that I have forgotten, loved that car.
I felt bad when it came time to sell it realising in only getting a fraction of what id spent back.