2 car strategy - commuter car?

Siliconslave · 1 Dec 2009 at 12:18

Hi guys,
I'm thinking of switching the compromise of the a3 into two more focused cars, a commuter for my 60mile round trip (more below) and a fun weekend car (Mk1/2 MX5 i can work on).

The commuter is the one i need to work out, the fun car i know what i want

The needs for the commuter are:

- not much bigger than the A3
- Up to £5k
- must be able to handle 70mph (ehem) on a motorway and crawl through London traffic.
- CHEAP to run, i need the money to spill on the second car!
- Comfy

Commute wise i do a combination of fast (straight) A-roads and motorways and slow crawls, about a 50:50 split time wise.

so what would you be looking at?

[TW]Fox · 1 Dec 2009 at 12:20

I wouldnt do this.

Essentially you are getting rid of a nice car to spend your day driving something crud (Lets face it, you want some sort of small engined hatchback) so you can drive a 1500 quid Mazda at the weekends.

Daft plan.

Cheap MX5's are cheap, use the A3 as your commuter and buy a 1500 quid MX5 to fiddle with.

GinG · 1 Dec 2009 at 13:42

Or buy a foci tdci?

lordrobs · 1 Dec 2009 at 14:07

[TW]Fox;15433972 said:
I wouldnt do this.

Essentially you are getting rid of a nice car to spend your day driving something crud (Lets face it, you want some sort of small engined hatchback) so you can drive a 1500 quid Mazda at the weekends.

Daft plan.

Cheap MX5's are cheap, use the A3 as your commuter and buy a 1500 quid MX5 to fiddle with.

I was considering this myself not so long back and basically Fox summed up the reason I decided against it. I would be driving something I really don't want for 12k a year and then drive something that was fun for 2k a year.

Also when I started to look into it more a £10k all rounder doesn't equal £10k to spend on 2 seperate cars bacause of all the associated costs with running each car.

(lack of time and space were 2 other big factors for me but possibly not for you)

Howard · 1 Dec 2009 at 14:26

[TW]Fox;15433972 said:
use the A3 as your commuter and buy a 1500 quid MX5 to fiddle with.

s-man · 1 Dec 2009 at 16:27

Another vote for Mr Fox' plan...I too have thought about this but for all the commute is a drudge and, if you're like me, you start thinking 'this is a waste of my car' it is probably true that within a very short space of time you won't feel that great spending 2 hours and 60 miles a day in some bland, cheap, unpleasant box. Sometimes you take for granted the qualities your current car has that make such a routine bearable...don't jump in to anything to hastily imo

Booner! · 1 Dec 2009 at 16:38

I agree with Fox. I have spent a while deciding on splitting for two cars....but it's two sets of running costs and it's better to have 1 decent car than two average cars.

wassap · 1 Dec 2009 at 16:44

To be fair, the OP does drive a 'bland euro box', and if its worth good money, it maybe worth selling up releasing some equity and spending <5k on a Golf or Mondeo etc.

Of course my point is completely invalid, if the OP's car is a S3 or quattro etc

Its not expensive to run 2 cars, granted im an old **** (32),but a MX5 only costs me £180 notes for insurance, £200 odd for the tax and £x for the fuel and maintanence, so not a staggering amount of moolah .

Ev0 · 1 Dec 2009 at 16:48

3.2 Quattro I believe

I'd stick with one nice car tbh, unless something you can commute in really isn't viable to be your fun car as well, or vice versa (i.e. an Elise, lots of fun, probably no good for commute).

If there really is no car that offers you both then I guess 2 is the way to go, but don't think I'd do it.

After all that's what the wife's car is for, means I could get what I wanted no matter how inpractical

Siliconslave · 1 Dec 2009 at 17:07

yer, the its the 3.2 Quattro so not a totally bland, but it is a euro box...

Its not a bad all round car but i miss the interaction of the mazda and day to day commute wise it feels a little waisted / pricey to run.

I realize that there would be an added overhead to running two cars but I'd rather spend that extra and have two cars than run something thats not really what i wanted in either scenario.

The alternative is just throwing sensibleness (?!?) to the wind and getting a fun car to commute in which was the original plan a year back.

see thats probably it more than anything, getting the year itch a little early! must be time to change

MarkDavis · 1 Dec 2009 at 20:27

If you're doing a Surrey/London commute, you need an automatic. Used to do a A205/A3 crawl many aeons ago.

It will drive you crazy otherwise doing a prolonged stop/start crawl with a manual.

GT3 · 1 Dec 2009 at 20:33

Just get a fun-ish car for day to day use.

I use a Xsara VTS day to day, it gets just above 30mpg with a whole variety of driving, its quick enough, torquey enough for a nice low revs pull, comfy, plenty of comforts, aircon, auto wipers and lights etc, fun to drive but I'm not really bothered if I prang it or if it gets damaged parked at work. I've bought two 2001 examples, both around 40k miles, 2 owner cars for £1400 each.

Joshy · 1 Dec 2009 at 20:56

MarkDavis said:
If you're doing a Surrey/London commute, you need an automatic. Used to do a A205/A3 crawl many aeons ago.

It will drive you crazy otherwise doing a prolonged stop/start crawl with a manual.

I travel on the A205 daily and I disagree. Anyway, if you're going the London Commute properly, you'll have your own set of back roads lined up

.

Another +1 for commuting in a 'fun' car.

Del Lardo · 1 Dec 2009 at 21:25

I went from fun car to practical car to both and both is by far the best option.

Personally I wouldn't want to use something nice day to day again, I like not caring when someone reverses into the Mundano in a car park or when a van flicks up a delaminated lorry tyre taking out the bonnet or when my mechanic reversed it into a tool box..... I also like having the separation of the two cars, one is a day to day tool and one is a toy that gets used for ****s and giggles and doesn't have to be working on a Monday morning to get to work.

£5k will get you a nice commuter shed (Mundano, Focus, Leon, etc) and if you are just looking to spend £1.5k on a toy you will have a lot of money left over from the sale of A3 though personally I'd splash out a bit more (£3-4k) on the toy.