"Speedmonkey" (Speedmonkey)
05/21/2014 at 10:00 • Filed to: None
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"Speedmonkey" (Speedmonkey)
05/21/2014 at 10:00 • Filed to: None | 13
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We eulogise sports cars, luxury cars and supercars with powerful engines, razor sharp handing and the very best tech and engineering the car industry has to offer - for a price. But most people I know who call themselves petrolheads drive much more normal machinery.
I've been super lucky to get to drive new cars from manufacturers such as Porsche, Maserati, Bentley, Mercedes, BMW, Renaultsport, Jaguar, Morgan, Subaru et al. I've enjoyed them all. Yet only a tiny proportion of people can afford to drive these cars.
Even humdrum machinery is out of the reach of most of us when it is brand new. A Ford Fiesta ST (
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) is one of the more affordable performance cars, but it still costs £18k. If you want to buy one on finance you have to put down £4.7k, pay £190 a month for two years, and at the end of that pay another £9k if you want to keep it.
That's a lot of money for someone feeding a family and paying a mortgage or rent.
This is why most of us drive old cars and make the best of them. They need to ferry our children around, be borrowed by our other halfs, do the tip run, do the shopping run, take us to work (sometimes be our work vehicle), take the dogs out, take us on holiday and on top of that not cost much to run. Once all those things have been considered they are what we use to have fun.
We are, after all, car enthusiasts. Our jack of all trades cars are also our route to B-road hoonage, our pride and joy, our amusement and entertainment when all the jobs have been done and we find the time to hit the road just for the hell of it.
These, these cars are the true heroes, not the £100,000 sports car but the £3,000 Seat Leon Cupra R that a friend has just bought. It looks like any other VW Group hatchback, except for the tiny Cupra R logo on the boot.
Said friend took me for a spin in it. Bear in mind he's an ex race driver so he knows his stuff and likes to drive fast but bloody hell that Cupra R has a turn of speed in his hands. I was gripping the seat as we flew around the lanes. Fun with a capital F.
Somebody will have bought it brand new ten years ago, or it may have been a fleet vehicle. Whatever, someone bought it for tens of thousands of pounds, took the depreciation hit and looked after it well enough so that now it's nice and cheap and providing enjoyment for a car enthusiast, as well as being the school run car, the shopping car and the every day runabout (and actually it's his wife car). My fried loves his Seat, and so do I.
Same goes for the Saab 9-5 run by another friend, the Audi TT run by my brother, the Audi 80 owned by
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editor James Wright, the old VW Transporter van run by a friend and countless other cars, all more than ten years old and all bought for less than the deposit on a new Toyota GT86 and all heroic.
A Ferrari 458 Italia might be one of the best cars on the planet but it costs £170k. Those who can afford them will rarely drive them even near their capabilities. If you put down a £30k deposit and pay the balance over 3 years you're looking at around £4k a month with a little bit of interest on the finance. Each monthly payment is almost double the average monthly salary.
For less than one monthly payment for a Ferrari you can buy a do-it-all car with a bit of poke and half decent handling, and extract the maximum from it.
It doesn't matter if it isn't a brand new performance car, if it brings a smile to your face it has done its job. It is yours and it is brilliant.
KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
> Speedmonkey
05/21/2014 at 10:07 |
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The exception proves the rule:
A Ferrari 458 Italia might be one of the best cars on the planet but it costs £170k. Those who can afford them will rarely drive them even near their capabilities.
I submit to you: Rowan Atkinson.
Nibbles
> Speedmonkey
05/21/2014 at 10:07 |
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Hear, hear! I use this exact reasoning when I'm "required" to justify spending money to rebuild my Saab. Who cares if I'll "never get my money back out of it" because the new pistons and turbo probably cost more than the car "will ever be worth"? That thing gave 350,000 fun miles before the original head gasket blew. I want to get at least another 350,000 miles out of it myself. Resale be damned; it's a love affair.
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KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
> Nibbles
05/21/2014 at 10:10 |
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You either spend money on a car payment, or you spend money on repairs. In the worst case, you are spending money on both.
That was my justification for driving a 15 year old Mercedes, before I crashed it. I'll eventually have another one. Eventually.
Nibby
> Speedmonkey
05/21/2014 at 10:10 |
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Who says we're normal?
Bricks
> KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
05/21/2014 at 10:16 |
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except when he dresses up as a little girl and has his head knocked off
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KusabiSensei - Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs
> Bricks
05/21/2014 at 10:16 |
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Again, the exception proves the rule :)
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Speedmonkey
05/21/2014 at 10:17 |
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We eulogise sports cars, luxury cars and supercars
Well, yes, when they're dead. Granted, eulogies can be delivered for the living, but you may have meant something else.
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Speedmonkey
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/21/2014 at 10:27 |
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good point
wkiernan
> Nibbles
05/21/2014 at 10:27 |
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You got 350,000 miles out of a turbo SAAB? Wow, you should write a book on auto maintenance. I'm not saying SAABs are unreliable, but I'd feel like I'd done something special to get 350,000 miles out of an '81 Corolla, and those things are indestructible.
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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> wkiernan
05/21/2014 at 10:31 |
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I'm currently rolling in an '87 Benz whose odometer broke at 319,640 some 5-6 years ago at least. Gotta be over 350.
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Nibbles
> wkiernan
05/21/2014 at 10:37 |
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The B202 engine in the Saab 99/900 is well known for its reliability. It's a slant-four, which puts less stress on internals. The block was a Triumph design that Saab re-engineered, then over-engineered the head. They're actually known for going 1 million miles. Check this out.
In all honesty, mine was rode hard and put up wet before I got it. I purchased at 288k and it still lasted until I blew the head gasket (by overboosting when performing APC troubleshooting). I could've got more life out of it.