"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
10/03/2018 at 12:16 • Filed to: collecting
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"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
10/03/2018 at 12:16 • Filed to: collecting | 8
| 23 |
This is going to be an unpopular opinion, so buckle up.
I’m okay with people who buy cars and never drive them. It’s not their duty to drive the car to please us car enthusiasts. The only person they have to please is themselves.
A car is made to be driven, but that doesn’t mean you have to do that. Heck , you don’t even have to use the car for what it was made to do. My cars are made for the city, but that doesn’t stop me from towing trailers and taking it into the trails . A Wrangler is made for the trails, but that doesn’t stop a buyer from just using it like one would use a sedan.
I can understand the outrage if someone got through Ford’s application process, got a GT, then never drove it...but this is a single Beetle of dozens of millions built.
Of my four smarts, the newest (and the one I make ( 0% APR) payments on) only gets driven a couple hundred miles a year. When I realized that Tucker wasn’t dead it quickly hit me that I can finally fulfill a silly goal of basically owning a new car forever. Every time I hop into my 2016 it still has new car smell, it still drives like a new car, and it still looks like a new car. There are no scratches, no tears, not even wear on the pedals. Sometimes I like to pitch a chair, crack open a beer, and just stare at it and admire it. If I could park it in my living room, I would.
I’d do the same with a two-stroke road bike from the 70s. I have three other smarts so I can have a fourth that’s basically a garage queen.
I can understand buying something and not using it for its intended purpose. Heck, I used to have a display case of my favourite smartphones and have built PCs just because I think it would look pretty.
One thing that’s bothered me about various car enthusiast communities throughout the years is how some enthusiasts sometimes think so highly of themselves. “I drive my rare car, I don’t just trailer it around.”... “The Prius isn’t an enthusiast car, a real car enthusiast owns a brown manual diesel wagon/Miata!” Oh shut up. You know what a real car enthusiast is? Someone enthusiastic about cars . There aren’t any requirements about what you have to like and not every car enthusiast has to daily or race their car. I’ve met PT Cruiser owners who were cooler car guys than some people who owned some of the most Jalop cars I’ve ever seen. And we won’t get into how some communities treat women...
So I support people who never drive their cars and I will defend garage queens until the day I die. They’re just cars, get over it.
Bryan doesn't drive a 1M
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:21 |
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Not a bad take, especially considering that if we’re honest a lot of those old cars aren’t that great to drive. Not to mention the maintenance . They do look awful pretty, though.
Just Jeepin'
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:23 |
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Good take.
I often get frustrated with Wrangler fans who decry the increasing popularity of the model. They don’t seem to understand that a growing community is vastly healthier than a stagnant one, and if someone buys a Wrangler and doesn’t get absorbed into the hivemind and doesn’t go off-roading, that’s just another lightly-used vehicle that’ll be available to buy in the future!
If I never see/ hear the word “poser” again it’ll be too soon.
Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:27 |
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Someone enthusiastic about cars. There aren’t any requirements about what you have to like and not every car enthusiast has to daily or race their car. I’ve met PT Cruiser owners who were cooler car guys than some people who owned some of the most Jalop cars I’ve ever seen.
This is the biggest issue I have with most “enthusiasts”.
sn4cktimes
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:27 |
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I really dislike the attitude of “you ruined your *blank* by changing such-and-such”.
I’ve been working at modifying an 88’ AMC Eagle to be fuel injected. Most people here seem cool with it. But the “old men” Out there seem to take offence to it. It’ll be more fuel efficient and have more power. I see no issue. I love when people make cars their own.
Nibby
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:29 |
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people are free to do whatever they want with their cars
many people have issues with that. their problem
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:29 |
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Mostly, I don’t have an “it’s not being driven! It’s meant to be driven!” reaction. I have, instead, the completely self-interested take that these things need to be on the road because I want to see them. Jerks.
Any “they’re not being driven!” sense is a slight pity that owners are
not getting one of the many kinds of fun they offer
, although collecting is a fun in its own right.
Arrivederci
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:38 |
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Oh shut up. You know what a real car enthusiast is? Someone enthusiastic about cars.
Of course you’re absolutely right, and some enthusiasts will often forget this. My problem is with folks are decidedly not enthusiasts who only really use cars as currency, case in point the 911R.
SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:39 |
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I for one, like that there are perfectly preserved examples still around. It’s cool to see what the cars were like new, especially if it was before you were born. And most people that have a large collection, do not have the time to put many miles on every car anyway. So I think it’s totally cool they take care of them, even if it’s just to look at 5 times a year.
I moved a love seat and recliner into my garage. Even though I drive my car when I feel like it, it’s nice to have a cocktail and admire the beauty. Especially on the rare case that it is clean and shiny haha
Urambo Tauro
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:45 |
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My first instinct is to say that all cars should be driven, but every time I see a car that I haven’t seen in years, it makes me wonder how many are left . It gives me this nagging fear of cars being driven out of existence. Somebody, somewhere, needs to sa ve the few (or one) last example(s) of every car. Maybe that’s a job for a museum, but even museums can’t ho us e every kind of car out there. So yeah, there’s gotta be enthusiasts out there helping to preserve history.
lone_liberal
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:46 |
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It’s their right and the cars don’t care one way or the other (they are inanimate objects after all), but I still don’t get is buying these ultra low mile cars since they are useless as cars and extremely hard to display in any real way . They are very large and very expensive statues that can’t be kept in the house or put in the yard where people can see them. They are parked in garages out of sight and out of mind never to be enjoyed other than an occasional glance by the owner . Their only real use is as museum pieces where people can see and appreciate them.
Die-Trying
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/03/2018 at 12:50 |
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facw
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:53 |
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I’ve got no problem with people who want to collect (or even hoard) these cars. A person can spend their money and enjoy them as they like. If people are concerned about rich people buying up cars, driving up prices for everyone else, and not using them, the solution is to do a better job addressing income inequality, rather than criticizing them for how they spend the money they do have.
And it is not like these (except in very rare cases), are super special one-off works of art that belong in a museum or whatever. They are mass produced consumer products, and built to be disposable. If you get down to something where only a handful of examples exist in the world, maybe that warrants different treatment, but there’s no need to protect most collector cars for the benefit of everyone (and frankly they are probably safer in a garage than being driven around).
I still have very little sympathy for that guy David Tracy keeps trying to get us to feel bad for though. Having a collection of cars you don’t use is fine, but having an unlicensed junk yard is not. If you are going to let cars rot, that’s your business, but do it out of sight of everyone else please.
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Die-Trying
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:54 |
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The Swedish Bandit
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 12:55 |
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Raises another interesting question also; Is there a car model that was quite common in the past that there now isn't a single example left of because no one thought of preserving one for the future?
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 13:01 |
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I’ve always been a proponent that if you have a car it should be driven, even it it’s only a few times a year. Unless it’s some early 1900's Bugatti that is non functional. That sultan of bruni who had some th ing like 5000 exotic cars really pisses me off.
https://blog.dupontregistry.com/celebrity-cars/sultan-of-brunei-his-5000-car-collection/
My bird IS the word
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 13:24 |
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Y
ou have enough smarts, you can afford to take care of one. It’s not like other people are running out to collect these, someone will appreciate it later, I’m sure. It’s not like you don’t actually drive a smart at all and just leave the one you do have sitting around. That’s what drives me crazy.
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Just Jeepin'
> The Swedish Bandit
10/03/2018 at 13:58 |
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https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2012/05/25/threatened-endangered-and-extinct
EngineerWithTools
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 14:12 |
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This is excellent Oppo.
That is all.
Pixel
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 14:14 |
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I’m a bit obsessive about “use it or sell it” for myself. I sold my bike last year and my truck this year because i was rarely using them and didn’t expect that to change.
But for other people, they are welcome to drive their cars or not aa they see fit. So long as they maintain them and don’t let them degrade.
The only thing that riles me up are the people who don't drive, maintain, or protect a car and just let it rot. They aren't using it, aren't letting anyone else, and are ruining any chance for someone to use it in the future.
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The Swedish Bandit
> Just Jeepin'
10/03/2018 at 14:14 |
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It makes me so happy to know that there is an “organization” in place that fights for the preservation of “near extinct car species ”.
Where do I start my monthly donation?!
AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> Mercedes Streeter
10/03/2018 at 16:07 |
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That panigale though
Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
> sn4cktimes
10/03/2018 at 16:29 |
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As someone who has a modified UJM I face this a lot. “Why did you cut up a perfectly good bike?” and so on. Thing is.. a 1980 CX500 is the Chevy Cavalier of motorcycles. They’re everywhere, they’re stupid cheap, mine was beat to hell. So who cars? I do get a case of #feelz when a guy showed up on the facebook group with a flawless condition CX650c that he wanted to make into a cafe racer. They made less than 2,000 of those, and far fewer are known to exist. Would have been a real shame if he cut that up but I think he was convinced to sell it to a collector and buy a cheaper, more common, better suited to a Cafe conversion, CX500c.
functionoverfashion
> Mercedes Streeter
10/16/2018 at 13:15 |
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I can get behind cars that are never driven but are at least preserved. The ones left to rot, on the other hand... if you’re not going to do anything with it, why not sell it to someone who will, before it’s too far gone? Letting cars rot in your yard strikes me as selfish.
But hey,
make an offer.