Car Prices... what the...

Ibrahim5

It always seems to me that petrol heads desire these cars but normal people just aren't bothered. We had a couple of people at work who had spent £100k on a car. They thought everyone would be impressed and talking about them. We had a few funny conversations when it became obvious that no one knew they had these cars. They drove them to work every day but nobody noticed. It didn't impress anyone but they thought it had.

Herzlos

Ibrahim5 said:

It always seems to me that petrol heads desire these cars but normal people just aren't bothered. We had a couple of people at work who had spent £100k on a car. They thought everyone would be impressed and talking about them. We had a few funny conversations when it became obvious that no one knew they had these cars. They drove them to work every day but nobody noticed. It didn't impress anyone but they thought it had.

Very few people spend £100k on a car just to impress people, just live very few people bleat on about a 7 year old Ford Focus to impress people.

They almost certainly drove them to work because they enjoyed driving them. You being jealous of that won't have had any impact on their day.

motorguy

Ibrahim5 said:

Once you've had a day lying on your back being jolted to death in cramped conditions you would realise that it's not the best way to travel.

Yes at your age and being just on a pension now, i'd definitely avoid.

motorguy

Herzlos said:

Ibrahim5 said:

Surely hiring one for a day would be all that's needed.

That's not very MSE though, is it? Why rent it when you can buy?

Or do you think someone with a sports car would only use it once? Most people use them weekly, so the cost of renting would quickly eclipse the cost of owning.

Edit: You can rent them for about £225/day with a pretty low mileage limit. Or you can lease them for £1500/month which is only about £50/day.

I think i said earlier but I got talking to a guy who was doing some work here at the house and he'd an R8 as a weekend car.  He said that depreciation had been pretty much nil in the two years he'd owned it, so it was just down to running costs.  He used a local indy to keep the costs sensible.   It probably wasnt costing him any more than some people are paying to lease a Golf.

A friend of mine was big in to M3s.  He'd change them every year or two.  I was talking to him about the costs and he'd worked out the sweet spot on the depreciation curve, bought at the right price and the right spec then was able to recover the bulk of his money next time.  He reckoned it was costing him less overall than running a GTI.

Ibrahim5

I had never even heard of an R8 which is why I googled it. The discussions we had were quite funny because they obviously thought that everybody knew what they drove but nobody really knew what cars people drove. Nobody was jealous. I guess we could all afford them but just had more interesting things to spend money on.

Herzlos

Ibrahim5 said:

I had never even heard of an R8 which is why I googled it.

You're not really much of a car guy then, are you? Never watched top gear or read any car magazines?

You're banging on about it a lot for someone who isn't jealous.

Ibrahim5

Can you be jealous of something that you don't know exists?

motorguy

Ibrahim5 said:

Can you be jealous of something that you don't know exists?

You can be jealous of other peoples wealth.

You'd be best just accepting that other people have done better than you.  Being bitter and twisted in your old age is a sad way to be.

motorguy

Ibrahim5 said:

It always seems to me that petrol heads desire these cars but normal people just aren't bothered. We had a couple of people at work who had spent £100k on a car. They thought everyone would be impressed and talking about them. We had a few funny conversations when it became obvious that no one knew they had these cars. They drove them to work every day but nobody noticed. It didn't impress anyone but they thought it had.

Audi R8s?

What colours did they go for?  They work best in the subtle ones. 

Herzlos

Ibrahim5 said:

Can you be jealous of something that you don't know exists?

Are you saying that you didn't know cars more expensive than yours existed?