NotoriousREV

I've just worked out the cost of owning a Puma as my commuter car and keeping the Skyline. It works out that the most I'll save is £15 a month (due to not being able to use my NCB for insurance on the Puma) and that doesn't take into account RFL or any parts/work the Puma would require. So, is it really worth it? The calculator says no at the moment.

Any other views?

Olly

I always used to run a nice shiny new motor, and a smoker to dump outside the pub. My reasoning was that it kept the mileage down, the condition up, and the resale value high of the new car, and all of the abuse was targeted at the runt.

Financially, it never made sense though, no matter how hard I tried. Excellent fuel economy of the smoker never made up for the fact that in needed tyres, MOT's, insurance, and all the other guff. It would always have been cheaper to run just the one, shiny new car.

So I went back to 1 car. The shiny new motor was sold.

Mike123

Maybe not Dave - I got 2 cars which I enjoy driving ( although 1 more so ). I could have bought the cheapest thing I could find to run about in but decided to spend a bit more and get something I wouldn't mind using . The BM does about 30mpg for my journeys, £270 a year fully comp ( I'm old ) and hasn't really cost me much ( other than suspension refresh bits which I did more out of wanting to than having to at the time ). Could have bought a £500 Cavalier or similar but I think I'd prefer the BM to drive. Having a spare car has its advantages when you need to do some maintenance ( e.g. did BMW suspension bits over a weekend in summer, no rush to finish as I had the Sierra to run about in ). Also keeps the salt off my old Ford in the winter. To be honest, if I sold both cars I'd only get about £8k.
I still do the same mileage ( spread over 2 cars ) so apart from tax, insurance, MOT the other maintenance costs mostly come around at much longer intervals, tyres, oil, plugs, shocks etc

Cars are a hobby to me though - I'd have to have one car probably - the other costs me roughly about £1000-£1500 per year to have ( initial purchase was 10 years ago ) - tax insurance,MOT, service bits, tyres

Brendan Hughes

Funny you should ask. I'm currently considering whether to buy a cheapish family car and a fancy sports car, or just an expensive family car. Bearing in mind that it will be quite a sacrifice for me to buy the sports car, really eating into our disposable income with repayments (we are already struggling and have no idea why, we have more salary and less expenses than 3 yrs ago) and I personally will only drive it perhaps twice a week as I happily get the train to work every day.

There's more to it than that, but it's a hell of a factor to consider.

The Chief

Without a doubt.

If i had bought a s***er to go with my Scooby i'd still have the Scooby now.

My scooby stood me at 10k including fuel in the 18 months of buying it thats not including purchase price of 7k.

Think about it, i was putting 60-80 quids worth of juice a week into it along with this goes extra servicing and depreciation as your mileage goes up and wear and tear.

A cheap fiesta for 600-800 quid and 200 quid a year to insure is worth it in my opinion.

I wish i had done it now

stilover

I'm thinking of doing it myself soon.

New Focus RS next year that I want to keep garaged up. Will have to hire an empty garage off the development next door. Figured an OAP would be happy at £10-20 per month.
I then plan (back end of this year) to sell the Scoob and buy a workhorse for about £4-5k.

The reason?
To keep the RS in top condition and low miles. To be enjoyed at weekends.

Plus low milage Escort Cosworths 15 years old are still going for £16,000 to £20,000.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

currently smoking round in a Ibiza that cost me £150 from Ebay, park it anywhere, put anything/anyone in it. And It has done over 5000 miles now without missing a beat.

£200 ish to insure even wihout secondary no claims, well one year now.

I also park in a dodgy area where I work so could not give a damn if someone scratches/dents/kicks/burns/steals the sh1tbox.


Before that my second car was and still will be when its finished a 205 GTI

Dream Weaver

I'm also in this position at the minute.

We have a 1 year old Civic as the family car, then I have my 205 for fun at the weekends and for the odd customer visit. But as much fun as the 205 is its a pig to drive round town in its current state, and not really the best car for nipping out in.

So, do I use it for trackdays and buy something for circa £10k for the ocassional trip out during the week, or as an alternative family car to the Civic (i.e. we could take the Civic or the new car on a weekend, the 205 just doesn't fit us all in), or do I sell up the 205 and all its bits for £5k ish (losing £3k) and buy something like a Focus ST for £15k?

Finances aren't an issue, but I only do about 1k miles a year and the 205 costs me £80 a month all in, Focus would cost me about £200 all in to run and I don't like wasting money!!

I've been having this dilemma for over 6 months now!!!!!!!!

projectsubaru

Im having this dillema too due to increasing fuel prices i am considering running a 1.5 dci clio day to day and keeping scooby for the special occasions. I spend 90% of my daily drive stuck in traffic so its definately a thought.

c_maguire

Seems to me your pride and joy should be a bit more fancy than a Subaru to suffer spending virtually all your time in another car you'd rather not be driving, unless your second vehicle does something the Subaru can't. I do have two vehicles, the other being a Berlingo van, and there are plenty of times when I'm in that wishing I wasn't. But it's used for work (service engineer) where it gets some abuse, and it carries lots of kit without dragging it's **** on the floor (which the car doesn't) and doesn't need go-go juice every 5 minutes.
If you don't really need a second vehicle then why not just drive the Subaru and enjoy it? The resale argument doesn't really cut it on a car costing circa £20k when you factor in all the bull**** associated with running a second car.
Kevin

Flatcapdriver

Doing the full financials on a car is like trying to justify a drug habit. Simply not viable. However, think of it like having a mistress. You get to bang the missus all week and do all the humdrum stuff like the shopping and the odd argument and at the weekend you get to have some fun with some fresh fun jugs whilst maintaining the 'grass is always greener' element in your life.

dpb

indeed Testarossa / 10 year ole escort van like my neighbours seems appropriate - guess it all depends on your mileage tho

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

I've got a crappy 1994 Pug 106 diesel as a second motor. I think it totally depends on how much mileage you do; and how crap your prepared to go for a second car.

The 95 mile drive to and from my base every week is hardly a drive I can enjoy much - being stuck behind artic's for 90% of it at 50mph; and while the Impreza would need a full tank of fuel at the best part of £50 every week (£200pm), the pug can go an entire month on a single tank (£45ish).

So, the pug saves me in fuel £155pm, so £1860pa. Now, no £300 banger is going to cost me £1800 a year to run! So I easily save £1000 a year without any problem at all.

T5OLF

iTrader: (4)

I run a N reg Polo as a second car, I go to work on the train Mon-Fri but if we have an upgrade to do then I have to drive to Leeds and there is no way I would leave the scoob overnight in Leeds. The Polo has not moved for 2 months but it's there if I need it. It cost 500 quid, costs 200 quid to insure and 50 quid for road tax.

The sccob is just a second car that I use the odd weekend in summer but more than that it's a hobby, I enjoy pulling it to bits and modding it. I have always had a second car to play with it just happens my current one is a scoob.

sti_sambo

My vw caddy costs me £20 a week plus fuel (probs £45)

My commute costs £20 a day in fuel in the scoob.

joey_turbo

iTrader: (26)

I've just bought a 1.4 306 for a daily driver. Its a nice clean motor, but feels crap to drive, compared to the Scoobs. Just filled up the tank and arought estimate it should cost £150 less a month to run.

Adidas

I've owned a 2nd car since buying the Scoob 6 years ago. I'm currently running a Mk2 Golf GTi as my second car. I can park and leave it anywhere without a second thought. Plus it makes driving the Scoob that little bit special when I actually can be bothered getting it out of the garage

wilffive

Personally dont see the point in shelling out loads of cash on an expensive machine and hardly ever driving it. The pleasure in having a nice car is using it.

I spent years with a second car etc but would like to think I'm older and wiser now (even if I am a bit poorer)

Use it before you lose it when the likes of Ken Livingstone et al finally get their way and take your performance machinery away.......

TopBanana

Having two cars is a pain in the butt. If you can't afford to run one car all the time, get a car that's cheaper to run!

Bakerman

Mass produced cars like the Impreza depreciate enough whether there are miles on them on not. Buy one and use it, when it doesn't work anymore buy another.

chris singleton

I run an f-reg polo to use for work, cost me £200

Bought it to keep the mileage off my 34 GTR, as much as I loved driving the gtr to work, was little point as the oil was only just getting up to temp by the time I got to work !!!! Plus it's ideal to sling the dog in and go to park, leave at the pub, etc. Already been driven into twice and couldn't give a monkeys

Looking to buy something like a puma to replace it with as I'm getting fed up with the lack of grunt, power steering, electic windows, radio, etc.

Chris

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

My 15 year old scooby only gets used April-Sept and does about 3k miles.

I've always liked the idea of having a classic, but fast car with a day to day runner aswell. I ran around in a £1k mondeo for 2 years, but then gave in and bought a 4 year old one, with all the luxuries.

Its not about cost for me, though the 15 mpg of the scooby is too annoying for year round use. I dont get much time to get used to the power either, so I dont hanker after something faster and better.

The way I see it, the scooby should easily last another 10+ years. I doubt there will be many of the first batch around then.

stilover

I used to think exactly the same. I love driving, but haven't enjoyed it for the last year or so.
Why? Mundane driving to work and back every day costing £50 per week.

I bought the Impreza to use it over the Pennines and other great roads I know. However as I got to the weekends I realised how much money it was costing me just getting to work & back so I therefore decided it was too expensive to then take it out for "Just a drive" at the weekends.

My financial circumstances have changed now, so my plan is to keep my next new car only for driving pleasure and Drive something cr*p & cheap to do the mundane stuff.

NotoriousREV

It's nothing to do with affording it, it's filling the fecking thing up every 3 days that's doing my nut in. Even if petrol were free it would be a pain in the ***

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Why is it a pain in the butt?

Personally, I don't find the logistics of running two cars particularly challenging, can't speak for anyone else.

As said before - its not a question of "affording" to run one car all the time. I can afford to run the Impreza all the time, but whats the point when the majority of miles I do is in a dull-as-dishwater commute along a road clogged with HGVs; and pay a premium for the privilege. I cannot truly enjoy the Impreza when doing the commute, and because of the nature of the road I can't even use the power to improve my progress.

Having a second car is not the answer for everyone, and I don't think those of us who have one would say it is, however, it is an answer for me. It puts the Impreza at less risk of a moron driving into it, it leaves more money in my pocket to spend in other ways on the Impreza, I have a vehicle I can throw any old crap into it without any concern or worry at all.

I think you have to be quite pragmatic about your second car choice; and accept that for it to be worthwhile is has to be as cheap as you can possibly go; and I can understand why the the OP's thinks the idea of having a Puma as a second car doesn't really work! If you go for something small, reliable, ideally with a small diesel engine, you can't go far wrong.

TopBanana

And that's worse than the hassle of keeping, MOTing and servicing two cards?

v8voodoo

I'm in the yes camp on this one.

I have a '93 Clio diesel for the 6 mile round trip to and from work, for letting trollies run into at Tesco when shopping and for abandoning outside the pub for collection the next day. It can do 130 miles on a tenner of smelly diesel and that's a conservative estimate (really!) and is driven everywhere on it's door handles. It costs £175 a year insurance and I'm in my 1st year of building NCD on it. Maybe I'm lucky in that it's needed nothing apart from new front discs and pads (how cheap..lol!!!) in the last 6 months.

Then I have my Scoob as my main car for any trips over 20 miles and for fun in poor weather conditions etc etc.

Then for dry, warm weekends, I have an 8 litre V8, 450bhp hot rodded '59 Chevy pick up for fun.

I was thinking of getting a Puma, same as the OP, but the figures didn't work out for me, initial expenditure plus the fuel economy was not a patch on the Clito, so I think I'm sticking with my fleet as it is. I also thought of selling the lot, getting an Elise as a toy and a big german luxo-diesel-barge to waft about in, but tbh, I quite like all the options I have now.


In conclusion, a resounding YES from me to the 2nd car, but not a Puma. Get a sub £1000 small french diesel instead.

NotoriousREV

I did actually make a mistake in my original calculations by assuming I'd be buying a new car each year (which obviously I won't) so it makes a lot more financial sense (£100 a month saving in year 2).

I couldn't go for anything too crap (it's a curse!) as I'd top myself. Plus of course there's always the chance that if I took the Skyline off the road I'd start throwing huge turbos at it thus wiping out any savings.

I already own 2 cars, bizarrely the Skyline is the most economical to run of the 2 (19mpg vs. 16mpg) but the current second car has been off the road for 6 months.

I might just sell 'em all and get a BMW 123d

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

See.. now thats part of my reasoning to run a crappy car - so that I can afford more shiney bolt on bits for the Impreza

v8voodoo

Notorious,

I see my crappy Clio as a bit of a challenge. Who breaks first, me or the car..lol!! I actually enjoy driving it to it's limits, which is a far simpler task than driving my other cars to their limits..!!

Oh, and don't knock those 123d's....they are actually impressively quick.

If you were after something a bit more interesting but still cheap to run, have you thought about a BMW 525..? RWD torque-filled fun...!!