J90RDN

Hello - Just registered on here as I've just brought an 06 reg STi. Wondered if anyone else does what I do and swap their cars every 3 months or so? I'm a confessed petrol head, and decided about a year ago to own as many of the cars I have been reading about over the years as possible. Normally buy from auction, so isn't always possible to get exactly what you want, but normally end up with an interesting drive for a while.

Recent cars have been

04 Audi A4 190bhp 1.8 Turbo
05 Civic Type R
05 Nissan 350Z GT
05 Mercedes E270 CDi
06 Subaru Impreza STi (Scooby was brought from a dealer!!!)

Don't normally make any money on the sale, but don't do it for the money, I do it so I don't get bored with driving the same car.

Just hope I'll be OK selling the Scooby in 11 weeks time !!!!!!! Keep telling myself not to get too attached.

Next car will probably be something like a 4x4 or quite fancy the Crysler 300C

corradoboy

You say you don't do it for the money, and it's a good job. Prepare for pain when you come to selling the Scoob. Having paid dealer price you are probably gonna take a bad hit. There's 1400 Scoobs on Pistonheads looking for buyers, several thousand on AT, and they simply aren't selling. People are tightening their belts and getting all sensible because of the recent tax hikes and fuel prices going through the roof.

I've never been a frequent changer, having kept a VW Corrado from 1994 until 2007 My Scoob was with me 3 years. Last year I bought a Fabia vRS, 6 months later I sold it and bought another, along with an Octavia 2.0 TDi for a family car. 6 more months and the Octy might be getting chopped next week for an Octy vRS TDi PD170, but that will probably last us quite a few years. My Fabia will get swapped again for a newer one in October as I put miles on quickly as a driving instructor and have to avoid them depreciating too much.

NotoriousREV

I don't think I've seen my brother-in-law drive the same car twice. It must cost him a fortune as he always buys at main dealer prices and trades in within a few weeks.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I sell for the money, just made 500 quid on a Golf Diesel, however if I sell my personal Saab I will lose 3 grand !

Scooby-Doo

I'm not that bad. Buy a 1 year old car keep it two years and part ex in. No MOT's, all in warranty etc etc. Losing about 5k a year at the mo

NotoriousREV

Why not lease in that case? £5k a year will get you a nice, brand new Audi A6 every 2 years.

dpb

only if it dies

robby

I'm now on my 44th car! (11 motorbikes unto 2 years ago as well)

I buy a car from a garage, mod it, get fed up within a few weeks and trade it in at a loss.
I recently sold the scoob and after having a mk5 Golf for 4 weeks now run a new clio 1.6 which after 6 weeks i'm looking to trade. I bought this car for it's cheapness to run which it's great for but now i'm wanting something a little bigger but can't decide on a 4x4 (L200), Vectra 2.2 sri, veccy 2.0 turbo, S3, another 3 series , etc, etc
Whatever car i get next i know it wont last long but it's like an an adiction for me to keep changing when i get bored

I was thinking of buying a mk2 Golf gti to mint up and keep the clio as an everyday car but i'd still have to tax, insure, mot the Golf?

Dark Blue Mark

**** yes! I don't tend to lose out much as I buy good cars which are well priced. I'd be broke if I wasn't careful with it!

I get a lot of stick for doing it though

Since 2001 I have had:

Impreza 96 UK
Impreza 00 UK
Impreza 96 WRX
Impreza 98 STi
Impreza 99 STi
ITR DC2
ITR DC5
Golf GTi (never again - moment of madness)
S2000 (18 months!)
Evo 8
S2000 (current one!)

I'm about to change again to a 34 GTR or an Evo 9.

Any regrets?

Absolutely none I am in a rare position of being able to comment on all the above rather than spout nonsense like you hear from some people!

Dark Blue Mark

PS - I never wan't the pain of having to sell a scoob again! All the Honda's and the Evo were easy as pie.

Scooby-Doo

Looked at leasing. If you include the VAT a 535D with some options will be close to £1k per month. Cheaper to buy and then sell in 2 years.

J90RDN

Good to see other people do the same as me then. Kind of made my mind up about selling the Scoob after 3 months. Will have to see what money I loose!!! The only car I've lost money on so far was the 350Z. Cost me £9 in 3 months ownership (excluding petrol of course). Think the Scoob will be a loss maker, but that's not the reason why i do it - Same as comment above - love to be able to comment first hand on cars rather than comment on something I've only read about.

Good to see the S2000 gets a good rating - is defo one car on my list after owning a CTR and loving every minute of it.

NotoriousREV

You can get a 535D for about £750 a month (unless you go silly on the options or your mileage is huge) if you shop around. Depreciation is going to cost you around £550 a month so unless you're paying cash for your 535d, there probably isn't much in it except with a lease you don't have to worry about selling the bugger at the end of your 2 years.

sti-04!!

Leasing is the way to go, i have an ML320 Cdi Sport with a few options & its costing £575 a month over 24

Dealers wanted a 6k deposit & £575 a month over 24 for the same car.

In answer to to the OP, the longest i have had a car is my E Class which i still have at the moment & i have owned that since new for 30 months.

Every other car is changed every couple of months, i have only had my 645i for a couple of months but i am getting seriously itchy feet to change to something hardcore but still need to retain the 4 seats just incase.

Dream Weaver

Complete opposite here, I have my cars for years and rarely swap, and rarely lose much money either. Think I've lost about £12k in total on all the cars I've owned since 1991.

Have still driven plenty of models though.

J90RDN

I've always been put off leasing due to the long lease times (i.e. you have to keep the car for on average 2 to 3 years). I get bored with cars after 3 months, and when I looked into leasing a car for 12 months the cost was (understandably) astronimical.

sti-04!!

My 2nd cars will always be cash buys on the basis that they get changed so quickly.

chris_c201

Yup, relative newbie compared to some of you guys but have had 7 cars in 5 years of ownership and my current one is likely to go shortly (got it in November) as i plan to move on to bikes.... who knows if that'll ease my itchy feet.

Take a bit of stick for it from mates and family but never sink too much money and at the end of the day i love cars, and love driving different ones, even if their rubbish, for a few days.... I get excited if i'm getting a courtesy car, even if its a wee 1.1 fiesta or something, still different!

bluenose172

iTrader: (2)

I love bringing cars...........

Petem95

I like changing cars often, but it's the hassle of getting rid of the old one!

I also looked at leasing a last year - looked at a 3-series coupe on an 18month lease, but I wanted to add 18" alloys and sports seats and suspension to the standard SE spec (m-sport wasn't an option then), however even though those options clearly would up the resale, they said I'd get nothing back for the options when the car was returned! (I would have had to pay for the optons on full when ordering) that put me off leasing.

Dream Weaver