So indecisive!

[Bailes1992]

I'm waiting to hear back of someone else about possibly buying my fathers old ST220.
If I do decide to buy a late model as a daily driver then it will be fitted with LPG. Saying that theyre still over £400/y to tax!

[Captain Jack]

Sigh...

[parent cap on]
Trust me (and other elders) on this, plonk it into savings or a bigger house. Even if you are saving now, saving more is not forbidden. Buying a second car is a total and complete waste of money.

Are you thinking of ever getting married? Do you know how much a decent wedding and honeymoon is? Well, our bill is unlikely to be less than £15k. Thankfully, it will be covered by.... savings. We also want to buy a house next year but not sure how feasible it will be with the current "booming economy".
[/parent cap off]

Buy an old supercar - Ferrari, Porsche, Aston... American muscle?

[steve_earwig]

Nah, blow it all, the quicker the better! Then you too can spend the rest of your life regretting how easily you let all that money go, whilst tucking into a steaming hot stew of shoe leather and mud...

I know where there's a Matra Murena for sale, very rare

[GingerMagic]

Why not do both?

Save £250 per month ( £1000 per annum ) and you still have £350 per month for a nice car and the odd take-away or six....

[DaiRees]

Hate to say it mate but I also feel that you may regret spending cash on another car at your age. I can see the attraction of having a shitter for work and as I said previously, and I can see the attraction of having a hobby car for weekends, but the idea of the former is that it saves you money overall, and the idea of the latter is that it's something you enjoy and you spend your disposable income on it. You're talking about tax, ridiculous insurance, MOT and consumables, and then doing it up... it's just dead money.

Think back to when I had the Suzuki, it was brilliant fun for a few years, it was cheap to tax and insure, I modded it a bit (cheaply), but to modify it how I wanted to would have cost far too much, it needed increasing amounts of work which I didn't have the time or money to sort, so it ended up being a burden and in the end I was very relieved to get rid of it.

Also take my situation financially, 2 years ago I had a decent chunk of disposable income, now I'm spending £200 a month more than I'm taking home, OK it's a short-term situation (I hope) but I'm just making the point that you never know . If I had that much disposable (and reliable) income right now I'd be saving a deposit and buying another house to let.

Right, now that's out of the way, what you getting???? I really fancy a classic sports car, and a Land Rover, and a motorbike (Triumph Tiger I reckon), and...

[Bailes1992]

I'm off to look at an ST220 tonight. Hope to strike up a deal, don't want to spend more than £1000 + my car buying it. Ideally I would like a straight swap but I can't see that happening.


If not then I'm in the middle of tracking my Fathers old ST220 down. I learnt to drive in that car and it was the car that really got me into cars. If I can get my hands on that then it will be returned to standard and kept for weekend and try and keep it as immaculate as possible in hope that one day it's worth something!

[steve_earwig]

It's a Ford, so that'll be in about 30 year's time.

it will be returned to standard

Erk If you do track it down keep your head screwed on when you see it, you have to see it for what it is now (probably thrashed & knackered) rather than the car it once was...

[Welly]

Perhaps these simple illustrations will help?

Car=


House=


Like Dai says it is bloody frightening how quickly your money goes when you're not matching it with income. When you have family it's like having a big greedy monster to feed, if you don't keep up it'll bite your arm off.

[Captain Jack]

I don't think he's listening...

[scotty73]

Okay I've stayed away from this because I didn't want to dampen his spirits any more than you lot already have (or not, because he's not listening)

17 years ago we had just bought the house, not a great deal of money left over but comfortable... Then it all went tits up I almost died 3 times in the space of 6 months but got over the worst then I was all sorted with a return to work date so off i went to the quacks to get signed off ready to start back to work the following Monday... Doctor STOP there young man you will never get over this recent illness I can't sign you off.

Oh bollocks, goes to see the boss... Well we can sign you off dude here's your redundancy now off to the dole you trot.... Sick pay plus half my mortgage paid for 12 months and we've been broke as a joke ever since.

Think long term Sam instead of lumping all your spare cash on a rust bucket.

PS : I saw a lovely Triumph Staaag the other day now that looked fun.

[Captain Jack]

Good point, Scotty. Hadn't thought about sickness and is definitely something to keep in mind, especially if you don't have some sort of long-term sickness insurance through work...

[scotty73]

Good point, Scotty. Hadn't thought about sickness and is definitely something to keep in mind, especially if you don't have some sort of long-term sickness insurance through work...

To be honest mate I didn't even think about it back then I was slamming in all the overtime i could and enjoying life both keeping fit and burning that candle at both ends it just went horribly wrong... Sam should enjoy life he works hard enough for it but remember to save a little of that £600 per month too... You can do a lot with that kind of money each month if used wisely.

[Welly]

Then there's Old Sam to think about, I've no provision for any sort of Pension, most would use a property now in later years.

I now have less years to go until I retire than the years I've been in employment and I don't know how I've got there either, it flew past.

[Bailes1992]

I am listening don't worry! You all seem to think I'm going to spend the full £600 a month on a new car. Don't worry it'll be about £200/m.

Went to see the '07 ST220 but it sold.

There's an Ex emergency services 2007 ST220 in Cearphilly for sale at the moment. 124k and he only wants £3,500 for it (well I say 'only', it's just a bargain for a '220). It needs all new boot trims and a rear seat along with various new dash trims. Probably could make a nice car if I could get it for £3k and spend £500 tidying it up. Always afraid of buying issues with something like that though!
I might go up and take it for a test drive though!

But to be fair I've now given up on the new car idea. Unless I can track down my fathers ST220 I'm not going to bother!
And although it's been modified it's only been owned by enthusiasts and the modifications are bigger breaks, custom exhaust, gunmetal alloys etc. Nothing silly!

[Welly]

Unless I can track down my fathers ST220 I'm not going to bother!

I can't think of any of my cars I'd like to have BACK, almost all of them were knackered by the time I'd finished with them.

I'd love to drive an XR2 again though some day