Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I'm not sure if I totally agree.

I think there is a strong argument for dammit leasing new. But for 2nd hand stuff I think it's just a case of budgeting......or maybe something custom.

I think you've got to have a mental limit with spending. With my old SD1 that was about a grand, as that was all the best 2300 could have sold for at the time.

With the Merc I pushed it and it cost me about 8k after 2 years, for a car that would never be worth half that. But even then I could see I had to stop or the expenditure would be never-ending.

With the Porsche I basically wanted to spend as little as possible on it because it turned out that I just didn't like it.

The Vespa can have anything it wants. It's gone way way past ever being economical anyway.

The DB9 can have 60k a year cos the warranty is amazing. Ain't going to cost me anything apart from consumables.

I wanted either a 1970's targa or a first gen amber/cable throttle 996 coupe- 997 didn't interest me. I couldn't afford the targa, and found a cab instead of the 996 coupe, but still very happy with the car.

I certainly did not anticipate quite how much work was going to be involved that's for sure, but then I am trying to become, in effect, the first owner as it were (this has just occurred to me), so everything is being returned to as close to factory fresh as I can.

I'd classify this with your Vespa Niall- it's past any economic point of return, unless things change dramatically over the next ten years in terms of 996 values anyway.

I'd sell the Volvo now, if I got the right offer, I don't think I'd sell the 996.

Same with my Polo - it was my first car, I spent way more than it was worth on turning it into a race/rally car, you will have to pry the V5 out of my cold dead hands. I consider it my "forever" car, if you put it in MCM terms

I spent £78 on my 964 yesterday. Got the cigarette lighter fixed, a new head unit fitted and the remote locking fobs coded so they work again. 1 hour's labour.

That's my kind of 911 bill.

I aspire to having that sort of bill.

I replaced my fag lighter with a 997 one, that's not on the list of costs though as I can't remember how much it cost.

This is as close as I get to kids:

School fees are low.

Ha.

Annual MOT + VED + Insurance + Parking Permit is almost 9 times the value of my car. Filling the tank adds 50% to the value of the car.

My old motor bike though (ZX6-R) was a money pit. To be fair it wasn't the most suitable bike for a 60 mile each way commute; Dunlop D207-RR tyres aren't cheap.

.

Last week gave a garage £72 for them to not even do what they were meant to do
Remove one half stuck half inaccessible nut, replace with new or leave off.... Also tell me what's occurring with my steering rack
They removed nut, then replaced it but looser, and told me my 4 month old track rod ends are shot and want replaced, an indepth look at said inner and outer rods show that they are perfect.
Never going to a garage again, all just a bunch of.....
72 is one hour of average quality Glasgow garage time

Hahaha, CHOPPED!

I'm currently looking for a cheap and fun second car. I fear buying something I like and then spending a bomb on it. Hiding receipts is hard...

Weirdly the car I regret selling was an old pug 505 that I bought for a grand, drove for a year and sold for $1200. Cost me nothing but fuel. Was a great car. Secretly searching for another.

Fucking pads and discs needed swapping so there's another few hundred quid.
Annoying given that I'm not racing so it only really gets driven to charge the battery...

What car? Pads and discs should be cheap and fitting is not a long job.

My friend is getting a drive in this exact car st the weekend, I'm rather jealous.

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What's cheap? I think it's 2-300 quid but the missus is getting it done so I'm not sure ?

What car?

The merc is back from the mechanic. I had him look at vibrations at higher speeds and a unevenly worn rear winter tyre, basically it's been worn out over a single winter.

He's gone through all the bushings but can't find anything that needs fixing, but as it's all original he says it's probably just set itself on a bit of an angle over time. One option is to rebuild the whole thing, but that'll be spendy and I don't think I'm going Damnit on this one...

He did balance the summer tyres though, so the vibrations are gone, but we'll see about the wear. The winter tyres are wider which will exaggerate the wear he says, so hopefully the summer ones should be fine. Does that make sense?

Buckled wheel rim for weird tyre wear?

I'm not likely to change mechanics because it's convenient for the missus to do and I'd rather it gets done by her during the day than me, because I've got better things to do ;)

Well mine are wider, even though I know it's the wrong way round. Need to get new ones for the winter now anyway, so they'll be narrower next time...

Can't see anything odd on either side, so should be fine?

Probably. I just had to do mine a couple of weeks ago and there was a sideways and up down buckle (probably about 5-10mm) in the rim, but you could only see it once it was on a wheel balancing spinning thing.
Might be worth a look - you'd be able to see it when they change your winter tyre out I imagine.

I'm never happy when it comes to paying for car shit.

If it was a bike, I'd be throwing my wallet at it with glee.

Get the geometry looked at. A lot of Kwik Fits now have a Hunter machine, which are awesome. My local place doesn't charge to check it and if after that something is miles out it's £20 per adjustment, so worst case £160, but on the Merc you may well get away with just adjusting one side or end. If the geo is off it'll also make the car drive much better.