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

I didn't get too many harsh comments about my amazing Fiat Panda. Except from Lynx, who was wrong about the trip computer resetting issue...

only way to get forum general approval is to buy something old or fucked and post pictures of the painstaking lengths taken & £££'s spent trying to bring it back to a former glory

Yes. It applies equally both to bikes and cars around here.

I disagree, @Dammit has received mostly disdain and ridicule for the amount spent on both his Volvo and Porsche, nobody gives a fuck about my shit MX5 that I've hurled a frankly worrying amount of money at, whenever someone asks for a realistic, reliable car, I've often proffered useful advice (£1k Focus recently), as have many other users, and I can hand on heart say if I had @danstuff 's buying power then I too would be running a recent RS6 and a bike engined kit car.

Also, I'd like to think that nobody on here is doing this for forum approval, cars are a very personal thing, just like bikes, if you're buying based on what you think some mostly anonymous men and women (let's be honest, 99% men on this thread) think, then you're doing it wrong.

I think it comes across that way due to what peaks forum users' interests. If we use video content as an example, compare Project Binky vs Shmee, what I think separates them apart is that one is all about engineering, you're following a project and you're learning what it takes to be a high quality fabricator, it's interesting and inspiring. The other is about a rich guy who owns brand new supercars. The thing is, there's not much to document with brand new super cars, so you end up with content that comes across as "smug" and "rich", I know there is some content that is enjoyable, but I'm using Shmee as an extreme example.

I can start posting regular updates of me driving my BMW 525d estate to the shops if that's the sort of content you want to see? It's not is it? That doesn't mean you don't approve of my car, it means you don't give a fuck about that, that's not what you're interested in, which I'm assuming goes for 99% of the other frequenters of this thread.

For the record, if I had the money, I would love to own (all new or nearly new)

Porsche 918 or 781 Boxster (Pref a GT4)
Porsche 991 GT3 RS 4.0
RS6
Camaro ZL1
E9X M3
F8X M3

And more (ever so slightly) run of the mill:

BMW F81 340 (estate)
Mini Cooper S
Golf R Estate
Porsche 911 Carrera base car

Plus many more, but the fact is I can't afford them. Cars are fucking expensive, and if you want access to speed, you have to go older to be able to afford, but sometimes they're not reliable so you end up with a little bit of a money pit, or you want to take an old car and make a very good example of it, eg Neil's 996 Cab will still end up cheaper than a brand new 911 Cab but this way we all get to enjoy a good journey, at his expense, why wouldn't you want that? That's literally why I go on probably a hundred car forums and read project threads, I get to live out what I'd like to do through other people's documentation of their journey.

If anyone feels left out, then please post more, I personally am not going to judge you, or think you don't belong here, but just don't make it boring, make it something interesting, a trip somewhere nice, a story of a journey, an epic tale where you overcame adversity - even if it was in your 1.2 clio, because if it's a nice car that is reliable, and you never do anything with it, you'll end up only posting pics of it just after it's been washed and frankly the same pic of the same car, no matter how nice it is, get's tiring.

I bought an overwhemingly average and boring but very adequate Mitsubishi ASX six months ago. I got slated. Its awful they said. Useless as a 4x4 they said. You dont need a 4x4 anyway they said. Should have bought a hummer they said. Should have bought a golf they said.

It's a great car. And last weekend whilst the rest of the South West of England were stuck in their cars on the A303 for 20 hours freezing their asses off because they thought it was a good idea to go on a roadtrip in the middle of a red weather warning and blaming the emergency services for not having arctic exploration vehicles available on demand to rescue them, my grifriend was the only midwife on her ward that managed to make it in to work in deepest darkest Somerset for her nightshift without the help of the territorial army.

I'm chalking that one up as a win.