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

Here's a car update, it's a long one with some hilarious content:

Back when the 850R needed a new bottom end, if long time readers can recall, my sister-in-law let us have their spare car on long term loan. It's a 2013 E300 Hybrid that they weren't really sure whether they wanted back. I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it, but after driving it around a bit, I really liked it as a nice sensible family car. My sister-in-law decided they didn't need it back as she was buying a brand new car, but frustratingly, the Merc wasn't ULEZ compliant so I'd need to get rid of it when the expansion happened.

I decided then to make a plan of getting the 850R up to as perfect sellable condition as possible, and sell them both to get enough money to buy something no more than 5 years old, reliable, with a decent amount of straight line power, but with all the toys.

The problem was, I was out of work for quite a long time so I had a lot of time to think but not take action so I overthought everything.

Options included:
E63/C63 estate (Oh you basically want to be @Dammit)
E90 M3
Lexus IS-F
Octavia VRS estate
Early 2000s E500 estate
E91 330i Touring (N52 engine) - I came very close to buying one on a drunken Saturday night eBay browse
Mk3 Focus ST estate
Golf R estate
F31 340i touring
F10 540i touring
640i/650i Gran Coupe

All of these I couldn't really get the numbers to stack up on my budget with the maximum age I wanted and miles, or all the options I wanted made them impossible to find or too expensive, or they fit the budget and age and reliability requirements but I didn't really think they were quick or well equipped enough.
Some were pipe dreams to be honest and relied on monthly payments I could probably afford but were just far too much money to be spending on a car every month.

I finally settled on a 2016 Skoda Superb 280 4x4.
It's basically a Golf R with a 6spd DSG instead of the 7spd, with an A6/Passat sized body, and a decent Skoda interior with lots of options. I went for the 2nd highest trim level which comes with stuff like Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC - Adaptive suspension basically), Adaptive Cruise, decent sound system, heated memory seats, all that fancy modern car stuff. As it's the Golf R drivetrain, it'll remap to 340-ish bhp with no other mods, and an intake, downpipe, intercooler, and custom map should see it make 400-ish bhp.

One of the things that I found really frustrating was that I was looking at cars that were 30k new that didn't have heated or electric seats, but I was selling a car from 1996(!) that had memory electric heated seats on both sides.

I wanted an estate, but they were coming up 4-5k more, and that's an obscene amount of extra to pay just for an estate, and as the saloon is actually a hatch with proper folding seats, it made sense to get the "saloon" version. By comparison, the equivalent Mercs and BMWs have smaller boots and no fold down seats so the usable space is much much less than the Skoda.

OK, all sounding great so far.

The plan involved money from the Merc going towards the Skoda as a deposit, and the money from the 850R going into savings to rebuild from when I wasn't working.

Except the 850R sold for about 50-60% of what I expected it to, that's not just a number I came up with out of thin air, I had it valued, and that value was supported by the guys at Collecting Cars. I wanted a quick sale, so I was happy to take a bit of a gamble on an auction, but not that much. If I'd sold it privately I'm confident I would have got much more than I did. So I thought, OK, I can deal with that, I guess the savings won't get as much as I hoped they would.

Then on the way back from going to look at the Skoda, after paying a deposit and having the Merc priced for part ex, the Merc broke down. It took 24 hours and £450 to get it back to London, and after replacing the high pressure fuel pump and injectors, I'm going to get about £500 in my pocket after selling it to WBAC.

Here's the best bit, after the garage rang me to say the car was ready to be road tested and I needed to pay the ULEZ fee, I went online and the ULEZ portal now says the car is exempt. Despite it being a Euro 5 diesel that even though is a hybrid, doesn't conform to Euro 6 standard. So, I could have just kept the car and not bought a new one this whole time.

I guess it still would have broken down and I'd have needed to find the money to fix it if I wasn't selling it, but I wouldn't be paying monthly for a car that, while I really am glad to own and am very happy with, I don't actually need.

Before you get out the tiny violins and cry me a river, I've still got a new (to me) car, and I've managed to squirrel enough money away while working at the new job to pay someone to get the MX5 finished finally after 2 years of plugging away at it with what little time I've had.

So I'm picking that up this weekend, one nice family car that's surprisingly quick in a straight line, and one little hooligan track car.

TL;DR:
Bought a Skoda Superb 280 4x4.
Got MX5 fixed.
Merc E300 Hybrid broke down when I tried to part ex it - cost almost it's entire value to fix.
Turns out Merc E300 Hybrid is actually ULEZ compliant, didn't need to get rid of it in the first place.