How do you justify running more than one car (for yourself)...

[stripped fred]

I have 3 cars at the moment not including the other half's beetle. I have the astra and 406 parked up fully mot'd, taxed and insured. I get to choose which one to drive to work. The mr2 is mot'd and insured but on sorn at the moment. I know I am lucky to be able to afford to do this compared with some. I do swap the tax about a bit to reduce the cost and 2 are in classic policies. They're total value is probably less than £2k, mainly the mr2, and they don't depreciate but money is still tight and I feel it's an extravagance too far at times. I then justify it by saying they are cheap cars and I can always use one as a back up vehicle in case of a problem with the other. If I do sell one I know I will just enter raffles or get tempted by something else. I do pay £38 a month for a council garage which hurts a bit but without that i'm at the mercy of street parking and i don't want to piss the neighbours off, too much. I know others on here have much larger fleets. Can you tell me your man maths?

[AlabamaShrimp]

Stupidity

[Landy Mann]

In theory the 214 is the reliable mile muncher while the defender is my fun (& first) car. In reality it's often back up to the rover. It works out more expensive but if I didn't have a spare the rover would look more like a 7 year old focus as it's brake downs are currently a slight inconvenience rather than a reason to get the bike out. My other justification is that the rover is only worth £50 (the fuel tank is full).

 

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[Tickman]

Mine are of the standard where one might work!

 

About 4 years ago I had three cars outside, a modern to me something that I cannot remember, a 1968 Morris Minor and a 1965 Series 2 Land Rover.

 

It was a dark and cold Friday night and I needed a curry. I went out to the modern and it FTP'd next the most likely was the Morris Minor which just said NO so finally the whim of buying a series 2 Land Rover finally became useful after 18 months of no adverse weather. I was redeemed just by collecting the curry I had ordered online.

 

*Needing to collect curry may not make all car purchases viable (but you never know)

[MarvinsMom]

i've got 4 cars.

 

all old, and all british.

 

it pays to have a back-up*, just in case......

[themildbunch]

I have 4 but 3 taxed and on the road at any one time generally - classic multicar makes it doable IMO and my own labour....

I do get a sad kick out of seeing 3 BX's lined up kissing outside the house... Working on them myself justifies it too - I'm the only one on our street who ever opens a bonnet and the gradually increasing 'I used to have one of those mate' kind of comments always helps...

 

[UmBongo]

One's for the weekend and the other is a daily driver, of course.

[eddyramrod]

One for MrsR to use, and for the long-distance work.

One to take to classic-car shows, and which I can treat as my daily.

And for some reason I also have a Roffle Saab, which at the moment is awaiting a coil pack.  It's supposed to take the "daily" pressure off the classic, but the blob could equally do that.  I'm having increasing difficulty justifying the Saab's presence, or even existence, even to myself.  You may well see it attached to the magic R-word again soon.

 

Oh and nowhere off-street for any of them!

[xtriple]

I feel safer and happier now that I have two cars again. When it was just the one, I worried in case it did an FTP. Also, as the big one is going in roe body work again at the end of the month and will be away for a couple of weeks, I need transport... the fact that it's convertible and the sun may be shining is purely coincidental

[vulgalour]

Well, there's the daily driver that failed it's MoT so I needed another daily driver to replace it, that's just failed it's MoT, and then there's the Renault which was very, VERY cheap.

 

I think this means I need to purchase another car.

[Urko]

I justify mine on the basis that it's the only hobby I have. I have been doing it a long time and anyone who doesn't like it can flip off. This may explain why I have had longer relationships with some of my cars than wives/girlfriends.

 

I have 5 cars, two of which are currently operational and live on my own

[brownnova]

There's there daily, and the 'fun' car. Which makes it difficult to justify more than two... So I'm working on some new reasoning. So far the person who needs to be convinced isn't!!

[Peter C]

My work offers company cars or a generous cash allowance. I take the cash, which is enough to insure, tax, MoT and cover the cost of maintenance of my three cars. My cars (Merc W123, W124 and Porsche Boxster) don't depreciate and my hobby costs a lot less that what my wife pays to drive a new BMW 4 series.

[michael1703]

I think in general most people who have a lot of cars only really have two or three mot'd and taxed continually

 

It's not just the money in 4 or more lots of tax but you realise that one gets favoured and then you've got 3 lots of government raping that aren't clocking up the miles to justify the monies

[skattrd]

Justify? erm, 6 cars currently taxed and tested.

One is officially work car, the others are backup/hobby .... cheaper than beer and drugs, or kids.

[groovylee]

hmmm, hard one, and a subject that gets regularly *discussed in chez groovy.....

 

i have (or rather, had) the daily drive skoda, she has the family passat, and i have the motorbike.  on top of that i also have the trials car.

 

the passat and the daily were easily justified. the motorbike, if ever questioned, is necessary for my sanity.  no discussion allowed.

 

the trials car, well that was a sore point until i took her and the kids out in it last weekend for a local trial, and now they all love it

 

when i had 5 vehicles, she just rolled her eyes at me until i pointed out that I do all of the work on her car, and if she denied my the pleasure of cocking about with unsuitable old motors, she could take her car to the garage every time it needed something, and then tighten her belt accordingly when the money gets tight.......  that usually does it

[Timewaster]

company car - justified

family car - justified

wife's car - justified

old Ford rapidly gaining scene tax - justified

old Spit - cosy so far £0 - justified

[Cavcraft]

I don't need to justify it. I have a few cars because I like having a few cars.

[michael1703]

Justifying storage is the harder part.

 

5 taxed at the moment

 

New beetle,p38,jag sovereign,scimitar,rover p4.

 

I'm hoping to have my mk10 and tk mot'd soon and they're tax free so I might get to the dizzy height of 7 out of 15 legal which isn't a bad ratio compared to previous years

[dollywobbler]

It's purely to satisfy my low boredom threshold. I just like driving different cars. That said, there's rarely much overlap in functionality. Dyane for local hooning, XM for mile munching, Nippa for just nipping here and there.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I find life too short to have to justify doing things in your personal life. I have to justify enough things in work on a daily basis thank you very much.

 

I think its enough to reply with "because I wanted to". As long as the bills are paid / kids / wife pandered to and you aren't breaking any laws in the process fire away.

 

The biggest my fleet ever got was four cars, and the only reason its now down to two (including the bike) is more down to time than anything - watching cars rot on the drive makes me sad, selling them on to someone who can use them makes me happy.

[garbaldy]

Five cars and one bike on the road so that's a quarter legal and the rest stored at very little cost*

The misses works under two miles away and once I walk out the garden gate Im at work so don't really need a car, can I justify all the tax and insurance? I would if I could but I can't so I won't,

 

 

* that may be a little fib.

[oldcars]

Ones for when the other ones broken and it works both ways.

[Lukas]

I dont have to justify it. I do it because I want to. Thats all! 

[John F]

I tend to buy at the bottom of the desirability bell-curve, so the value of most of the vehicles in my fleet has increased substantially since I bought them.

[HMC]

I find life too short to have to justify doing things in your personal life. I have to justify enough things in work on a daily basis thank you very much.

 .

I don't need to justify it. I have a few cars because I like having a few cars.

Interesting thread, those sum my thoughts up better than I can myself.

[stripped fred]

Thanks for all the replies. I feel much better about my small fleet and armed with your suggestions and reasoning I think maybe I should increase it by one or two! You're right though, as long as the basics are covered it's your choice and life is too short not to spend some time and money on the things you enjoy. I particularly like John F's comment about buying at the right time. Also, I suppose we aren't hampered too much by depreciation or by monthly finance payments which means we can justify a few cars for the same cost of a nearly new one. They are also quite cheap at the moment which doesn't help!

[Lukas]

There is still a need to justify it in your last post. Do you really have bad conscience because of your cars?

[John F]

Thanks for all the replies. I feel much better about my small fleet and armed with your suggestions and reasoning I think maybe I should increase it by one or two! You're right though, as long as the basics are covered it's your choice and life is too short not to spend some time and money on the things you enjoy. I particularly like John F's comment about buying at the right time. Also, I suppose we aren't hampered too much by depreciation or by monthly finance payments which means we can justify a few cars for the same cost of a nearly new one. They are also quite cheap at the moment which doesn't help!

 

If it helps, I recommend you get a Ford Puma - the tidiest one you can afford in 1.7 flavour. They're a guaranteed future classic.

[djimbob]

I need a decent load carrier, and my transit is now being retired into campervan form - we don't really do normal holidays - so a Kia Sedona is great, and a Hyundai Atoz is brilliant for going into the city, or hospitals, and finding parking spaces, so at £100 purchase price is really convenient.

 

Our lass has a Kia Magentis for her fifteen mile commute (and fifteen back mix of motorway and city traffic), which leaves her unstressed and safe, loads of power to get out of danger/idiots' way.

 

Four seems about right, but tell that to the neighbours, some of whom are old cunts and can fuck right off