Hi, I'm DD and I'm a Caraholic.

[Saabnut]

I am not a carholic. Oh no. How many cars do I have? I genuinely do not know. Between 40 and 50 I would think, could be more. One day soon I will count them again. Trouble is I buy cars I like. Once finished, I say I will sell them, but I like them so they stay. I need more space now, so maybe some can go soon.

OK. I am a carholic!  

[wesacosa]

I had 7 until recently. I have never had anything like that before but the discovery of mirrored NCB opened up a murky avenue, and post COVID a lot of my social life and hobbies fell by the way side and I have been over compensating with the cars.  I know I haven't time to keep them all in tip top shape and now with ULEZ I don't drive most of them. I finally managed to shift one a few weeks ago and it felt great, but two weeks later I was looking again at something to fill the parking space 

 

[chaseracer]

I am emotionally attached to two ageing French vehicles, which has led/is leading/will lead to certain financial decisions which some might see as unwise.  I don't care.

My 'modern' is a 20yo Mercedes from the 'accountant domination' era of the company.

My name is Chaseracer and I am a caraholic.

[Agila]

1 hour ago, jon.k said:

I've broken my addiction but I spend a lot of Autoshite reading about you lot!

Show off, thanks a lot😂 

You could come back in you know, the chod water is lovely and warm. Come on, you know you want to.

[High Jetter]

12 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Like a smoker mainlining Extra Strong Mints, 

I hear you, that's me. Only 4 in my fleet, but I want more...

[DirtyDaily]

I think we need badges like AA does. Instead of how long since your last drink, it is how long since you bought your last shit box.

[High Jetter]

1 minute ago, DirtyDaily said:

I think we need badges like AA does. Instead of how long since your last drink, it is how long since you bought your last shit box.

I still have a key to their boxes...

Oh hang on... For many it's going to be minutes...

[Wibble]

I misread the title as “Catholic”, sorry, God bless you all anyway 🙂

[Agila]

53 minutes ago, DirtyDaily said:

I think we need badges like AA does. Instead of how long since your last drink, it is how long since you bought your last shit box.

Oh in that case, 6 hours ago. I'm getting the urge and rattling and clucking again, browsing the classifieds like a junkie.

Forts and prayers for me, trying to stay off eBay.😂

[Rust Collector]

I gave up car hoarding a few years ago when I had about 18 cars sat in a mate's yard decaying, I think I wrote about it elsewhere on here. The reasons I gave up for were mostly to save time and money and hassle.

I was soon bored and miserable without project cars to tinker with and quickly filled the void with alcohol and fast food (I'm a bastard of a comfort eater). Needless to say I had a shitty time of it, and no money was saved as I just pissed it up the wall on beer and takeaways. I used to come home from work, go straight to my favourite pub, get five pints in and a dinner, then go home, pick up cans on the way and then sit down for whatever dinner my mrs had made. Because I was drunk in most of my free time, and my mrs likes a drink too, our relationship became pretty shit as drunk people don't make good decisions. You could argue that I could've made better life choices, but I didn't, and to be honest when you're feeling miserable it's bloody hard not to lean on something.

I'm struggling to remember what the turning point was, I'd love to say it was buying more cars but it probably wasn't I suspect it was moving back in with my parents for just under a year, where drunken arguing every night wouldn't have been welcome.

However, I did start buying shitey project cars again and it did fill a gap for me. It obviously presents its own problems, but I am lucky in that I currently have free of cost (bar the hours I put in as free labour in exchange) storage, and I can put the projects down whenever I like and get on with the rest of my life. When I want to play, they're still there. It used to stress me out that they weren't getting done, but I've put that to bed and as my thread title states, 'I'll get round to it at some point'. I may even not get round to it, but in the end what does it matter. I'm enjoying myself in the moments I spend playing at my hobby. And as @Shite Ron mentioned, I don't even care that half of them aren't useable - I just like seeing them, sitting in them, occasionally having to drag them round with the tractor and hope they don't snap in half... it's all just playing at the end of the day. If the shit hit the fan and I couldn't keep the cars anymore? They'd be offered on here for scrap, and if not sold then probably fragged. I'd be sad, but they're just things at the end of the day. They're not my kids, mrs or pets. And I can always buy more later.

The only thing I find really stressful these days is looking after the daily drivers! Finding time for servicing them, fixing faults and getting them ready for a ticket is a right mission sometimes. I occasionally consider a modern, but I can't help thinking I'd be doubly fucked if that went wrong as I wouldn't be skilled enough to fix it or have enough spare cash to get it repaired at a garage.

[grogee]

What a cathartic thread. Thanks @DirtyDaily.

Despite the grazed knuckles and marital earache, there is something to be said for 'low impact tinkering'. Making something better or just some preventative maintenance. It's a form of therapy for me. 

Then again the consumer zeitgeist has sunk its teeth in and tells me I need Product X to make this job easier/better/quicker. There goes money that would have been more profitably invested in bricks and mortar. 

Things are different if it's a Sunday evening in November and you're relying on your only working car to get you to work, then it shits itself. That is no fun. 

[SRi05]

I've broken my addiction, I have 2 cars now and have owned both for just shy of three years.

There was a golden time pre Covid were you could buy a properly nice old motor for under a grand. I was changing cars every month at one point. Numerous Saabs, Mercs, BMW's, Audis etc. They appeared on here almost constantly, it was brilliant.

I really wish I'd kept some of them now 😂

I still get tempted from time to time but 2 really is the maximum I'm comfortable with owning at once. Untill something catastrophically $$$  kills either of them off I'll keep them going.

 

 

[catsinthewelder]

I definitely have a car hoarding problem, there are 8 vehicles here, 6 without MOT and 3 of them are unlikely to pass another.  This is at a house without a drive or a garage.

I've learnt to stay away from roffles and haven't bought a car for years, unfortunately I did get round this obstacle by buying a campervan and a motorbike (both very cheaply).  At least the motorbike fits through the garden gate.

[DirtyDaily]

I'm being tested...
I've been on eBay and Facebook marketplace and predictably I've come across a "once in a lifetime bargain". I can't turn it down but I can't miss out on this opportunity. We need CA buddies in case we relapse.

Car in question:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235539949485?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=blmHZFiyQzq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=tNh2MUatQgO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[eddyramrod]

You don't need it.

 

 

 

I do.

[SiC]

Like many on here, it's a big personal problem 

I justify it on that I don't loose much on cars when I sell them on. Kinda kidding myself on that. 

Currently at seven cars. 3 moderns (that all work) and 4 classics (2 are big restoration projects). One is Mrs SiC and not to be sold (plus it's a Honda and so most reliable).

Excluding any other expenditures, each month I'm spending £144 for two bays of storage and £65ish in road tax for two moderns (Mrs SiC pays her own road tax). I pay insurance yearly but that likely works out at another £100pcm. So basically £300 odd set fire to. 

Then just on maintenance expenditures, every month for the last few years I've had four figure credit card bills. Majority of which is usually car related. Last year I spent five figures on cars in total - mostly parts/tax/insurance/storage. That's quite frankly ridiculous.

All for what? A mix of broken shaggy cars. Yeah it's good fun but for what I'm spending I could truly get something nice. Whether something modern exotic like an Audi R8 or something classic mildly exotic like a 60s Alfa.

 

The expenditure just has to stop. It's plain ridiculous.

 

My current plan is to sell the BGT, GTI and possibly the Z4. Then buy one sensible singular modern (Z4 coupé or maybe a powerful auto hatch/saloon). That brings me back to 5 cars. Those two projects I need to crack on and get done. Ideally sell one to get back to 2 classics and 4 cars total.

Great plan... Except the BGT isn't selling. Also I struggle with spare time even more in the evenings now as I'm really enjoying going to the gym and even paying for a PT to help push to increase my gains. Basically Gym is becoming my new addiction path.

 

My car buying gets uncontrollable when I get into my head I have to have something. Even worse when depression kicks in and buying a car hits the dopamine receptors. Right now I'm looking at Austin 7's to maybe replace the BGT. Not that I need one nor probably even like driving one. But my head has convinced myself I need one. 

 

Gah.

 

[sutty2006]

Hello all. Thanks for having me along. 
 

I once had 11 cars on my driveway (two on the patio round the back). It got to a point where I was having to park one of the daily’s on the road and walking a long way up my driveway to get home. I was able to overcome this by selling 4 cars off in one week, like you, at huge loss. Some went on here, others went on eBay. I regret selling them all, but I don’t regret the decision I made. 
 

am I a reformed C.A? Probably not, but luckily I don’t have spare cash at the moment to continue the addiction 

[EyesWeldedShut]

My CA is the Tendency to Tinker variety.
I like to fiddle and fix things then move onto to the next one. This confuses my wife who cannot see the point in mending something then buying another broken one. (Typing that out does make me realise that this is, maybe, a strange thing to do).

As to the expenditure? Yes, I will buy tools that I'll use just once. I'll put decent tyres on a car I am not going to keep. I'll overhaul things that maybe don't really need an overhaul - sometimes just to see if I can or to know what/how something works.
It's a hobby/past time not an income stream. 
There's also a weird therapy aspect - pissed off and stressed? Pull off a brake caliper. Bad day at work? Fix a borked reversing light. Kind of a mechanical potting shed to sit in.

So, I'm a CA. Today I may repair an undertray or I may chase down an oil leak on the Bini. Or I do something totally different instead.......

 

[skoda_fan]

9 hours ago, SiC said:

My car buying gets uncontrollable when I get into my head I have to have something. Even worse when depression kicks in and buying a car hits the dopamine receptors. Right now I'm looking at Austin 7's to maybe replace the BGT. Not that I need one nor probably even like driving one. But my head has convinced myself I need one. 

Exactly. I got it into my head that I wanted an  Audi TT (without selling anything else to make way for it, obs). Falling in love with it and driving it about didn't disappoint, but I (consciously) let myself be conned by a dodgy dealer into buying the worst example, telling myself it would be fine. That would've been ok if I didn't have six other cars to worry about, so reality soon kicked in when it started playing up so I sold it at a loss.  That said, the very fact of buying it really cheered me up and I'm glad I experienced it, telling myself I'll have another "one day" (which means I'm bound to repeat the whole wallet-draining experience sooner or later).

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Really interesting thread this.  I try to buy cars (or identify them for others, namely a v wealthy friend of mine) at a discount to the open mkt value so i can justify my desire with the knowledge I'm buying well!  It's an addiction in itself.  I made a huge mistake at xmas though, not buying a bonafide Caterham vx for £6k (seller's circumstances meant reduction in price - i can explain in more detail if anyone's interested).  There was a massive turn in that eventually (plan was to keep it for the summer then sell in the spring of 2025) but I got cold feet (I should have just sucked it up and bought it).  I can talk myself out of a deal as quickly as talking myself into it - that's why I need a sidekick (to share the costs perhaps.......and any 'profit', not counting the hours you put into something of course!).

The hunt is almost more thrilling than the purchase ironically...........reading on here about people with 12 cars or 40  - can't get my head around that - bearing in mind the amount of money I'm looking at just to restore 1. 

In terms of the addiction - i think there's alot worse you could be doing everyone.  In and of itself it's not harming anyone, it's not detrimental (apart from to people's mental health in a funny way, at times) and it comes back to this thought for me 'you're only here once, this is it'.  

Love all the thoughts and confessions on here - what a brilliant community this is.

[cort16]

Years ago I just went from old shed to shed as one wore out or broke and I didn't have money or ability to fix it I went onto the next one and the next. Occasionally I would try to get something half decent by which  I mean something costing £1000.  I'd then either get bored and sell it to buy some other heap or it'd just got through the same cycle of breaking, selling and buying again until I had a car so worthless the £1000 was effectively gone.

I recon i must have went through at least 60 or so cars in a 4 year period.  I was definitely over 100 by the time I was in my mid 30's. I loved my first car (Cortina) and had that for 3 years then once it was past repairing it was like splitting up with a long term girlfriend I just wanted to try everything

I can't tell you how much money this wasted. It wasn't until I got a job in Glasgow that required a commute, which quickly identified my e21 323i with knackered valve stem oil seals wasn't up for that job that I bought something modern with a monthly payment. All of a sudden I could drive places without fear of breakdown, I paid the monthly payment each month and no other random repair bills appeared so I could budget for the month.

I went single car for 2-3 years then as I had a little spare money I thought wouldn't it be nice to have a 2nd car then it started all over again but to a lesser extent.  I've slowed down again now though as it's expensive and I hate selling them and dealing with fuckwits. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

When it comes to money, and seeing several here saying that they have wasted money on cars.

My thinking about that is that you should calculate how much new cars cost in depreciation etc and you will se that they are not cheap, and leasing is normally not cheap either. And spending money on old cars is also a hobby and something that brings joy, so I don't see the problem with spending a lot of money on cars if you can afford it.

I have spent an insane amount of money on my old Mercedes and now I could have bought a new car with all the money I have in it but a new car is boring and gives me no joy in life like my old Mercedes does so I think it's worth it. 

[cort16]

26 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

When it comes to money, and seeing several here saying that they have wasted money on cars.

My thinking about that is that you should calculate how much new cars cost in depreciation etc and you will se that they are not cheap, and leasing is normally not cheap either. And spending money on old cars is also a hobby and something that brings joy, so I don't see the problem with spending a lot of money on cars if you can afford it.

I have spent an insane amount of money on my old Mercedes and now I could have bought a new car with all the money I have in it but a new car is boring and gives me no joy in life like my old Mercedes does so I think it's worth it. 

I agree if a car is worthwhile it's not a waste of money. I've put load of money into cars that aren't worth much but there's a sense of satisfaction from making them better.

However if you're just going from one shed to the next you burn cash and still don't have a reliable daily mode of transport. That was certainly my experience anyway.

[SiC]

1 hour ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

My thinking about that is that you should calculate how much new cars cost in depreciation etc and you will se that they are not cheap, and leasing is normally not cheap either. And spending money on old cars is also a hobby and something that brings joy, so I don't see the problem with spending a lot of money on cars if you can afford it.

Man maths. 

We all do it.

😂

[Dyslexic Viking]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

Man maths. 

We all do it.

😂

Well it is true, in a normal year I spend less money on cars than someone who leases a Tesla or simlar. But this is based on Norway.

[NorthernMonkey]

I’m only on 28 at last count.

It’s not really an issue until you hit 30, is it??

 

 

<backs slowly out of the discussion, exiting stage left, glancing around nervously>

[grogee]

On 03/05/2024 at 19:24, wesacosa said:

mirrored NCB

I really shouldn't ask but what is mirrored NCB? 

[wesacosa]

16 minutes ago, grogee said:

I really shouldn't ask but what is mirrored NCB? 

if you have a full NCB on one car a lot of companies will mirror it to a second car meaning insuring a second car thats not on a classic policy becomes more feasible 

[NorthernMonkey]

Joking apart, it’s all to easy for them to become a massive burden financially, emotionally and physically.

The only reason I’ve allowed myself to get to this position is that I’m lucky enough to have storage as well as insurance that allows both the other half and myself to drive any vehicle fully comp for business and sdp.

The main thing though is having a fully equipped workshop and therefore the ability to rescue things cheaply that would otherwise end up being scrapped. If I had to pay someone to fix stuff, I’d have one newish daily and probably an MX5 for fun.

[NorthernMonkey]

It is difficult to keep track of stuff though…we were sat on the patio this morning with a coffee and I was bemoaning the fact the sun is out and we haven’t got a convertible outside.

Claire then asked what state the E46 330 is in and I realised it was MOTd but sorn and tucked away at the back of the workshop.

A hour of shuffling later and it’s now taxed and sat on the driveway, its place in the unit taken by the X350 that I’m fed up of cleaning bird muck off and really needs a few minor jobs finishing off before being advertised 😂