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Maybe the young chaps buying these, and other slightly unusual cars, are fed up to the back teeth (like me) with the cloned boring euroboxes of the last 10 years where unless you find a badge you can't tell one from the other, driven by the wrong wheels to boot, utterly boring.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying different things, it doesn't make these chaps strange, far from it, not everyone wants to go through their life being sensible or conforming, plenty of time to be predictable/boring later on.
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Problem is that while a capri has the mechanical complexity of a knife and fork, a ropey old beemer, regardless of how cheap, is still a very complex car!
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I've not been in my 20s for nearly three decades, but I do still sort of get it I think. There's not much wrong, in my view anyway, with knowing what you want, whatever your reasons for the wanting. I've already said above what I think is mostly going on, but I'm not especially critical of anyone's choices nonetheless.
It's a bit like marrying the pretty girl with a bubbly personality who can't cook, because you just want to, rather than the plainer, duller, more practical one because she'd might be be more reliable. You only get one kick of the ball in this life and while there are options that are safer, more sensible and cheaper in most decisions, well, you just have to decide which road you actually want to to take in the end.
No right answer to cover all really.
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Those old beemers were v nice motors in their day, especially the petrol ones, so I can see the attraction. However, these typically young men most probably haven't been financially burnt by some unsolvable or terminal fault, in other words lacking in the wisdom us gnarly types have probably gained through experience! They can also be very cheap to buy- for a reason!
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So me being in my mid-fifties and never one for spending lavishly on cars previously (all my early cars were serious bangers and I've never brought one that I couldn't afford to buy outright), am I certifiable for seriously considering buying a new electric Jag I-Pace?
I have more disposable income than I have ever had (despite still having children at University), but when an acquaintance the same age as me dropped-dead with a heart attack last week, I suddenly thought why the hell not?
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So me being in my mid-fifties and never one for spending lavishly on cars previously (all my early cars were serious bangers and I've never brought one that I couldn't afford to buy outright), am I certifiable for seriously considering buying a new electric Jag I-Pace?
I have more disposable income than I have ever had (despite still having children at University), but when an acquaintance the same age as me dropped-dead with a heart attack last week, I suddenly thought why the hell not?
I’m sure you’ll get good performance and no engine noise. But when I looked into electric cars, I figured out that petrol ones are cheaper if you take into account the purchase price, and longevity of the battery. And that’s without considering range anxiety. As regards kids, and inheritance, they’ll probably not even visit when you are in the care home.
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So me being in my mid-fifties and never one for spending lavishly on cars previously (all my early cars were serious bangers and I've never brought one that I couldn't afford to buy outright), am I certifiable for seriously considering buying a new electric Jag I-Pace?
I have more disposable income than I have ever had (despite still having children at University), but when an acquaintance the same age as me dropped-dead with a heart attack last week, I suddenly thought why the hell not?
I think you're looking for the motorbike section. A much cheaper and quicker way to kill yourself in a blaze of testosterone-filled glory.
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I have had them since I was 13 Andy and still have a couple of 1990's single seat 750's. I stopped riding on the road in 2007 (I think I covered less than 100 miles in a 12 month period).
I limit my outings to an occasional track day at Oulton Park (a wonderful circuit).
I don't fancy the Jag because of it's performance, I fancy it because I like how it looks and it perfectly suits the driving pattern that both my wife and I have, (I have a van to take the bikes to the track).
Edited by nick62 on 15/04/2018 at 16:57
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I have had them since I was 13 Andy and still have a couple of 1990's single seat 750's. I stopped riding on the road in 2007 (I think I covered less than 100 miles in a 12 month period).
I limit my outings to an occasional track day at Oulton Park (a wonderful circuit).
I don't fancy the Jag because of it's performance, I fancy it because I like how it looks and it perfectly suits the driving pattern that both my wife and I have, (I have a van to take the bikes to the track).
Sounds a bit like a former boss of mine. He nearly lost his life, and his wife (apparently threatening divorce) over his 'enthusiastic' on-road riding habits on his motorbikes (totalled two, including a brand new one). he too only rides his latest on track days. He gets his 4-wheeled kicks out of faster and faster cars (now a Nissan Skyline).
Does your next car need to have a decent towing facility for the bikes?
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'if you want to be happy for the rest ofyour life, never make a pretty woman your wife' amusing song fron the Carribean.
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Yes, I remember that Caribbean calypso. Fortunately I ignored that advice: still no regrets nearly 44 years on!
As Alby implied above, this is all about human nature, particularly British male human nature. It may be Arthur Punter, bored with his Vauxhall and his job, or Arthur Punter junior wanting to impress his friends: somehow they see a BMW, however old, on the driveway as being some sort of mark of distinction, money-pit or not.
We have regular threads started by potential BMW martyrs - there's one going at the moment - and I strongly suspect that most of the OPs concerned, even after all the common sense they get in reply, still go out and buy a BMW.....and learn the hard way.
OK - so who am I to talk? I didn't even ask: I just told you guys when I'd bought one. My plea in mitigation is that (a) my 2010 125i is a 'fun car' - I wouldn't have bought one as a daily driver; (b) its 3.0 non-turbo engine has the SLO seal of approval as least unreliable; and (c) I wanted a convertible, ideally with six cylinders, not necessarily a BMW.
Ultimately, of course, it's each individual's own life, and good luck to them. Praise be that we live in a 'free country' where we can make those decisions.
Edit- just been reading another current thread: a similar kind of machismo is leading the younger type of Arthur Punter towards old Land / Range Rovers, with a similar assault on their wallet as inflicted by an old BMW. Added to that, the complication that LRs and RRs aren't even reliable when they're new.
Edited by Avant on 16/04/2018 at 01:38
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BMW=Bavarian Money Waster but when they were simple they did not cost more to fix.
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also i think it may have something to do with the fact that if you look at a ten year old BMW it doesnt look much different from the newer models.so having the effect of impressing people into thinking you bourght a newer car than you have..
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If you're interested in the psychology of it all, Google "Conspicuous Comsumption" and or "Affluenza"
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A neighbour of mine has or is about to dispose of his 325 Compact as he just can't afford to pay the huge £££ to keep it MOTed and in working order. Lovely sounding car though.
One of the problems I see with the UK motor industry, compared to those in other countries, especially the US, Canada and Down Under, is the lack of upper-middle cars, performance-wise (150 - 200hp), unless you go for a diesel and/or VAG, BMW or Mercedes.
Many makes offering cars in this range of performance only market them in the aforementioned countries, even though they are actually still ok on mpg and emissions. Examples being: the 2.5 N/A petrol Mazdas (185hp) and the 1.6T petrol Hyundais (saw a very nice proper i30 coupe [not the fastback] on YT tested in Canada) and the greater prevelance of the higher-powered turbo engines in Hondas outside of the UK.
We seem to get (especially for the Oriental makes) just the 'ok' performers (2.0 in the Mazdas and 1.5 N/A petrols in the Hondas without rubber band tyres) or the screamers (Type R/i30N sort of engines). The i30 1.4T is nice, but just nice. Even Volvo (as has been said many times on the forum) dealers practically refuse point blank to sell willing customers brand new cars with the T3 and T4 petrol engines, just the lower powered T2s, Ds and the top spec T5/D5s etc.
Is this because they are told that selling such cars will breach their EU corporate CO2 levels and attract fines, which (depending on sales at a particular dealersip) will be passed on down the chain? I see so many people here want a car with a bit more oomph as well as dependability, but not all the complexity and huge cost of ownership of buying German or saddling the car with a potentially (expensive) unreliable DSG auto box.
Yes, I do think image plays a part in people wanting Beemers etc, but I also think that car availability, as described above, does too.
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"Is this because they are told that selling such cars will breach their EU corporate CO2 levels and attract fines, which (depending on sales at a particular dealersip) will be passed on down the chain? I see so many people here want a car with a bit more oomph as well as dependability, but not all the complexity and huge cost of ownership of buying German or saddling the car with a potentially (expensive) unreliable DSG auto box."
It;s because we're a small market for them. eg. There's two Honda dealierships in Los Angeles and San Diego which combined sell more Hondas than the whole of the UK per annum. The same sort of stats apply for Toyota.
We get the 'safe bets' - broad appeal cars with a limited range of engines predicted most likely to sell. Cool stuff, like the Honda Element for instance, just doesnt come over. The brutal irony is we complain about the conservative nature of Far East cars yet they dont trust us to buy the more interesting cars they make for other, bigger, markets. Although that's a moot point now really, as most Far East cars on sale here are no less interesting than their European counterparts. And for my money, the 2005-2012 Honda Civic is a design classic (not the bottom-feeding follow-up, or the latest Transformers style one)
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