Tuesday 11 November 2014

My sports car dilemma....

I have been talking about buying a sports car for years.  I have mentioned to everybody...my friends my family and I have talked about it on this blog more times than I can imagine.

I have the cash to spend on my sports car...


At the start of this year I committed to buying it as part of my financial plan and budget.  There were some hiccups along the way...the fact that I was running over budget on a lot of my other planned expenditures made me realise that I would have to compromise on the amount I had to spend.  However recently there was some good news on that front:

The excess cash from these two factors should cover the 'over-spend' on other items throughout the year which leaves me free to spend my original budget on my sports car.

...but here's the hitch...

I can't work out what
car to buy...and it's driving me crazy.  I have spent days now looking at all different types of cars.  I thought searching for a house was bad!  The problem that I have is the same one that many people have when house hunting...I just don't know what I want.

I had originally planned on buying a two door sports car but...
  1. Most of these cars (especially the ones available second hand) have a manual transmission  
    • I never learned how to drive manual as my parents both drove automatic.  I have hired manual cars to teach myself...but I'm certainly not a competent driver of these cars yet
  2. They are incredibly impractical
    • Honestly this is half the point of buying this type of car now.  You really can't have it when you have a family
    • However even at this stage of life they offer significant limitations.  The lack of back seats and adequate boot space are having me think again
    • I don't really want to own two cars but it really does seem like I would need to also purchase a 'run around' car if I wanted a sports car
So I ended up looking at lower end 'prestige cars' instead.  The second hand Lexus and BMWs started to enter my search terms.  But that wasn't really the point of this exercise.  I can have these cars when I have settled down and have a family.  I don't know that I will ever be able to justify one at this point but they are not the 'last vintages of youth' type of purchase that I was originally craving.

I have been tossing up this particular dilemma for a while now and now that I have actually come to the point of looking for a car the fact that I haven't settled on what I want makes it an incredibly hard and fruitless search.

Am I being too sensible...or am I just growing up?

This is the real question that I have been dealing with when trying to work out what car to buy.  I have always been a 'sensible' type of person.  I've never bought anything particularly exotic or flashy (other than my tailored suits...).  I have also always loved cars but have never been able to afford one of the nicer / sportier ones.

I don't know whether my reluctance to buy an impractical sports car now (when it's come down to the decision point) is my sensible side reeling me back in (in which case I should probably just ignore it and buy the car and enjoy it for a few years) or whether I am just growing up. 

I grew up in a lower middle class home and while we didn't really struggle, money certainly wasn't freely available.  There were a lot of things I craved and I swore that once I 'made it' I would buy myself all those knick knacks I couldn't afford when I was younger.  When I started to do reasonably well for myself though I found most of those things were things I neither needed nor wanted.  I wanted them because I couldn't have them.  I wonder whether my sports car was one of those items.

I haven't yet decided whether I will buy the sports car or not.  Maybe I need to get it out of my system...or maybe I've just worked out that actually...this isn't something I particularly want or need.  I still love driving and I still want to buy a diver's car but perhaps what I wanted when I was 16 isn't what I should be buying now.

What do you think?  Have you ever experienced anything similar?  I would love to hear your views!

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2 comments:

  1. I'm guessing you're buying a sports car for the 'fun' factor. I can't imagine you'll be having as much fun in a automatic sports car compared to a manual one. The mx-5 is always a good choice. I drive one and it always puts a smile on my face.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Calvin - your comment (along with my indecision about which car to get) made me really think about why I wanted a sports car. I think it came down to two main reasons:

      1. I like the way they look
      2. I like the power that they have (relative to normal cars)

      I agree that a manual car would be more fun but attempts to learn so far have been a disaster. I can still have fun in a sports auto (which is what I have at the moment) so I've decided to go with that.

      Question on your mx-5...how did you get over the perception that it was a 'girly' car? Or did you just not car? I did think about the mx-5 a fair bit.

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