Shamelessly stolen:
If you truly love motor vehicles (no matter how many wheels), sooner or later you’re going to run into a car (truck, motorcycle, whatever) that absolutely gives you wood just thinking about it. It’s for sale, it looks good and you can afford it.
At which point you forget the naysayers, the cheap *******s that won’t own a car unless it’s a virtual pre-housing bubble Fortune 500 investment, those cringing folks that are worried about the cost of a rubber hose to the point that the buffalo screamed loudly the last time they had to take a nickle out to buy a replacement part. AKA, those people who claim to be motor vehicle lovers, but won’t back it up by being willing to take the risk once in a while to face a large repair bill in exchange for the glories of downshifting into a decreasing radius curve at 20mph above the posted speed limit (much less the recommended limit on that little yellow sign just before the curve).
So you take a chance, buy a magnificent car, and every once in a while it prangs you for four figures? So what? Weigh that against all those good days, the days when life is completely in the toilet and everything is going wrong – but you don’t notice, ten miles down the road in that ‘you should have known better’ expense.
I’ve done it. One of the great fascinations of my life was to own a Triumph T150V (for the uninitiated, the original 69-74 Triumph Trident). My best friend, who was the Triumph dealer in my home town when they were new warned me against it. Gave me a complete list of everything that’s going to go wrong if I was stupid enough to buy one.
I bought one, anyway. And a bitsa, to boot. And in seven years of ownership, every one of those predicted things went wrong. And I’m still overjoyed I owned that bike, if for no other reason than adding that third cylinder to your basic 500cc British vertical twin turns it into something completely different. And, as a British motorcycle lover, my life would have been a lot poorer if I hadn’t experienced it. Even having to go thru a $2400 complete engine rebuild halfway through its life (my fault, due to a bit of arcane knowledge that I didn’t discover until after I blew the mill – never use the reserve petcock as reserve) didn’t hurt the enjoyment of that bike one bit.
That’s not the only time. I’ve always felt that the Ducati Paso was one of the most gorgeous motorcycles ever made. And halfway thru my tenure as the parts manager at Ducati Richmond, I had a chance to get a 906, and a 1 of 100 blue and white one, no less. Yeah, those old Cagiva parts gave me fits until we (myself and the shop mechanics one winter) gave it a complete go-over and replaced a lot of the bike with later-built replacement parts. The end result? The only sport bike I’ve ever been completely comfortable in riding, one of the best rides of my life, and one of the most gorgeous motorcycles I will ever see. I cried the day I had to sell it (due to my wife’s health care costs, I’m caring for an invalid).
I’m on my third “you gotta be out of your mind” vehicle right now. A 1987 Porsche 924S with 126k on the clock. Was originally looking for a first generation Miata when I stumbled across it. Always loved the front engine Porsche’s way more than the rear engined cars (fifteen years earlier almost bought a 928, got the ‘spreadsheet the repair costs’ willies and didn’t – still regret that decision). And the way it handled cut the couple of Miata’s, I’d previously driven, dead. And when the seller suggest we go back out an re-run the route I’d just driven, but a good bit faster, I was sold.
I’m doing OK. Having no service records, I immediately budgeted for the $2k timing belt, water pump, etc., etc., etc. and had it done within a week of purchase. It annually pings me to the tune of about $500-700 for a repair. Fuel pump was the latest back in April. And since my wife is no longer capable of riding pillion with me on the bikes, I thank God that I spent the money. It still gives us a Saturday like we used to have, just with four wheels instead of two.
Live. Its only money, and as long as there’s a roof over your head, food on the table, and something put aside to insure those two will be covered in the future, then live to enjoy. If you’re going to get like those on this forum who have to spreadsheet every repair and agonize over resale value, then just buy a damned Corolla and shut the ‘ef up. You’re not a car enthusiast, you’re an accountant who can only afford reliable appliances.
And, I hope you never ‘get it out of your system’. Yeah, that M5 will someday lose it’s luster (maybe – it could turn out of be a lifelong keeper, no matter what the expense). At which point, follow another dream, and damned be the cost.
Myself? I’m 61, and someday, before I die, I’m going to own a Ferrari. Nothing valuable or collectable as I can’t afford the purchase price (fortunately I’ve always like the 400i), but I’m going to have a genuine, ruinously expensive to maintenance Ferrari. And life as I see it will be better for the experience. I’ve got no kids to leave my estate to. Better I whittle it down a bit at a time supporting some good Ferrari mechanic, and have the joy of listening to the V-12 bellow down the straights."
Sold it before it ran out of warrant and start costing me $ as well as time in the shop. Shocking Car.
