...I fancy treating myself to one as I've not had a car for 20 years as I live in London. Would love to hear of any fellow classic car enthusiasts and advice on what to buy . I would like a Jag but am wary of their unreliability especially as I'll probably only drive it every 2 weeks .
You might be better off at having a look at renting a classic car for a weekend every so often instead of owning one, that way you would have the experience without the running costs before you consider whether buying one is the way to go!
Is the classic car market as messed up as the mainstream car market right now? If so, this might not be the time to buy.
yeah I did look at that. Defo one of my options. Need to get rid of the 6 points on my licence first!
I did have an XJS for around 6 months. When everything was working an absolute joy to drive but unfortunately that wasn't often. Juicy as fook too.
Something that popped up on another site was a similar question about a 'classic' 'modern' motor as a 2nd car. The one that seemed to tick a lot of boxes (cost, reliability, practicality, 'coolness' etc.) was a Merc CLK convertible. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-se...e-from=500&year-to=2022&body-type=Convertible
They are nice cars, but tbh a lot of the niceness has already gone from a 2001 Merc, I had a 2001 E class 320 avantgard from when it was just three years old, very nice but after 11/12 years started costing me money, eventually in 2014 spent around £900 on a service/Mot and still had problems, bought myself a new Jag getting £1000 p/e within a month later, I might have been unlucky always had it serviced regularly had only done about 114k miles, which they say isn’t a lot for a Merc!
My first car was a classic mini Cooper all be it a 1994 Rover model. Would have one again in a heartbeat. If you can find one that's been throughly rust protected then, cheap to run and simple to maintain & repair. Absolute hoot to drive even at legal speeds. Other than that, mk1 or 2 Toyota MR2. Good ones are bomb proof. Pay the extra and get a sorted one from a specialist. Alternatively bang for buck the later MGFs are also a good cheap punt, again, go to a specialist. If I didn't love the meistermobile so much regardless off it's appetite for tyres and petrol, that's where I'd be looking. I reckon the affordable but luxury classic car market will bomb a bit in the next 12 months as the economic situation bites further. Nearly new and more practical reliable stuff is silly money and will be for some time because of the new car shortages.
Would love an XJS if only because I could never afford an E Type . Not sure how happy it would be parked up for long periods
You re right the MR2 is pretty tasty. I remember eyeing them up when they were new but didn’t have the funds to buy one
A friend has just picked up a Morgan. The trouble is he's about 7ft tall so his head is nearly above the windscreen. Looks like Noddy
My favourite scene from that film is when the 2 gangs meet in the alley and they have an equal and opposite in each gang
I can’t say I am into classic cars. I like a nice modern one with high levels of refinement, reliability, lots of torque, excellent air-con and Apple car play. In saying that, my appreciation of older cars has been a bit enhanced by my son. He and his mates are very into their cars, the older the better and often see the virtue in overlooked models like the Ka or Micra and in Fiestas of every vintage. Their cars are all lowered and modified. I can hear my son coming from a quarter mile away at least, the noisy yobbo. But they do get a lot out of them. Mechanical skills and the satisfaction of improving something. And there is a big social scene of car meets, cafes like Caffeine and Machine to visit and an Instagram page with thousands of followers for each old banger.
Things have moved on from my day when we cut holes in the parcel shelf of my mate's Fiat Uno with an onion knife, to install speakers so big and heavy that when we hit the first speedbump the shelf collapsed and dropped the expensive speakers onto the boot floor. I'm hoping the current meistermobile will become a future classic as there's not many of the particular spec about. I've refraind from any mods other than a foot rest and a small AMG badge inside. I may well get it chipped though as reports are 15-20% extra bhp is perfectly doable for little money and that should get the 0-60 close to 5 secs. Apart from a couple of curbed wheels it's pristine.
Yes, it was a surprise to me when I first found out that the difference between models with different power is often simply the software and not the actual engine architecture itself. Some bloke can visit you in his van and in an hour or so he’ll have pimped your ride another few horsepower.
Depending on where you are in London I suppose you'd be after a 40 year old car for the ULEZ and tax exemption?
