Talk some sense into me, or maybe agree with me

Have you ever had a car that you just wanted to keep? Despite it not being practical. I live in an apartment, no garage, not really setup to have two cars (though I have the parking space). It's my previous DD, the crown victoria. I got a turbo Fiat 500 which is way better for my current car needs. However, I don't really want to sell the Crown Vic. I like it too much, even though I'll never drive it. I sort of want to hang into it until about 2-3 years when I have my own garage and can put it in there and make it my v8 sedan sweetheart. It's clean as hell and has great maintenance history, I know if I save it then do some mods it's going to be cool as hell in a few years. But I also don't want this thing to rot outside for 2 years, although I got a nice car cover.. ughghg

Yes, I have been in that exact situation. I simply remind myself that I love cars, and that car specifically, so I would hold on to it for a while longer. There have been plenty of times I thought of selling, gifting or looking for storage but the impulse does pass and I stick to my long term plan.

Living situations that work for life overall do not always work well for all chosen lifestyles; I just roll with the punches and try to make the best of it. I really only regret letting go of one car so far, but that regret hurts worse than the inconvenience of keeping an unnecessary vehicle around until I can enjoy it more.

Do you have a friend or relatives house nearby where you could stash the vehicle?

92dxman wrote: Do you have a friend or relatives house nearby where you could stash the vehicle?

I don't :(

I have a price in my head I'd like for the car. If I can get around that, I'll sell it. Maybe it will be better / cheaper to get one 2 years later, if I still want one, with the modifications i'd like to do already done.

I'm going to be the counterpoint here, sorry. But this is a line of thinking I'm coming around to myself, so hear me out.

Some wise financial advice I was once given: "If you had the extra pocket cash right now, would you go out and buy it? If not, you should probably sell it."

I've given up a lot of cars I really liked, but at the end of the day they are just another material thing that can be found again if need be. Letting it sit for 2-3 years certainly isn't going to help that great maintenance history. Don't be one of those owners that would sooner keep a car and let it rot to pieces in a parking lot until it's too far gone to save because of far-off delusions of grandeur. Far too many great cars are ruined that way.

Plus, even if you sell it for less than you want, you could take that money and toss it in something like a Vanguard fund, and have a fair bit more than you'd need to buy one that's as nice or better in that three years when you're ACTUALLY ready for such a project. You have the opportunity to turn an unused depreciating asset into cash, or better, an appreciating one. I'd jump at that chance if I were you.

SlickDizzy wrote: I'm going to be the counterpoint here, sorry. But this is a line of thinking I'm coming around to myself, so hear me out. Some wise financial advice I was once given: "If you had the extra pocket cash right now, would you go out and buy it? If not, you should probably sell it." I've given up a lot of cars I really liked, but at the end of the day they are just another material thing that can be found again if need be. Letting it sit for 2-3 years certainly isn't going to help that great maintenance history. Don't be one of those owners that would sooner keep a car and let it rot to pieces in a parking lot until it's too far gone to save because of far-off delusions of grandeur. Far too many great cars are ruined that way. Plus, even if you sell it for less than you want, you could take that money and toss it in something like a Vanguard fund, and have a fair bit more than you'd need to buy one that's as nice or better in that three years when you're ACTUALLY ready for such a project. You have the opportunity to turn an unused depreciating asset into cash, or better, an appreciating one. I'd jump at that chance if I were you.

Yea, this is the most logical thinking. If I was set up to keep it, I should keep it. But I'm just not right now.

SlickDizzy wrote: Some wise financial advice I was once given: "If you had the extra pocket cash right now, would you go out and buy it? If not, you should probably sell it."

That just punched me in the head.

Ouch.

BRB selling my entire fleet save for the two Miatas.

Hah! As I always say; the heart wants what the heart wants.

I've decided to still sell it. I'll revisit the idea of having a modified Crown Vic in 2 years from now when I have a garage. Not like they are going to skyrocket in value.

Make fun all you want, but it struck me as really sound advice. It's one thing if you're well-to-do with nearly unlimited shop space and a mid six-figure income. But the truth is that most of those people figured out early on how to make their money work for them instead of sticking it all in depreciating assets and going silly trying to figure out what to do with them all.

As I said, this is a line of thinking that I was very recently turned onto myself. At first it seemed very dissonant, but now I feel like I've seen the light. It's why I'm selling most of my crap, including the BMW, and jumping into an econobox while I sock as much as possible into investments. The hope is that in 10 years or so the short-term sacrifices will pay off, rewarding me with a comfortable lifestyle AND the ability to play with the big boy toys I've dreamed of my entire life.

AFAIK, YMMV, etc, whatever. Do what you will, but it makes a hell of a lot of sense to me.

Yup. I was down the same path. Got rid of my projects/tools and bought a 2013 Tubo Fiat. It's the newest car I've owned, it's cheap enough to where I paid cash for it. And it's sort of fast and looks nice.

This is most of the reason I own ~20 cars. So yes, I have felt this nonsensical urge before, on occasion.

In reply to SlickDizzy:

Sound advice. And as I contemplate the 6 cars I own in various states of need, I should probably take it. I won't... but I should...

SlickDizzy wrote: Some wise financial advice I was once given: "If you had the extra pocket cash right now, would you go out and buy it? If not, you should probably sell it."

That hits home with my MGB GT. Sitting in the garage unused and burning $800/year to insure. I would not ever buy another MGB.

Yes I KNOW I could get classic car insurance for less, but then I would not be allowed to drive it anywhere I damn well pleased, so I don't.

Hate to sell cause had for 37years and I would not get what it is worth. But it is costing me that $800/year and a spot in the garage. So looking at it logically, I could scrap it and be money ahead.

Ain't the car hobby great?

I've been in the same situation. After 7 years and 300 miles worth of driving....I've decided that it's time to sell. I've owned the car for 12 years and it was my first ride. I'll report back my feelings after she drives off for the first time.

<--- has been driven 1-2 weekends a month in the summer for the last 5 years. And I am not going to sell it even though I have had some very good offers. I thought about accepting one of the offers but the wife said "No".

It took me 5 years to get it built to the way I wanted it and it isn't costing me very much to keep it. It took me 2 months to find a place to keep it when I replaced it as my DD.

The only reason i wouldn't rebuy most of the stuff i own right now is because i already own it.

Honestly though, if i thought some of these cars would live on with any other owner (as opposed to being given up on and junked at the first sign of hardship) i would probably let go of some of them. But as i always say, i'm the last stop on the way to the crusher and some of these cars, once i give up on them, are basically doomed. It would be kind of like calling the pound on a stray dog. Which im sure some of you do, but anyway, not something i would feel good about.

SlickDizzy wrote: Some wise financial advice I was once given: "If you had the extra pocket cash right now, would you go out and buy it? If not, you should probably sell it."

OTOH, you generally can't go out and buy a car that you personally know everything that was done to it for the last 5+ years. Sell a car and then try to buy a similar car back and you've traded the set of problems you knew and understood for the set of problems that the PO knew about but didn't tell you.

Then there's transaction costs -- here in CA they charge you sales tax on used car purchases, so if you sell a $10K car, buy a replacement, and then go buy that $10K car back in a year, you've spent $2K on sales tax that you wouldn't have if you'd just kept it.

In reply to codrus:

I get what you're saying but you're also slightly missing the point; the idea is that a) if you wouldn't buy it now if you had the money, you don't really need it in the first place and must not want it that bad, and b) that money will work a lot harder for you in even conservative investments than it will in a depreciating asset like an unused, relatively common vehicle, typically negating any potential losses that you mention.

The main point I'm making is not to let the boat anchor of past automotive financial commitments drag behind you into the future with the guise of "getting your money's worth," because a stack of cash is inherently more useful than a vehicle serving literally no purpose other than eating up a parking spot, which is the situation OP is in.

It is clear that this philosophy is not well-liked by many members of this board, and that's fine. Hobbies are an emotional investment for many, finances be damned, and that's a call everyone has to make for themselves. But for me? I just recently woke up to the realization that if I hadn't dicked around with all these silly projects that rarely went very far over the past eight years, instead choosing to invest that money, I could probably have paid off all of my student loans, bought a 996, be shopping for my first home right now, and STILL had cash in the bank.

Instead, I'm chipping away at my loans on the 10-year plan, on money vacuum project car number forty-something, and hoping I can look at getting my first home in the next few years when I have my E36 M3 more together. Hindsight's a BITCH but it's never too late to get on the right track; I realize my mistakes and am trying to go the other direction while I still can. Some people take the blue pill, some people take the red one...

Coldsnap wrote: Have you ever had a car that you just wanted to keep? Despite it not being practical. I live in an apartment, no garage, not really setup to have two cars (though I have the parking space). It's my previous DD, the crown victoria. I got a turbo Fiat 500 which is way better for my current car needs. However, I don't really want to sell the Crown Vic. I like it too much, even though I'll never drive it. I sort of want to hang into it until about 2-3 years when I have my own garage and can put it in there and make it my v8 sedan sweetheart. It's clean as hell and has great maintenance history, I know if I save it then do some mods it's going to be cool as hell in a few years. But I also don't want this thing to rot outside for 2 years, although I got a nice car cover.. ughghg

They didn't make too many Crown Vics, would be hard to find another one. Better keep it!

SlickDizzy wrote: In reply to codrus: Instead, I'm chipping away at my loans on the 10-year plan, on money vacuum project car number forty-something, and hoping I can look at getting my first ...

Sell your project car and get a boring DD, then you would save a few more bucks.

You do have a great point about selling the car you don't like enough to re-purchase and then investing. I would guess that plenty of other guys on here invest enough, so they don't like your idea.