Anyone that has watched Top Gear has probably heard the term "don't drive your heros" before. It refers to idolising a car in your childhood and then either driving it or going as far as buying it in adulthood. The reason they warn against it? You're going to be disappointed.
And guess what I did?
In the past I have bought my cars based on people recommending them and it worked out pretty well. I had many years of fun with a Mazda MX5 (miata for any Americans) and several more pretending to be rich with a Honda S2000. Turns out if you take the badge off the average person has no idea what it is. I had never lusted over those cars, I had heard that they were great fun and wanted some for myself. And that worked.
I grew up watching Gumball and the Cannonball rally and one car really stood out to me. Amongst the flash Lamborghinis and Ferrari was an inconspicuous family sedan. And it won. It was the original sleeper car, some styling improvements but nothing obvious, but instead of a sluggish 3 litre straight 6, a ridiculous (for the time) 400bhp 4.9 V8.
It should have just remained a dream to own one. But sadly depreciation exists. And the car that retailed for £70,000 eventually dropped to £10,000, and that put it dangerously in reach of me. I calculated insurance costs, and what I thought would be the worst thing, the fuel costs. And came to the conclusion I could do it.
I viewed about 4 of them, and several were in a very sorry state, which should have alerted me to the other less obvious cost of owning a car like this. However the 5th was beautiful and I had to buy it. And it wasn't long until the trouble started.
To drive the car is a dream. Even though its 20 years old you can be driving for hours and struggle to find another car that can keep up with it. And as you'd expect, the V8 sounds amazing.
However when you're washing a car, and being thorough, the last thing you want is to wash under the sills and put your hand through where there should be metal. The tin worm had been at it. £1400 repair bill.
Then came it's annual inspection. It failed because the headlights wouldn't adjust, the tester decided to drill a hole in the lenses and bodge a fix. £1200 for new lights (that one was partly on me, I told him do what it takes to pass it)
Oh boy, this is starting to get expensi- oil leaks, one serious, £3000, oh and all the brakes need replacing £700. OK this is getting out of hand.
At this point I haven't had a chance to enjoy the car. I've not had the money to take it on tour of Europe for obvious reasons, the constant mechanical issues mean I've not had a chance to clean it up and go to a car show. The car that I dreamt of owning as a kid is now a nightmare, I'm scared of driving it for fear of something else breaking.
By saving up and buying my dream car I've erased that feeling of wonder when I see them and replaced it with bad memories.
So what did I learn from this?
I should have bought Japanese.
