Whiled away a very pleasant 30 minutes with a mate yesterday, as he demonstrated his new Apple G5 whatever-the-hell-it-is. Naturally, despite the world of wonder available to us just a few keyboard taps away – naked girls, music, the images of people falling over – we went straight to a used car site.
I’ve never had a more terrifying half hour. I must have blown a hypothetical £350,000 by the time lunch was ready. Here’s a selection of what got my wallet all aquiver: 2000 Porsche 911 (996) GT3, £34,995; 2003 E46 model BMW M3, £14,994; 1998 Z3 M Coupe, £12,990; 2002 Aston Martin Vanquish, £52,950; DB9, £49,950; Maserati Quattroporte, £26,995; 1997 AMG Merc C36, £3995; 2003 AMG Merc SL55 £29,994; 2004 Bentley Continental GT, £37,999; Renault Clio V6, £7995; Renaultsport Spider, £14,500 (the current favourite)… I could go on (we certainly did).
I’ve been itching to get something vaguely daft for ages, and there can be no better time than right now. How much lower can things go? How insane is it to be seriously thinking of blowing a wodge of cash on a posh car in the current climate? And sod the 911 GT3, am I the only person who thinks that a five grand Renault Avantime makes sense as a future classic?
Sounds great fun to me – just looking and waiting for the Range Rovers to finish dropping…nice diesel then should be a good buy,,,give it another month or two I think.
the avantime is definitely a very cool and interesting car, and it definitely names sense as a future classic
Or if you have loads of dosh, been watching a local dealer, AM DBS V12, dropped £20k in the last six weeks whilst sitting in his showroom – its an 08 with 500 miles on, wonder how low he will take on that…might be glad to shift it for £100k
How about Merc CL500s? Been watching these for a while now – and you can pick up a 40k-mile, three-year old car for £13.5k. And there’s not just one, either. That’s a lot of car for your money – and no doubt a bit left over to run, insure and service it…
Problem is if I keep looking I will get something then regret it two weeks later when I see a better deal, swap to that and get a divorce!!!!!!!
Only thing with the Avantime is, you get all these chavs moddifying them and putting chipboard splitters and F1 spoilers on them.
I’m cringing looking at the prices of those cars. Especially at the vanquish for 52,000.
Here in Australia a vanquish will probably cost the equivalent of 100-150,000 pounds, and thats if you’re lucky enough to find one
DB9’s here are around 100,000 pounds.
So maybe i need a G5 like your mate. All seems to be cheaper on there.
You should totally go V12 if you’re going to really go nuts. I’m sure you could get some hideous Merc on the cheap easily. You might even get one whole tank of petrol with the money you saved on your mortgage repayments since rates went down.
I was playing the same game recently but with a much lower budget. It’s alarming to see early 7 series Beemers and Jag S types going for less than 4k, and potentially ruinous on the wallet. I ended up with something more modern and reliable in the end, but it was touch and go for a while there..
Stuff the credit crunch, I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to snap up a left-field used bargain
those are some cheap cars,i like the renaultsport spider and aston martin vanquish.
BIT OFF TOPIC HERE SORRY BUT, I HAD A FEELING THE STIG WAS BEN COLLINS, AT LAST WE ALL NO. TOP DRIVER, ITS LIKELY HE WILL NOW BE RE-PLASED.
Wait a bit longer 6 months time these prices will be halved again. This is not a recession we are all in, but a depression. Save your money buy food for the family. Enough of the doom and gloom, on the brighter side Cad is horribly rich so is able to get some great bargains at the moment… PS buy gold not cars…
The Avantime has all the qualities needed to be a bit of a cult classic, they couldn’t give them away, it’s interesting to look at and it’s not a bad car to drive (so I’m told, I’ve not been in one but then again who has? Its’ sister cars are pleasant enough). I’d want the GT3 though (heart over head perhaps), that’ll be a genuine classic in 20 years, pity it isn’t the RS as that’s going to be remembered for a long time. That said, the Avantime would be a lot easier to live with until it achieves the cult status, a GT3 would probably cripple you by then, renault do comfort a lot better than the boys in Stuttgart.
I loved the Avantime the moment I saw it, moreso when I had a lift in one. I still think it’s one of the most striking cars on the road, managing to be slick and futuristic without the chintzy excess of the Vel Satis. At the time I wouldn’t have bothered because I thought they only came with auto boxes but now I would probably be tempted.
Having said that I don’t think it’ll be a future classic in terms of appreciating financially – it’ll be a car that people look back on and try to pretend that they ‘got it’ all along but you’ll never swap one for a private island in the Bahamas
After being immortalised on TopGear, the Avantime is a dead cert for future classic.
If you want something slightly mad, why not a Nissan Skyline, maybe a GT-R? You could get a relatively cheap, reliable 1000bhp out of one of those, and prove you don’t need craploads of money to embarass posers in Porsches. R33s are hovering at about £9-10k, R32s might ba a bit old however.
Speaking of Porsches, I saw a 968 the other day. I thought it was pretty cool, apart from the beetroot colour.
was reading about this is another car mag. They did a piece on the expensive car auctions being not so expensive. For me being a realist I think the biggest bargain they found was a 2001 Porsche boxterwith 50,000 for £6k! thats mx5 money!
A boxster will never be a classic but that’s a lot of good, fun motoring for six grand. They’re nailed together properly too, even if it is by those crazy swedes, so you’d expect a few more years of trouble free driving. Unlike a skyline with 1000 bhp, may I add… Personally I’ve always wanted a 944, they’re not too pricey these days and they’re just getting cooler in my humble opinion.
Boxsters weren’t nearly as well built as you might think in the early days, certainly not a patch on the old aircooled 911s. They tended to lunch their engines with alarming regularity and afer not very many miles, as a quick google search will confirm, and Porsche don’t want to know when that happens. That is, until you stump up the 10k or so to replace it. I would imagine (hope) the newer ones are better.
Interior quality is a different ballgame though – spartan and a bit dour, but rock solid.
That I did not know, I’ve got a few friends who drive them and they haven’t heard a squeak out of the things. They do wince when it’s time to service them though, but you expect that from Porsche. Perhaps it was just teething problems on the earlier production models, the way Porsche constantly nip, tuck and tweak at their models would explain a sudden improvement. I suppose you can afford more engineers when you only have one designer and he’s more interested in taps and pens than cars…
I know a couple of Cayman and Boxter owners too who have been fine so far, but are still a little nervous. From what I understand the problems occur with the M96 engine alone, and often before 50k. it’s sometimes down to oil starvation because of porous blocks or leaky seals, but more commonly down to the failure of the bolts holding the intermediate shaft together, or of the bearings it runs in.
Shoddy components, something I’ve never heard levelled at the boys from Stuttgart before. Still, as long as they’ve fixed it once they found the fault.
Buy a Porsche 911 turbo {997}
I’m the Stig by the way.