So I was riding in this morning, and passed two ‘supercars’ along the way: some sort of beautiful Aston and a Ferrari. Don’t know exactly which models, I’m afraid.

But it did get me to wondering: if I had the disposable income to buy such a thing, would I? And I had to answer ‘no’. I can certainly admire them when I see them, but I just have no. interest. whatsoever. in. supercars.

They almost seem silly to me. In fact, I used to pass by one when I lived in a different part of the city, and always found it funny that if the owner had have lived one street over, he wouldn’t have been able to get to the front of his own house, owing to the almost non-existent ground clearance of the car, and the fact that the road was covered in speed bumps.

And at the end of the day, that run to the shops is still done seated in a seat behind a steering wheel with a belt strapping you in. Only mine would say ‘VW’ (or whatever) instead of showing a prancing horse or a trident (or whatever).

So, if you had the disposable income would you get a supercar? Why? Why not?

For those that feel cheated by the thread title.

Thought about a 911 turbo or Audi R8 but don’t want that much money depreciating away. Also, my cars useage would mean they would be starting 300 days a year so I’m better off hiring something special if I fancy it.

Yes to both of the first 2 posts.

I think it depends on how much of the disposable income I had! Also depends on how super the car is too. If I did I still don’t think I would as like you say their too impractical and too obvious. I think I’d prefer the more stealth side of things and get my Golf engine upgraded etc.

Everyone should be content with the Trabant they may eventually be entitled to join a queue to register their interest in buying.

Thanks bear, revived the thread. 🙂

I kind of view supercars and supermodels in a similar fashion. They’re great to look at and probably fun to take for a spin every now and again, but I almost certainly wouldn’t want one as my daily runabout.

does having the first improve the chances of the second?

Yup but then I do like my cars, it’ll be the Aston over the Ferrari though.

No and no, would rather be wandering around field with

I think it depends on how much of the disposable income I had!

this. I wouldn’t just have to be able to afford one I’d have to be so ludicrously rich so as to be able to buy one with pocket money. Depreciation, fuel etc, no thanks, there’s a long list of stuff that I’d spend money on before I decided I needed a supercar in my life.

As for the people using supercars for commuting… I’m undecided. How easy to drive are they in traffic/around town nowadays? Is it a decent option for the well heeled enthusiast or are they still a bugger to drive so it’s only those mid life crisis/chronically low self esteem/nobbers who bother?

If money was no object, yes, I would definitely have an Aston.

I would not live in a city with speed bumps though.

Yes, I would buy something, but probably an older Ferrari, depending on how much cash I had, maybe a 328, a 355

If it were a more ‘modest’ amount, maybe I’d get an older 911

I like your style jools. I’d have a 288GTO.

I had a (short) ride in brand new Rolls Royce Phantom last week. Not a super car as such but insanely impractical. Parking pretty much anywhere would be impossible.

Supercars are also mostly too big (mainly too wide) to be comfortable to park in a normal space. Worrying about where to park it would take the fun out of the driving experience for me. Maybe a 911 is a bit more sane – maybe an older one.

Yes, but I know it wouldn’t get used as much as a more ordinary car. My brother in law is a bit well off and had a choice in LA between a new range rover and a Lambo Aventadour. He said the RR won out simply cos it was just easier to drive, park, and hop in and out of. I get that.

I’m a fan of Aston Martin personally. I’d definitely buy a DB5 and a Vanquish Carbon.

Everyone should be content with the Trabant they may eventually be entitled to join a queue to register their interest in buying.

Morning or afternoon?

(For those who don’t get the joke: http://youtu.be/CLW7r4o2_Ow )

OP – probably but I would need millions before entertaining the idea of a supercar. Aston rather than Ferrari for me.

Bear – deffo, but i bet she wouldn’t want me to pick her up a Ford Smax!!

No and No.

If it was a choice of 911 circa late 70’s with some fuchs alloys on and in that pale green they did back then, then yes. I think my choice may just influence utterly sublime Dr Lucy Worsley to come out for a spin in the English countryside with me too.

*checks bank account

*checks out Porsche world mag..

*checks Lucy’s diary

So I was riding in this morning on my functional commuter bike, and passed two £6000 bikes along the way: some sort of beautiful Ibis and a handmade ti road bike. Don’t know exactly which models, I’m afraid.

But it did get me to wondering: if I had the disposable income to buy such a thing, would I? And I had to answer ‘no’. I can certainly admire them when I see them, but I just have no. interest. whatsoever. in. overly. expensive. specialist. bikes.

They almost seem silly to me. In fact, I used to pass by one when I lived in a different part of the city, and always found it funny that if the owner had have lived one street over, he wouldn’t have been able to get to the front of his own house, owing to the fact his road was pedestrianized.

And at the end of the day, that run to the shops is still done seated on a saddle behind a pair of handle bars, turning some pedals. Only mine would say ‘Giant’ (or whatever) instead of showing a bird or a squiggly signature logo (or whatever).

So, if you had the disposable income would you get an expensive bike? Why? Why not?

Not me, no.

I’ve nothing against anyone else who enjoys them, but cars in general just don’t interest me that much. I didn’t even learn to drive till I was in my 30s.

Not for me. Maybe a very top of the range luxury thing, A8, S class, 7 series. For high speed thrills I’d be getting a track day nut case utterly impractical machine. And keep it at my private race circuit.

incidentally my Father in Law has wanted a Delta Integrale for years and years, he finally got one from italy and imported it himself. after about a year of ownership he’s moving it on because “he’s had his fun”

I wouldn’t want a supercar, I’d be more likely to spend a chunk of cash on a not-cheap bike but I wouldn’t have a colnago/niner RDO either

STraw man arguments are excellent do you get them free with a car?

I dont like cars that much so no amount of money in the world would get me to buy one and if i did MRs JY would never ever give me the key anyway as she, like drac, loves cars.

probably get one for the wife. id continue to baz about in a van with bikes in the back.

I doubt it. Not because I’m particularly opposed to them it’s just that virtually every other way of wasting large quantities of cash appeals to me more.

I think with bikes there’s a level, above which you’re wasting your money. A couple of thousand quid will get you something light and enjoyable with decent kit on it; beyond that you won’t see much improvement.

Even if I had the money I’d be way too self-conscious to drive around in something as showy as that. It’d just scream bald, fat bloke having a mid-life crisis. Which is never a good look.

Like jaffejoffer – if I could have anything at the moment, I’d have a van. Think how much I’d have left to spend on coke and hookers 😀

If I was to get something utterly silly, it’d probably be an Atom. They look like a giggle.

tree-magnet – Member

So I was riding in this morning on my functional commuter bikeNot a valid comparison IMO. Even in average commuting traffic you can still pretty much go as fast as your little legs will propel you on a super bike and get all the benefits (with remarkably few drawbacks vs your practical commuter*). Unless you pay for a lot of track days supercars are arguably** just for poncing about looking like a supercar driver in.

*and those mainly only really during winter, I still ride my “bestest” road or mtb bike to work (admittedly neither a super bike) in summer.
** you can go fast enough (and do untold damage) in the cheapest production car.

* Lucy’s diaries full 🙁

*found the car though…

If I had the money, without a doubt!

I’d have a Ferrari, or maybe two, a Lambo, a Porsche, an Aston and more. I’d have fast everyday cars, I’d have luxury cars, I’d have huge 4×4’s.

I’d have a huge house, with gadgets galore, I’d wear expensive clothes and watches, I’d holiday in disgustingly expensive resorts.

I’d probably have lots of normal stuff too and I’d look after my friends and probably people who I didn’t even know.

What’s money for, if it isn’t for spending?

If money was no object, yes I’d have a supercar.

But not as the everyday runabout.

Could buy one but I wouldn’t it would attract too much attention

Now if there was a V12 4WD Mondeo that looked exactly like a Zetec then you’d be talking

The short version is maybe.

Way-back-when I used to finance a lot of expensive cars, M3s up to Enzos and got to know a lot of owners.

Anyway, it’s a strange world Supercar ownership, because despite being wonderful amazing things, they’re actually mostly useless. I suspect that quite a few of my customers couldn’t reeeeally afford them, or they couldn’t stomach the costs anyway – so many times they’d buy a Ferrari 360 or something, then 6 months later they’d be after a settlement figure because they were selling – they’d have done 2000 miles in between – if I knew them well I’d ask them if they liked it “oh yeah, it’s amazing, but I’ve had my fun now” and they’d buy something more everyday like a Boxster or a RS Audi. The most they cost the worse it was – I had a customer buy a Porsche Carrera GT for £300k or something, he sold it a year later with 1000 miles on the clock.

Only a few times would they be completely honest with me, what I’ve gathered from piecing together the bits and bobs I heard was this:

They are nice to look at, but terrifying to use – not in a “this thing is going to kill me way” if you drive like a normal person and don’t piss about with the traction control they’re no harder to drive than any other car, well, apart of a big of tunnel vision.

No, the world of supercar owners is fussy to say the least – so you go to buy a Ferrari for £200k, some ‘expert’ will tell you what over-priced options you need to buy or face ruin “if you don’t buy sat-nav for £8k you’ll lose £5k in resale!!!!11!!” so you’ll end up spending £220k – I don’t care who you are, that’s a LOT of money. 6 months later it turns up – unless you want one straight away when the dealer will whisper to you about a ‘cancelled order’ you can have now for only £10k more and because of the ‘waiting list’ these are “worth more than they are new anyway.”

So you take it home to show your Wife and she thinks it’s lovely, but probably doesn’t want to go in it, and really doesn’t want to drive it, because it’s bright red and makes too much noise.

So what do you do with it? Well you’re not going to put miles on it by driving it to work, and who wants to sit in traffic on a wet Wednesday in Feb in a Ferrari, when almost anything else is more comfortable and warmer (the performance of the climate control not being at the top of the list of priorities for most supercar makers) and mileage is just terrible to values, turn up to a dealer with a 30k mile 4 year old Ferrari and they’ll cry “but you used it!!!” and tell you it’s worth £50k less, well, only after they’ve charged you £3k a year to service it, £1000 for a set of tyres or heaven forbid it needs timing belts or you damage it.

You can’t really drive them to anywhere either, well not many places – maybe a nice fancy restaurant or pub far from the general public because even though there are only a tiny number of people who will let the green monster drive them to key it, the fear is enough, you don’t go to Tesco in a Lambo, you don’t even go to Waitrose in a Lambo.

So really, they’re only any good for ‘high day and holidays’ drives, going out to the mountains and country where the roads are quiet, wide and twisty – great – except a 2015 supercar can lap the ring in 7 and 1/2 minutes so it’s never going to get into it’s stride at legal speeds, okay not everyone it’s Sensible Simon, but it’s still not going to be into its stride at twice the legal limit and frankly unless you’re Jenson Hamilton you’ll run out of room and reaction time before you run out of grip and crash into a hedge or tractor.

You could take it on a track… but that’s either a massive gamble because Directline won’t want to know if you crash it at Brands or you can pay a few thousand more for track day insurance – worse than that it’ll start looking a bit second hand at that point – and frankly you couldn’t burn money as fast as you’ll lose it on a track with your new Ferrari.

It’s not about having money to burn either, just because you can afford to spend £200k on a car and not worry about it, doesn’t mean you will – you see them all on edge because their wonderfully fragile bit of motoring porn is out of it’s air conditioned garage.

Even if I won a rollover on the Euromillions I don’t think I’d get a ‘Supercar’ a ‘Sports Car’ like an Aston maybe, people tolerate them more and they’re more ‘everyday’ 911’s are better, they really are Cars foremost and Sports Cars second, they can cost a fortune, but their owners seemed to love them and keep them a long time and do high mileages. I think I could treat a 911 (not a fancy RS or Turbo one) like I treat my car now and accept cars get scratched and dinged now and again.

binners – Member
Even if I had the money I’d be way too self-conscious to drive around in something as showy as that. It’d just scream bald, fat bloke having a mid-life crisis. Which is never a good look.

I would be avoiding city and town centres for that very reason. I would not be buying it to be looked at

Although a trip to the riviera in one of these does appeal

For those people not interested by the first couple of posts: