Quote:
Originally Posted by ichitaka05
I agree with you... BUT at the same time, that’s not always the case for everyone who own it & it was build as a blank canvas for every owner. Nothing wrong w driving til engine blows up. Nothing wrongs w not driving. Nothing wrong w tracking it. Nothing wrong w rallying through the snow. Nothing wrong w keeping in the garage. Nothing wrong w putting a snail in the engine. Nothing wrong w keeping it NA. It keeps going...
That’s why it make this car great.
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You're absolutely right. The point is to
enjoy the car, whatever that means to the owner. Most of the things you mentioned involve actual
driving, whether on the street, track, snow, whatever.
I fairly regularly see nice, fun cars for sale with few miles. Especially big-buck exotics and 'collectibles' on Bring-A-Trailer, but often just nice cars like the Honda S2000 and CRX Si. While the new owner is probably thrilled with the find of an 'almost new' old car, I think it's sad that someone would own something that much fun and not drive it.
I used to be guilty of that myself. When I first bought a 2006 S2000 (a car I deeply regret selling), I didn't drive it that much. One day at a Cars & Coffee, someone remarked on the low mileage on the car and quipped how someday, someone was going to get a great car, and it hit me: what am I
saving the car for? By not driving it, all I was doing was 'saving' the car for the next owner. At that moment (already being in my 50's at the time), I decided life was too short for baseless, ridiculous self-denial. I didn't want to 'save' the car for some stranger who would someday be the next owner. I wanted to be that person, to drive it myself and have fun with the car the way it was meant to be driven. So I did.
I realize many people buy cars as investments. On BaT some of the rich and famous glitterati (Silicon Valley tech bros, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, etc.) comment on the return on investment possibilities with a particular car. They think they're being so witty when they quip about how unlike their stock portfolios, they can take the car out occasionally and drive it. That's their choice, and all else being equal, I guess I too would rather have something interesting in the garage over seeing numbers on a spreadsheet (if I had the garage space and throwaway money to do things like that)(though I wonder what the real 'return on investment' is after considering insurance, maintenance, etc. costs).
But I still think it's a shame to not use a car for what it was intended for. Especially with something like the BRZ that will never be 'investment grade' or a 'collectible' (except maybe long after I'm gone, in the next century when any surviving relic of the internal combustion era might be 'worth something'). The BRZ is an inexpensive car. It's not a low-mileage original 1969 Dodge Daytona whose value will go down with every mile driven. But the grin on my face sure gets wider with every mile.