Hi again, Opponauts.
Here I am, dealing with my depression (henceforth Black Dog), and with the anxiety of my wife having discovered some lumps in her breast. She cancer history in her family, so she is freaking out (we’re waiting for the doctors to make an appointment for the mammography, and until we get some results she is anxious and in a terrible mood. I’m trying my best to maintain Black Dog on a leash to be able to support her.
Welcome to another episode of Car Overthinking, where I dwell on problems I don’t have at the moment.
There is a good chance that at the end of this year I’ll finally be able to buy a hobby car. I already have the Jazz/Fit for daily driving and family hauling.
I’m lost in the options, so I’ll share all the thoughts that come and go through my head:
- I started thinking on a Discovery 3. They’re unreliable, I know, but I wouldn’t daily drive it. The vision is putting all the family in the car and making the NC500 in Scotland. And if it ever snows again in West Midlands, I’d like having a AWD. BUT.... Family is small (3, hopefully 4 in 2020), so I don’t need a behemoth of a car. And I can’t see myself going offroad in the UK, so maybe a Freelander would be nice.
- Freelander, the original. Buying an automatic td4. Enough space for the family, still AWD with some offroad capability, problematic but not as the Disco3... BUT... too common, don’t feel “different” enough to be a hobby car. In a Venn Diagram with the Jazz, the intersection area of attributes would be over 70%, so it wouldn’t justify itself as a hobby car. Thought briefly about Rav4 and CR-Vs, but the “meh” factor is even bigger.
This line of thought stopped here. So, I need something radically different from the Fit/Jazz.
Miata is always the answer, right? So I went looking on the NCs. Good price, larger of the MX5s, sounded great until I went to a dealer to see if I fitted in it. And no, I don’t. PHRT is more expensive and my head barely touches the roof. Soft top has a roof beam that makes me slouch. I’m in the UK, it rains a lot. And changing seats, etc can cause more headaches than headroom, to NC is not OK. Bummer.
Maybe a Z3? Nope, too small as well. Z4? Yes, at least the reports for tall people are positive. But meh, don’t see myself owning one.
So enough with small cars: let’s go for a big barge! But nothing that I really like, and again, not special enough to ride on weekends only, but not cheap/practical as the Jazz to run every day.
Ideally, I’d like a car fast enough to scare me, with some comfort for two people, that I could take to Caffeine & Machine (cars & coffee?) without parking in the back parking lot, and CHEAP.
Any suggestions, remembering that I live in the UK?
Thanks for the space!