My 4200 Quandary - Stay or Go?

[rockits]

I have a little quandary I have been running through my head. I have had the 4200 for just over a year and have loved the whole package of ownership. It is a wonderful example and I would describe almost as new. It has been garaged and looked after all its life and it really shows. My issue is that it doesn't get used much and although is run up to temperature often , driven often and kept well I am not seeing the benefit of driving it much.

It is kept on a trickle charger in a nice garage with a nice OEM indoor cover, is looked after and never wants for anything. I only do about 1500 miles per year and as it has only done 13k miles from new I thought I should keep that low and keep it as a semi garage queen.

However it doesn't seem to make total sense. As a late 2007 car it costs £505 to tax, a yearly service of maybe £1k per year on average. Just had new rear tyres and full Wheels in Motion geometry check/tweak at circa £500. Maybe budget on £2k per year to keep her plus fuel and insurance we are looking at about £3k per year. So for 1500 miles per year I am looking at about £2 per mile. I don't think there will be any depreciation on the car as it will always be worth what I paid in my opinion. Maybe as a rare late 4200 car as 1 previous owner with only 13k miles it is pretty unique from what I can see so I don't envisage ever having issues selling her.

My quandary is:
1) Do I keep her as is and continue with low mileage, look after and keep in tip top condition?
2) Use it more and accept it will depreciate and deteriorate a little more?
3) Sell it and replace with a QP or something I would be less precious about putting miles on and using more?

It just breaks my heart to see it tucked up in the garage much the time and not being used as much as it was intended. Seems wrong to me.

 

[Contigo]

If it was me I'd sell it and get one you want to use as a daily. I have a similar quandary with some of my cars and just can't stand not using them, I'm not sure how some on here with collections of a similar size cope with just not using them regularly.

 

[highlander]

When you not used as much as intended what do you mean? Did you buy it as a daily and have not been using it as such?

 

[conaero]

Keep it. It's not going to go down in value and if you play the DVLA SORN game, taxing it only the months you want to use it, it makes sence.

I did under 2k miles last year and like you have considered changing but for the money, nothing comes close so I bought a 3.2 Alfa (Busso not GM) and bomb around in that for a bit of a laugh.

You can pick up a V6 156/147/GT/GTV/Spider for 3 or 4K.

 

[davy83]

what you are asking yourself here is, is this car an investment, that i get a little fun from once in a while, or is it supposed to give me pleasure as much and as often as possible? It is probably a fairly poor investment, most cars are, but will give you a lot of pleasure if you stop worrying about it and enjoy the driving. Imagine you don't drive it much and find it has depreciated anyway, and you didn't thrash it daily and get maximum pleasure? i know there is a middle ground some where but i am clear my car is not an investment its not what its for, if i get a lot of pleasure from it and it holds its value then that's a bonus. Its your life however
.

 

[rockits]

When you not used as much as intended what do you mean? Did you buy it as a daily and have not been using it as such?

It was always intended as a 3rd car to be used as I am using it. However I have had other 3rd cars before but ended up using them more maybe 2500 miles so almost twice as much. I wasn't so precious about them either. They also didn't cost as much to run/keep. Factor all the little bits together and it adds up to my quandary.

I am not made of money and wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. With lots of other bills constantly flowing in and another business idea I am trying to push on with I am not sure I can justify it as an investment as not sure any long term upside would be enough to offset the cost of keeping/running it. In effect if it went up in value long term by the amount of keeping it then it is a free car. Not sure I can see it increasing in value by £3k per year. Could it ever be worth say £55-£60k in 10 years time? I'm not so sure.

 

[highlander]

You can get a fun car for less to keep than a maser no problem so can see where you are coming from. The question you need to ask yourself is do you think a year down the line you will regret letting a good example go because good examples of all 3 of the coupes are becoming much more difficult to find as the years go on so if you decided you wanted to come back to a maser you might find the search quite frustrating trying to find one as good as the one you let go.......just a thought.

 

[conaero]

GS spiders and MCV will be, GS's £40k plus and the others will be thus dragged up too.

The reason for this is Maseratis abandoning the Sports Car market so buyers will look back to their sports car era and demand will rise, well, it's likely.

I feel a sensible investment at the moment are the GTS Strads

 

[midlifecrisis]

The question is why are you not using it? Sure it's a huge expense to run but if you are thinking with your head and not with your heart then maybe the car isn't for you.

Personally I use mine now and then to get to work (400 mile round trip over 4 days) and I will use it for the Ace Cafe meets, Brooklands, Horsham, Llandow, Le mans etc. So if I didn't have the car I wouldn't do these things and I wouldn't do these events if I didn't have the car. It's a hobby, albeit it expensive but I enjoy it and that why I have one plus how else would you meet a bunch of like minded, p!ss-taking, drunken petrolheads. My Mrs enjoys it too, despite it being on the drive or in the garage for most of the week. Mine's a keeper for precisely that.

 

[rockits]

what you are asking yourself here is, is this car an investment, that i get a little fun from once in a while, or is it supposed to give me pleasure as much and as often as possible? It is probably a fairly poor investment, most cars are, but will give you a lot of pleasure if you stop worrying about it and enjoy the driving. Imagine you don't drive it much and find it has depreciated anyway, and you didn't thrash it daily and get maximum pleasure? i know there is a middle ground some where but i am clear my car is not an investment its not what its for, if i get a lot of pleasure from it and it holds its value then that's a bonus. Its your life however
.

Exactly that...spot on. It is not a car I am enjoying enough at a cost. It is not a good investment unless long term the price when north some way. Sitting neither one way or the other and somewhere in between. The R129 SL60 AMG I had a few years back I bought cheap, had for a few years, drove and enjoyed it and sold for more than I paid for it to the tune of the cost to run it for that time. So a free car that I enjoyed immensely for the time i had it. The SL60 made a great deal of sense in that regard. Not sure my 4200 could achieve the same result.

Does that matter? I'm not sure which is why I am asking myself the question. If it went up a bit and only cost £1-£2k per year I guess that is not so bad.

 

[Contigo]

You have to ask yourself is it worth the financial outlay? Can you justify the cost of having it sat there costing money? This is the reason most people don't buy sports cars, they want one but don't want the costs or can't afford it. Once you make that decision you will know what to do

 

[rockits]

I nearly bought a cheap average condition GS from Nareman last year as a car I would have used it much more and been less precious about. I would still have kept the 4200 though. It wasn't a great example regardless of the price though so didn't happen. I know she will be extremely hard to replace as it took me a year to find something as unique as this one. Can't see I would easily find anything like this again.

I think from what you are all saying it should be kept and probably kept the same way it is now. Just use and appreciate it when I do and stop worrying about it. Thanks my lucky stars I have what I have and enjoy it.

Not sure how much any future value would be affected if I doubled the mileage. Does it start to become less unique and less valuable in the future if mileage increased. Or at 19k and 27.5k is it still over that silly silly low mileage cusp to not need to worry about it regardless

Predicted Mileage at Current Usage
5 Year - 19k miles
10 year - 27.5k miles

Predicted Mileage at Increased Usage
5 Year - 26.5k miles
10 Year - 41.5k miles

The way I was brought up and my last 20 odd years in my work have made me always have to think very hard about any decision regardless of what it is. I always feel under pressure to always make the very best decision I can. It is very frustrating but I cannot change the way I am. I have tried and failed! It means I don't have enough time to deal with all I need to deal with and need to prioritise. I haven't got this prioritising thing nailed yet. My daughters recent horse riding incident is testament to this which annoys and frustrates me. I made some bad decisions around this and could have used time I spent analysing other less important stuff to have protected her from this.

I know we are not perfect but unfortunately I strive for perfection in all that I do. Even simple tasks like loading the dishwasher the right way is perceived as important. Obviously it isn't but that is how my brain perceives it. I wrestle with silly little things each and every day and need to be better at not worrying about them so much if at all. Life is too short. I don't think a deep level of OCD is a healthy thing or conducive to a long and happy life. At least half the battle is knowing it exists, is an issue I dislike and I would like to tweak a little.

I know some of you guys seem to share the same sensibilities but hopefully it is not to the same level or degree!! I think the forum and writing stuff like this seems to help so I apologise for my often long replies/posts. If anyone has a recipe they can send over that resolves my issues I would be eternally grateful!

Just noticed the button at the botttom says 'Post Quick Reply'! That is funny in itself. Matt, maybe you can limit me to so many words per post!!A

 

[Wack61]

The running costs shouldn't be very high if you're not using it much , does a car of that age "need" a full service history , I don't think so , if you keep it 5 years and have it serviced every year after 1000-1500 miles at £1000 will you get that 5k back , will it run any better, unlikely

If it worries you then an inspection for £200 every other year would reduce that cost

Same goes for road tax, you can do that monthly by DD as Conearo suggested, just tax it when you're likely to use it

At that mileage it can only go up in value where QPs are likely to fall , especially. If you put miles on them, when I was looking I watched a 100k car drop to £10,995 and still not sell

In 5 years a low mileage 4200 will be an easier sell than a 80-90k QP

 

[rockits]

You have to ask yourself is it worth the financial outlay? Can you justify the cost of having it sat there costing money? This is the reason most people don't buy sports cars, they want one but don't want the costs or can't afford it. Once you make that decision you will know what to do

Is it worth it...yes...I love cars.

Can I justify it? No...never. Well not as long as poverty, diseases and war/conflict exists anyway.

Can I afford it.....Yes. Well until the school fees start struggling to be met more than they are now! I'm not in debt to anyone for anything. Well other than a pretty large mortgage!

 

[D Walker]

Fortunately / Unfortunately I am a lot like you. OCD to the extreme. I wont show you a photo of the inside of our kitchen cupboards. Lets just say everything is in line.
I too have wrestled with the keep it / sell it, get a banger !!!!
What I would say is I was offered not a lot less than I paid form mine in July. I have done around 3k miles (1600 touring Scotland) I have managed to accept that it will cost me £2k ish to keep, however now its gone for an impending clutch more. Luckily I did keep a bit back instead of stretching to a GS.
What I will tell you is that when I waved mine off this morning I was truly gutted letting it out of my site and "control".
Regarding the decisions around your daughters accident, try not to beat yourself up. I know its hard but I also know that at stressful times involving your family decision making becomes blurred. I was feet away in 2 seperate incidents when my daughter broke an arm and leg, and when my son broke his leg and I sometimes still sit and reflect.....Why didn't I this and that.....but, I bet we all do.

Keep the car, enjoy it a bit more but do what I do, I drive it for an occasion, bit like Martin, that has included going for an Ice cream.......20 miles away..
Dave

 

[mjheathcote]

My Stag owes me nothing, had her 30 years, now free road tax and insurance is low.
Any maintenance is done by myself, after all, I restored her from a bare shell so know her inside out.
My Maser is like yours, only done 15K miles, and I do around 1 to 1.5K miles a year.
Can't really do anymore, using the company car for work, wife with a company car, and fun split between the Stag and Maser.
I guess fortunately the Maser road tax in my case is cheaper, and I decided to carry out yearly services between mileage related services myself.
I don't think this will have a big (if at all) effect on value, especially now being 14 this year. If I ever decide to sell the physical appearance alone will sell it. Underneath it at the MOT a few weeks ago and it still looks like it came off the production line. I saw many before buying mine that were a bit rusty underneath. This however stops me driving it in winter with salt on the roads.
It makes no financial sense at all for me to have the Maser saying all the above, but what price do you put on the pleasure of owning, and driver her, even if limited?

 

[maverick]

The weather is absolutely stunning today , so take it out and drive it like you stole it with the windows down and your favourite music up full blast . And when you get home put it back in your garage and ask your self that question. You will find your answer !

 

[zagatoes30]

My cars are bought to be used and I never buy a car thinking that I need to keep the milage down. I bought my SZ when it was 12 years old and with 9k on the clock, needless to say it has a few more than that and I have loved everyone of them. However now having 5 non daily drivers I don't get the time to drive them as often as they should be but would I sell any of them, unlikely. I look at what would I have if I sold them and decide that there is little out there better unless of course I sold all bar the SZ and put a Junior Zagato or HF Fulvia in the garage.

 

[2b1ask1]

Mine isn't going anywhere, I don't sweat the mileage, bought it at 31,000 now has 72,000, I couldn't give a monkey's nut about the resale value because it is mine and nobody elses. I smile every time I look at it, I grin stupidly all the time I'm driving it and that is worth the pain I had buying it.

I'm not OCD (there really are not many who actually are) but I do have Aspergers which is why I tend to take things literally that I am told and also why I am a workaholic. My priorities are clear to me, not least; family, cars, house and business. I do try to keep a balance and Jeanette is my anchor and pilot. There are many things I would let go before my lovely Maserati though...

I say this not because I have just been for a blast in it, nor because of the run to South Wales last weekend but for every journey or time I set eyes on it and for all like minded custodians!

 

[Ebenezer]

As midlifecrisis so aptly stated, what does having a mazza give you in a good way that not having one means you will miss out on? Is it worth the cost or is there another way you could fill the same disparingly empty gaping black mazza shaped void?
Perhaps you need to replace it with one that you can just drive rather than be too precious about, or just change your attitude and enjoy!! All you are doing is spending alot of money so someone else in the future can enjoy it. I know what I'd rather do!
Eb