Martyn Stanley's Blog - Posts Tagged "mx5-miata"
Automotive Woes
I have been without car for several years now. We do have a rather nice, shiny family car - which I bought brand new on a 0% deal in 2013.
However most days I've been driving 2 miles to work in an old pick-up truck which has since been exported to Burma or a van.
Now the van I only recently swapped to. It's a nice little runner, 1.3 TDi and does great mpg. It's got alloy wheels and body colour bumpers too - it's really not bad. Oh, did I say it's free? It's a company vehicle so I don't have to put fuel in or anything.
Now that sounds great doesn't it? It would be great, I'd happily keep the van and forgo having a car indefinitely. However as the sales guy is doing a lot of running about at the moment, and is doing MORE and more - he's borrowing it a lot. This means musical vehicles twice a week and having to find an alternative means of getting to work on some days.
This is irritating. I don't suppose it should bother me that much, but it does. It suits the company for me to keep the van at home when it's not being used as I only live 2 miles away. It suits my wife as it's free, and she rightly points out - there's not much point in spending a lot on a car when I do 4 miles per day.
I could let the sales guy have the van and it's really tempting, I want to - I feel like it would make my life easier NOT to have in some respects.
The trouble is I'm the only one working, so we're not particularly well off, and I like cars. This is something of a burden. If I was the sort of person who'd be really happy pottering about in a 1.0 litre 12 year old, 3 door hatch - I'd have a car I'm sure. The trouble is I'm just not that person. I think having an Mazda MX5 spoiled me (Miata to USA people!) I bought it from 12 months old in 2001 and kept it for 7 years. I've never kept a car that long before or after. It was just a brilliant, brilliant car though. Nothing went wrong with it, it was a dream to drive - literally like a big go-kart for the road. It was practical, cheap to maintain... In some ways I wish I'd kept it, or had another. I gave it up to have a works vehicle, because I needed one at the time and I wanted to save some money. I so, so miss it. There's something incredible nice about putting the roof down on a nice day and going for a spin through some twisty B-roads, it's exhilarating. Now of course we have two kids, so I don't think I'd get so much use out of it. I did almost argue the case for having an old Porsche 911 convertible, but I don't think the rear buckets are good for car seats and they are bit of a ticking time-bomb. If your gearbox goes it can cost the value of the car to replace!
Every week when the next jigsaw of car-swapping and arranging transport to work comes around, I get all cross and look at cars. This week I found a great coupe cabriolet MX5 for £7000 and a Series 2 Lotus Elise for £12000, both great cars. I moaned to my wife about it, argued the case - then gave up.
Reluctantly.
I know it probably sounds ridiculous, it's probably mainly because I owned an MX5 for so long that I feel this way - but I desperately want a 2 seater sports car - even though it really wouldn't be sensible. Arguing the case and getting angry about it makes me feel better, but not much. :(
However most days I've been driving 2 miles to work in an old pick-up truck which has since been exported to Burma or a van.
Now the van I only recently swapped to. It's a nice little runner, 1.3 TDi and does great mpg. It's got alloy wheels and body colour bumpers too - it's really not bad. Oh, did I say it's free? It's a company vehicle so I don't have to put fuel in or anything.
Now that sounds great doesn't it? It would be great, I'd happily keep the van and forgo having a car indefinitely. However as the sales guy is doing a lot of running about at the moment, and is doing MORE and more - he's borrowing it a lot. This means musical vehicles twice a week and having to find an alternative means of getting to work on some days.
This is irritating. I don't suppose it should bother me that much, but it does. It suits the company for me to keep the van at home when it's not being used as I only live 2 miles away. It suits my wife as it's free, and she rightly points out - there's not much point in spending a lot on a car when I do 4 miles per day.
I could let the sales guy have the van and it's really tempting, I want to - I feel like it would make my life easier NOT to have in some respects.
The trouble is I'm the only one working, so we're not particularly well off, and I like cars. This is something of a burden. If I was the sort of person who'd be really happy pottering about in a 1.0 litre 12 year old, 3 door hatch - I'd have a car I'm sure. The trouble is I'm just not that person. I think having an Mazda MX5 spoiled me (Miata to USA people!) I bought it from 12 months old in 2001 and kept it for 7 years. I've never kept a car that long before or after. It was just a brilliant, brilliant car though. Nothing went wrong with it, it was a dream to drive - literally like a big go-kart for the road. It was practical, cheap to maintain... In some ways I wish I'd kept it, or had another. I gave it up to have a works vehicle, because I needed one at the time and I wanted to save some money. I so, so miss it. There's something incredible nice about putting the roof down on a nice day and going for a spin through some twisty B-roads, it's exhilarating. Now of course we have two kids, so I don't think I'd get so much use out of it. I did almost argue the case for having an old Porsche 911 convertible, but I don't think the rear buckets are good for car seats and they are bit of a ticking time-bomb. If your gearbox goes it can cost the value of the car to replace!
Every week when the next jigsaw of car-swapping and arranging transport to work comes around, I get all cross and look at cars. This week I found a great coupe cabriolet MX5 for £7000 and a Series 2 Lotus Elise for £12000, both great cars. I moaned to my wife about it, argued the case - then gave up.
Reluctantly.
I know it probably sounds ridiculous, it's probably mainly because I owned an MX5 for so long that I feel this way - but I desperately want a 2 seater sports car - even though it really wouldn't be sensible. Arguing the case and getting angry about it makes me feel better, but not much. :(
