The Lure of the Car

Having recently spent over $1,000 getting our 7-year old car repaired, I shouldn't even be thinking about changing cars. Although we've been planning on eventually replacing our Ford Festiva with a larger car when the kids are older - possibly a used Subaru Forester which would cost around $30,000, we don't intend to get rid of the Ford for another five years or so. However, I've also been toying with the idea of buying a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II, which would only cost about the same amount as a used Subaru Forester (although it would be 28 years old, rather than 4-5 years old!). The Rolls comes with leather interior, air con, automatic, power steering, electic windows, etc. etc. so it should be a nice ride commuting to work every day. Of course it would be significantly more expensive to maintain, and with a 6.8L V8 engine it would cost a *lot* more in petrol each week than our 1.6L Festiva (or even a Forester!). I guess a full tank would last about the same distance in each car - the difference being that the Festiva tank only holds around 35L while the Rolls has a 103L fuel tank. DW's not too keen on the idea of buying a Rolls, she thinks the Forester would be more 'practical'. I'm not entirely convinced that driving a AWD around the city is actually any more practical than driving a Rolls. I spend 2 hours each day commuting to and from work each day in peak hour traffic, so sitting in luxurious leather upholstery driving an automatic with power steering would be much more fun that driving the manual Festiva. Anyhow, my dad and I will go take a look at it on the weekend, and I'll get a chance to take it for a test drive.

Copyright Enough Wealth 2007