Thinking the unthinkable

    As the title suggests, I am considering selling my 8 :hmmmm:


    The reasons are mainly due to me not driving it anymore, and that I have gone as far as ever wanted playing around with it - ie modding it. I know it's mad, and half of me wants to keep it, but the other half (of my brain, not the wife) says that I should sell. I now know how others feel about their 8er when the brain starts saying it's time to sell..... and I retract all my comments made at those times :)


    I still like the look and the way it drives, but it's just sitting there on my drive looking pretty.... and getting wet. I dont have a garage big enough to keep it in either. Maybe I could SORN it, but dont know how to go about that.


    I think that I'd have to refit all the original equipment prior to selling, well the stereo at least. If someone wanted to buy it with the pc in in then all well and good, but I seriously doubt it would be an open market for that. I even think I might have made the damn thing impossible to sell for anything above nominal trade-in value. But as I dont want or need another car, I wont be trading it in.....


    Plus it's probably only worth six grand or so if I'm lucky, in the current economic mess the country appears to be in. Now that alone should tell me to keep it, since in 3 years of ownership I've spent around £5K on it after the £10K purchase price, not including servicing/insurance/tax etc. Not exactly an investment eh ?? :laugh:


    So, what I'm essentially saying that if anyone is reading this, and wants to give me £6K for it, they can have it.... !! But that price would be without the PC )or the Hartge Steering wheel) ;) but would include:


    HIDs
    Bilsteins
    Eibachs springs/spacers
    Geniune M6 19s
    CSI roll bar front
    Camber plates
    3.91 diff
    drilled/grooved discs
    New suspension arms practically all round.


    probably missed something off that lot.


    Mileage is 101K.


    ** Now I've just typed all that lot, I'm thinking I shouldnt even bother hitting 'Post' cos it just seems daft to sell it. I just dont neeeed it anymore....

    Don't know what to say mate, I fully understand and wish you the best of luck with the sale, but do yourself a favour and jump in the car, fill it up with fuel and take a drive around the lakes - I'm sure you'll change your mind and come to your senses.

    To declare a car as SORN is a piece of cake & can all be done online.

    Wayne.

    On my 3rd 8 but my first V12 :cool:

    Zitat von TallTony;56045

    I know it's mad, and half of me wants to keep it, but the other half (of my brain, not the wife) says that I should sell.


    Seasonal affective disorder? :harhar: Try to keep at it til springtime - if you then feel the same, ok, sell it. :dontknow:


    Cheers,
    Gabriel

    I have had similar thoughts of selling; the car spends most of its life under a cover in the garage. I am however going to keep it, as you say the state the world is in, would you get any buyers and what do you buy that has the same looks?

    Talking of bad investment does the wife still have the X3 (mine does, what a bad investment that has been. Think I've done in 10k in just over a year).

    You could try swapping the wheels with another members along with the hid's and a few other things to get some money back and effectively help you lower the purchase price.

    I know how you're feeling buddy:hmmmm:


    If it helps I've just bought another:help:Yes I know, BUT I don't know yet if I'll keep it or sell on , if you choose to sell [ and the 2nd hand market is dead on it's feet right now] I'm sure you Like I, even if you have no time to drive it,then your as sure hell will miss looking at it.


    I'd say keep it until the economic climate improves a bit then have a re think:top:

    Those who risk nothing,achieve nothing,become nothing.

    Zitat von stevep840;56063

    I know how you're feeling buddy:hmmmm:

    If it helps I've just bought another:help:Yes I know,:top:




    Welcome back to the owners club Steve I look forward to seeing the pictures:top:

    TT the view when you walk out to clean it, drive it or just stroke it are priceless:cool:

    :driving2:Its been a year since I sold her and I still miss her.......





    Lloyd

    cheers fellas.


    There seems to be a theme here and that is the 'looking at it' bit etc ! This is the thing I know I would miss for sure.


    It's not about money either, which is fortunate cos there's not exactly a lot of cash in the car to realise....


    It's just the not driving it bit. We still have the 3.0i X3 for the weekends/faaaamily stuff (Earl, I bought that for 13K in feb08 on a 54 plate - it better not have lost 10k in the that time...!!!), I seem to be in my van 90% of the working week these days bombing up and down the M6 or M1, and when I do get a spare minute I am blasting around on my new motorbike, scaring old ladies and getting pets to strain on their leads as I pass by (it is unsociably loud, runs a bit rich at the moment and spits 6" flames out of the exhausts when it back fires..... honestly, it's hilarious !!).


    So, the 8 just sits there, looking sad and forlorn that it doesnt get a look in anymore. It is still my dream car, I still love the way it looks and I love the way it drives and (now) handles. I still love the fact I've done something fairly original and stick a daft pc in the cockpit, but it doesnt change the fact that I dont drive it anymore ! I even still like cleaning it, even if the inevitable Lancashire rain cloud drifts in each time to spoil my handywork.


    Maybe I'll keep it for the winter, and rethink in the spring like suggested. Maybe I'll place a speculative ad on ebay to test the water, and with a start price that would twist my arm, rather than make me feel hard done by.


    I think most of all though I need to do what Wayne suggests and just get back in and drive it.

    Tony,
    I would suggest find a local secure storage facility and mothball it for the winter...
    SORN it and pay around £30 - £50 per month for the storage. Have a look in Classic Car Mag or similar.
    Come back to it in the spring....


    Do not sell it !! Just yet.


    You know it makes sense :kiss:

    I know what you are thinking.
    After I got my M3 the thought has crossed my mind too, but I have so far decided not to for several reasons.
    -the car is now in a very good condition.
    -due to the above I have spent alot of money on it.
    -I have a place to store it
    -I have no loan on it.
    -The only cost of keeping it is, road tax, insurance and MOT every 2. year

    So it will cost me like 1000gbp a year to keep it.
    By selling it now I will loose at least 15 times that.
    -that alone is a good argument to keeping it.

    I know that if I keep it I will drive it less, and put even more money into it.

    But I know I have a truly unike car, and I'm sure that despite that it in no way match the M3 it will still give me a smile when I drive it.
    Not to mention it will turn more heads.

    -Egil (thats my name)

    1990 850IA Hartge SC
    2012 M550d Touring

    If I misspelled a word it's because I'm Norwegian, so bear with me.

    if money is not urgent do not sell it, i have suggested buying it strait away cause i knew it'll put you off the idea, just like it'll do to me, i have before prepared an ebay add and for some reason the add didn't charge
    and i was happy somehow for that divine hint:mrgreen-angel:- not to sell it.

    some mother with a backed into me:banghead:(while i'm parked) today and have ruined the front paint and i lost a grill too, in a way i'm happy to
    get new parts now..... besides we'll loose the most initiative guy on
    the site if you go..........;-)

    Tony, been there several times myself in the last couple of years.


    I've been on the edge and then tell myself these things:


    I enjoy driving it.
    It isn't really depreciating when compared to most cars.
    The cost of parts can be high, but less than the depreciation on even a basic hatchback.
    I love the way it looks - inside and out.
    I've got the diagnostic kit and do my own servicing - so no major headache here.
    For the same money I could sell it for, what else could I buy which could come even close in terms of presence and "car for your buck"?
    It's in a warm dry garage and isn't deteriorating.
    I don't need to sell it........ :hmmmm:


    Now the last one is the cruncher.
    Most of us who will eventually sell ours won't need to - they will want to to find a new challenge or toy or simply have different priorities in their life.
    Changing cars is rarely about logic.
    So all my sensible reasons to keep it will be irrelevant if I wake up one morning and simply don't want to keep it anymore. :shock:


    It will happen one day - but not today.


    So I'll carry on working on my new rear boot lid design and tinkering until the next episode of doubt crops up. ;)


    So, whatever you do Tony, hope it works out for you. :top:

    I guess all the responses I've had to this thread sum up why this car and this forum are so great.


    You have all made me think about, and subsequently rethink, my original feelings about whether I need this car in my life, and whether I would miss it when or if it goes - which is probably the biggest point.


    The points about what I could get for similar money are very true, but were never part of the plan as I wasnt going to replace it with something anyway. Tax and insurance are relatively cheap and I know it also isnt depreciating (much). Had I not spent the time and effort tinkering around the edges (to put it lightly) then I would in fact be singing the praises of what a bargain it has been to own over the last 3 years considering its £10K purchase price.


    That I have spent more time, and of course more money, than necessary on it in that period makes it difficult to part with as well. It no longer is a standard car, for better or worse, and to a large extent is more of an extension of my personality than just a means of transport (cant think of a better way of putting that, even if it does sound a bit sad !).


    I'm now pretty sure that the seeds of my dilema were sown by my 'illicit' affair with a certain two wheeled thingybob, and that thrill of something new in my life pushing out the other stuff previously cherished. I talked about it with my wife this weekend, and she was horrified :laugh:.... and turned it around in the way that only a woman could do, making the connection that maybe I'd do the same to her one day should a new model ever be thrust in my direction..... :motz:


    So, now I not only have the voices of reason (on here) telling me not to do it, I also have the the other half watching carefully as I make my decision :laugh:


    So for now she, the car, has won a stay of execution. We've agreed a course of relationship conselling which involves us ironing out our differences by me driving her more frequently, and if I still feel the same in the spring.....


    Thanks guys, I feel a lot better for getting that off my chest....


    Couch Session - Over ;)

    Tony, I have only just come across this thread, and was pritty shocked to here of your delema but pleased that you have decided to stay with the old girl - for now.

    I don't think i could think of selling mine with all the work that has gone into her and you know more than others the mountain I have had to go through to get the car working properly I still have cosmetics to go through and only now am I thinking of adding to the spec - chips, diff, breaks etc.

    And what woud you get to replace a car like the 8? if you look on the bay prices are indeed falling - keep it don't sell it :top:

    1991 850ci,
    2001 540
    2002 4.6 Range Rover Vogue

    I know the feeling very well. My car gets used very rarely these days, as I'm absolutely sick of driving through city centre traffic (I live in the centre of Edinburgh) for 30 minutes before I get to any remotely interesting roads. I'm much more inclined to take the bike whenever possible, as it's just so much quicker -- mainly in terms of queue skipping, but it's also much quicker on the open roads too.


    My biggest dilemma is that I plan to buy a cheap, RWD shed that I can blat around the track with and not worry about damaging it or breaking it. Something like an E30 325i or E36 328i. But then I come back to the original point, I barely use the one car I've got, so if I buy a second as a track toy, which happens to be perfectly usable as a road car, why not just use the track toy for the odd times I actually need a "normal" car?


    It's a difficult choice, and I've no intentions of getting rid of the 8 any time soon. Especially being that the current market means they're probably worth buttons, and I don't think that will pick up any time soon. The driving enjoyment these cars give is worth way more than their market value today, it's only finding the time to drive them that's the problem :)

Jetzt mitmachen!

Sie haben noch kein Benutzerkonto auf unserer Seite? Registrieren Sie sich kostenlos und nehmen Sie an unserer Community teil!

Benutzerkonto erstellen Anmelden