I was musing the other day about the cars I have owned since I passed my driving test in 2003, and what the optimum point in my motoring career had been. I tried to look at this relatively objectively - i.e. what would a normal person think was 'me doing well for myself' based on job, salary and car I drove and thought it might make interesting reading!
I've stuck to a list of 'daily driver' cars here. I've had other cars as something fun/broken but they muddle the story a bit so I'll focus on my main cars. So in chronological order:
2006 -2007: 1992 VW Golf Mk3. The first car I bought, with some money I inherited from my late father. It was 14 years old when I bought it, and catastrophically failed its first MOT with me, having been in a major accident prior to my ownership. Strangely* the MOT put on the car in 2006, immediately before I bought it from the car dealer was a clean pass! This got me to and from my first job and the purchase price was approx 7% of my annual salary at this point. Sold for scrap for 20% of its purchase price.
2007-2007: 1996 Fiat Punto ELX. I bought this as a distress purchase when the Golf was condemned. It was newer then the Golf, and was a brilliant car. Sadly, after about 5 months of ownership the head gasket blew in Tesco carpark and I was too poor to have it repaired. I part exchanged it (without declaring the head gasket failure!) to a different 2nd hand car dealer. On paper this was a step up, an 11 year old car, costing me approximately 7% of my annual salary. Part exchanged for 75% of its purchase price
2007 - 2009: 1996 VW Golf Mk3. This was a return to what I knew, part-exchanged for the broken Punto as the 'best option' in the circumstances. I kept it for about 3 years and during that time it slowly fell apart, its needs exceeded my mechanical knowledge and available tools. By the time I sold it it was overdue a cambelt, the windscreen had a massive crack, the heater matrix had ruptured and was bypassed and it had various other issues. It ran well, but was scrapped soon after by its new owner - possibly after discovering the heater matrix issue! It was 11 years old when I bought it, and the most expensive car as a proportion of my salary at the time, spending 10% of my annual salary on it (excluding the PX on the Punto). I sold it for 60% of its purchase price.
2009 - 2010: 2000 Ford Mondeo Mk2 estate. With the issues on the Golf becoming too much, and the birth of my first child, I needed something different, and this Mondeo fitted the bill. It was 9 years old when I bought it, but had done lots of miles so was relatively cheap for what it was. I'd moved up the corporate ladder by this point, so while it was the most expensive car I'd bought at this point, it only represented 6% of my salary. I kept it for 18 months and looked after it very well, selling it to my brother-in-law for the same price I had bought it for 18 months previously after his car was condemned in and MOT test unexpectedly. It got impounded by the police about 9 months later after being found to be uninsured due to an admin error on his part and got crushed, which seemed a shame. Objectively, this was the high point for me, the newest car I have ever owned at the point I bought it. This says a depressing amount about me!
2010 - 2011: 2000 Skoda Felicia. I bought this (and had change!) from the money I got for the Mondeo, reasoning I had experience with the engine in my second VW Golf. Bought for 4% of my annual salary by this point, the joy was short-lived as I crashed it into a Vauxhall Insignia on the motorway. I had been meaning to get the awful tyres changed, but hadn't done it yet when I locked the front wheels braking too late for slowing traffic and binned it. Car was driven straight to the scrap yard where I collected 20% of its purchase price as consolation. This was a particular low point in my life, having lost my job, binned the car, and suffered the death of a relative in a short period! Still, I was OK. At the time of purchase, this was the second newest car I'd owned.
2011 - 2015: 1997 Nissan Almera. This was another distress purchase, I'd managed to get another job, but it was 100 miles a day commute and on less money than I'd been on a year previous. I found the Almera on a local buy and sell group, its owner having been given a new MGTF by her boyfriend and needed to offload the 'old banger'. I bought it for a bargain price, which was about all I had available to spend due to being out of work for a few months. It did enable me to get the new job, and only cost 2% of my new salary. This car was an absolute trooper, I stuck nearly 60,000 miles on it in 4 years and it needed virtually no maintenance at all. Eventually scrapped for 80% of its purchase price as one sill had disintegrated, the exhaust detached at the downpipe and broke into 3 bits and something else expensive needed doing. One of my favourite cars ever.
2015 - 2019: Saab 9-3. 11 years old when I bought it, and objectively the nicest car I've ever owned. Bought for a bargain price, representing 3% of my annual salary by this point in my grand career. It rarely went wrong, and was easy to maintain when it did, despite a complex engine bay. I put 70,000 miles on it in 4 years, and earned three times its purchase price in fuel expenses from my employers. My wife loved it, and still mentions it favourably even now! Sadly died 600 miles from home when it blew out a spark plug and destroyed the coil pack in the middle of Germany, and the breakdown company refused to recover it back to the UK. A sad end for a great car. I got zero payout which added insult to injury!
2019 - Now: 2001 Mercedes C180. The oldest car I've ever owned. 17 years old at time of purchase, and 22 years old at time of writing. I won it for £19 in a raffle, after the previous owner couldn't sell it. By this point, It represented >1% of my annual salary and while its incredibly tatty, its also very endearing. Its big enough, fast enough, reliable enough, frugal enough and comfortable enough - it does nothing outstanding, but does everything adequately. Parts aren't expensive, and maintenance is easy. Due to Covid and a new job, I've put about 35,000 miles on it in 4 years, but it feels like it'll do plenty more.
So thats a roundup of my motoring history. My favourite car of the lot was the 2nd cheapest - the Almera, my most expensive cars as a percentage of my salary were the least reliable, and my current car is the cheapest and oldest I've ever owned!
