SFR There's a fish silhouette molded into the side of the new Corvette...

Sorta fishing-related
I'm fighting the old man urge to buy a new Mazda MX-5 and enjoy driving for whatever time I have left. My bi-weekly run to the supermarket is an 84 mile drive back and forth over a mountain pass. I have been making that drive in a pickup truck or a Subaru Outback for 20 years and I always think there has to be a better way. A roadster with the 6 speed manual would make for some big grins on the usual grocery run. But the Subaru for forest service trails and winter driving is not negotiable and of course the beloved Casa is my home away from home. Still, maybe just find a nice one owner and only drive and insure it in the summer.....
 
Do it! You only live once. If cars are in the blood you have to scratch that itch. Besides you could buy the mx5 run it for a year get it out your system and sell it. It might have cost $5k or so but you can easily spend that on a one week guided fishing trip.
 
krusty said:
I can't really think of a life-long dream we deferred due to inheritance considerations...our children are financially independent adults. Having our own financial sustainability/flexibilty/liquidity is the most fulfilling dream (and reality) that we could have hoped for.
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Thank you for your thoughtful, eloquent, respectful, and positive post!
 
iveofione said:
I'm fighting the old man urge to buy a new Mazda MX-5 and enjoy driving for whatever time I have left.
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I enjoy taking the MG out and driving the country roads, or out for an errand. It's the opposite end of the spectrum from that corvette, running about 60hp, but it's like a go-cart, just fun as hell. Our new house will have a spot for her in a climate controlled garage where I can give it a good refresh. Seems she could always use a bit of attention, but it's just something to do like tying flies for me. I know folks like those Mazdas, and the Miata's are popular too, fun and reliable.
 
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It would be fun to have a little roadster, maybe a convertible, for fun drives. But getting in and out of one is difficult. I’m not a small guy and I don’t fold up easily. I have a Civic that one of the girls drives. Getting in and out of it is a chore.
 
Dloy said:
It would be fun to have a little roadster, maybe a convertible, for fun drives. But getting in and out of one is difficult. I’m not a small guy and I don’t fold up easily. I have a Civic that one of the girls drives. Getting in and out of it is a chore.
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I drove my son in law’s Prius the other day: I too don’t fold up much anymore. Getting out of it isn’t easy.

I bet getting into and out of the Corvette (for an old fart like me) would be a chore (but I wouldn’t mind trying since I seem to be one of the few that likes the look of the Stingray).

Thread drift: when I was a freshman in Sequim High, two seniors had ‘63 Stingrays. One had big “slicks(?)”. Sequim had two town police officers back then and I think the guy with the tricked out Stingray enjoyed popping the clutch and heading out of town. Chief Klint would go blasting by the school with the siren screaming chasing a car that was long gone
 
Dloy said:
It would be fun to have a little roadster, maybe a convertible, for fun drives. But getting in and out of one is difficult. I’m not a small guy and I don’t fold up easily. I have a Civic that one of the girls drives. Getting in and out of it is a chore.
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Yes, my wife's chief complaint is the getting in and out part. Been driving mom's Buick Regal GS lately, which is so easy even for her to get in and out of with the low and wide doors. It also happens to be a fun, supercharged sleeper, in it's own way.
iveofione said:
In June of 1955 I graduated from high school weighing 155 pounds. This morning, 69 years later and wearing nothing but a watch my scale shows me at 164.0. A net gain of 9 pounds in 69 years, I can still get into a Miata!
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I was and still and am 155#, 33x33.
 
As Thoreau once wrote "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone".

A tough sell in a society built on self-imposed debt slavery and constant consumption.

YOLO prevails...until the chickens come home to roost.
 
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Most of you remember Tom and Ray Magliozzi from Car Talk. I was listening while gardening one day when a frequent caller called in, that I assume was huge, in the 350lb+ range. “Guess what car I can get in/out of the easiest.” It was a Volkswagen Bug, that apparently had very wide doors. IIRC, he’d modified the seat moving it back farther too. I remember that the AMC Pacer had one really wide door also, for large packages and rear passengers.
 
krusty said:
Everybody I see driving Corvettes are all WELL past their time cruising for chick's. Most of them look like their next destination is a nursing home.

The same could be said for the Lamborghini or Ferrari drivers I occasionally see around.
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My landlord has one, I am guessing a 2011. He has had a quadruple bypass, is quite a chunk and is 5 years older than I am. Oh yeah, he is married to a sweet lady.
 
When I first began learning about cars as a kid by buying plastic models and assembling and painting them I sort of lusted for a '58 Corvette that came with the kinda' rust colored paint job and off-white cream colored scoops on the sides. Then I started thinking I would look to buy one - a real one, not the plastic model - for my mid-life crisis. But my forties came and went without crisis and me still without a Corvette. Then some years ago I looked to see if any were on the market and what they were going for. I think I could have bought a brand new one for the same money. Wow!
 
I occasionally watch the car auctions on TV, enough to reasonably guess what most will go for. Now I don’t really want to assemble a collection, but I’d be tempted to buy a “daily driver”. Enough guys get infatuated with the bug, buy say a 57 that needs work, throw crazy money into the project, and it goes for far less than they put into it. I think for 20k (certainly less than 30k) you could snag one someone has brought back to life, with up to date running gear (brakes, shocks, chassis, engine, and appearance, etc). There are some decent deals to be made imo. But not really my jamb.
 
krusty said:
As Thoreau once wrote "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone".

A tough sell in a society built on self-imposed debt slavery and constant consumption.

YOLO prevails...until the chickens come home to roost.
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Well one of my good friends passed at age 40 from the flu. I was early 30's. He left behind a wife and 2 young kids. YOLO! I don't believe in bucket lists just figure out how to get it done. A bucket is for the soap and water to wash your Ferrari.
 
Brute said:
There are very few new cars I think will become classics in the future…of all the vehicles I’ve owned, including some very nice Italian supercars, this has always been and still is my favorite ride…’68 Bronco ragtop…with a 5.0 Coyote…
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I'm a car junky and clubracer. I have a Ram diesel megacab as a daily with the cummins diesel good for 1 million miles with 300k mile refresh cycles. My goal in life is to put 1 million miles on my Ram. It is my favorite truck.

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