A "What Car Thread" Math Problem- Have Three, Want Two

So we've got three cars in question here, and at the end of the shuffle we want two.

The cars:

-'85 MR2 hardtop, my daily driver.  Koni/GC setup, fun loud exhaust, bright yellow, manual everything, 35mpg of backroads fun.  Good condition.
-'08 Impreza Outback Sport, Sara's daily driver.  King springs, skidplate, manual trans, unstoppable snow machine.  Ugly but functional, almost unbelievably slow.
-'14 BRZ.  Turbo kit, pretty white pearl paint, fancy tuner parts, nice interior.  Recent purchase which could replace one of the other two and double as a future parts car for the rally BRZ, or just be sold.

The main options:

-Sell one of the cars and spend the cash on rally entry fees.
-Sell two of the cars and replace somebody's daily with a nicer one... then spend any leftover cash on rally entry fees.

The main optional routes here are either selling the MR2 and I can daily the BRZ, or selling both the BRZ and the Impreza and getting Sara an '08+ WRX hatch as a replacement daily.  Small outside chance she could daily the BRZ but that's a big drop in practicality from the Impreza.

How would you turn three into two?

Sell me the mr2 for challenge money. Problem solved!

Ugly but functional snow vehicle is great if you need it. If it doesn't owe you anything I'd keep that and sell whichever of your cars you'd be okay parting with.

I think there's something to be said for dailying the same chassis you rally since there's always an intimacy/muscle memory thing that happens with a DD. A frisbee is also probably safer as a DD than an MR2. Could always paint the turbo BRZ when you get that bodywork addressed.

In reply to bluej (Forum Supporter) :

The pearl white paint is neat, I'm getting the quarter panel matched and the turbo BRZ will stay that color- it's actually really, really nice everywhere else.

I agree about the safety thing, although for me "daily driver" is relative since it tends to be split with the revolving door of project cars and motorcycles also.  The main upgrade over the MR2 other than safety would probably be general niceness and highway comfort.  The question is whether I want to trade that for what the MR2 has going for it- cool factor and the ability to drive it in a fun way without traveling at "go directly to jail" speed.

I'm not a fan of turbo cars so for me the BRZ would go.

If Sara likes the Impreza then keep it, if not sell the BRZ & the Impreza and get her something nicer, that isn't a WRX, one boy racer car (MR2) is enough. 

Now is the wrong time to be looking for a new DD for no good reason.  Supply/demand/inflated pricing.

My vote is replace the MR2 with BRZ as your DD.  Other than being basic-cool, which is in the same range as a motorcycle, there isn't anything that much better or more unique about the MR2.  The only reason I give this advice is because you don't seem to want to be hoarding cars and keeping everything, which is the most obvious answer.  So if one has to go, make it the MR2.

In reply to Tom1200 :

Hey, she's the one who wants a WRX, not me!  
 

In reply to glueguy :

I've never been a "keep them all" person, I don't really get it- once I have trouble finding excuses to drive everything I get annoyed that there are too many and sell stuff.  That inflated pricing is exactly why I'm itchy to sell something, I could be on the correct side of that equation.

It's worth mentioning that, other than the three vehicles in question, there is also the rally car, the road trip Cadillac, the tow rig, and four motorcycles.  We have no shortage of vehicles.

I think I'd sent the MR2 down the road and daily the BRZ.  It's faster, nicer, and safer.

Sell the MR2 or the BRZ. The question is: which one do you love more? Which one will you regret getting rid of? There are a lot more 86s than MR2s left. You can still get 86s relatively easy. If the $40,000 Corolla is any indicator, your MR2 might reach the realm of "I'll never be able to afford one again." 

In reply to Appleseed :

This is part of my concern- it already happened to the second generation after I sold my '91 MR2.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

I'd sell the MR2, daily the BRZ. 

I'd wait on replacing the Outback Sport with a WRX, used car prices are insane at the moment. 

But I'd also replace the Outback Sport with the WRX when prices drop. 

You say this is the story, but it's not the story. We know that. Your fleet is WAY bigger than those three and I think looking at those three in isolation is different than looking at them all together. But that's just the guy sitting here trying to figure out how to own less cars myself. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

-Cadillac will be sold after the roadtrip.
-Tow rig is fine.
-Rally car isn't going anywhere.

Ignore the bikes and that's actually all of them- the values and insurance costs on the bikes are so low that they barely factor in anyway.  I don't know how any of this really impacts the other stuff, other than maybe being able to use the tow rig as an occasional commuter, but I'd be interested in any thoughts on a solution that encompasses more of them.  Sell like four things and get one awesome tow rig/daily?  Hmmm.

Let's say you had a pile of money that was about as big as the value of the 3 cars in question.   Would you buy any of them as is with said pile of money?   
 

What are your real needs and wants?  Start from scratch and see if any of these actually fit them.   We went through this about a year ago and went down a car by combining my Mercedes and my wife's Mazda3 into a newer Mercedes wagon.  Sold my Mercedes and made the Mazda a Lemons car, so down to 3 daily drivers: Suburban, NSX, Mercedes.   If we were starting from scratch we might have ended up with a Mercedes GL as long trip and tow pig, an NC or ND for fun and alternate daily and maybe stop there, but the NSX and Suburban are holding or increasing in value and perfectly serve our needs for the moment so they stayed.  

In reply to Sonic :

That's an interesting way to look at it.  Do I have to spend all the money on the replacements, or can I be stingy and keep some of it to have fun with instead?  If it's the second thing we might very well wind up with the same crappy Impreza and a much crappier BRZ than the one I have now, and a bunch of cash.  It's extremely rare that I buy anything other than the bottom of the barrel, unless I land a good deal.

If it's the first thing and I assume I have to spend all the money on two replacement vehicles, I have to think for a bit because I'm really not sure.  Almost certainly an AWD manual hatch of some type, and a RWD manual thing of some type.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

-Cadillac will be sold after the roadtrip.
-Tow rig is fine.
-Rally car isn't going anywhere.

Sell like four things and get one awesome tow rig/daily?  Hmmm.

Something like that, yea. Or wrap the "fun back road" thing into the bike fleet and let the daily be tow/lame/snow crusher? Are you still at home for work? 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Still home at the moment but that is probably coming to an end.  "Fun back road" can also be the rally car, there's nothing stopping me from driving it on the road other than fear of people hitting it and that's already happened once.  Maybe I'll make a post doing the full exercise Sonic suggested.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

It's your and Sara's money, you do what you want with it that meets your needs and desires, they are different for everyone. 

OK let's do the Sonic math with some ballpark pricing.

Bikes:
-1125CR, $3k
-Black DRZ400, $2k
-Yellow DRZ400, $3k
-NX250, $2k

Cars:
-Rally BRZ $15k
-Turbo BRZ $12k
-MR2 $5k
-Cadillac $5k
-2500HD $5k
-Impreza $3k

Poof, we hit "convert to cash" and they're all gone!  Now there's a pile of $55k sitting in my garage.  What do we want?

-A rally car.  Honestly I'd just build the same damn thing again so let's take $15k out of this immediately.  We now have $40k.
-A tow rig capable of pulling a two horse trailer out of a muddy field and safely going down the highway with it fully loaded.  This means big and 4wd.
-At least one daily driver that isn't the tow rig.

So in theory we could spend like $20k on each of those and have no other fun, but neither of us wants to drive a giant stupid truck every day so let's say we delete that one and buy our $5k 2500HD right back.  We now have $35k with the rally car and tow rig taken care of.

What's left in terms of stuff we want to do the stuff we like?

-At least one daily driver that isn't the tow rig.
-Dualsport bikes to ride together.
-A fast bike to scare the E36 M3 out of me.
-Maybe a fun car.

Let's look at the bikes- I've tried to replace the 1125CR a few times and nothing scares me more, so we can keep that one.  Let's keep the two cheapest dual sports too because I don't think we're doing better than $2k/ea replacing them, so $7k worth of bikes removed from the budget.  $28k remaining for daily drivers and fun cars.

Here's where things break down- to be completely honest, I'm an idiot.  If you told me I HAD to spend $28k on cars excluding the rally car and tow rig I'd get Sara whatever she wants, let's say a $10k WRX hatch, and immediately spend that remaining $18k on the worst Viper, Lotus, or other completely impractical thing that I probably shouldn't have.  And if you tell me I don't have to spend it all, I'd buy the cheapest thing I could get my hands on that I found interesting.  Like an old MR2, maybe.  Or a crashed BRZ that needs some repairs but is too well priced to pass up.

So I think we've actually found the problem- outside of racing and bikes (where I feel my needs are met decently at the moment) and Sara's needs I really just want to berkeley around with dumb cars occasionally and not lose much money doing it.  I don't have a pressing need for a nice daily driver, even when I had my old job and commuted over an hour each way I liked my $1500 '85 Celica just fine for it.

Maybe I just learned that I'm doing OK?  If I fall in love with the turbo BRZ after driving it a bunch I'll sell the MR2.

Unless... anybody know of a 4x4 truck with really good towing stability that would be considerably more fun to daily drive than an 8.1 powered 2500HD?

Anything that will tow what you want to tow won't be "fun" in the way your talking. It can be awesome though.....

Good call on keeping the DRZs. You can't get one for much less than $4000 these days. 

Okay given the info from Seth these 3 cars fill two roles:  DD for SO and fun cars. 

Given that if she wants a WRX as a DD and fun car, get her one.  However given what I know about the current car market, I'd be inclined to wait as long as possible. 

So now that we know she is getting a WRX, do you want to DD the BRZ or MR2 more?  That's the only question you need to answer for yourself.

My wife has her DD, and I have my DD, and we have 3 fun cars.  My DD can also tow things which helps.  You need a DD that can do lots of things IMO, but you have a separate tow rig for your race car. 

So again which do you enjoy more the MR2 or the BRZ?  Keep that one.  The Outback is gone, because she wants a WRX, and no one is going to be happy if she isn't happy.  Have fun, and let us know how it turns out. 

if it were me, id sell the impreza and turbo brz. get her the car she wants. if you like the mr2, spend the extra cash on that doing things you want to do to it; or keep the cash. if you want something new, sell the trifecta and look at cars you'd want to own

im in a similar issue with my cars

I am firmly in the keep the MR2 camp. nothing else does what a mid engined sidewinder can. Sell the turbo Frisbee for a good profit in this crazy market and spend the money on entry fees. Track days with the MR2 are a good extra-curricular activity for less $ than rally too.