Thinking about selling my weekend car... thoughts?

z31maniac said:

sobe_death said:

Why are you keeping full-coverage insurance on it if you only get to drive it very occasionally?

Because it's a car worth north of $20k and only carrying liability on something that valuable seems silly?

I think the point was to go with “agreed value” specialty coverage rather than a conventional insurance plan.

Once my TR6 project is done, I figure it will be worth $15k. With Grundy, I was quoted something like $425 per year for full coverage. That’s less than adding the car to my regular plan with liability-only coverage.

You need to have a clean driving record, at least one genuine daily driver, and a covered garage space. Beyond that, you can drive it as much as you like, without any mileage restrictions. You can even drive it to work, as long as it’s not regularly used for commuting. Can’t be used on track, however. 

Fwiw here's my take. 

Sell the RS and buy a decent used 4 door vehicle for maybe half the cost of the Focus and a set of snow tires (so you don't need the expense of awd). 

Spend more time with the wife/kids for the next 15 years or so. Keep the S2 to take each kid on separate "day with dad". Get babysitter and take the wife in the S2 for date night. 

In other words, invest time in your family now. When you are older and the kids have less time to spend with you and the wife and you have progressed,start the autox/ track stuff again. 

You can still occasionally use the S2 for an autox when the wife is busy with here own hobby. 

My brother was heavily into track days before he got married. He sold the car raised he kids and kept the wife happy and last year bought a cayman for track days at the encouragement of his wife. Win win!

roninsoldier83 said:

...I'm recognizing that having a playtoy car when I already have a fun daily driver, might not be in my best interests...

In my opinion, this applies to a dedicated track rat every bit as much as it does an S2k. I would first figure out if I could justify having any limited use 'toy' car in addition to a fun daily driver, and only then worry about which one if the answer is yes. 

roninsoldier83 said:

szeis4cookie said:

3rd option - to me, the Focus RS is kind of an overkill daily driver. Sell it, keep the S2k to autocross, and get something that is fun and paid off for the street. Maybe a MkV GTI?

I prefer AWD vehicles for a daily, just due to the fact that it snows here, but that's not a bad idea. Before my Focus RS, I had a VW Golf R- great car, I only sold it after I started having an issue with the car randomly turning itself off for no apparent reason. Car was bone stock and the dealer couldn't replicate the problem.  

Here in the Denver, CO area, sporty AWD cars don't hardly depreciate. 13 year old EVO's and STI's still go for over $20k, beat to hell, with 150k miles on the clock! Used Audi's and non-turbo Subaru's go for pretty cheap, but they're not what I would consider fun to drive. I've went down the "boring daily driver" path before and didn't care for it. 

When it comes to sporty AWD cars, there aren't many to choose from that I could reasonably afford: WRX/STI, EVO, Golf R and the Focus RS. I prefer hatchbacks these days, so EVO's and new WRX/STI's are off the list. After being around Subaru's for many years, I have no interest in another one, especially an older WRX/STI hatch. I've owned a Golf R, again, great car, but there isn't much cost savings there and after my last one, I have some serious reliability concerns. 

For the record, the FoRS has been pretty easy for me to live with. Years ago, after getting out of the military in 2006, I had a 2006 STI, and I can tell you, the FoRS is substantially easier to live with in almost every way! It's not as comfortable as a luxury car, but it's not the nightmare the internet would have you believe. It doesn't like concrete expansion joints, haha, but beyond that, it's not bad at all.    

That's fair, didn't realize you live in Denver. Here in VA the AWD would be super overkill. 

That said...I feel like someone just mentioned on the board that the Acura RLX SH-AWD was a really good handling car for its size - maybe something like that or a G37x?  It also sounds like for the right car a fly and drive would be justified. 

If you keep the S2000, definitely insure it with Hagerty.  It's much cheaper than USAA (who I also use on my street cars) and will give you much better coverage.

That nice S2000 will only appreciate in value.  Probably not at the rate that throwing the money into the bitcoin bubble will, but you gotta think of all angles.