How many is too many cars??? Scold me, applaud me, enable me?!?

It's been over a year since I bought a car and I'm starting to go a little crazy. I guess I'll start way back with in the time it began. Two events really caused my current situation. First circa 2003, I had owned a couple VWs already and was quickly shaping into a VW nerd. I leased (yeah I know) a 20th Anniversary Edition GTI in Jazz Blue. With winter approaching I didn't want to drive my nice car, so I bought a Jeep XJ from my girlfriends parents. Later nicknamed the "crap hauler" because that's what it did. That set me on the path of always owning at least two cars. 

The second event was in 2008, I had heard about European banger rallies. A company that put on a number in Europe was also doing one in the US. The B.A.B.E Rally which stood for Big Apple to Big Easy. Leaving from Staten Island I think to New Orleans in a car purchased for $250 or less. I found a Chevy Astro Van with two or three hundred thousand miles that was a newspaper delivery van for the Jersey Journal and bought it for $200. It ran and I drove it home from NJ to CT, and we did some basic maintenance on it before heading out. What that left me with was a passion for finding deals. 

Leaving a bunch out fast forward to 2025 and my total car tally owned is at 62, no this is counting parts cars and a few that never saw the road, a few that did but never registered, etc. And like all of us I have a list of "dream cars" so someday own. And keeping with my past I also have multiple vehicles currently. Here's a quick rundown of what's in the driveway now.

Registered vehicles: 

2009 Audi TT 3.2l - 6 speed manual - I love it, it's the VW R32 I always wanted in a different wrapper. I don't want to sell it, but I would like to drive it less daily. It's my most fuel efficient 4 wheels right now.

2004 VW Touareg V8 - Great vehicle, bought from auction and has cool history that it actually got shipped to Europe and spent time in France and Germany. Second daily vehicle right now, but at 14-16mpg kinda stinks.

1995 Honda ACTY Attack - It's practical and not so at the same time. Don't like to drive it too far and it's slow on hills. Great around the yard and for trips to the town dump. 

2022 Honda Grom SP - When the weather is right, can't beat 125mpg. Fun, but not for long trips. 

Projects:

2001 Porsche Boxster - Swapping a 1.8t into an empty shell

2004 VW Touareg V8 - Chopped the roof off and slowly transforming it into a pickup truck. It was the parts car I bought to get a trailer hitch cheap for the other Touareg but it runs and would be fun as a truck. 

2011 VW Touareg - Totalled in an accident, bought back, and slowly planning to do something with the drivetrain. 2025 Challenge perhaps? 

Off road/Other:

05 Brute Force 750 ATV, Honda CRF110, 2006 Ford E450 Collins Mini Bus. Bus plan was to travel the US, then became my home for a few years (long story)

The dilemma kinda lies with the 2011 Touareg. It was the newest 4 wheels I owned, got decent gas mileage 20-24+ about what the TT gets because I don't always behave. I was driving it the most for my 21 mile round trip work commute. Obviously there's costs with insurance, etc. So even if drove the V8 Touareg to work etc day of the year my total fuel cost for the years would be around $1400. One of the past cars I owned was a 2008 Audi A4 Avant. Loved it but ended up selling here on the forum to Golfduke. Then when he went to sell it I wanted it back but I the 2011 Touareg wasn't totaled yet. It's even popped up for sale in the past week from the person he sold it to... I've be wanting a more fuel efficient vehicle and specifially an Audi wagon again. But looking at what I have I don't need anytihng else. Getting a wagon really would mean I should sell something. 

One more part to the dillema is the whole dream car part. The two attainable cars are either an Audi SQ5 or an RS3. First generation SQ5 hovering around 13k at the lower end and RS3 low end 35k. So I'm itching to buy something, not ready to get an SQ5 or RS3, really want a wagon, don't know what to sell... 

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk . 

I confess that I did not verbatim the entire TED talk but in the pictures portion I am intrigued that the crap hauler has interesting mirrors

I never count projects. 

I'm scared that there might be too many and I'd have to sell a few or there might be too few and I'd have to buy more.

Best to keep the number intangible.

dan0 said:

 

 

 

Does everybody on this board have a Cherokee YJ? It's almost a requirement.

Yeah. I have one too.

John - I got too close to a neighbors mailbox accidently and broke a mirror, those are eBay Jeep TJ mirrors haphazardly attached.

Shawn - Been meaning to update the list and try to get a tally of the actual registered vehicles, or at least the ones I drove. There was one XJ I drove for about three months but just swapped plates, shh....

Snowdoggie - The cheap XJ bug hit me pretty hard. I think the total number of XJs I've owned was 7, maybe 8. One ZJ that never drove, torque converter lockup issue, and one WJ. No wranglers yet but came close at one point. 

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

Does everybody on this board have a Cherokee XJ? It's almost a requirement.

 

Yeah. I have one too.

FTFY

another BABE vet here and I'll say the measure of too many is only defined by your housing requirements, neighbors and SO.   I've had as many as 15 at at time.   Oddly enough when we moved to an 11 acre farm everyone expected I'd turn it into a parking lot for all the bad ideas but I think the max Ive had here at any time is 6.   You choose your battles.  If I find something cheap enough to pick up I will, but I think the current used market has helped keep me in check.  Certainly no way we'd run a BABE rally these days with the $250 purchase restriction or even the later $500 purchase restriction.   I do my own personal banger rallies every once in awhile but in the past few years I've been hard pressed to find anything under 1k which is worth consideration.

Bottom line if they make you happy, enjoy them, if they cause you stress clean house.

This is probably the wrong place to ask if you have too many cars, y'know?

Let's see, right now I have running and registered:

-Corvette Z06

-GX550 

-Wife's Mazda 6

-Honda Africa Twin

-Ducati SFV4

-Work truck

-Work van

-1966 Ford F100, too (literally bought it just 2 hours ago)

Projects:

-Miata track-only car

-Miata street/track car

-Kawasaki KZ1300

-Kawasaki ZN1300

So what is that, about a dozen? It's fine, it's good.

There is no such thing as too many cars.  I think we're at ten.  A few more and it would get tricky finding a place for them all without some of them being in the way.

A car for every occasion is my motto

SWMBO said if the garage is left to its own devices bad things will happen, so she always gets one spot.  I get the rest of it, which means right now I have 3 cars and hers.  

330i daily

wife's x3 daily

997.1S weekend toy

dunceCar (c6 track car)

i had considered getting a tow vehicle this past winter but i would have to park it outside, we live next to a wooded area with lots of mice and critters so we don't want to own something that won't run when it's needed.  So no pickup for now.  

I'm currently at 4, have been up to 5 and it's a hassle with my driveway and garage.  3 would be ideal at the moment but I like having a fun daily, the Crosstrek appliance, the Celica celebrity race car and something extra to play with. 

I saw the 62 and at first thought that you meant currently owned 62, which I would personally consider as probably too many. Looks like you currently own 8, so that's not too bad. I'm personally trying to get down to 16. If you have funds and parking space and enjoy owning them, I see no reason to get rid of any. If you're asking if you have too many though, that may be the case or at least you're getting close to your personal max number.

No problems with neighbors. Everything has its place and with the exception of the Boxster everything runs. And the Boxster sits in the garage. I usually move things around and re-arrange from time to time as well. There's a spot where eventually it would be nice to build a second garage, but that's a 5 year out kind of thought.

Right now I'm just getting antsy and want a cheap decent daily driver that I don't have to worry much about. 

I don't think you have too many vehicles, not counting the projects.

And I think there's a big difference between having multiple projects you are working on at once versus a bunch of projects you swear you are going to start working on soon.

In reply to Colin Wood :

I can agree on this, if you are actively working on a car, then I personally wouldn't add it to the count. For those that are running and do great for different occasions, just think of it has having your own fleet haha. 

I have 6 vehicles (5 cars, 1 truck) and I do not find that excessive.  Others might.

Any time I've had 5+ it seems like even basic maintenance starts to take over all my free time.

I'm probably an outlier as every single car in the fleet runs and drives. I feel like 3-4 is the sweet spot

The correct question is not how many cars is too many...the correct question is how many cars can you fit in the garage/on the property?

In reply to 4cylndrfury :

House is on an acre lot. Two car garage, paved driveway. Currently have Boxster in one garage spot. Mom's EOS in the other.

The TT parked outside. Would eventually like to grab a 4 post lift to store the Boxster and TT in the garage. Two more spaces by that where the Touareg truck and 2011 are both under car covers.

Other end of the house is the bus parked, second unpaved access. And where the other Touareg is parked. 
 

Land slopes down from there and there's a patch where I have a small instant shed. And park the ATV and ACTY truck by sometimes. Then the rest is undeveloped. I have a little trail through that I can take the ATV and ACTY through to the other driveway.

So I could fit a whole lot more and have them neatly away from road view. A good number of trees around so when the leaves come in the Spring things are even more hidden. 
 

There's a neighbor 5-6 houses up that has a few cars and they're on a smaller plot so all the cars are lined up in the driveway right to the road. No complaints from anyone that I know of. 

62. 62? How do you know? Do you keep a spreadsheet or hash marks on the garage wall? I'm not even sure how many Boxsters I've owned at this point.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Spreadsheet. I need to go through at some point and see if I can archive pictures of each along with a little detail about each.
 

Some might be difficult in times between digital cameras and online storage. I think a couple might only have pictures on hard drives that eventually failed and not backed up. 

I realized at some point that as you own more and more vehicles, the less you do with them until ultimately you do nothing with all of them.  If you have cars/trucks/motorcycles/whatever you haven't touched for a long period of time, it's probably time to reduce inventory.  (I'm still working on it; I sold off all my motorcycles a couple years ago, but still have several cars that really should go...it's not doing them any good just sitting in the garage collecting dust.)

Like driving on the highway where anybody going faster, or slower, than you is a jerk. The correct answer is 10, ...or 11, I haven't counted lately.

And I've had 3 XJ's over the years.

I've gotten rid of 3 in the past few months so I'm down to 9.

99 Miata

14 Mustang 

03 Mustang

09 Hummer H3T

14 Touareg

18 Volvo XC90

07 Endeavor

26 REO T6

62 Falcon

Add to that SanFord, a 56 B600 converted to a motorhome and Morens, a 2007ish F450 shuttle bus. 

Then add in the work fleet. 

17 F150

15 F150

11 Chevy 1500

07 GMC Sierra

03 Ford Ranger

So the grand total is 16.All but a few are insured and tagged.