Is your Lexus your daily driver & do you have other cars?

[JamesIS220]

53 minutes ago, rich1068 said:

A friend of mine recently picked this one up and he's rather taken with it.

Looks fantastically clean. Egg grate grill too. I would love to find a top CD spec one but not many around. Getting rare now as last 940 was 1998. Trim specs can be all over the place from poverty spec or all bits used up on last of the line.

James👍

[TKhan430]

Looks nice James, 

I've owned 30 cars so far. Volvo wish I'd tried more of in my youth they're great cars! 

[superatticman]

I've done the whole '2 cars' thing in the past and just found it to be too expensive in the long run. Its worth a go if you have something a bit more specialist and just want a bog standard daily driver to accompany it. 2003-2005, I owned a 1991 Trans Am GTA at one point and after a few months of using it as a daily driver decided to buy a tired but tough as nails Mazda 323F as a runabout. Two sets of insurance, tax, MOT etc though does start to grate but as a daily the 350ci V8 Trans AM was starting to hit my wallet. The main problem though was not being able to really carry much kit about. A bit of a problem if you are an IT contractor.  

God knows how but in 2010 I also ended up with a Honda Accord 3.0 V6 Coupe and a MG ZT CDTi+ on the books for about 6 months. I bought the Honda as an 11 year old car but with barely 30k on, 1 owner with a full dealer stamp. Was planning on selling the MG at the same time but the market had crashed for this car and was looking at a fairly big loss. Kept them both but the two sets of expenses soon started to hit so the ZT went onto eBay and inevitable big loss occurred. Don't think I'd have gained anything by keeping it for longer and have no off road storage. 

To get back totally on topic though. My GS covers all my needs. A fantastic daily driver. But slightly 'rare' and different to give me that non conformist kudos. Very nearly bought a Carlton GSi 3000 24v that a friend was selling cheap, but thankfully my more sensible side took over. As much as I wanted one at the time...it just seemed a plasticky, notchy, poorly equipped potential money pit that offered nothing that my GS does. 

[DanD]

On 6/13/2021 at 1:32 PM, First_Lexus said:

NX is my daily, and a most excellent car it is too.

In the garage I have a 2004 MINI Cooper, bought new with only 13k miles now and dry use from new. Never used in the Winter. Condition is as new, if not slightly better! A couple of years ago it was claimed - not by me - to be the best original condition in the country, which was nice.

When I bought it, I knew it was one to put away and keep forever. Was invited to Plant Oxford to see it made, partly because of the epic spec (was the highest spec Cooper made up to that point) and partly because of my involvement with MINI / Mini over many years, which led to Modern MINI magazine nominating me for a ‘lifetime achievement’ award.

Others have come and gone - 1981 HL, 1987 Mayfair, 1974 Clubman and 2001 MINI One (the dealer demo) but this one stays. Still love it.

Funnily enough, our Mesa red NX is my daily driver. My wife is a 2005 Mini Cooper (silver with black roof) with 33,000 miles on the clock.

[Malc]

On 6/19/2021 at 3:36 PM, superatticman said:

but tough as nails Mazda 323F

we had one of these till 2016 but sadly she just fell to pieces with rust all around the bottom ...... 148k miles and a '94 plate but wow, she felt like a sports car, short little manual gear stick and go faster seats ......  brilliant little thing and that amazing hatchback too .....  wot a car !

Malc

[First_Lexus]

4 hours ago, DanD said:

Funnily enough, our Mesa red NX is my daily driver. My wife is a 2005 Mini Cooper (silver with black roof) with 33,000 miles on the clock.

^^ I’m hoping to move house shortly, and I’m planning to purchase a 2001/2 MINI One for running around in while there are still a few original survivors left. Something I can play with and improve should be available for £2-3k. I always had more than one MINI/Mini - four at the same time at one stage - and feel a little bit sad with only my Cooper that I can only use sparingly as I want to maintain the perfect mileage/condition. It’s a hobby…

[paulrnx]

14 hours ago, First_Lexus said:

^^ I’m hoping to move house shortly, and I’m planning to purchase a 2001/2 MINI One for running around in while there are still a few original survivors left. Something I can play with and improve should be available for £2-3k. I always had more than one MINI/Mini - four at the same time at one stage - and feel a little bit sad with only my Cooper that I can only use sparingly as I want to maintain the perfect mileage/condition. It’s a hobby…

We’re planning on keeping our Mini Cooper for as long as it stays problem free or at least relatively problem free. I’m sure we’ll need to fix wear and tear items at some point. My son has a newer Mini Cooper with the JCW kit. Looks sharp and he loves it too.

Out of interest have you investigated the value of your pristine Mini Cooper? Possibly hard to value something like that though?

My son and I did the manufacturing plant tour too. A really impressive facility and it’s fantastic to see how they make the cars. The cost of modern cars is put into perspective when you see the investment that car companies have to make in their plants.

[DanD]

17 hours ago, First_Lexus said:

^^ I’m hoping to move house shortly, and I’m planning to purchase a 2001/2 MINI One for running around in while there are still a few original survivors left. Something I can play with and improve should be available for £2-3k. I always had more than one MINI/Mini - four at the same time at one stage - and feel a little bit sad with only my Cooper that I can only use sparingly as I want to maintain the perfect mileage/condition. It’s a hobby…

I had a T-reg, bright blue Mini 1000 in the 80's. Drove to Spain and back twice, to Paris and back half a dozen times and once to Munich. All this over 4 years of ownership and of course in addition to my daily commute to work. Amazingly it never let me down. The only incident I ever had was a smashed windscreen in the South of France. Got hit by a stone on the motorway on a hot day. Nothing happened at the time, but woke up to a crazed windscreen the following morning, no doubt brought on by the overnight change in temperature.

The car was regularly serviced, but looking back, I must have been mad to attempt such trips without a second thought. I guess I was young then... and obviously very lucky!

The funny thing is that I then decided to go for a drastic upgrade: an early, red Maserati Biturbo (second hand). I loved it but only had the opportunity to use it locally for the 6 months I owned it because it broke down at least 4 times. I eventually sold it on because I could not afford to run it!

[royoftherovers]

33 minutes ago, DanD said:

I had a T-reg, bright blue Mini 1000 in the 80's. Drove to Spain and back twice, to Paris and back half a dozen times and once to Munich. All this over 4 years of ownership and of course in addition to my daily commute to work. Amazingly it never let me down. The only incident I ever had was a smashed windscreen in the South of France. Got hit by a stone on the motorway on a hot day. Nothing happened at the time, but woke up to a crazed windscreen the following morning, no doubt brought on by the overnight change in temperature.

The car was regularly serviced, but looking back, I must have been mad to attempt such trips without a second thought. I guess I was young then... and obviously very lucky!

The funny thing is that I then decided to go for a drastic upgrade: an early, red Maserati Biturbo (second hand). I loved it but only had the opportunity to use it locally for the 6 months I owned it because it broke down at least 4 times. I eventually sold it on because I could not afford to run it!

An impressive performance from the Mini Daniel.

A pal of mine had a red one TMA279D and he clocked over 100,000 miles without any problem.

[TKhan430]

On 6/19/2021 at 3:36 PM, superatticman said:

I've done the whole '2 cars' thing in the past and just found it to be too expensive in the long run. Its worth a go if you have something a bit more specialist and just want a bog standard daily driver to accompany it. 2003-2005, I owned a 1991 Trans Am GTA at one point and after a few months of using it as a daily driver decided to buy a tired but tough as nails Mazda 323F as a runabout. Two sets of insurance, tax, MOT etc though does start to grate but as a daily the 350ci V8 Trans AM was starting to hit my wallet. The main problem though was not being able to really carry much kit about. A bit of a problem if you are an IT contractor.  

God knows how but in 2010 I also ended up with a Honda Accord 3.0 V6 Coupe and a MG ZT CDTi+ on the books for about 6 months. I bought the Honda as an 11 year old car but with barely 30k on, 1 owner with a full dealer stamp. Was planning on selling the MG at the same time but the market had crashed for this car and was looking at a fairly big loss. Kept them both but the two sets of expenses soon started to hit so the ZT went onto Ebay and inevitable big loss occurred. Don't think I'd have gained anything by keeping it for longer and have no off road storage. 

To get back totally on topic though. My GS covers all my needs. A fantastic daily driver. But slightly 'rare' and different to give me that non conformist kudos. Very nearly bought a Carlton GSi 3000 24v that a friend was selling cheap, but thankfully my more sensible side took over. As much as I wanted one at the time...it just seemed a plasticky, notchy, poorly equipped potential money pit that offered nothing that my GS does. 

Thanks for great post. You've got good taste in cars. I suppose if you're dripping in money and space a fleet would be nice. Thanks for the pictures 🙂

[TKhan430]

On 7/6/2021 at 11:57 AM, DanD said:

I had a T-reg, bright blue Mini 1000 in the 80's. Drove to Spain and back twice, to Paris and back half a dozen times and once to Munich. All this over 4 years of ownership and of course in addition to my daily commute to work. Amazingly it never let me down. The only incident I ever had was a smashed windscreen in the South of France. Got hit by a stone on the motorway on a hot day. Nothing happened at the time, but woke up to a crazed windscreen the following morning, no doubt brought on by the overnight change in temperature.

The car was regularly serviced, but looking back, I must have been mad to attempt such trips without a second thought. I guess I was young then... and obviously very lucky!

The funny thing is that I then decided to go for a drastic upgrade: an early, red Maserati Biturbo (second hand). I loved it but only had the opportunity to use it locally for the 6 months I owned it because it broke down at least 4 times. I eventually sold it on because I could not afford to run it!

Wow that's some trips there! Great story 🙂

[TKhan430]

Couple of snaps of my ride (plates are for show is my YouTube channel name) 🙂  

[Jayw13702]

My daly driver, just clocked up 205,000 miles in it and now treating it to an F-sport interior upgrade.

normally I move my cars on by this mileage but this one doesn’t look like it’s done half it’s mileage so it’s staying for a while

[superatticman]

17 hours ago, TKhan430 said:

Thanks for great post. You've got good taste in cars. I suppose if you're dripping in money and space a fleet would be nice. Thanks for the pictures 🙂

Haha cheers 🙂

Also owned this absolute beast for about a year 12 or so years ago. Does this count as a 'Lexus' daily driver or is it a more humble Toyota?? Either way it was an absolutely potent and reliable car for the money. Was the TT version of the Soarer. Was pretty heavy on fuel though. According to those who owned many of these cars, the 4L V8 was actually more frugal in some situations!!!

I'd just given my Brother a race in his missus pricey Z4. Lets say he was a bit embarrassed by the end.........

 

[TKhan430]

On 7/8/2021 at 3:55 PM, superatticman said:

Haha cheers 🙂

Also owned this absolute beast for about a year 12 or so years ago. Does this count as a 'Lexus' daily driver or is it a more humble Toyota?? Either way it was an absolutely potent and reliable car for the money. Was the TT version of the Soarer. Was pretty heavy on fuel though. According to those who owned many of these cars, the 4L V8 was actually more frugal in some situations!!!

I'd just given my Brother a race in his missus pricey Z4. Lets say he was a bit embarrassed by the end.........

 

Love them brother! You have exquisite taste! 

 

Check out me from the back of my 430

 

 

[stormchaser]

Trying to keep the miles down on my Lexus so i,m using the wifes Toyota Aygo for work.It,s a lot of 3 pot fun haha.

[TKhan430]

12 hours ago, stormchaser said:

Trying to keep the miles down on my Lexus so i,m using the wifes Toyota Aygo for work.It,s a lot of 3 pot fun haha.

I think it's good to put on as many miles as you can on your lexus. That way you get more enjoyment from it and the cost per mile against your purchase price decreases 🙂

 

[TKhan430]

Couple of snaps of my 430 🙂

[Bluesman]

2 hours ago, TKhan430 said:

Couple of snaps of my 430 🙂

Very nice, love that colour.

[stormchaser]

On 7/16/2021 at 11:31 AM, TKhan430 said:

I think it's good to put on as many miles as you can on your lexus. That way you get more enjoyment from it and the cost per mile against your purchase price decreases 🙂

 

Very true yes.Its had a hard life recently so i,m letting it rest a while and use it much less now than the Aygo.

[TKhan430]

I've made a video on how to do basic checks on LS430 with mechanic. Check it out