[TR] What cost to give up your Triumph? (Rhetorical?)

[Jim Muller]

On 24 Jun 2010 at 21:53, John Macartney wrote:

> "How high would gas prices have to go in your country before
> you would seriously consider giving up your Triumph?" or "If
> there was no way you could buy gas for less than $6 a gallon,
> what would justify you in keeping and using your Triumph as
> you do?"

All the answers so far have been dispassionate, practical.  But 
slightly off the mark.

First, if it was about money at all, we'd never have picked up the 
TRs or Spitfires or GT6s at all.  But having done so, the financial 
question should ask how much different the cost is between driving 
the fun cars vs. whatever else is in the garage.  My "real" car is a 
Caravan because I must carry music equipment frequently.  It gets 
about 21mpg.  The GT6 does better than that, and the Spitfire much 
better.  Even with the difference in cost of the gas, the Caravan 
costs more to run.  Were I to replace it with something more 
efficient I'd save not the cost of driving the fun cars but the 
difference between driving them and driving the new efficient car.  
It would be years before the savings paid for the new car.  Of 
course, this isn't the same as burning through fuel at 12mpg.  But 
that is the difference between a rich man's hobby and a commoner's 
hobby.  We, or at least I, chose small cars like mine because they 
were affordable both to buy and to maintain and run.

But the real issue isn't about dispassionate finance.  It is about 
what else you would do instead.  It's about life.  I could sell my 
guitars and sound gear except that I would miss the music.  I could 
give up our TV and data cable or even the phone, except that we enjoy 
them.  I could move into a house even smaller than the one we have or 
even rent an apartment, except that we like living here.  Some of you 
play golf, I am sure.  Is it worth the cost (and aggravation)?  When 
gas becomes too expensive to drive the GT6 I will simple drive it 
less often (assuming I have a better alternative, of course).  When I 
am dead it won't matter but for now I am living.  I must do something 
between now and then.

-- 
Jim Muller
jimmuller at rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+