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Post by Big Blue on Jun 27, 2022 10:04:40 GMT
So having seen an MC20 drive down my very suburban street I recalled a conversation with my neighbour about cars that are utterly out of kilter with their residence. We live in the kind of 1920s / 1930s bay fronted dormitory suburb that often appears on TV and the news as average Britain. When I grew up there were Escorts, Cortina’s, Maxis and 1100s aplenty and that seemed normal. Now we have 3 series’, A4s, X3s, GLAs etc. and most of the houses are 50% bigger due to extensions.
So what cars are out of kilter? Let’s go with three bed semi- and brand new Bentley Continental. Another with what was a new Maserati Quattroporte. I also recall a new Rolls Royce being parked on a particularly horrible concrete estate in Harlesden when I worked on a tube project but I think that was a territorial statement by the local hood.
Anyone else consider some cars out of place for whatever neighbourhood they are parked in?
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Post by Blarno on Jun 27, 2022 11:19:22 GMT
A mate of mine is a self made man, runs his own tipper business. Lives in a 3 bed ex council terrace and parks his R8 V10+ and his wife's C Class convertible on the drive.
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Post by johnc on Jun 27, 2022 11:40:18 GMT
One of the most valuable houses on our estate with immaculate gardens, worth c£1m has a VW Passat on the driveway - it must be c 20yrs old in flat dark blue, sounds like a tractor and puts out a good cloud of black smoke when it starts. It is also missing one wheel trim!
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Post by rodge on Jun 27, 2022 11:51:41 GMT
I worked with a guy about 20 years ago who lived in one of the most upmarket areas of Dublin.
He had worked on the oil rigs for years and made a lot of money there, saving most of it and buying a really good house in a neighbourhood that was full of doctors and lawyers.
He drove an E30 that was on its last legs and replaced it with a 15 year old Golf Mk1.
The new money hated it!
We will probably be the same soon. Our house is costing over 500k and there will be a 2003 Fiesta parked outside unit until we can afford an upgrade.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2022 12:21:12 GMT
To an extent people will choose to put money into the home rather than the car, some people have a different set of priorities.
Some folk are just not that into cars.
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Post by Ben on Jun 27, 2022 13:41:18 GMT
I live in public housing. There was a guy around here who had a Maserati Quattroporte for a while.
Also, I do wonder what people think when I bring the occasional sports car home...
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Post by Big Blue on Jun 27, 2022 15:09:46 GMT
To an extent people will choose to put money into the home rather than the car, some people have a different set of priorities. Some folk are just not that into cars. It was only when I saw John’s Passat comment and then yours that I realised this works both ways. I guess my psyche can understand “great house-barely functioning car” but not “average house-wildly expensive car.” |
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Post by Tim on Jun 27, 2022 15:13:43 GMT
We have friends who live in an expensive part of Glasgow and their day to day car is a scruffy 2003 Micra.
Having said that it shares the driveway with a newish Honda CR-V and they have other valuable stuff tucked away in their garages.
In the early 90s I lived in a block of maisonette flats and the ground floor was bedsits. One of these was occupied by a guy who drove a G Reg 520i - probably worth at least double the flat.
One of our neighbours had a 2 year old LR110 County. The flat was probably worth about £15k.
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Post by Stuntman on Jun 27, 2022 20:06:54 GMT
There's a fairly unassuming house about 1 minute's walk away from mine where there have been various cars parked on the drive over the last 6 months or so, including - in no particular order - a Civic Type R (most recent generation), a Porsche Boxster (987 generation), an Audi R8, a Toyota GR Yaris, a Ferrari 488 and several other similar cars that I've forgotten. There are always 2 such cars on the drive and sometimes 3.
No idea what the owner does!
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Post by PetrolEd on Jun 27, 2022 20:22:42 GMT
There's a fairly unassuming house about 1 minute's walk away from mine where there have been various cars parked on the drive over the last 6 months or so, including - in no particular order - a Civic Type R (most recent generation), a Porsche Boxster (987 generation), an Audi R8, a Toyota GR Yaris, a Ferrari 488 and several other similar cars that I've forgotten. There are always 2 such cars on the drive and sometimes 3. No idea what the owner does! I don’t know how your awesome garage goes down in your street Dan. Maybe the neighbours think your the local Mr Bridger |
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 27, 2022 20:28:58 GMT
We've lived in the same house for well over 20 years now. The only "oddity" was one of our near-neighbours (they moved away to somewhere much more upmarket) was a senior Staffer at Autocar/Haymarket so some of the test cars would occasionally grace our road (such as Porsches, Maseratis etc, but only for a few days at at time).
Other than that, it's transit vans, Fiestas, C-Maxes, Mokkas etc etc, just "run of the mill" stuff
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Post by Stuntman on Jun 27, 2022 20:49:17 GMT
I've just come back from an evening walk around my neighbourhood, and this is what's on the drive of said neighbour's house tonight:  A Ferrari 488, and an Audi R8 hiding behind an Aventador SVJ. Wow! And a Kia EV6 parked in front of the Lambo. The house is probably worth £450k to £500k. The cars? North of £700k I suspect, maybe more! And further up the hill is this house. The owner clearly has very limited imagination when it comes to cars:  And finally (just for Ed) - I moved my 3 cars around yesterday to put the M3 in my single garage and the other two on the drive. So here are all three, parked nearby, before the reshuffle:  My neighbours do comment on them in a positive way. Next door's family likes them (they have two young girls who are particularly excited about them) and across the road from me is an older chap who loves the Cayman, and some twentysomething Asian lads who love the Yaris! |
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Post by chipbutty on Jun 28, 2022 7:00:20 GMT
My street has plenty of gear heads and a few are definitely punching above their weight on a perceived car to house valuation. I’ve also noticed post Covid in the neighbouring streets that there have been numerous windfalls, coupled with some clear YOLO’ing.
Examples such as:
• Cayman GT4, Defender D300 HSE with all the bits and a new i3 (all belonging to the same house).
• 2018 E220 coupe swapped for a 2019 RRS P400
• 2008 R8 as a weekend car edition.
On my street – worthy of note:
• Porsche Cayenne, Tesla Model S and a Huracan convertible (assume it has a wanky name like “ Roofarelli Apertarino “) – house worth £850k
• M5 Competition, M4 Convertible and some kind of unobtanium Porsche (changes often – looked like a 911 GT3 and then a Cayman GT4) – house worth £800k
• Old 911 (964 Carrera 2 I think), Mk2 Golf GTI, 5 series and 3 series – house worth £500k.
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Post by franki68 on Jun 28, 2022 10:33:08 GMT
I've just come back from an evening walk around my neighbourhood, and this is what's on the drive of said neighbour's house tonight: A Ferrari 488, and an Audi R8 hiding behind an Aventador SVJ. Wow! And a Kia EV6 parked in front of the Lambo. The house is probably worth £450k to £500k. The cars? North of £700k I suspect, maybe more! And further up the hill is this house. The owner clearly has very limited imagination when it comes to cars: And finally (just for Ed) - I moved my 3 cars around yesterday to put the M3 in my single garage and the other two on the drive. So here are all three, parked nearby, before the reshuffle: My neighbours do comment on them in a positive way. Next door's family likes them (they have two young girls who are particularly excited about them) and across the road from me is an older chap who loves the Cayman, and some twentysomething Asian lads who love the Yaris the top picture was a common site where I lived in Manchester,in all cases the car owners were asian and the sons of the house owner. |
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Post by racingteatray on Jun 29, 2022 8:43:19 GMT
Difficult to contribute to this as someone living in a pricey part of London. Chap opposite has a Continental GT Speed. Whereas the couple who own the other half of our semi replaced their W-Reg Polo last year due to ULEZ with a 67-plate Swift. They simply aren’t car people and just need a small car for occasional use.
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Post by johnc on Jun 29, 2022 9:19:40 GMT
I went to the driving range last night and passed a candidate for this thread: an extended ex council house which has had a full fat Range Rover and a Range Rover Sport sitting outside for as long as I can remember. They get changed when new models come out (the FFRR is new) and they are both totally black - paint, wheels, trim and windows.
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Post by Martin on Jun 29, 2022 16:24:38 GMT
The only car that's a bit out of place is a 650S convertible that belongs to my neighbour a couple of houses away, but that's tucked away in his garage. Other than that, my next door neighbour has a 740d, iX and Mustang V8 and the guy next to him has a just new RRS and Cayman, but they are 4-5 bedroom detached houses, so pretty much what you'd expect.
There are so many reason why there is an apparent disparity between house values and spend on cars, some have been mentioned already plus PCPs make it easier to afford something you wouldn't otherwise be able to.
It's also really costly to move and upgrade your house/location. We've thought about it and had a look a few times over the last year, but it would be a cheaper to add a new Supercar to the fleet!
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 29, 2022 19:06:20 GMT
.....an extended ex council house which has had a full fat Range Rover and a Range Rover Sport sitting outside for as long as I can remember. If you're old enough to remember the comedian Arthur Mullard, rumour has it that he lived in a council house as his income was unpredictable, but parked his Rolls-Royce outside |
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