What Must-Have Car Could You Afford To Buy But Maybe Not Afford To Keep Running?

Our reach might always be outside of our grasp, and that’s very true with automobiles. There are plenty of cars out there you could afford to buy, but keeping it running would be another story. That doesn’t mean you don’t still want them. Which cars would you be tempted to buy even if for now you could just say you owned one?

Somewhere I read a story from a man who has owned a Ferrari 365GTC/4 since new. He said, “It’s great to drive when it’s running right and great to look at, but in the fifty-odd years I’ve had it I’ve spent a lot of time looking at it.” Indeed, his tale includes lots of headaches and money spent on every mile it’s covered. It’s a great car, but as a functioning motor vehicle, not so much. There are plenty of cars like that. Unlike that Ferrari, many are quite affordable, and they’d make great objects to put on your driveway to make the neighbors swoon and even raise property values on your street, but you couldn’t swing to driving it every day, if at all. What would be your choices?

To me, a perfect example would have to be a Series 3 Jaguar XJ6 or 12, or really any XJ before the boxy XJ40. My aesthetics might be forever stuck in the past, but it’s still the most beautiful four-door sedan ever built. Thanks to appearances in things like The Equalizer, LA Law and Whitesnake videos, it will still be considered a desirable, aspirational car to almost anyone who lays eyes on it.

These are typically dirt cheap, especially if they aren’t running. This V-12 one here sold on BaT for less than $2000, listed as “running” but no transmission. Again, the definition of “running” with these kinds of things is different than a “normal” car.

Honestly, even if they are fully functioning, they ride well but aren’t fast or quiet at all by modern standards. Besides, the risk of breakdown or a sudden under-hood barbecue is always there, and it likely won’t stay running for long. Don’t even talk about putting a Chevy small block under the hood; I’d rather let it sit as a paperweight than give it a Camaro motor.

No, I’d like to own one, just look out each morning and watch the dew collect on that sculpted, tapering hood. I might want to drain the oil first to keep the driveway stain-free. Some might put the equally cheap-and-tragic Jaguar XJS in as a choice. I’ve personally never been a fan of this sort-of-early-seventies-Mustang-looking thing, but I guarantee the Amazon delivery lady one day would say, “You have such a pretty car.”

Another one that can be bought for used Altima money but requires the equivalent of a monthly lease payment on a new Mercedes to keep running would be a BMW 850i. From the moment I saw that Alec Baldwin’s infamous character in Glengarry Glen Ross had one, the Munich firm’s uber-coupe from the early nineties has always remained an unattainable object. “You know why, mister? ‘Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight and I drove an eighty-thousand-dollar BMW.”

Our Mercedes Streeter is always looking for a “cheap, running example” of an early 8-series, and has said that our Thomas Hundal “knows a guy” who speaks highly of his. My response to this is a simple no. Actually, it’s hell no, I am rather certain that Thomas’s friend sinks massive sums of cash into his and can wrench like nobody’s business with huge blocks of time in his hands. On the other hand, our Mercedes Streeter seems afraid to drive my old E61 wagon much (wise decision), and if she’s cautious about running a 20-year-old six-cylinder BMW, then maintaining a 35-year-old one with what amounts to essentially two full 5-series drivetrains under the hood would be a mistake.

A “running” example will likely only stay that way for a few weeks before it nickel-and-dimes you, or more likely 1000 and 2000 dollars you even if you fix it yourself. Besides, even in the period when the reviews of the 8 series were a bit less-than-stellar, many Bimmerheads considered it to be a bit too big, too heavy, and lacking driver focus.

To be honest, Mercedes Streeter would get far, far more enjoyment out of Matt’s manual E39 530i; a much more reliable and fun-to-drive BMW. Still, I get it: it’s not the same as having an 850 in your driveway, running or not. I want one, too, dammit.

How about you? What car would you buy (or have bought) even though you know you couldn’t take care of it properly until the elusive “some day” when you’re left a large sum of cash?

Top graphic image: Beverly Hills Car Club