Help me decide on a car pls

[T-Rex]

Yo!

I have a healthy budget of £15,000 to spend. I'm torn between two different "rides". I'm looking for a nice sports car and the two that have caught my eye are:

Vauxhall Astra VXR - £12,999

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=680463464

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=680463828

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=680463931

Lotus Elise - £13,495

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=682715974

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=682716214

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=682716243

I like the look of both. Probably the look of the Lotus a little bit more. Although they are both under 15 g's the insurance I would pay on the Elise is way higher because of my age (21). I can afford it but I don't know if I like the Elise that much more than the Astra to pay the extra benjamins. I don't know what I'd do with the extra money I saved if I bought the Astra anyway. Opinions?

[Pandajuice]

Definitely the Lotus man. The Astra looks like a run of the mill Vauxhall that you see all over the place. That Lotus is hot though and looks a lot more expensive than it is. Plus you can call it "Elise" and talk to your friends about your new girl "Elise", and how she purrs like a kitten.

How come you're able to get the Lotus so cheaply? Isn't the sale price for a new one around £24k?
What's wrong with it besides obviously being used?

[T-Rex]

You think? I know, Vauxhalls are pretty common I guess. Hahaha, no nothing's wrong with it. The difference is the Astra is a VXR 2007 model, while the Elise is a 2003 'S' model. You can pick up the 2001-2003 line easily for under £15,000. Well, at least you can in Suffolk.

I think you might be right. Here's a black hard top. £14,995

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=688700107

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=688700143

What should I do?? Elise: 2 seater, absolute minimal storage space + higher insurance premium. Astra: generic sports car, 4 seater, decent storage space lower insurance. Fun & style over practibility? What would Jeremy Clarkson do?!

[Pandajuice]

It is a quandry indeed. But that Lotus is a fucking hot car for only £15k.

[MetalMilitia]

I've heard that Lotus Elises are expensive to maintain. Something about certain parts wearing our quickly and being expensive to replace. Might be worth looking into.

[Pub Lover]

my age (21). I don't know what I'd do with the extra money. Opinions?

:|

[Zomboid]

GET SHITFACED AND DO DUMB STUFF

[Mockery]

Get the NMG
http://www.myersmotors.com

[executioneer]

get something with a Wankel Rotary Engine

or you could get a practical car you turkey

[bigtimecow]

i look at the lotus and think "faggot jerk with a promotion." i know shit about cars, but the vauxhall atleast looks better in my opinion.

but then again, i drive a ford taurus

[Pandajuice]

but then again, i drive a ford taurus

That's got to be the most anonymous car ever. And boring.

[liquidstatik]

http://nearlife.org/img/tassajara_blk_red.jpg
this is how i get around >:

[executioneer]

That's got to be the most anonymous car ever. And boring.

probably what i'm gonna go to next then, since my ride's been increasingly more boring every time i get a new one :(

mitsubishi 3000gt > lincoln continental > toyota corolla > taurus :(

[Pub Lover]

It should be noted that Willie has been using penis enlarging equipment over the same period.

His dick isn't any bigger, but he doesn't feel he has to compensate as much.

[Asila]

I've got a Hyundai accent which is very light blue and makes me feel like a small Japanese girl when I drive it. It's the only time I think about Hello Kitty.

Ans seriously, just because you can get an expensive and impratical car doesn't mean that you should.

[T-Rex]

I went test driving yesterday. The Lotus is amazing fun, but I think if I bought it I'd be screwed when winter comes around. It's one of those cars that you use in spring and summer, and lock it away during autumn and winter.

The Vauxhall is quick and I really like the look of it, but apparently they don't last for many years. Also their value drops a lot after a year or two. So I still want a cool, reliable car but both my options have been scrapped. I kept looking and then I saw a black X-type. Wow! That's all I have to say. It's not a sporty car but damn it's cool. The Jag drives like a dream and it's only £9,449. Bonus = I wanted an English car!

http://pictures.autotrader.co.uk/imgser-uk/servlet/media?id=687039074

[MetalMilitia]

That's pretty cheap. Looks nice too.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living to have such disposable income at 21?

[T-Rex]

I'm a pilot for British Airways. Only a first officer though.

[executioneer]

MAYBE J. CLARSON WOULD RECOMMEND THIS CAR

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1BzKgjcoQ9A&feature=related

[Pandajuice]

Jeremy Clarkson pisses me off. I used to like him too because he presented a cool documentary series about the greatest inventions of the 20th century. But he pisses me off now because he can't shut up about how much he hates America.
I realize it's hip and trendy to hate America right now, but when you can't do a weekly hour long TV show without making at least 2 different unprovoked digs at another country on each show, there's something wrong with you.

[T-Rex]

To be fair though, who doesn't Jeremy Clarkson put down? He's very patriotic and his attitude is "If it's not British, it's crap" but really, he probably dumps on us as much as our western neighbours. He's a comparitive humourist/journalist.

It's kind of like how most black comedians are always comparing and saying how lame white people are. Funny stuff. "White people be all up cussing the police out. If a brother ask for directions you know he goin' to jail". LOL ain't it the truth.

[Geggy]

http://pictures.topspeed.com/IMG/crop-450x170/focus_rs_1_4w.jpg
http://www.topspeed.com/cars/ford-focus-rs/ke438.html

Banned in the US :(

[Pub Lover]

I like that I don't like Clarkson, I thought that was his appeal.

Also, I talk shit about the US all the time, just like I did in grade school about the teachers. When you're the boss, all the pussies bitch.

[Sethomas]

When I was in high school I was very interested in Lotus as a company. I noticed that there was a substantial market disparity between their values in the UK and what they would fetch in the US, and at the time I calculated that I could actually fly to England to buy a Lotus, put on a boat to the US, dick around until it gets there, then fly the the American dock and sell it somewhere at a nice profit. I told myself that I'd do that when I had startup capital, which I probably imagined would come before I turned 23/before the UK pound gained so heavily against the dollar.

I know that there are CULTURAL BARRIERS in place that you can't appreciate it as much as I do when I say this, but the Lotus you posted is pretty fucking badass.

The very, very few Americans who know that there's a British automotive company called Lotus largely have a bad impression of their styling because of the movie Pretty Woman. That was a pretty ugly fucking car, and the whole "Richard Gere is a cold and uncaring prick who obsesses over his fucking ugly car, which happens to be a Lotus" subtext really didn't help.

Seth talking about cars: justified because they're British cars.
Seth talking about the movie Pretty Woman: justified because he was assigned to watch it for a high school English class.

Bizarre full-circle end of conversation: when I was in the market for a BMW convertible on eBay back in 2001, the first one I ever bid on was sold by a Disney employee who noted that its first owner was Julia Roberts, who bought it soon after Pretty Woman was released.

[MetalMilitia]

As you sure he wasn't just imagineering things?

[Sethomas]

People who work for Disney have no imagination.

[thebiggameover]

good lord man, BUY AMERICAN!!! because we need to make our house payments!

but for reals, id go with a hundai. i hear they last forever....

if you dont give a crap about $$$ go with the jag....

[Pub Lover]

I don't think they sell American cars outside of the US.

[Evil Robot]

I have a Porsche that was sold in Kenya in 1983. When I went to get a New York emisions test I foud that the car was manufactured without a catalytic converter and was about 30 times the legal CO2 limit.

AfroSpec bitches.

[GADZOOKS]

no wonder you died in a car crash

[Evil Robot]

Actuallly I have crashed several cars. The crash that "killed" me took place in a Dodge Spirit.

[GADZOOKS]

how poetic, a spirit casted your spirit into the heavens

or hells

[Asila]

Dodge sucks the worst kind of ass.

[Fathom Zero]

I was going over a Cadillac Hearse, $3750 with 50,000 miles.

[T-Rex]

Oh just to clarify, I'm in England.

Yeah, they sell American cars in Europe. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea why. The only people who buy them are super rich jerks. Three reasons why they're jerks:

1. American cars are a lot bigger than European cars. We have loads of roads where two average (european) sized cars can comfortably fit on the road going in opposite directions. Throw a Silverado on that same road and now traffic going the other way is totally blocked. A two way road becomes a one way for the Chevy.

2. A 2.5 litre engine in England is considered a large engine size. The average sized car here runs between a 1.2 - 1.8 litre engine. A Ford Explorer has a whopping 4 litre engine. Consider this, in my area gas costs £1.11 per litre. (There's predictions of us paying £1.50 per litre towards the end of 2008/ first quarter of 2009). Running a 2.5+ litre engine is simply not financially practical. Especially when you consider point no. 1 as well.

3. We have round-abouts! Single, double and even triple sometimes. An average round-about will have two lanes. The inner is used for turning. You change into the outer when you are about to take your exit. I can understand how confusing it must be if you're not used to it. Especially because traffic moves pretty quickly at these sections. They're designed to work perfectly. If your car occupies the inner and half of the outer lane, you obstruct traffic trying to enter and exit the round-about. It's also a lot harder to judge the smaller cars and the smaller roads because:

a) you're a lot higher than everyone else (bear in mind that the roads are smaller and that traffic will be a lot closer to you).

b) you're driving on the left hand side of your car and in England we drive on the left hand side of the road. I don't even want to imagine how awkward that must be.

Yeah, these cars look really cool but it's not practical or considerate to other drivers to have them. Also, not to start a thing but the build quality on most American cars don't stack up against Germany or Japan. There was a Toyota Hilux on Top Gear that was burnt, crashed and even dumped in a lake. After all its abuse, the thing still started up! The average car in England is either from Japan, Germany or France.

[executioneer]

we drive a lot of jap/german cars here, too

[T-Rex]

Yeah, but at least you guys still have an automotive industry. GMC is huge. I think we have TVR, Lotus and Jag left. My uncle works for Mercedes and was telling me that apparently we won't have Jag for much longer, though. Apparently it takes 1/5 of the work force and 1/8 of the price to make a Jag in China than it does in England. Hence, Jaguar won't be British for much longer. Shame, really.

[Sethomas]

Properly speaking, I think Ford still has Jag.

[The One and Only...]

Get a rich lover and bum their shit. Or whatever's easiest to jack.

[executioneer]

how does that even make sense

dude is already pretty well-off

[T-Rex]

how does that even make sense

dude is already pretty well-off

I wish. I'm just still too young to have acquired any debts yet. My monthly bills:

Cell phone £20
Internet £16
Food £80
Rent £140
Petrol: £40

[executioneer]

whoops i guess i misinterpreted something then

[T-Rex]

My friends all bought really cool new cars like a couple of years ago. If you're young in the UK anybody will give you credit. So my friends all took it and pay their monthlys. I didn't because I really hate having to owe anyone money. So I've been saving all this time and have been driving a Citroen Visa for the past 3 years:

http://www.citroen.mb.ca/citroenet/passenger-cars/psa/visa/images/visa05.jpg

You Better Recognise Bitches!

I've been the joke to my friends with their new cars but whatever, this thing is a badass machine! It reaches speeds of up to 60 mph!! Most people can't even comprehend that kind of speed short of expecting to see a flux capacitor.

Mocking aside, I really like this car. It's like a bad kung-fu movie. You love it because it's so terrible.

edit: Oh, and it cost me £40 at the time. It's value now? I pay the council £120 to take it away. Seriously.