Depreciation resistant contractor's cars?

[Freamon]

I once bought a Singer Gazelle for GBP3 (it should have been GBP12) with a recon engine. After a couple of months of being the pub taxi I sold it to a scrappie for GBP15. An appreciation or what?

Is it in the window of an All Saints now?

[DimPrawn]

I keep coming back to the same conclusion.

997 Turbo. £50K now, they ain't going to lose much value. Not stupidly showy, but stupidly fast and usable every day in all weather. Me wants one.

[AtW]

I've got 3 contractor number plates today

997 Turbo seems to be good motor but it would take like 3-4 more years for a 2012 model to be worth £50k...

[PAH]

997 Turbo...usable every day in all weather.

Is the all wheel drive system capable of dealing with snow (where clearance isn't the problem) as well as more typical 4x4s?

997 non turbos now in the mid £20ks. Are they likely to hold value better than the 996 due to being perceived as more reliable and a more modern package?

Hopefully as the 991 (what happened to the numbering system?) looks pretty similar to the 997 it'll not affect 997 prices too adversely.

[Sysman]

I once bought a Singer Gazelle for GBP3 (it should have been GBP12) with a recon engine. After a couple of months of being the pub taxi I sold it to a scrappie for GBP15. An appreciation or what?

I got a tip like that from a chap in my first proper job. His car blew up the day before the annual family holiday so he bought a Morris Minor with 11 months MOT for thirty quid. It lasted him the next year, at which point he scrapped it and got another for thirty quid. He just needed to keep topping it up with oil.

I found a scrap yard that paid 15 quid for runners delivered. I got a nearly brakeless Mini there by topping up the radiator every half mile, and with an old coat stuffed into the seat bottom so that I could see over the steering wheel

[PAH]

One of the advantages of working in Europe is that people don't think you are a ****** if you turn up for work in a decent German saloon or estate car.

There was even a de lorean in the car park occasionally.

Worse case I've come across was a new director turning up in a Ferrari on his first day. Turns out he'd hired it to make a grand entrance.

Second worse case was me turning up in a brand new Lotus Exige (S1, of which only around 700 were made so pretty rare and even more so that it had only just been released) and having to reverse down the ramp to the car park as the front splitter was too low.

Got canned a few months later so lesson learnt. Arrive on site in something less conspicuous, or find somewhere to park it out of sight.

[DimPrawn]

Is the all wheel drive system capable of dealing with snow (where clearance isn't the problem) as well as more typical 4x4s?

997 non turbos now in the mid £20ks. Are they likely to hold value better than the 996 due to being perceived as more reliable and a more modern package?

Hopefully as the 991 (what happened to the numbering system?) looks pretty similar to the 997 it'll not affect 997 prices too adversely.

C4S has same 4x4 system as the Turbo, just no Turbo.

[Sysman]

Worse case I've come across was a new director turning up in a Ferrari on his first day. Turns out he'd hired it to make a grand entrance.

Another take: When I was in France i met a salesman who really didn't want anything expensive because of the taxes there, but he would rent a nice Merc or whatever to take customers out, and let them have a drive too.

[ChrisPackit]

a brand new Lotus Exige and having to reverse down the ramp to the car park as the front splitter was too low.

Similar situation with me years ago, but outside of office hours. Queued up at the Windermere car ferry crossing in a Skyline GTR I had at the time with a really low splitter. I was at the front of the queue with 20 cars behind me, and couldn't get onto the ferry as the car was too low, and had 20 irate drivers pipping their horns at me for 20 minutes.

[gingerjedi]

C4S has same 4x4 system as the Turbo, just no Turbo.

He's known in the neighbourhood as 'That tit with the Porsche'.