i have four right now, with space for another 3.

my total plan is actually 4 cars, with a truck and trailer.

944 turbo cruiser/roadtripper
daily/winter miata
mr2 spyder autocross car
spec miata
truck (probably a tahoe)
car hauler trailer.

I used to own two dozen cars. That was no fun, so I am now down to two. Might add a $1,000 old Japanese pickup to haul **** to the dump from time to time.

JR

I've had as many as 4 tagged street legal vehicles at one time (counting a '54 BMW r25/3) and for much of the past decade or so no less than 3.

I tend to grow tired of paying add'l insurance and sell the toy. Then I get itchy and buy another toy. I never seem to learn.

Currently flirting with the idea of selling the toy to simplify.

I'm a DIY guy (or was)
At one point , I had 4 old Porsches. I noticed that all my free time/money/effort was going in that pot.

Now I have one toy and a DD pickup. (and the wife's rig). That works.

As of now I have four - and only have a two car garage. The Enclave is a daily driver lease and it lives outdoors all year long. The Lexus is my wife's car and it and my SL500 live in the garage. The Jeep lives at the cottage and has a garage there along with the boats. I'd love to have my SC back but even if I had the garage space, I'm not sure I could justify it. There is only so much time here in MI to enjoy a fun car - especially one that needs a lot of maintenance as wrenching doesn't interest me as much as it used to. And since we spend a lot more time at our cottage now, the Jeep gets the most use in the fun car category and serves a useful purpose as well - beach hauler, boat launcher, errand runner. So I think four is my max number with three being much more reasonable. If I had to do three, the SL500 would be the one to go.

The thought process

Have desire to buy a safe easy to live with daily driver car>>>>however all choices are boring and pedestrian and therefore are a waste of money>>>>>>buy cool car (higher mileage, worn or depreciated cool car)>>>>>>become annoyed because it's not perfect or can be improved and not to is a waste of a good car>>>>>>>Lots of money spent>>>>>>Becomes too nice to drive daily>>>>>sits in garage or gets sold because, well, you need a easy to live with daily driver car...

Repeat ad nauseam.

Or - "It was a too good to pass up!!" (Not realizing that's the normal price, they just don't go up for sale very often)

rjp

About 20 years ago I owned a 964 C4 for about 4 years. It was my only car at the time.
Ultra reliable, wet or dry, nothing phased it. Great car. The 996 C4 would be a brilliant!

I only sold it because I got divorced.

Used to have 7 total for a brief period of time (incl. wife's) but now have 4 classics and one daily. And I'm cutting more. That's too much - honestly (even though they did much better than my 401K so no regrets).. Even when I had a bigger garage it's logistically annoying and you are always fixing one of them, no breaks... Constant expenses... Not enough time to properly rotate/drive them as much as they deserve or devote the time they need, unless you are retired.

I think 4 total is perfect in terms of attention span, and being able to enjoy them more... well 3 on my side + one for the wife anyway... I'm working my way down (selling a 912 today, maybe the alfa next). Avoiding redundancy is also a good idea... For instance I have an Alfa GTV and a BMW 2002: they are essentially the same car for the same function - just different looks.

There were times I'd permanently have a car at the shop and would just rotate one in when one came out. After 2+ oldies you lose your ability to wrench yourself if you have a job and a life ;-)

Currently, we have 5 cars right now and 4 garage spots. 3 are vintage and 2 are for work/hauling kids. That is the max amount of cars needed at this stage of life.

In perfect world with unlimited money and time, my garage would hold 20 cars and I'd add these: 88 M5, 74 911 Carrera ROW, 924 Carrera GT, early XKE. 240Z, 914, 67 330 GTC, Elise, VW Westy, 74 Celica, early RX7, 66 Corvair, 67 Vette, old FJ. That would be an investment of around $2 mil in cars and garage construction. Add $300k per year for maintenance/insurance/tools/projects for these cars and the garage. Power ball lottery is my only hope....

Realistically? I'd just be happy to add something with a boxer engine back in the garage. Flat 4 or 6 would be good with me!

Thinking of cutting back to just two...but I still use the old pickemup from time to time. In my 70's and the urge to aquire has faded tremendously. The more krap you have, the more krap you have to take care of.

I currently have a take-home company car and five personal vehicles, single, no kids.
Besides the P-Car I have two ‘old’ BMWs, a ‘modern’ BMW used for road trips and a Honda SUV used as an errand runner/grocery getter and to pull a small boat. I would really like to get rid of one or two but I’m emotionally attached to the three cool ones. The Honda I want to keep because I like having a car I don’t care about door dings and stuff and I want to keep the ‘modern’ BMW because I don’t like using the Honda for road trips. It rides like crap and gets terrible mileage. Also, if I got rid of the Honda, I would pretty much have to get rid of the boat too.
I guess I’ll procrastinate for another year. :)

One classic, two drivers. Make sure all are different enough you don't pigeonhole one car and drive that one exclusively.

rjp

Wow.

In San Diego nonetheless. Either you live on a multi million-dollar property or you have everything parked around a city block..

I'd keep the 4 cars I have now, add three or four more fun cars, and then get a couple of big ole stinking 'Murican diesel trucks with big black sooty exhaust just to make sure the sissy-mary's were completely bunched ;)


Funny, I've never really wanted a diesel truck until today.

When 19 I had 4 cars an NO garage whatsoever.

Each had their own purpose.

71 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus, Muscle Car for hot rodding fun.
72 Audi 100LS, a nice 4 door sedan. For dates and road trips.
78 GMC Jimmy 4x4, for off road fun, camping, pulling off road bikes, etc.
64 Ford Van I used as a truck to haul stuff to do lawn care.

Today 2 cars is plenty for me.

These posts were insightful. Spoken from people who have been there. The magic number really does seem to be 4 cars total (for DIY). You really can't go beyond this and keep everything manageable, regardless of space.

This matches my experience perfectly. I maintain 2 DD's, and 2 fun cars. I am at the limit of being able to maintain these cars, in terms of time & interest.
Adding a 5th car would absolutely turn this hobby into a chore and burden (or result in careless neglect).

Unless you have the funding of Jay Leno...then you hire flunkies to care for your fleet.

My father had 15 in his collection.

Pain in the ass.

He was retired and it was still too time consuming.

I moved from NY and sold 3 of my 7.

Back up to 5 now.

4 would be my number.

A DD for me, one for the wife, 2 toys.

Done.

Ha, ha. No, I'd need a winning lotto ticket for that. I live in a modest neighborhood on a cul-de-sac which makes my lot an odd, larger size than the rest of the street. The previous owner put in a long concrete driveway that goes through to the backyard with a secured gate. I park the two most valuable cars in the garage, two behind the gate on the side driveway and the Honda and company car get the regular driveway.
It kills me that some of the cars sit so long without being driven and I worry about the gas going bad even with STA-BIL in the tank.

That is it.

I am very much an anomaly with the other farms/farmers here in Maryland: I don't want to own anything I don't use a lot.

I have a base capability that needs to be supported. I buy and sell equipment all the time to meet ebbs and flows in demand depending on were we are in the farm cycle. Auctions are great, both buying and selling.

I also rent equipment quite a bit: $600 a day may seem like a lot until you run the numbers. I also trade equipment usage. My circle of farm buddies exchange services all the time.

Owning equipment beyond the base capability of the farm is a waste.

Currently, I have one piece of farm equipment I own not under roof. Equipment outside is equipment dying, especially it it is a machine of any kind.

A very good friend of mine wants to go into the organic compost business with me (I will supply the land and some machinery, nothing else) so I am looking at more roof:D

Same for me and cars. One toy is enough now. Two later.

What a timely thread, I've just sold one of my project cars a very rusty 1969 RHD Porsche 912

Came to my senses and realised while working I'd never touch it and when I eventually finish working I've already got enough projects and would never touch it.

Like everyone on here I use Man Maths and think as I have a nice set of wheels instead of selling them I should buy a car to put them on but recently I've thought that you can have too many cars and how many do I really need.

At the moment I have the following, 3 used and 2 not used

2003 Audi S4 Avant as my wife's daily and an Autobahn comfort cruiser for regular family trips across Europe in summer and winter
1994 Toyota 4Runner 3.0TD is my daily and the maintenance I do on it is preparation for future overland trips
1990 Porsche 964 C2 as my fun car, don't use it as much as I should
1989 Porsche 930, in dehumidified storage waiting until I have enough garage space and time to return it back into as manufactured
1994 Toyota 4Runner 2.4 TD, engine is shot but chassis/bodywork are rust free, this will be combined with bits from my daily driver to turn it into a around the world 4x4 overland exploring wagon for when I have time to go for a really long drives

To finish off my collection I'm looking for a fully restored VW Trekker for easy maintenance sunshine only fun

4 cars would be my ideal number but it will be the 930 that will go as the 964 will be modified into a lightweight with some luxury fun car so too much car function overlap to have both. I'd have sold it by now but my wife doesn't want me to :cool:

In the UK and Europe we are not blessed with the size of garages you guys enjoy so 4 cars is about my limit unless I buy an old barn in the Alps to give me more storage space.

I have 5 cars now + a Sinclair C5, and I cant seem to find time to do anything to the 2 dead ones in the garage.one only needed a clutch when put away 10 years ago.

Right now on my property, there are;

-two ford pickups
-two Jeeps (one Cherokee, one Liberty)
-one 1985.5 Porsche 944
-one 2004 Mustang GT
-one 2003 BMW 325 CI
-one 1997 VW Cabrio

One of the pickups is my daughter's truck, and the Cherokee is my 17 YO son's (who still lives with) us.
I need to sell my pickup, and my Porsche, and her BMW sometime soon.

My '91 C4 was my daily driver as well. I LOVED driving it in the winter. I sold mine after my divorce, used the $$ for a downpayment on my house. I miss it, but man it sure served me well.

Depends - is money still an issue, or do I get some money to keep up with the unlimited garage space? :)

I currently have four:
-1981 Fiat Spider Turbo - I've had this since my dad and I got it as a project car in about 1990
-1993 Nissan Sentra SE-R - my only new car, I've had it since 1993
-2003 Honda Accord - boring appliance car, but works perfectly all the time, holds people, is cheap.
-The 911

If I had unlimited garage space, I'd keep all of these. With some more money, I'd definitely keep the Fiat and restore it. Additional space would go into a lift, work space, etc. etc.

With the option of more cars:
-A couple of old BMWS, probably a Bavaria and a 2002
-Citroen DS, CX, or both
-A big old boat, sedan version: probably a '66 Cadillac Fleetwood 60 Special Brougham in black
-A big old boat, convertible version: probably some big GM convertible from about '6-'70.
-A pickup truck, not sure what
-my late grandmother's '53 Chevy Bel Air, if it's still out there, which it may be
-Family friends' W116 Mercedes, one owner from new
-Probably something like a Volvo 740 Turbo wagon. I think they're great.
-Another Fiat, either an older Spider or an X1/9
-God only knows where it goes from there

Of course my thing is that I just don't drive very much. It seems silly to have a bunch of cars that you don't drive, and this is an issue even with the four that I have.

We have 4 cars presently. I would like to cut that down to 3, but our lifestyle doesn't allow it. I really could care less about cars. It would be cool to have a beater 430 Spider to thrash about, but I wouldn't be sad if it never happens. More motorbikes, though..... yeah, I'm ok with that :)

This

My ultimate house is a 6 car garage with a two bedroom apartment over it for my 10 year old and me. Maybe a couple of acres of land. I figure 4 cars, a couple of bikes and a bay to work in.

4
1 sports car
1 gt
2 dd's-one for each of us
well, maybe 5 if you count the pickup for farm work and horse trailer.

Yes, too many inspections/ maintenance

Once we're both fully retired we can eliminate at least one of the dd's, maybe both.

King Solomon had over 700 wives plus concubines. There must be a way to drive them all (meaning a large number of cars). Jay Leno is my hero

More than I have now.......but always one more on the "what's next" list!

This matches my experience perfectly. I maintain 2 DD's, and 2 fun cars. I am at the limit of being able to maintain these cars, in terms of time & interest.
Adding a 5th car would absolutely turn this hobby into a chore and burden (or result in careless neglect).

7...3 fun / 2 dds/1 truck / 1 RV

Going on 75 has taken the "edge" off my car & motorcycle wants. I find myself driving the F150 more than anything else. Took it to the Daytona Rolex this year, love the damn thing and need to unload some of the others.

I agree. Eyes are bigger than my mouth and stomach. So can we say 2 cars if it fun car is a classic Italian or British, 3-4 if they are German or American. 1 Japanese for getting to work on time.


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Currently 2 in my garage and 3 in the driveway. 2 of the 3 in the driveway are pretty much "worthless" in the used car market being older with high miles but I get a lot of value with the utility that they afford me. The cost of insurance on those 2 recently gave me reason to question keeping them, but since kicking the little green gecko dude to the curb and signing up with the "retired military eligible" insurer , with identical coverage, they are pretty much costing me nothing to own insurance wise compared to what I was paying.

Quoted for posterity, as this is the #1 reason why I currently have one car too many. I can't stand to leave anything sit outside, even if at the moment it is only my lowly F150. Time to maintain, time to drive, yeah they are all a factor, but it drives me insane to leave a car sit out.

Yeah. I pretty much always have to have one more car than I can comfortably stable.

Unlimited garage space and money and then talented friends to help me care for them a-la Jay Leno's arrangement in Burbank? I guess I'd have 20-30 must-have cars and then buy-sell other cars as I experienced them and then sold them to their next caretaker.