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.