Long live the agony of choice
09/15/2016
Imagine you have saved up a five-figure sum and finally want to buy a classic car. You drive to a well-known dealer and look at the cars that fit your budget, but otherwise have no clear preferences.
It is surprising how different cars can be for the same money. Two examples illustrate this. For around 10,000 euros, you can buy one of the most likeable classic cars of all, the Fiat 500.
The blue 500 L, built in 1969, has 18 hp and offers space for four people willing to compromise and carry their luggage, if any, on their laps. The air-cooled two-cylinder engine in the rear drives the rear wheels and allows the driver to comfortably swim along in traffic. When shifting gears, the little Fiat loves intermediate throttle and intermediate clutches to avoid unpleasant noises from the gearbox.
The standard folding roof, however, almost turns the tiny car (length 2.97 meters, width 1.32 meters) into a convertible.
A few steps further on, for the same money as the Fiat, is a black Porsche Boxster, a full 30 years younger and now on the verge of becoming a youngtimer. It also has rear-wheel drive, but the engine sits in front of the rear axle. And instead of 18 hp, it produces an impressive 204 hp. It only has room for two people, but they can also take luggage with them and enjoy the sunshine to the full, because the Boxster is of course a convertible, and one with an electrically opening roof to boot. However, the Boxster scores far fewer sympathy points with the public than the Fiat.
The little Italian has already experienced an impressive increase in value, because the Fiat 500, which once cost just under DM 3,000 when it was launched, has now reached the five-digit figure already mentioned, while the Boxster is nibbling at the bottom of the market, the DM 76,500 it once cost has been significantly reduced. Whether it can sustainably increase in value over the next few years is still speculation.
They are both fun to drive, but in very different ways. In the Fiat, every journey, however short, is an experience, and choosing the right gear when climbing a hill is a challenge. In the city, you weave nimbly through traffic, on the highway you starve.
The Porsche is a car of the modern age, you can drive it up a mountain pass as fast as an arrow, but on the highway you are still one of the faster cars. However, the open-top Boxster hardly gives you that classic car feeling, as the interior is too modern for that.
The choice is up to the buyer; both the cute Fiat and the fast Porsche can give pleasure, but in very different ways. Maybe you should just put them both in your garage?
Zwischengas readers will be able to read more about both cars in the coming weeks.
