Loving cars and getting paid to write about them can be a dangerous mix. There are no guardrails to stop you from amassing a hoard of junk. I mean, hey, you need all these crazy cars, for work! In 2024, I owned somewhere close to 30 vehicles, and thanks to the wise words of an Autopian contributor, I’ve decided to change course. Over less than a year, I’ve sold eight vehicles, gave my wife another, and now I’m canceling my over four-year-long lease at one of my storage plots. Yet, I’m not sad, I feel liberated!
Early last year, wrenching extraordinaire Stephen Walter Gossin and I chatted about fleet sizes. At the time I was sitting on about 26 or so vehicles after having picked up a 2004 Volkswagen Phaeton from a reader. I was never good at keeping track of my exact fleet size, but the number was definitely in the high 20s. During these conversations, Gossin asked about how these cars made me feel. Did I really love those unreliable Volkswagens? Would I feel sad if I didn’t have them? Was keeping them around putting stress and hardship in my life? Were these vehicles serving practical purposes?
To be honest, I never really viewed cars in that light. Sure, I have my all-time favorites and dream cars like my Smarts and the Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI. But for most of the other cars, I generally bought them because I found them interesting and wanted to try them out. Thing is, I would never get rid of the cars after my trial period was over.
When “Grails” Are Actually Just Cars
At first, I didn’t really apply Gossin’s test to my fleet. The first vehicle I sold in 2024 was my 2005 Volkswagen Touareg VR6. I loved that sport-ute and it was a practical machine, and when I bought it in 2021 it was always supposed to be a heroic beater to tow my Japanese imports home. By 2024, however, the condition of its structure degraded to the point where I no longer trusted it to tow car haulers. It also needed more than twice its value in repairs. So, I got rid of it for a practical reason, expecting to replace it with a more capable Touareg V8 or maybe a diesel cargo van. Instead, I was just happy to get rid of a car, so that never happened.
The first time I really applied Gossin’s test to a vehicle was my “Holy Grail” 2005 Volkswagen Passat TDI wagon. I spent a whole four years looking for a Passat TDI wagon with a bulletproofed engine and a manual swap. Now, I finally had it. But, after talking with Gossin, I sat behind the wheel of that car and really put some thought into it. Did I really love this car? Was it really making me happy? Would I even care if it got bisected by a locomotive tomorrow?
Then I had a shocking realization: I wasn’t nearly into the car as much as I thought I was. To butcher a phrase from BoJack Horseman: “When you look at a car through rose-colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags.”
When I took the rose-colored lenses that only saw grails away from my eyes, my Passat looked very different. Glasses off, this car was a rustbucket with stupid gear ratios, even dumber blackout window tint, polyurethane engine bushings, an interior that was falling apart, and driving dynamics that weren’t particularly exciting even after a tire upgrade. I then noticed the Passat was actually the last car I’d decide to drive despite its Grail status. It was a moment that left me honestly perplexed. This was the dream! What happened?
My best guess is that I moved on without even realizing it. In the four years it took me to find that car, I drove a little bit of everything from some frankly sweet BMWs to a 700 HP supercharged work truck. Heck, I actually enjoyed driving my Jetta wagon more and loved its more modern interior even better. So, the answer to the questions Gossin gave me were all “no.” I didn’t love the car, it didn’t make me happier, and not having it didn’t seem like a big deal. So, away it went.
This was a turning point. As Gossin theorized, I felt happier to feel more cash in my pocket and less burden on my soul. I didn’t feel sad for getting rid of my grail.
My Own ‘Sign Then Drive’ Event
Still, I wasn’t digging deep enough. Back in the summer, I joined Gossin and a reader in liberating some classic Mopar and a quirky Citroen from a living legend in rural North Carolina. I visited Gossin’s home and learned how he manages his car collection. Gossin has a handful of cars he adores enough to keep under cover from the southern sun. But everything else? He plays with them and repairs them before sending them off to a new home. Gossin doesn’t just keep every car he brings home. That weekend, Gossin told me something along the lines of “Life is too short to drive/own/store/maintain something that doesn’t truly move your soul.”
Upon returning home, I applied Gossin’s logic in earnest and found out that I had a large swath of vehicles that didn’t do it for me anymore. The U-Haul CT13 remains my all-time dream camper, but I didn’t actually like my specific example. I realized that I wasn’t at all interested in restoring a camper. As luck would have it, the guy who lived across the street from my storage lot had been dreaming about my CT13 for over two years. So, I felt it was an improbably great match and sold it to him.
I checked out the U-Haul a couple of days ago and it’s clear the camper is now in far better hands. I’m happy about that. Who knew that I’d be happier seeing someone else enjoy my dream camper?
Then I set my sights on my Volkswagens and BMWs. In 2020, I bought a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI while I was on a desperate search for my diesel wagon grail. I’m still not quite sure why I held onto this car for so long. I was never motivated to drive it, but never sold it, either. Then there was the 2010 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI (the black one below) that I bought in early 2022. This car was the same as the 2012, but had a six-speed manual transmission.
This car was my daily, but then it hit me: I don’t really care about this car, either. Apparently, the fun and joy of this manual diesel wagon wore off a long time ago and I just never noticed. Sure, this car was serving a practical purpose of being the chosen daily, but any car could do that.
I became sort of addicted to this new testing process. I took my Honda Beat, Suzuki Every, Saturn Sky Red Line, Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI, and every Smart for a spin. I still felt the happy bubbly feeling in those. All of those cars still brought immense joy. Then I drove my VW Phaeton and the smile was wiped clean off my face. A hit-and-run incident turned my expression into a full-on frown.
Meanwhile, the BMW E39 that I bought from the Bishop and gave to my wife was also causing tears. In relatively quick succession, I sold the E39, the Phaeton, and the 2010 Jetta. Heck, the Phaeton and the Jetta sold within 12 hours of each other. Just as the Notorious SWG theorized, I was happier to be rid of those cars than to have them.
On the motorcycle side of things, I got rid of the Genuine Stella scooter that was gathering dust in my warehouse and gave Sheryl my Buell Blast. Like the VWs, it seemed I liked the idea of owning the Blast more than actually riding the thing. At any rate, giving her the bike lifted the burden of insurance, storage, and registration off of my head. I even taught Sheryl how to care for her own bike so I don’t have to do that, either. She’ll probably end up selling the Buell once she hones in her riding skills, but that’s fine.
As of this weekend, I achieved something I never thought was possible. Back in 2020, I rented a 40-foot outdoor storage plot to store my school bus as well as anything else I could fit in the lines. The picture below shows the time right after I moved in:
The owner of the spot had me move my vehicles so he could knock down the old barn, but I was still there. This weekend, I realized that I had no reason to keep the space anymore. I had a car parked there, but it was there just to make sure nobody stole my space. So, I brought the Jetta home, where it’ll hopefully be off to a new home maybe this week or so. Then, I ended my lease on my storage plot.
The picture below was taken as my use for the lot waned as I sold vehicles:
This last photo was taken as the last car was removed, effectively ending an era for me:
More Money, Still A Lot Of Vehicles
I had it for 52 months. At first, it kept a school bus, but then just whatever random crap I wanted to ignore for months on end. Sure, I paid only $4,160 over those 52 months, but it still feels good getting rid of it. I have $80 a month going back into my pockets and now I won’t be able to just buy a random broken car just because I have the room to store it. This might be weird to say, at least to me, but it feels liberating.
So, what are my numbers now? I’m currently sitting at 21 vehicles. That’s seven motorcycles, six Smarts, and eight other vehicles, including the bus. I did buy three vehicles last year. I added the Plymouth Special DeLuxe, the CFMoto Papio SS, and the Smart Fortwo Cabriolet. That means my personal fleet had a net loss of 6 vehicles for 2024. Sheryl’s fleet remained at 2.
I still want to sell other vehicles, but I’m not sure where the final number will land. I do want to buy a cargo van and an Audi A2, but my new storage situation means that cars have to leave before I can do that. I’ve decided I’ll stop selling things whenever I feel “comfortable.” My only real rule at this point is that a car has to be a dream car or serve a practical purpose to stay around. At the very least, getting rid of nearly all of the broken Volkswagens means that my daily driver is a Smart again, which feels a bit more “me.” It also means I now have some freed-up time to work on stuff I actually want to fix, like that Plymouth.
I think through all of this, I just want to say that you shouldn’t be afraid to say goodbye. Also, every once in a while you should ask yourself if a car is still working for you. Who knows, you might learn your interests have changed.
For a guy living check-to-check just to afford a single economy car, as many Americans do, this is obnoxious.
You REALLY won’t like Shmee 150 then.
It is somewhat obnoxious. Though when I was at my poorest about 20 years ago, I unrelatedly also owned the largest number of cars (4, all 15-20 years old, between 0 and 1 functional at any given time, I think two or three grand for the lot of them.) But that was back when Michigan cops didn’t care if you had insurance.
I kept trying to be more charitable because thinning the herd is admirable, but then more talk about buying more stuff…
She’s an automotive journalist in 2024 and her wife is lawyer for a name-your-own-price firm focused on people getting evicted/incarcerated/etc. I really can’t imagine they’re rolling in dough unless they have a windfall I’m not aware of. If they did I imagine she’d buy better cars.
While I salute you for doing real-world research on some nice cars that I used to be interested in, I can’t figure how the numbers work out for you. Here in CO I’m spending about $1500/year each to license and insure two cars, eight and 11 years old. My state does have a habit of taxing cars excessively, and you probably don’t have full coverage on your fleet (you don’t have car-dimpling hailstorms, either). Still, with a cost multiplier over 20x, plus storage expenses, you must have been spending a house payment for your motor pool. Is that something you’d recommend, or do again?
Good for you Mercedes! I’m in the slim-things-down mode as well. Too much going on in life to be juggling all this stuff that I really don’t have room for anyway. Once the wife’s new car is nearly paid off I’ll be selling my 2010 Silverado and 2015 Fit and getting a new pickup. And this summer I’m going to slim my garden tractor fleet from eight to five (well if I can get myself to part with my diesel Kubota that is). I’m also going to sell all but three of my minibikes, and sell both go karts and replace them with a RZR 570.
The biggest struggle is my motorcycles. I have four and that just seems like too many. But when I think of the bikes individually I don’t know if I can bear to get rid of one. Maybe when I start selling stuff I’ll feel different
Motorcycles take less space so it can be easy to just let them be. ‘That horse doesn’t eat any hay,’ is the saying my rural family uses when I say that I think I will get rid of some bikes. It’s the registrations I pay for some of the non-used bikes (and cars) that really gets to me after while.
SWG has it right: catch, repair, enjoy, release. When a collection has little intrinsic or societal value, it’s no longer really about the cars.
Great job Mercedes!
I sold off a project car last year (including all the donor parts for it) and it was awesome. That guy had the time and drive to work on it, I didn’t. I’m down to 4 cars and 2 bikes in my fleet and even that is seeming to be too much. Coming from a long line of pack rats I’ve found getting my space back, not worrying about what repairs are needed and the associated time/energy/cost to be so liberating.
The stupid cost of insurance is helping ease that separation too!
I actually just recently decided that three cars was too many for me. After years of putting maybe 100 miles/year on my low mileage 2005 CTS-V I’ve decided to list it for sale this spring. I love that thing and have it slightly modded to perfection just as I want it, and would really just like the room in my garage to be able to clean the rest of it out over time and use the space to work on my other car or motorcycles. If anyone is looking for a gem of a 6-speed V8 caddy, hit me up on LS1tech; screen name is the same.
All of this is good to hear! I imagine it will also mean you are immune to the siren song of the old site’s NPoND car of the day, a tricked-out Smart that already has commenters lighting up the Mercedes Bat-signal.
He’ll yeah. This is the article we’ve all been dying to read. Keep up the momentum into the new year!
I’m at two cars and two motorcycles (with one motorcycle about to go after 21 years). I feel much happier than when it was four cars and four of them were projects.
However I have eight bicycles, all 26” wheel MTBs. I can probably justify maybe four of them for different types of cycling, but two just hang on the wall most of the time.
I really enjoy buying all the bits cheap and building them up, but I hate selling them because people are dreadful. I’ve started doing rebuilds for other people so I can do the bit I love without becoming a bike hoarder.
More of a bike hoarder.
It’s hard not to hoard bikes if they are a thing you’re into.
The interchangeable parts mean that any bike could reasonably be at least a parts donor for another bike, which means every bike regardless of manufacturer could potentially be of some use. That’s often enough justification to acquire or keep something even if you don;t ever plan to ride it.
I have three Orange MsIsles because I upgraded the frame on the first one, then built a new bike around the old frame using leftovers from other upgrades.
Then did it again.
I should have shut down my eBay account after the first one.
It’s electric and British. Having three should mean that at least one is sometimes functional.
Not electric, pedal powered.
All though all three have safety critical parts made by the unfortunately named UK company Hope.
Had to google it, and the one that came up had a crank motor and apparent batteries in the down tube.
Risking safety on British Hope sounds risky too.
The downtubes are huge, but empty. It does look like an e-bike frame, but mine are from 1999-2002.
“More of a bike hoarder”
*raises hand*
I currently have 14, mostly fully lugged pre 1989 touring and AT bikes. What can I say? To badly parody Sir MixALot I like double butts (but PG is good too).
In my defense they were all dirt cheap, in some cases free. People literally just throw these gems away. Most of the bikes are hanging in the garage so I can still park cars in there. And I do eventually sell off the ones that I favor less with fresh grease and a tune up.
My first world championship spec hardtail frame was £67. That’s so cheap it’s not worth converting to dollars.
Getting rid of stuff is liberating.
I’m puzzled by your attachment to VAG products, though. Porsches I’d understand. But you have or have had boatloads of VWs and are looking at an Audi, even though they bring you only sorrow. Yet you go back, Merc, do it again, wheels spinning round and round.
What’s the draw of all those chronically unreliable VAGs?
As a fellow VW/VAG tragic, the only objective reason I can come up with is that once you’ve done a bunch of work on a few VAG machines, you get experience that will help you wrench on others. Working on my dad’s Skoda was easy, because everything was almost identical to my Polo for example.
Mind you VW’s seem to get more reliable as you get closer to Germany, they’re considered fairly reliable here in the UK
The Polo, Golf, Jetta are sensible vehicles. A Phaeton is something else entirely.
It’s also her second one. At least it “only” has the V8 and not the W12, but that’s balanced out by her owning a Touareg V10 TDI, possibly VW’s 2nd or 3rd most complicated and trouble-prone engine.
They’re only considered reliable in the UK because you’re often comparing them to French and Italian cars.
… And english cars.
I was already making fun of English electronics in these comments. I didn’t want to keep kicking the unlit lawn reindeer.
Congrats Mercedes! This article is the one DT has been promising us for years but never ends up happening.
I’m really glad selling cars makes your life easier. While my fleet is more reasonable (4 cars, 2 bikes), maintenance isn’t to the standard I want it to be, and selling a car a few months back did lift a weight of my mind, so I fully support your endeavor.
Good luck on that path!
The final number seems to be a random one in the 15-25 range. Lower numbers when RV focused, go.wild with bike collections. Hoq about a show about a “monthly what does Mercedes have 7 days to sell, $500 cash budger for repairs, no limit on reader donated used parts and labor. No reserve, winning bed buys next vehicle they must use.
You should pick just one smart and sell the rest. I never understood having more than one of hte same car; there are just so many fun ones I want to experience!
I used to have two mk2 Honda CRXs. One JDM Si moonroof with AC to drive around in, one UK 16i16 that was modified for track days. They were quite different experiences to drive.
If I had the space I’d be tempted to do the same with GT86s. One standard and one modified. It’s a constant struggle not to turbo my daily driver, which would make it much faster but also less fun for legal driving.
I kinda understand this. One modded and one normal. As I remember that is not quite Mercedes’ sitch.
I think your example is a bit outside of his basic statement. One DD and one dedicated track machine in the same chassis is different enough to be meaningful. But I’m not sure having a CRX SI and CRX HF are even different enough to be worth maintaining both without significant spare change.
Bit of an off-topic question, but how does US car insurance work for those of you with your 30 to 40 cars? Does one policy cover all the cars/bikes you own?
I own two cars in China, a tiny daily-driver EV and a turbo Subaru; Im paying around 1000USD yearly to insure both cars. If I had 40 cars I’d be paying 20K a year in insurance!
In Australia it’s as bad if not dearer for insurance and registration is quite expensive as well. I have three cars, two four cyl and one six, for some inane reason many years ago our state govt. decided the more cylinders the dearer the rego. The four pots are close to AU$800/yr each and the six about $900, I also have a box trailer and that’s about $130. No way could most people here afford to have as many vehicles as DT or Mercedes with our costs.
Once you have more vehicles than drivers on your insurance policy, it is extremely inexpensive to keep adding vehicles. The insurance company figures you can’t drive more than 1 at a time. This is even more true if you only carry liability insurance (meaning the insurance company would pay for damage you cause to others’ vehicles, but would not pay for damage you cause to your own vehicle in case of an accident).
My primary family car costs roughly $750/yr for full insurance. My secondary car costs an additional $150/yr just for liability insurance. When I had a motorcycle, it cost an additional $50/yr. When I also had a broken car sitting in my front lawn, it was something like $30/yr before I realized that car was never going back on the road and scrapped it.
Interesting, over here liability insurance works on a per car basis, so you’d have a policy for each car/bike you own. There is a mandatory minimum “for-the-greater-good” insurance, where you only pay 100-ish USD yearly, but it only covers accidents where you injure people instead of property. Many drivers here go with this option and skimp on liability insurance, so if you hit anything pricier than a Corolla you’re gonna be shit out of luck
My old beater cars on liability only insurance are like $50 a month. I usually have at least one insured and useable, but even if I have two or going crazy, 3, its not a huge cost. I can easily not eat out and have enough money to cover the difference in insurance.
But also remember, most of us with huge fleets do not have the entire fleet registered and insured full time. If they are sitting, or not running, they are not registered or insured for most of us.
I would watch the hell out of “Gossin Motors Backyard Automotive Rescue And Shade Tree Counseling, SON!” (working title), in which Stevie G visits Autopians with entirely too many cars, helps them part with the excess, and rides off into the sunset in the $200 Stratus.
In fact, I’ll produce it. Hardigree, @ me!
I’d watch that…
I knew you’d sold a bunch of vehicles, but getting to the point of cancelling a storage lease is huge. Well done! More is not more.
The best day of my automotive life was when I sold my last Triumph Spitfire, a 67 model. I still love the damned things, but the wrench to drive ratio was horrible.
Also, wringing fun times out of a 95 hp engine (upgraded from 75 hp stock) is still fun, but just not quite enough fun now that daily cars have 300hp.
I wouldn’t mind having another, but I’ll need a much bigger garage before I’ll even consider it. I still like wrenching and modifying, but it needs to be a project I can drop in on at a moment’s notice and not something I need to commit a whole weekend to before I turn the first nut.
I’m down to just three vehicles: my daily driver, my wife’s daily driver, and one project vehicle (down from three). The goal was to clear the driveway as much as possible, as the shuffle of vehicles was getting old. While I feel some relief, I also miss one of the vehicles I got rid of (but not the other). Part of that is knowing that it didn’t go to better hands, and part is that it had more potential than I was able to give it.
I owned a classic car that I felt guilty for not liking. Do not let a car guilt trip you. I sold it and I couldn’t be happier.
I think what happened is that you met (and bought) your hero. 🙂
Conventional wisdom tells us that we should never meet our heroes; this is not accurate 100% of the time but I think it’s true more often than not, especially with vehicles.
We often hear about people who buy their personal grails (e.g. supercars) only to be disappointed by heavy clutches, overheating, stiff suspension, etc.
Outstanding! In the past year, I had the realization, nay, the epiphany, that George Carlin was right all along and that “stuff” is just an anchor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac). In the past year, my wife and I have worked to maximize our minimalism and we’ve gotten rid of about 75% of our “stuff”. We’re down to one car (a Polestar 2). And we sold our house and we’re now renting and love it. Too many other things to list here, but, for example, I’ve liberated almost all my books, I gave almost all my tools to one of my sons, and we have very little furniture left, and nothing that the two of us (aged 59 and 54) can’t easily lift and move ourselves. Our goal is to be able to put everything that really matters to us into our 4 large suitcases and 2 carryon bags and be able to leave anything else behind on a moment’s notice.
Like you – we’ve never been happier.
That sounds like an excellent journey. Congratulations.
I’m willing to downsize until I can fit everything I would keep other than a few furniture pieces into two vehicles. Not including my tools, though! Those would probably take up four suitcases and then some.
Unlike you, my spouse doesn’t agree with minimalism, so I’ve been working solo at this for more years than I care to mention.
Thanks. It’s been very interesting and very emotional at times. Getting rid of cherished items like books and tools is very difficult and I definitely went through Kubler-Ross’ stages of grief. But at least in the case of the tools, I know where they are in case I ever need to borrow them! I know it’s not for everyone, but at this stage of my life it just feels right.
Thats interesting because for me, my stuff is freedom. I have many interests and when I get an idea I want to pursue, I don’t have to go find things to buy to forward the project. I drift through the basement and the shop and find what I need to get going. My library is a point of pride, as it is extensive, but also I’ve read at least 90% of it (theres always a few books I haven’t gotten to yet). I have metal and car parts that makes playing with my toys easy, when I want, how I want. Sure, it makes it hard to move to a new house, but for me thats the only downside. But I’m not in the position of Mercedes either. I don’t have 25+ cars. I have a set number of parking spots on my property. Once those are filled, I sell before I buy something new. I can’t imagine paying for storage for cars. That money could buy or fix cars and I’m wasting it ignoring them? NEVER!
Good on you! Unless you’re like a Jay Leno or Gabriel Iglesias with the means to keep up a large collection it’s really not a regular person’s game. And I at least consider 30 to be quite a large collection.
Also does sound like SWG is taking a page from Marie Kondo, but that’s cool, take wisdom wherever it comes from.
Marie Kondo learned everything she knows from SWG.
I have 8 electric guitars, and I like them all. Each one is relatively unique in the lineup. On our band’s most recent album that we are finishing, I only used 5 of them. I should really axe the other 3, but they’re all really cool in their own right, and one is really rare (though not especially popular as a model). It’s tough enough keeping up with setups and string changes, so I could only imagine how much more difficult that would be with 21 vehicles and tires and oil changes and registrations and insurance for all of them.
As a guitar and bass lover (but not a very good player) one big advantage is you can hang them on the wall and not worry about then. I slapped some new strings on a guitar I hadn’t played in a few years last week and it played fine.
Heh, “axe the other 3.”
What are they, if you don’t mind sharing?
Sure! I love guitars more than I love cars. Rivolta Regatta (natural finish) which is a seriously cool guitar, but I’ve tried 8 sets of pickups in it and can’t seem to make it fit in with my sound. I guess I’m not a semi-hollow guy, because every 335-ish guitar I buy hits the chopping block. PRS SE 277 in satin black which was a Sweetwater limited run finish, now usurped by a 1st gen Rivolta Mondata baritone. Finally, the rare one, an ’07 first year PRS Mira (Core) in classic SG red over mahogany with the original bird inlays. They only made the inlays like that for maybe 6 months before going to the hollow birds, and most people bought Miras with moon inlays because they were $300 cheaper.
That covers a fair bit of ground, and stays off the beaten path!
When possessions become a burden rather than a joy it’s time to get rid of them. Good on you for recognizing this and taking action. You’ll enjoy the ones that remain a lot more as a result.
When you realize it’s the hunt and not the quarry, your life will change for the better. You can still get the thrill of the hunt with cheaper and smaller quarry.