Yes, I know this belongs in 'insurance', but I was so impressed I thought you would all want to hear this:
To renew my coupe insurance I have been quoted £540 fully comp. Even 3rd party F and Theft would have been £320 (I wouldn't do that, I'm just illustrating). Anyway - a few days ago I bought myself a little Cinquecento Sporting to take care of the 10 miles a day commuting (sitting in a jam) and to do little trips to the dump or to tennis (potholed carpark). The little thing only cost £700 and does about 40 mpg even in town. I figured the amount of wear and tear I would save on my coupe, combined with the petrol savings and the fact the coupe will now only be used for longer runs and be even more cost-efficient as a result - all of that would more than pay for the low tax and insurance on the Cinquecento. Anyway, by putting the insurance in my wife's name, the the Cinqy only cost £130 a year 3rd party via Provident even though I didn't apply any no claims discount to it. I thought that was good.
Anyway, the plot thickens. My wife (who owns a n/a coupe) was so impressed that now she has a Cinqucento sporting too!!! (4 cars - yes I know we are mad - and both the Cinqos are yellow like her n/a!). This got me thinking. I decided to do a quote on a multicar policy via Admiral. These were the costs when insuring the 4 cars separately:
My turbo - £540 comp
Wife's n/a - £450 comp
Both cinqos - £130 each 3rd party
TOTAL = £1250 p.a
Here is the cost of insuring the cars as a multicar policy:
My turbo - £266 fully comp
Wife's n/a - £284 fully comp (dunno why more than mine)
Both cinqos - £109 each 3rd party F and Th
TOTAL = £768 p.a
(i.e. £220 less than insuring the 2 coupes would have been separately alone).
NOTE: All 4 cars are insured at 5000 miles each p.a. which is plenty in all 4 cases.
Obviously you will all have different details to me, but the point is that depending on your mileage/commuting distance, etc. it is well worth considering buying yourself a little group 1 or 2 car - far from being a luxury it can actually make owning a coupe MORE affordable. My wife's sporting was only £400 and is a beauty. I'm 6'4" and not only can I drive it comfortably, I can sit easily in the back when she does! They are great fun to chuck around too and both cars have new head gaskets and brakes - mine is also lowered, has a stainless, Abarth body kit and big alloys as well
(I couldn't resist)
An added extra bonus is that after spending a couple of days in a cinquecento, the coupe looks and drives like the starship enterprise - the chances of me feeling like I need to spend money on styling and mods now are nil - I will never take it for granted again.
Sorry about the long post, but for some of you this could be worth thinking about.