Do you daily your ZHP?

[05Imola]

Hey Folks - Question is simple, do you daily your ZHP?

My dilemma -

In 2015 I bought my first ZHP and that was my daily / AutoX car. It was high mileage and I modified it to an extent so I can autoX it. I loved the car and had to sell it once I left for grad school.

D034571B-0F42-4232-87CF-D4FAE7BB48FC by Vr6 Hooptie, on Flickr

Upon return in 2018, I purchased another ZHP, this time a coupe. I never bonded with that car and sold it after 6ish months to purchase a 2018 GTI.
Zhp Sale by Vr6 Hooptie, on Flickr

And now- I am fortunate enough to have another ZHP sedan however its my 3rd car. My daily is a company lease Audi A5 coupe which I get super cheap, fun weekend car is a 92' Miata and then the ZHP as something I take for a spin once every couple of months?. I am torn as it is now confirmed that I am losing my garage in a few months and I have to trim down the fleet.

Untitled by Vr6 Hooptie, on Flickr

Do I turn in the A5 and daily the ZHP? Will I regret it? ZHP has 111k miles and 100% up to date on all maintenance. Records dating back to 2008 . I've gotten older and I appreciate the comfort of a newer car especially with a worry free cheap lease ha ha.

Miata is ideal for a weekend car and I have a hard time letting go of it. I could keep the Miata and daily the ZHP? Then I have two older cars.

Do I sell Miata, ZHP, turn in A5 and then buy an M3, TTRS or Cayman as one car does it all? Do I just miss the eliteness of Imola and I should get rid of the mystic blue one?

Yes this is turning into the financial lounge a bit as well. Convince me to keep the ZHP or not?

[BMWCurves]

Well...you came back to the ZHP twice. I think that deserves some reflection.

[fredo]

My vote was “no”. I drive my wife’s X3 most of the time.

If I was in your situation, I would probably turn in the A5 and keep the Miata for weekends and ZHP for daily duties. The A5 is newer so it would be easy to get another one in case you really miss it.

But, in some way it makes sense to keep the newer car and one older one.

GL with your decision.

[cakM3]

Well...you came back to the ZHP twice. I think that deserves some reflection.

You have the perfect ZHP in my opinion but then I'm biased with Mystic Blue ZHPs . . . with that said I daily drive mine and also take it on long distance road trips. I now have 237k miles on it and still enjoy driving this car. Ultimately you have to decide which car should go but in my opinion if you have to have the Miata then ditch the Audi and enjoy the ZHP since you have come back to it twice now... enjoy the car for what it is.

In my collection of cars my ZHP is my "beater car" so that is why I daily mine. In my opinion this car is best suited for daily driving duties. It has just enough power to let you merge into traffic, looks great and handles exceptionally well

[wstr75]

Yep, tough decision for us folks with too many cars. I'm facing the same dilemma as my bride keeps nudging me to simplify and our life style here in our late 60s. I bought a 2021 Honda Ridgeline RTE-L this week with all the nannies replace my 2014 GMC Sierra and my 2015 BMW 435Ix convertible also has all the nannies, too. It has become our fun car, especially on summer evenings. Our primary cars are her 2021 RX 450h and my 2016 Acura RLX-SH, a particularly sweet sleeper performance car that gets 32 mpg city/highway (my experience). I had an especially close friend pass away last week and it is weighing on our minds as the thought of my bride dealing with disposing of assets like a high mileage 18 year old BMW should I unexpectedly take the exit lane is troubling for her.

[Will]

TL;DR: seems to me you're leaning towards selling zhp and either: 1) keep cheap problem-free company lease and perfect weekend miata, or 2) consolidating and moving into a new(er) do-it-all car (will your company help with the cost of a do-it-all car?).

Long version:
I daily mine. It's been great, but I think that's because I went through and replaced many of the maintenance items (see my project thread for the list); in essence I "zero'd out" the maintenance for everything, thus minimizing the chance of unexpected failures so generally it's simply regular maintenance schedules for fluids and filters.

I did not do this with my previous e46 330i and was intermittently dealing with "old car problems," which became really annoying, time consuming, and tiresome. My tolerance for unexpected problems has been diminishing, also the "fun / hassle ratio" of wrenching seems to be diminishing as well. This is probably a function of getting older and wanting to do other stuff with my time. General maintenance is okay since it's planned. The unexpected stuff adds a level of frustration and hassle that's annoying.

But even with all the wear items replaced having multiple cars has it's potential downsides: storage, cost to insure, basic minimal maintenance so it doesn't "fall apart." It also lacks some of the newer car amenities which are just nice to have in a daily driver (mainly the peace of mind that if something happens I can get it warrantied at the dealer and have a loaner car while they work on it, rather than parking it unmoved until I have time and energy to diagnose and fix it).

My perfect combo was an i3 and my e46 m3. I drove the i3 most of the time (In 2.5 years: i3 had ~43k miles, while my m3 added ~5k miles). The i3 was close enough to a do it all car (albeit limited range, and no sweet sounds of a NA motor or the steering feel of mechanical power steering) that I didn't feel like I was driving an appliance.

Tough choice, but it sounds like you have some good options. The ZHP is a great car, but it seems like the post-grad school ones didn't capture that pre-grad school enjoyment / love. Maybe you're in a different situation now and see things slightly differently?

The bolded text below are what stuck out to me.

Hey Folks - Question is simple, do you daily your ZHP?

My dilemma -

...

And now- I am fortunate enough to have another ZHP sedan however its my 3rd car. My daily is a company lease Audi A5 coupe which I get super cheap, fun weekend car is a 92' Miata and then the ZHP as something I take for a spin once every couple of months?. I am torn as it is now confirmed that I am losing my garage in a few months and I have to trim down the fleet.

...

Do I turn in the A5 and daily the ZHP? Will I regret it? ZHP has 111k miles and 100% up to date on all maintenance. Records dating back to 2008 . I've gotten older and I appreciate the comfort of a newer car especially with a worry free cheap lease ha ha.

Miata is ideal for a weekend car and I have a hard time letting go of it. I could keep the Miata and daily the ZHP? Then I have two older cars.

Do I sell Miata, ZHP, turn in A5 and then buy an M3, TTRS or Cayman as one car does it all? Do I just miss the eliteness of Imola and I should get rid of the mystic blue one?

Yes this is turning into the financial lounge a bit as well. Convince me to keep the ZHP or not?

It sounds to me like you're leaning towards keeping the cheap trouble-free company lease and the miata as it's the perfect weekend car, or simply a new(er) trouble free car to do it all as you mentioned. Sucks that the loss of parking space is forcing the choice, but seems like you have good options to choose from. Good luck, keep us posted.

[05Imola]

TL;DR: seems to me you're leaning towards selling zhp and either: 1) keep cheap problem-free company lease and perfect weekend miata, or 2) consolidating and moving into a new(er) do-it-all car (will your company help with the cost of a do-it-all car?).

Long version:
I daily mine. It's been great, but I think that's because I went through and replaced many of the maintenance items (see my project thread for the list); in essence I "zero'd out" the maintenance for everything, thus minimizing the chance of unexpected failures so generally it's simply regular maintenance schedules for fluids and filters.

I did not do this with my previous e46 330i and was intermittently dealing with "old car problems," which became really annoying, time consuming, and tiresome. My tolerance for unexpected problems has been diminishing, also the "fun / hassle ratio" of wrenching seems to be diminishing as well. This is probably a function of getting older and wanting to do other stuff with my time. General maintenance is okay since it's planned. The unexpected stuff adds a level of frustration and hassle that's annoying.

But even with all the wear items replaced having multiple cars has it's potential downsides: storage, cost to insure, basic minimal maintenance so it doesn't "fall apart." It also lacks some of the newer car amenities which are just nice to have in a daily driver (mainly the peace of mind that if something happens I can get it warrantied at the dealer and have a loaner car while they work on it, rather than parking it unmoved until I have time and energy to diagnose and fix it).

My perfect combo was an i3 and my e46 m3. I drove the i3 most of the time (In 2.5 years: i3 had ~43k miles, while my m3 added ~5k miles). The i3 was close enough to a do it all car (albeit limited range, and no sweet sounds of a NA motor or the steering feel of mechanical power steering) that I didn't feel like I was driving an appliance.

Tough choice, but it sounds like you have some good options. The ZHP is a great car, but it seems like the post-grad school ones didn't capture that pre-grad school enjoyment / love. Maybe you're in a different situation now and see things slightly differently?

The bolded text below are what stuck out to me.






It sounds to me like you're leaning towards keeping the cheap trouble-free company lease and the miata as it's the perfect weekend car, or simply a new(er) trouble free car to do it all as you mentioned. Sucks that the loss of parking space is forcing the choice, but seems like you have good options to choose from. Good luck, keep us posted.

Thank you for your in depth point of view Will. You hit the nail on the head, multiple times.

The company lease is just that. A heavily subsidised lease that includes insurance, registration maintenance etc. which
I can switch just about yearly. I can alway get back into the program but no, the company won’t help me otherwise.

Although my ZHP is 100 % up to date on maintenance, having no garage still gives me a bit of anxiety as I always have done my own maintenance or repairs. You accurately pointed out that the second ZHP did not bring up the same feelings as the first one. At that time I could only have one car and it was truly the best balance of fun and comfort. I am a bit older now and the comfort of not having to worry about a daily does hold a lot of value.

I am leaning towards consolidating to one car pending my future living situation. If I can find a place with a two car parking “spot” (garage is unfortunately out of the question), I might continue to do the lease and keep the Miata. If only one spot is secured, I am leaning in either the aforementioned vehicles with a manual trans or a different lease -S3, S4, S5?

Either way, the ZHP is always something that I always come back to in my head, maybe one day I will be able to have a permanent spot for one .

[Will]

Keep us posted with what you decide.

[fredo]

IMO, the # of cars in a household should be the # of drivers + 1. In other words, one spare car for the whole family.

[RUS_ZHP]

Majority of us are pretty biased toward zhp. Hands down it a very comfortable, enjoyable and rewarding to drive car.
I have been daily ZHP since 2015. I did many, many camping trips by carrying 2 bikes and roof box in the roof. I also did a few 2k miles trip like that. I never really complained. Sure, sometime I missed the practicality of a larger car.
For the last 3 years, I have been driving e46 touring and that changed the game.
I am not even thinking about moving into a different platform despite all the negatives of owning an old car.
I would keep you lovely orient blue sedan and sell A5. Like others have said, it will be difficult to find about zhp, while A5 or any other modern cars are easier to find.


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