Thank you, sounds like a great poster!

I'm very lucky indeed, I'm 33 and have had (in reverse order) 997 2s, 996 4s, Boxsters S, Honda S2000,  2 x BMW 3 series coupe, MGF (worst car I ever owned or drove) and a 205 1.9Gti (wish I still had it for sentimental reasons, had it when I was 18 and payed 3 times more for insurance than my 997!).

So compared to most people in life I have had some very nice cars (this isn't a boast at all, I am extremely grateful for my lot in life).  I would hate to add up the depreciation on that lot over the past 13 years, but I don't regret a single penny as I worked my ass off since leaving school to earn enough to buy all those cars and only bought them when I could afford to buy outright.  A couple of years ago I would have gone and bought any of these cars without thinking too much about it but the recession has made me very indecisive lately because of the 'fear' of how bad things could get.

My wife works in a hospice so I have a regular dose of 'live life for the moment' but I don't like being reckless with money and now I'm married and a little older I have started thinking about saving more for later in life and the possibility of children coming along, etc.

My wife wants a new X5 and I worked out if I bought the X5 and the GT3 (which was a possibility for a while) I would probably lose £40k in a year minimum which means I would have to earn £80k just to fund the depreciation on the cars without all the running costs.  When you put it like that as much fun as the cars are you start to think twice (unless you are exceptionally wealthy!).

Anybody else been through a period like this (basically having a midlife crises and turning into a tight ass)?

The joys of being a petrolhead!....