It was an innocent drive. A quick stop at a BMW dealership a little further out that had a 2018 M5 in Donington Grey. We saw it, she loved, and it is our #1 color choice. That ends that part of the story.
But, the M5 was just outside the showroom glass and in the showroom directly behind the M5 was one of these:
A "Seaside Edition" MCS that is loaded. To be fair, the car is night and day vs the MCS we had. Very nice leather, convertible, loads more features, etc.
Well, she
L O V E D it
. She kept talking about wanting to get one. The conversation started with, "yeah, sure, it's cute." To "but I REALLY want it." To "well, soon enough the kids would be driving the GTI all the time, so maybe it does make sense for Mrs FC to have her own car."
I had to very much be in, "whatever you want" mode because her birthday is very soon, next year is our 20th anniversary, she has been very patient recently with test drives, and by far most importantly, we will likely be spending A LOT within 12 months on two cars that primarily I will drive.
We left the dealership reminiscing about how much we loved the MCS we had, how the kids growing up is how we ended up moving to MK7 Golfs for size, and that we will look into getting one in the future. After all, in 3.5 years both kids are done with HS. Soon, if not already, the LR4 is a niche car for spot uses.
But then I see that this is a limited edition 500-unit build and that apparently this is the last model year before they move on to the next gen. Hadn't paid attention, but apparently this is effectively the same car since 2014, so it is pretty long in the tooth. Also, it was EXPENSIVE, at ~$47k.
Interestingly, used Mini convertibles seem to hold their value very well.
As mentioned, we lean towards waiting, seeing how the next-gen MCS looks, let our lives settle over the next couple of years and then reevaluate. Maybe she feels a particular way now because she primarily drives LR4. Once the M5 is added, she will primarily drive the GTI. Perhaps that will buy time and we can always look for a used Seaside MCS. It's cute, but clearly it is not some super-high demand model despite the limited edition.
Or should we should say F-it and go buy that car now. Honestly, for a split second, we almost considered that yesterday. It was was a weird mixed emotion of, as a car guy, seeing her so freakin' excited about a car, and feeling guilty about the cars I'm getting. It's a stupid car, but arguably less stupid than the BGTS (will be used MUCH more) and costs less than half as much.