Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"

stickguy

I oddly like that T-bird. Just don't ask me to explain why.

explorerx4

It would go well with Driver100's mask.

Mr_Shiftright

fintail said:

July and August.

I suspect it is an experience to drive that car over railroad tracks.

xwesx said:

Dang; they managed to get 26,500 miles on it over forty years in the Seattle area.... without seeing ANY rain or inclement weather? How did they manage that?!

You mean July 16 through August 8th, right?

fintail

Some years all the way until August 15th.

Mr_Shiftright said:

You mean July 16 through August 8th, right?

fintail

Here's a fun one I spotted elsewhere:

Mr_Shiftright

911s are very durable cars if you care for them properly. Take them to Dieter and Hans every 6 months and check off every item on the maintenance list. Might cost you $1500 --$2000 a year to do that (plus normal wear items) but you'll get decades of good service out of one.

lemko1968

Anybody up for a REAL challenge? Better have deep pockets to rescue this one. They is a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Andre1969 and I saw at Fall Carlisle this year,

xwesx

A rattle can, some spit shine on them bumpers.... good as new!

Mr_Shiftright

RE: '57 CAD --relatively rare, only 1800 made. Restored it's worth north of $100K but probably south of $150K, so I'd say---just looking at it, that it should be bought very cheaply. Not much wiggle room here.

berri

Someone left that Caddy on the side of the Surekill

Mr_Shiftright

Nothing a Jazillion dollars wouldn't fix. Labor of love, that's for sure. Certainly worth saving, but someone's going to have to take a bullet on it.

xwesx

I'm curious what the seller was asking for it.

fintail

I could see it consuming 100K without much hassle, if you had the work done at a high end shop.

Knowing this speculative age, seller probably wanted 40K+ for it.

Mr_Shiftright

I would think $20K was all the money.

$100K? Sigh.....Not a chance anymore---at least not in California. I'd guessimate $150K--$175K if you just gave it over and wrote checks. But yeah, maybe in some parts of the country you could do it for $100K. It really depends on what snags you hit and to what level you want to take the car.

qbrozen

fintail said:

Here's a fun one I spotted elsewhere:

I don't care how good a car is, I can't imagine driving one vehicle for all those miles.

Mr_Shiftright

I don't think I would, strictly for safety reasons---I'd be very concerned about structural failure unless the car had been torn down to the frame and rebuilt (well the 911 doesn't have a "frame") but it does have a chassis to which all the vitals are attached).

fintail

I suspect at least a few Porsche owners aren't afraid of shop bills, and will maintain their cars.

Assuming this is a late 70s model, that's 10K miles a year, every year. Not impossible, but you'd have to love it.

Mr_Shiftright

A targa like that could be driven 10K a year in a warm clime, or a dry one--I couldn't see it surviving in snow or heavy rain. They like to leak, rattle and squeak. It could drive you mad if the roof were on all the time.

tjc78

I could never be that committed to a car.

Mr_Shiftright

I might be it if were utilitarian, if I were broke, or, I suppose, if nothing else really tempted me at the time. I've always had more than one vehicle, and usually a motorcycle, so all that helps.

xwesx

For me, the longer I have had a vehicle, the less other stuff tempts me.

fintail

Weather dried out this afternoon, took the old dear out for a drive:



Started up without hesitation as usual, ran fine, got some looks, a couple comments, and a wave from a guy in a chrome bumper BMW 2002. And something positive - this drive I noticed no new oil blow-by, no drip at all.

berri

Whenever I see your car, it takes me back to the days when MB were really special because they stood out and most didn't really see one that often in the States. Nowadays leased MB are kind of a common sight on the road.

fintail

I live in a fairly affluent area, and I wouldn't be surprised that if one times it right, they can see half of the cars visible on the street being leased Audi/BMW/MB/Lexus/Infiniti. It's just what the market wants now - people want the latest thing, and I suspect these cars are more expensive compared to disposable income than in the past.

I don't know if any design is really unique anymore, at least not in a good way. MB was also much more of a niche brand until well into the 80s or even later. I think in the 60s, most of the NA market clientele for MB, sedans especially, were fairly conservative (in appearance) doctor/engineer/professor types.

stickguy

my pending purchase will almost definitely be leased. With an y luck, we will want to (and it will make sense) to buy it out in 3 years. If not, will look to buy something to keep for a really long time.

my second car, could go either way. Might buy something cheaper, or if the wife buys something nice as a keeper, I might just amuse myself with rotating leases.

fintail

Leasing works well for those who get bored easily. Most typical financing will be upside down for a couple years at the very least, and sometimes there are real bargains. It also ensures a supply of used cars.

steine13

I hate the part of leasing where you are driving someone else's car. Bad enough if you finance to have to ask if you can buy it...with leasing you'd have to ask if you may pretty please sell..
On the other hand, it can be incredibly cheap. My current lease of a cruze hatch 6mt is nothing to write home about but my last one was 'free' ... I think I wound up not even paying all the taxes out of my pocket. It helped that they forgot to charge me the turn-in fee when I returned the car 5 months early. GM moves in mysterious ways.
A 24 month lease is like a really long test drive...I'm mildly temped to buy it out, since sticks are getting so hard to find. But I expect something else will catch my eye...and I'd like to go to liability only for the fleet. Older cars ftw!

fintail

That's my lease problem. I leased to avoid getting attached to a car. Now I really like the car, but the residual is inflated to a comical level. I still don't know what I will do when the lease ends in about 5 months. I qualify for pull forward now, but there's not a lot out there in new models that gets me going, at least in my price range.

I have difficulty with older cars too - the ones I like are old enough to where I wouldn't want to subject them to daily driver wear and tear, while newer cars of a similar type usually bore me, or can have high running costs.

steine13

Fin, you could tell your dealer's used-car manager that you will be happy to buy your car for $xxx if he snags it when it comes off lease.
I don't know how MB handles their used cars, but the domestics allow the dealer where it's turned in to bid like everyone else, and they have the advantage of seeing the car beforehand. Of course, the way you treat your cars, he may just keep it and sell it front-of-house in any event, and then you can pay extra for the upkeep

berri

Fin, do you really want to own a tech laden late model MB out of warranty???

Mr_Shiftright

I don't see why you couldn't drive a Mercedes Fintail as a daily driver. I did for years. They are extremely reliable cars.

steine13

...plus Fintails aren't THAT techy by today's standards, either.

Mr_Shiftright

Not at all, except maybe the fuel injection, which is not something you fix in the basement of your house.

fintail

I'm not afraid of an out of warranty W212 - these aren't especially complex cars, so long as they have conventional suspension. I guess I would be most concerned with AWD-related quirks or Bluetec/DEF issues, but I haven't read of many consistent issues. These are pretty solid cars overall. If it was a 10 year old S-class, I might be more leery.

For the buyout, I fear they will say "sure, at the stated residual" - then I guess I could track down another car, but I am pretty picky about colors and options, not to mention condition. My car is fairly pristine, which can be used against me in negotiations, no doubt. Still a few months to go before I think I'll get into that.

A fintail is far too old for me to want as a daily driver, especially in this wet environment. It won't have audible rust like it might in Michigan, but issues will develop sooner or later, this isn't California, and there's a difference between driving a car when it is 10 years old and when it is 55 years old

My car has FI, and it has been reliable, few issues with the system over the years. Much improved ease of use over carbs, I think.

steine13

>> audible rust like it might in Michigan
Hey!

fintail

I was in MI last month. Some of the rust I saw was frankly shocking for someone from the best coast, where I can see 70s-80s era vehicles on the road and not give it a second thought. Seeing thoroughly rusted mid 2000s era cars was a new experience.

ab348

It's the same here if not worse, being on the Atlantic coast. You can really see vehicles where rust resistance was either not considered at all or where manufacturing missed out on protecting a particular part. There was a metal filler panel between the bottom of the taillights and the top of the bumper used on Accords and Civics for years that rusted long before anything was visible on the remainder of the car. What tends to kill vehicles here first though is chassis/undercarriage rust, things like strut towers, shock and suspension mounts, etc.

Mr_Shiftright

Rust is very atypical in northern California. If your car has significant rust, it is essentially sale-proof here.

fintail

It's like that in WA, too. Anything but minor rust on a vehicle will be a deal-killer, and even then it would have to be something old, like 30+ years or more. Even the rusty era of Japanese cars took 20 years to rust here, they finally started vanishing in the 90s. People in the midwest and east just patch it up and move on, it scares people here, myself included.

I've heard 00s era Mazdas can really dissolve in harsh winter climates, and I know some later 90s era MBs can get crusty too, W210 and W202 especially. The worst I saw on my trip were mid 00s era pickups, Dodge and Chevy especially, along with all kinds of cargo vans.

texases

Spoiled here in Dallas, too. Makes me forget about the rusty cars I saw growing up in Cincinnati.

berri

I think if you keep them clean, including undercarriage in winter up north you stand a chance of avoiding rust for a longer period of time. I'm always amazed at how many people avoid only a couple of bucks at the car wash by skipping an undercarriage option.

explorerx4

The stuff they use here in CT attacks external seals, so you need to go to the car wash once a month.
Learned this the hard way with one of my Explorers. Replaced a few seals over a couple of years and started running through the car wash.
Never a problem after that.

fintail

I'll take the west coast over going through all that. Now just if something could be done about those housing prices.

andres3

fintail said:

Weather dried out this afternoon, took the old dear out for a drive:



Started up without hesitation as usual, ran fine, got some looks, a couple comments, and a wave from a guy in a chrome bumper BMW 2002. And something positive - this drive I noticed no new oil blow-by, no drip at all.

Do you drive it in the rain? ever?

xwesx

andres3 said:

Do you drive it in the rain? ever?

Hhahhahahaha! What a joker.....

fintail

It might see a few drops once a year, if I time it wrong. I try to keep the car dry, as dry = clean, and dry keeps the rust at bay. When I take it in for the yearly service/inspection it might also sit outside during a shower, but I do that in summer when rain is rare.

andres3 said:

Do you drive it in the rain? ever?

fintail

It was just a matter of time before something like this hit BaT

texases

More like "BaT of cash"!

fintail

I wonder if/when it will hit 7 figures.

Michaell

fintail said:

I wonder if/when it will hit 7 figures.

Seems like an odd place to list this.