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Yeah let's try to swing back on topic here. Thanks!
As we've noted in this discussion, the depreciation on used luxury cars has accelerated significantly during this recession, especially for those who can pay cash, so it's a great time to buy. What I'm not sure of is the sweet spot for selling or trading the hypothetical 5 year old, 30,000 miles car. I'm thinking that age is less important than mileage, so maybe age can be disregarded, and one should follow shifty's suggestion (if I'm recalling correctly) and bail out at ~80,000 miles. Do I have the sale part about right?
What about doing the necessary maintenance and repairs and going to 150,000-200,000, so you enjoy the full benefit of your expenditures. I mean, why spend the money, only to sell at, say, 110,000-120,000 miles?
Your thoughts?
Replying to an old post, I know, but I had it bookmarked...
I'm not sure how commonplace this situation was back in the "good old days," but today I don't see many used cars for sale, luxury or otherwise, where the owner has just invested a lot of money in repairs. It's usually more like "1998 Luxomobile for parts" or "2001 Cloudmobile transmission needs fixed [sic]."
I can see buying a used car and flushing all the fluids, replacing wiper blades, and changing the timing belt, tensioner, and idlers, where applicable (a grand or so, I'm guessing), but buying something that's not driveable sounds like a losing proposition.
Before letting emotion rule, determine if the first year depreciation and sales tax on a replacement vehicle is more costly than repairing the original. Of course it is, but by how much?
The last half of a car's long life is rarely the best half.
Sounds like the 80s. Advanced engine controls gave stone-age internal combustion engines a new lease on life. For a somewhat shorter life that is.
Fussy electronic controls + bland products of that era = Orphaned 80s cars
My friend's 1998 BMW 750iL is a great case in point: his dashboard has (mostly) gone blank, one rear window doesn't work, he gets constant bulb out warnings, etc. and now water intrusion has ruined some module under the rear seat. Car runs great (or did anyway), looks okay, but it's simply not worth fixing anymore.
too bad...they are *fabulous* cars to drive, when they are running. But even free is too much to spend on one.
My friend's car runs very well. You could even take it on a long trip. But not with a dashboard display, windows or heat/AC.
Was there ever a happy point in time when you could get decent fuel injection but not be bogged down by a bunch of hard to replace electrical compents?
Engineers don't design cars to go 300,000 miles. Some do, no doubt, but most fall apart before that, or get wrecked, or become too expensive to fix, or become impractical for the world they live in (like 10 mpg @ $3.55 a gallon).
I remember one old Benz a 560SEL, that had very high mileage. A friend of mine wanted to buy it. The seller insisted it's been a "great car" and he used it daily.
So I sent the car over to my very trusted friends who repair German cars and, even with cutting corners, they figured it needed about $8000 in critical repairs. This included worn steering parts, bad tires, inoperative electronics of various sorts, leaks, fluid changes, belts, hoses and a timing chain.
Sure the seller got his 250K out of it, but he squeezed it dry like a lemon. The car had nothing left in it but sheer willpower to go another mile.
I know, I know. 90 year old man that plays tennis...
Just a thought, would the C4 Corvette qualify as a Detroit example of "depreciate to (near) zero" technology in the 80s? The cross-fire engine, dig dash, clamshell body structure all seemed to promise that it would never be saved by the hands of car hobby guys in the future.
But like that BMW 750, a good running C4 is a good performance car. Handles like a slot car and the crude overhead valve 350 pulls strong. But when it's over, well, it is over. :sick:
Early '90s Japanese compacts? EFI meant that most of the Rube Goldberg vacuum controls were gone, and the lower and midline cars weren't gadgeted up yet. Plus, any Japanese car from that era worth driving has a colossal aftermarket these days.
Classic case of obsolete technology dragging the car's value to near oblivion.
You remember that pristine C4 that was for sale for $6500 that I posted last year? It's still for sale. He can't get that price.
I went digging and found some odd comps between the un-favorite Corvette and some late 70s Camaros. Realize these are just "asking" prices but still they are posted for similar money, $5k to $6,500.
Here in Ahia:
Decent C4 with working dig dash and nice leather, low miles, automatic, etc.
A bit rusty '79 Camaro for a bit more money?
Even in Washington state:
Really nice looking C4, probably let it go for less than the asking price.
Ratty old Camaro Berlinetta asking a lot for getting so little.
Even though I called the C4 out as a neg example of 80s tech run dry, I'd still buy either of these C4s - or preferably the nice one posted last year - before either of the comp priced F-bodys from the late 70s. At least the Corvettes will GO. For a while anyway! :shades:
You could buy a really nice late 90s Benz E320 for that money.
Still, a jarring sight when ratty malaise F-bodies are offered at prices similar to a decent C4.
Runs great, though, like a freight train, and still handles and brakes very well.
That car was 120K new, albeit 19 years ago, but still. Nice parts car though.
Shifty, and others - I'm really dreading the day when I need to do a $3000+ repair on this car, since it comes from the "new" electronic Volvo era. I don't want the instrument cluster to start randomly reading in Swedish, oil leaking from the tranny, or lighting going haywire. But I guess I'll have to live with it. Advice/tips?
I wonder if most of the people with cars like the 7-Series, Benz S-class, Audi A8, etc, lease them rather than buy, and then just turn them in? Or, even if they do buy, they trade after a couple years?
Then, as used cars, I think they tend to fall into the hands of those that really can't afford them, and that's where the real problems start?
There's a guy at work who bought a used early 90's BMW 5-series a few years ago. I forget the year or exact model, but I think it's a 5.0 V-12. Anyway, the thing is so complex, that when his battery died, it took him awhile to even get inside the car. You'd think he could just stick his key in the door, open it, pop the hood, and then jump start it, but of course it wasn't that simple. When you put your key in the door lock to unlock it, that was an electronic connection, rather than mechanical, so that died with the battery.
I think he was able to open the trunk with the key though, and there was a connection in there where you could get enough power to it so that you could unlock the doors, to get inside to the hood release.
I guess that does make them harder to steal, but it just sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. And, the last time I talked to this guy, he was sounding like he wanted to unload this money pit.
The locking problem you describe is exactly the type of problem I was trying to solve a few weekends ago. A friend of mine and I were trying to get into his wife's '93 740iL, but the battery was dead and just sticking the key in the lock wouldn't open it.
I don't know if there was, because I think both came into play right around the same time. I remember Lemko retired his '88 Park Ave when one of the sensors failed. I can't remember if it was the camshaft or the crankshaft, but it was so buried and hard to get to that it just wasn't worth fixing. Which kinda bothers me, since that's the same basic engine as what's in my 2000 Park Ave! :surprise: I hope it's not a common problem! Or if it is, that it's at least easier to get to on the newer 3.8's.
I've also heard that on some Nissans in the late 80's and early 90's, when the EGR valve went bad, it was a major undertaking to get to.
Indeed, the best thing that ever happened to Jag was being bought by Ford. Without that, they'd be in the same boat as Austin, MG, Wolseley, Riley, Humber, et al.
The last time I saw him was about eight months ago and the CRV had 355,000 miles. He only takes it to the store I worked at. Ourside of routine maintenance, he's replaced an A/C compressor and his front calipers. He said it runs the same as when he bought it.
I once took in a 1988 Accord that only our shop worked on with 414,000 miles. Auto trans started slipping so they traded it.
We wholesaled them and even then everybody is afraid of them.
NONETHELESS, it does tell you something.