"hang the cost" is not really an option and I don't believe it's necessary. For some of these cars there is a point in it's life where it was cheap to keep. If you bought it new and sold it when the warranty ran out then you paid a premium for those miles but you got to enjoy a really great car.

Gregorios Sachinidis is at 2.8 million miles in his 240D. Do you think he's spent more than $280K ? He could have bought a lot of Crown Vics for that (probably not a practical Greek Taxi)

These cars are well designed and well built. THey go for 300,000 miles easily and the average 95 E300 is at 93% depreciation.

So how is my target cost per mile out of line? Maybe not a 95 E300, maybe something older and simpler with more parts available?

I could buy any number of E300's on CL right now for around $4K and drive it 20,000 miles (about nine months for me) and sell it for $2500

Of course, you can't own a car with a soul when you do that.

I've searched on "1995 E300" on all the MB forums and read most of what people are posting. I don't see a lot of sudden, catastrophic parts failure (none actually) And i don't find the parts to be much more expensive than parts for my newer Honda.

I know a lot of people just get into a particular car because they like the car but I figure there must be someone on this forum who approaches the cost the same way I do.

And just to be clear, my formula is; price of the car, divided by miles driven, minus the current value of the car- not counting consumables.

Thanks for indulging me

dave