PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

Ashman · #2 12-30-2002, 11:44 PM

I look at it like this.

You can save a few bucks buying the older car, but in the long run, you may end up spending more than a newer car would have cost.

I'll give you an example. My younger brother has a 1993 range rover. So far has has spent at least $15k in repairs in 3 years of ownership. That doesn't even include the top end rebuild he is doing on it right now.

In the just over 2 years I have owned my car, I have spent on repairs probably $4k, but that doesn't include repairs done because of car accidents, that is just repairs that I had to pay for, a big chunk being replacing the tranny as the previous owner had neglected it and never changed the fluid or filter in over 75k miles.

For me, I can understand the desire to save money now, but when you think about it, are you really saving money? Imagine you want to by something, lets say it costs $200. but you don't really want to spend more than $150.00, so you buy the cheaper product and regret buying it, yet if you had spent the extra $50.00 you would have gotten exactly what you wanted and been happy with it.

I can give one real good example for you. we had a 1985 190E 2.3. The tranny went out, and at the time the car was only worth about 5k in perfect condition. witht he broken tranny, my father had been offered $4500.00 for it, and he refused as he wanted to get more. Well he didn't get more, he ended up getting less, and had to sell the car for $2000. Why? because he wanted to get more money for it, even though there was no way it would bring in any more. in fact that offer of $4500 was a great offer, but his greed in wanting more made him lose more. His need to hold out for more money ultimately was the worst decision he could have made. But he seems to make those decisions often enough.

after he sold the car for $2k, he would tell me I was stupid and should have sold it to the guy that was willing to pay $4500.

Another thing he did was when I had my truck, it needed a new engine, well we had a similar truck that was non running, that we could have put the engine into my truck, but he refused. Then he sold that truck, and the very next day he told me we should have put the engine in your truck. What happened? My truck had to be towed away for $50.00.

As you can see, his need or greed caused more loss than it was worth, just to try to geta few extra $$$ out of it.

Now the same applies to buying a car. I know people who will pass up ona great deal, because it is justa bit more than they wanted to spend, and in compromising, they bought a cheaper car, which caused more problems and cost more money than the other one which was perfect.

Keep talking to your dad, and try to make him see the light. Don't allow him to take the plunge without proper investigation. the extra $2k spent on the newer car will be well worth it in my opinion.

Alon