Originally Posted by nh500sl

So, I witnessed the bidding of a couople of different cars today at an acution. There was a 1991 Volvo 740 turbo wagon, with under 200k that there was not much a bid beyond $500. There was also a 1992 BMW 325 auto that was beat to the abosolute brink of basically being a parts car with no good parts that sold for $1700.

This really got me to thinking. I have a six series that I put up for sale because I really don't drive it a great deal, and so I put it on the market for $5,000 to see If I could sell it. I was not willing to take less then that for it and I did not care if the car sold or not. I did not get a single call on it though which was a complete surprise. I notice the same things with benz, the bigger models sit and sit on lots for sale and never move. They are not that hard to work on compared to a lot of other stuff and too me the driving experice of the big benz or Big bimmer or even the Volvo 740 wagon is far greater then these economy cars that people are buying.

My unlce had a very nice 300TE that he dumped becasue it needed transmission work. The car had 160K the previous owner had the heads redone the body and interior were fantastic and he dumped it because he did not want to spend "$3,000 to fix an old mercedes" He repalced it with a few year old small mazda. Again this does not make sense to me, he could have written the $3,000 check had a mercedes with a new transmission and also had a car that was payed for. Instead he spend $15,000 on a car that is newer yes, but has seats, safty features, body quality and comfort that do not meet the standard of the Mercedes Benz that he traded for.

Also reminds me of another friend that I have who is into Volvos...(the old Rear wheel drive models) (before ford took over) She had a 91 940 se with a lot of miles and a few door dings she decided she wanted to find a nicer version of the same car maybe a coulple years newer. She found one with half the miles that hers had that was a one owner. The guy wanted $5,000 for it a 1994 Volvo 940 Turbo sedan. She went to the bank and the bank told her, "sorry, we do not loan on vehicles seven years old and older" I told her to go to a credit union and she found sucess. I found that very funny. The same bank without a thought will loan a 18 year old kid $12,000 to go out and buy a brand new dodge neon that will depreciate as soon as he drives it off the lot and will continue to deteriate and likely be work out at 25,000 m iles per year after four years and he still has another three years to pay for it! 3

Maybe I'm set in my ways, but I'm not seeing the logic in peoples choices.