I reckon my feeling is...let the lawyers and doctors and brokers buy these things new and eat the depreciation and I'll grab em later. You must be willing to get dirty however to justify that logic. I've spent maybe $300 in maintenance over the course of 18 months of ownership on this 1990 300TE. Paid $3600 for it...it had 123K....been OK....in fact better with time, different than BMW. The more I deal with it the more like it. But there is a learning curve thing here....and to take these things to mechanics will eat you up....These are DIY cars....