In this week’s show (01/30/10) a woman from The Dalles, Oregon said she bought a 1989 Range Rover wagon for $16,500. Does anyone besides me think that is unreasonably expensive for a 21 year old Range Rover? Just wondering. I’m surprised Click and Clack didn’t comment on the price.
Most posters here would not recommend ANY Range Rover at any price. These are very troublesome vehicles, and are very expensive to maintain and repair.
A 21 year old one may present trouble in getting parts; the owners are now Tata of India and they may not be interested is supplying parts that far back.
True, the Queen of England has several, but she has a live-in mechanic and chauffer and a slightly larger maintenance budget that our lady from Dallas.
Well, you know the old saying–“A fool and his money are soon parted”.
Yes, that is very expensive for a 21 year-old vehicle, particularly one with a really bad reliability record!
It’s not up to us to pass judgement on someone elses purchase. She (I assume) likes the vehicle, the vehicle is bought, and I wish her a long and happy ownership.
We’ll be here for her should she need or desire our advice, just as we will for anyone else.
Good answer.
I do agree with poster below that it’s her money, but we do get to laugh at her. Heh, heh.
Unless it has $13,000 cash in the glovebox . . . that’s too much. Blue Book only lists back to 1990 . . . and lists a good one for about $3,000. If you’ve ever owned a British vehicle, you would shy away from a 21 year old British car. Rocketman
Vehicle would have to have a full tank for its value to break the $50.00 level
I think many of us at times have paid too much for something that turns out not to have been a good purchase. In my case it was clothes. Everything I owned before I married was searsucker–apparel that Sears Roebuck sold to a sucker. A clothing salesman would tell me that something was the latest style and I would believe it. Fortunately, I married a woman with good taste.
If I remember the show correctly, the woman’s husand is a bank official, so money probably isn’t an issue. The caller and the $16,500 21 year old Range Rover did make me think about my clothing purchases.
If it’s what she wanted …fine. Most British vehicles have issues. When you used to buy a Jag or MG, Americans that should not own them would complain about all the fixing required right from new. That was the thing, “It’s new”. After you end up debugging them, they were fine for the most part. It will never be a “just change the oil and filters” car until you throw it away. Euro’s weren’t much different. The maintenance on them was constant and expensive and it would bite you if you didn’t do it. Asians were the only ones to trump the American simplicity for car ownership. They appeared to be 3rd world rated. You could neglect them and they would still function well.
What I want to know is whether this call was replayed from a previous broadcast. I swear I heard a call from someone in The Dalles a few years back who provided exactly the same explanation of the city’s name, and T&R had the same response they did on this weekend’s show. The fact that this was the last call of broadcast makes it all the more suspicious.
That’s the reason “The Boyz” did not remark on the price…It’s a ten year old segment…It’s Cut & Paste time on Car Talk…
Thank you for this! I was completely baffled that whole segment, but it all makes sense now.