Buying a 5-10 year old car is safer, but you still have to be careful (for example, buying one with a bad transmission would be a $4-5000 mistake).
Or, if you’re a masochistic type of person, it could be a good deal. Local paper in the shop had a 98 VW passat 1.8T 60k miles, power everything, for $3k, saying it books for $9k. Co worker called about it and said that the airbags had been deployed, and is salvage titled, window(s) won’t work right if you use the key in the door and/or they won’t stay up. Now, if everything else worked good, a couple hundred to fix the windows would more than make up for the cost difference. Not sure how much it would cost to have the bags repacked, or if you could find a steering column in a junkyard that has it’s airbags intact.
Sometimes insurance will total out a car(thus giving it a salvage title in most states) if it was dinged up pretty bad in a hail storm, despite no other problems with it. If one doesn’t care too much about looks, you could pick something like that up for cheap, pay to have the dents popped out.
I’m not that “masochistic,” and it might be a major hassle to register/insure a car with a salvage title. If the drive train is good, it might be valuable as a parts car to re-power one with a bad engine, but $3K sounds high for a car that’s been totaled. I would look for one with higher miles and no accident history.
You did not specify your priorities. If you have real money, then the choice does not matter regarding repairs. I’d go for the one with a dealer near your house if that is an obvious choice. If your goal is to sample an expensive German brand with a little sporting flair, then BMW. If your goal is status, MB but it won’t work unless you just want to sample it; too old for that little money.
LOL, you think? It took me a little while to get that, too (which explains my first reply). Driving an older benz/bimmer is a good way to drive a very nice car with a much lower profile than a new one. Also, one does not usually accumulate “real money” by writing very large checks to car dealers every-time one gets a little spare change. Drive what you want without having to worry about what anyone else thinks, that’s real “status.”
I’m not the best person to ask, “low maintenance” isn’t really one of my criteria, not even in the top 10 (I wouldn’t have an excuse to take them apart and play with them, what fun is that?).
Seriously, if “low maintenance” is your major criterion, buy some late model ricer and throw it away before it gets too old, I really don’t know which ones are the best benz/bmw clones these days, probably some mid-size honda/lexus/toyota/whatever with under 100K miles that hasn’t been abused would be the best bet for the least money.
Apparently you have no concept of the meaning of “real money”. With enough “real money” you will not be bothered by an occasional check written out to a car dealer. Let’s talk now about cash for a yacht.
Apparently you have no concept of the meaning of “real money”. With enough “real money” you will not be bothered by an occasional check written out to a car dealer. Let’s talk now about cash for a yacht.
You might be surprised by what some folks with “real money” drive, it just a matter of priorities.
Back when Sam Walton was the richest man in the world he drove a late '70s pickup truck as his main transportation. That was early to mid '90s. I suppose it stood out less in the WalMart parking lots.
It’s a Taurus or Sable. I didn’t mean to imply that you were as rich as Buffet, but it appears that you are independently wealthy, based on your comments. And that’s great! Now, can you help the rest of us goobers get there, too?
Yep, I did a quick online search, the top 10 richest people in the world is currently headed by Bill Gates, but the 5 Sam Walton heirs are all in the top 10. Gate’s only made the top of the list because Sam Walton died and divided his fortune 5 ways.
It depends how you count personal wealth, there are a few folks in the mid-east and the ex-soviet block who have done a pretty good job of “combining” public and private funds. I don’t think they’re on Forbe’s list.
