Loren wrote: "It is all in perspective. A 50k mile caddy is 1/3 spent, if the average lifespan of a caddy is 150k miles. That would leave you 100k useable miles. An SDL with 250k and no rust is 1/4 spent, figuring a lifespan of 1 million. That leaves 750k to go. The cost of ownership of the SDL is less."
I have no disagreement with you IF (and only if) a person is buying the car to drive it for its useful life span. I am not. I will likely drive the Cadillac (or whatever car) only 1 year or at the most 2 years. If that is the case, then the longevity of the car is only useful in terms of figuring out the odds of whether the car will break down in such a way that I am going to have to spend a lot of money. My calculus includes factors such as comfort, ease of maintenance during my ownership, satisfaction with the car during my ownership, operating costs (during my ownership), resale value, current condition (i.e. appearance), and insurance. If I was really only concerned with longevity/cost of ownership, my choice would probably be different. Here's how it really works in my car choices. My wife and I have a deal that I can buy whatever car I want as long as we don't go into debt. I tend to be even more frugal than that. My own formula is that I cannot dip into savings. I only have whatever money I got from the previous car. Now, most people would say that means you are going to be driving cheaper and cheaper cars because as I drive the cars, they depreciate. However, it has not worked that way. For example, I spent $900 on the Buick - drove it for about a year and sold it for $1200. So, I had $1200 to spend. In that case, I had a mileage reimbursement check for $254 that I had been hanging onto. So, in my mind, I had $1454 to spend on a car. I paid $1400 for the Volvo and just sold it for $2200. Therefore, I had $2200 to spend on the next car. I ended up getting the Cadillac for $1900. So, I am ahead and I have not spent any savings and, in fact, actually made money on the car. Plus, my insurance (liability only, please) actually went down from the Volvo to the Cadillac. Donald H. Snook _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
