I'm in this school of thought. The purchase price of most of my cars is small enough that it doesn't matter compared to the upkeep and initial fixing. Once I am bored with it, let it go. Normally I get about what I paid a couple years earlier. Wife is in the opposite school of thought. She sees no reason to ever change cars unless the current one becomes so unpleasant to drive that it is annoying. Oddly enough - outside of being totally unreliable, reliability doesn't seem to be an issue to her, just so long as the unreliability is predictable. Her rule is Air, Power Steering and Auto Tranny. Outside of that anything goes. Her tolerance for my toys is high - (good thing) and her only founding automotive principle is that all payments must be avoided and non running cars are limited to parts to be removed and the shell\ has to be sent on.
I enjoy tinkering so I get a new old car every couple of years - fix it up a little here and there - trying to keep it as cheap as possible. My communte i about 25K a year so it doesn't take long to get them pretty reliable, and then I pass them on to someone else. I'm only on my second Mercedes and I still own both of them. Peter On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 8:44 PM, OK Don <okd...@gmail.com> wrote: > For me, the time to abandon a car is when I don't want to fix it anymore. > It's just that simple. The old cars area as much a hobby as they are > transportation. We've owned two new cars over the years - a '74 Opel that > my wife purchased a few months before we met, and the '97 van that we > bought for her after many cold winters in a '78 VW bus. As I look back on > all the cars, the two that we bought new have been the most reliable and > have needed the least maintenance. Perhaps that's luck, perhaps it's that I > do all the maintenance on them. > I'm about to enter a new hobby, and am re-thinking my older MBs -- and > wondering if the advice an old indie used to give his customers when they > asked "what car should I buy?" - he told them to buy a new MB and drive it > the rest of their life (I don't know if that's the car's or the owner's > life). > I don't want to have to work on a car when I could be working on the > Tailwind. > A new TDI is under consideration, but I hate to not have an MB - so the > cheapest C class is also in consideration. I do wish they sold the C class > in the US with a CDI engine --- > > On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 7:55 PM, Curt Raymond <curtlud...@yahoo.com> > wrote: > > > I have no problem with conserving a nice car but don't tell me you > "can't" > > drive it in the winter, thats lame. > > > > I've been driving diesels for the last 8 years, the newest was an '85, > > also an '84 and '83 and now a '78 which I'm daily driving right now > because > > my '84 needs a carrier bearing. > > > > You COULD drive your car, plug in the block heater and it'll be warm > > enough to start in an hour or two, synthetic oil would help but is not > > required, the last winter I drove my '83 I used conventional oil. > > > > -Curt > > > > Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:59:28 -0600 > > From: Randy Bennell <rbenn...@bennell.ca> > > To: Mercedes Discussion List <mercedes@okiebenz.com> > > Subject: Re: [MBZ] A lost cause? > > Message-ID: <4ec18f40.3050...@bennell.ca> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > > > On 14/11/2011 3:37 PM, Curt Raymond wrote: > > > Harumph, this is what block heaters are for... > > > > > > -Curt > > > > > > > > My car is too old and too nice to subject it to our winters. > > And, the old diesels do not start like the newer ones when it gets > > really cold. Double batteries might help but even then, I believe I > > might have issues that are best avoided. > > > > Randy > > > > _______________________________________ > > 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://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > > > > -- > OK Don > 2001 ML320 > 1992 300D 2.5T > 1990 300D 2.5T > 1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager > _______________________________________ > 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://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > _______________________________________ 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://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
