Decisions, decisions...

[josh Wyte]

Well, I'm a big proponent of not having to crawl
underneath my car to diagnose and fix (or at least
attempt to) on the side of the road with people
whizzing by at 80 mph.  Not my idea of fun and it's
kinda dangerous as some yahoo may decide to use my car
as a stopping block.

That said, you shouldn't replace your used car with
another used car, unless it's only 2-3 years old with
low mileage.  You're going to have to do at least
$1000-2000 worth of maintenance work on any used car
you buy, be it your current car, or a '90-'91 Coupe
quattro.  I think using an UrQ for the types of long
distance drives you speak of would be a little
foolish, but I'm sure if you spent the time making
sure the Ur was ready for it, it could do it.

I like buying cars that are 1-2 years old, still under
factory warranty but have already taken that big
depreciation hit.  I keep them till just a bit under
100k miles, then sell them.  That way I don't take the
next huge depreciation hit when they turn over 100k
miles, or the maintenance bills that seem to be
associated with that mileage.

My current situation is a great example.  I bought a
'97 A4 1.8Tq with 35k miles on it from the dealer. 
It's Audi Assured so it's got a warranty till 75k
miles.  They changed the timing belt, heated mirrors
and control arms for me under warranty.  When it comes
close to 100k miles it'll need another timing belt,
probably a clutch and a few other things.  I'm also
going to be moving back to Cali in 2 years and don't
want to pay to put 2 cars on a truck to freight them
out there.  So at 95k miles or so I'll sell it.  It'll
still be worth a decent amount and I save the $2300 or
so in maintenance.  

I'd rather put that into a new(er) car rather than
begin to get totally upside down in an older car when
it's resale value will begin to plummet quickly.

-josh

=====
Josh Wyte 
Momentum Motorsports
508-833-3024 After 5 pm EST

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/