Dead Puppy

[Brady Moffatt]

First off, I'm on the old car/high mileage side of the fence.

A couple of points:
Old cars (let's assume Audis here) with high mileage don't depreciate. They
_already_have_ depreciated! Maybe percentage-wise, depreciation still
exists, but in dollar terms, it's pretty much done. I fully expect to get
the amount I paid for my 1986 4kq when (and I hope that's never) I sell it.
BTW, I bought it in Oct 2001 with 273000km (170000miles) on it.

Which leaves only the maintenance cost. The cost of maintenance is pretty
much the entire cost of ownership. And if you upgrade when doing
maintenance, you may actually recoup some of your maintenance costs by
adding a bit of value to the car.

Not to mention the huge savings on insurance.

Selling the car: I think that there are many people on this list who bought
or sold high mileage (over 150k miles)older Audis with no problems. Try that
with a Dorf Taurus and I agree, you might have a problem, but we're talking
Audis here.

There needs to be two sides to this argument though. Otherwise, one side
would have nobody to sell to, and the other would have nobody to buy from!

Cheers,
Brady Moffatt
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
86 4ksq, 280,000km
72 Datsun 240Z, 180,000 miles

----- Original Message -----
From: "josh Wyte" <josh_wyte at yahoo.com>


> I fail to see the holes in my financial argument.
> Whenever I've had car payments, they've always been
> under $250 a month.  For a car that's under factory
> warranty and is on the upside of the depreciation
> equation.
>
> A car over 100k miles, while over the hump
> depreciation wise, still really isn't worth beans.
> Ever try selling a car with 150k+ miles on it?  It's
> very difficult to realize any amount for it, which
> means that your purchase cost and any (costly) repairs
> you've done to it are simply gone.  Most cars with
> 100k miles plus on them have several key components
> that wear out and cost a rather large amount of money
> to replace.  For example, the clutch on my A4 is a 10
> hour job labor wise to replace.  That's a job I'd not
> want to undertake in my gravel driveway and would cost
> $1000.
>
> I fail to see why it would be financially advantageous
> to own a car that's rapidly depreciating and will need
> expensive repairs, even if it means no car payment.
> Obviously if a car payment is $500+ a month, then I
> see your point, but not at $250 or less...
>
> -josh
>
>
> --- Brendan <coolian at attbi.com> wrote:
> >
> > >It seems that I've struck a chord here with list
> > >members, many of whom drive cars that are 15+ years
> > >old and have well over 200k miles.
> >
> > I think you are mixing two different ideas in one
> > statement in your email.
> >
> > Your financial argument doesn't seem terribly well
> > thought-out, with holes
> > in the numbers, but your "I need a car that has high
> > uptime" is completely
> > subjective and understandable. If you don't enjoy
> > wrenching on your own car
> > with the possibility of it being down more than a
> > new one, that's cool. A
> > new car will probably serve you well in this
> > respect, but you should
> > realize that if a person is willing to take their
> > chances, the used car
> > "100k+" route is much cheaper financially, but much
> > more expensive if
> > saving your time is more important than saving your
> > money.
> >
> > Just realize there are two different lines of
> > thought in your "100k"
> > assessment.
> >
> > Brendan
> >
>
>
> =====
> Josh Wyte
> Momentum Motorsports
> 508-833-3024 After 5 pm EST