Around here it’s the Ford F150. There’s a better than even chance they will either cut you off like they can’t see you or drive 50mph in the fast lane.
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Diesel Benzes of that era were taxis, and expected to be reliable and cheap to maintain. A French magazine (note nationality) described them as “imparable” - unstoppable - and observed, as you do, that you put in fuel, water and a little more oil over the years and they just kept going. A German company I used to work with described the later turbo models as “200/200” cars - they could still do a steady 200kph on the autobahn after 200000km. With gentler treatment they could just keep overflowing the odometer time and again.
Gasoline fuelled Benzes are much more variable. (There was also an episode of bad 200s that upset a lot of taxi drivers.)
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My neighbor had a sweet one that he sold a while back. Kick myself for not looking more into it. It was in outstanding condition.
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I can testify that at least one otherwise mundane repair cost us a couple hundred dollars on an Audi. This was on an '81 5000. The coolant reservoir was pressurized, like with the rest of the cooling system. It sprang a leak and a new one was $200 (in 1988; I don’t know what that would equate to today). We searched a couple of junkyards for an old one but, when we found an Audi, the reservoir had already been pulled. Those reservoirs are made of the same plastic as milk jugs, just that they’re thicker on an Audi (because of the pressure). I recall a similar expense when trying to replace a taillight lens.
One of my very favorite books is I, Wabenzi although he never quite gets around to the Mercedes road trip from which the book’s title is derived.
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I will say that the run flats on my wife’s car kept her safe. Though they don’t ride as well as traditional tires.
She was on the way to work and went through a construction zone on the freeway - that’s been one for like 2 years - and got a bad flat. BUT, she was able to keep driving safely the next couple miles to her office.
BMW came and got her, put the car on a flatbed, took her to the dealer and put a new tire on.
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Indeed, hence the clipped out comment about enthusiasts.
We almost picked the “Forged Bronze” color for Mr. Bells’ new Leaf, but then we decided in the end, no matter how sparkly the paint, it’s still a brown car.
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Yes. But they are also in that >50K price range that makes no sense for most people. Unless it is serving as a prop for some other personal failing or deficiency.
*idea stolen from the wonderful Goofy cartoon above
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IIRC a Mercedes (late '50s model?) used to hold the world record for the most miles on a car (now it’s a '66 Volvo).
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There’s a big problem with people who think that if you sound your horn to let them know you’re there, you are imputing small dimensions to their reproductive apparatus. My belief is that anybody caught screaming at someone who has just done this (or any other road rage) should be sentenced to a month driving a putt-putt in Mumbai.
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Rust colored spray paint helps too.
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We can point at each other all day if you like. I have lived in a lot places and driving culture is different every where. Where I currently live most cars apparently have no turn signals, many folks don’t know that the red octagon means stop, and that pedestrians have the right away (based on pedestrian death rates). I would wager that if you don’t follow these rules you are still an inconsiderate a-hole. Even if 99% of the population rolls through stop signs and never turn signals, then guess what: 99% of the population are inconsiderate a-holes. That does sound about right…
People can have expensive toys and everybody has their interests and obsessions. But some brands attract a particularly uninformed set of people as well as enthusiasts. Read my original response more carefully and you will see that distinction.
That was a coolant expansion tank not the overflow tank. The plastic overflow tank is like $20. The expansion tank is a welded pressurized tank that is expensive. But a decent welder can repair one for around $50. The 5000 Audi series was always problematic. Not enough made it in to the states for parts prices to be realistic.
The MSRP of a 2017 F150 is $26,540. Not sure what you are referring to.
Oh definitely. There were some problems with the C208/A208 series. One of the reasons I like buying older cars (besides me being a cheap bastard) is that the lemons are for the most part off the road by then.
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If you can spend 60k on a car but are the sort of person who protects investments, you’re not buying a BMW
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No but almost as bad (at least from what I’ve read).
That must be a relatively recent development. After I moved to L.A. in 1991, I continued to drive home to San Diego nearly every weekend for the next twelve years or so, and one of the things I always marveled about was that as soon as I drove past the San Onofre nuclear power plant heading south on Interstate 5, suddenly everyone’s driving habits magically changed. You’d put on your blinker to change lanes and lo and behold, people would make room for you. I always found drivers in San Diego to be much, much less rude and aggressive and downright homicidal than they are in L.A.
They still can’t drive in the rain, though.
I think buying a new car is almost always a bad investment. But I’ve had a lifetime of slightly-used to beat-to-shit cars, and always got my money’s worth.
The only time I ever bought a brand-new car was possibly my best investment: I bought a 1994 Toyota pickup in October 1994, the same week the 1995 Tacomas came out. Since the Tacoma was a brand-new body style, they were clearing out the old Hiluxes, and I got mine for $7,500. Oh, plus $150 for the metallic blue paint. No rear bumper, no radio, no A/C, 4-cylinder engine, 5-speed manual. That truck is now driven in Alaska by my niece, with nearly 300,000 miles on the original pistons, rings, and bearings. At 225,000 miles I put in a new clutch, oil pump, and water pump. Other than consumables like fluids, brake pads, tires, and (for some reason) exhaust flange donut gaskets, those are the only things that have ever been replaced on that truck.
Best $7,650 I ever spent.
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Why is it that I see those “99%” driving all the time, but the people I meet and who post on message boards are inevitably in the 1%? It just seems improbable. Similarly, although apparently fewer than 1 in 1000 people in Vancouver know how to drive in the snow, I’ve only ever spoken to those rare few, and never met any of the other 999.
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Having lived in Vancouver for four years, I suggest you re-adjust your perception of bad drivers. Vancouver is a horrible driving city. It is where I first really learned of the strong correlation between a-hole and BMW/Mercedes. Especially silver models. It is also the only city where I had an enraged BMW driver pull a gun on me for pointing out that you can’t really pass on the right at an intersection. Watch out for at that King Ed and Cambie intersection.
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