3 ms·

Regardless of how much trouble you're in, reliable transportation is needed. Cars are an expense, but in the situation described, the Mercedes was fully paid of

Regardless of how much trouble you're in, reliable transportation is needed. Cars are an expense, but in the situation described, the Mercedes was fully paid off. The cost of maintaining it (gas, repairs, insurance) is no greater than any other car.

jacquesm 12y ago
Repairs on an older Mercedes are actually quite expensive. I should know because I own one and if hard times would hit - unlikely, but you never know - it would be the first thing to go (and I'd replace it with an old VW Golf/Rabbit diesel).
- bryanlarsen 12y ago
  VW diesels are very expensive to fix when things go wrong, in my personal experience.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    That's true, but on the plus side, things don't go wrong very frequently. I've run this beast: http://pics.camarades.com/v/jacques/cars/golf/ http://pics.camarades.com/v/jacques/cars/golf/ From '09 to '11 and it had more than 300K km on it by the time I was done with it (and it still brought me back more than I paid for it...). You have to be pretty sharp when you're buying them to make sure you don't buy one that has been maintained poorly. Fuel pump and turbo are the most important things to check. That car cost about $750 to buy and another $200 for fixes required right after buying it to get it through the 'MOT', after that it ran without a hitch for two years.
    - bryanlarsen 12y ago
      And I put $1500 - $3000 into my VW diesel 3 times over a 7 year period. Every car is different, even if well maintained. They said their Mercedes is reliable. An American car is probably better for a poor person than any German car. Sure, you may have to repair it more often, but parts and labour are a lot cheaper. Even if it costs more in total, for poor people a large number of small bills are often easier to deal with than a single large bill.
      - jacquesm 12y ago
        I'd go for a (gasoline) Toyota if I was in the states and reliability and operating costs were my main concern. $1000 / year on average for maintenance is definitely on the high side, but of course it needs a bit more info before I could state that one way or the other with certainty (mileage driven during that time, overall mileage on the car, state of maintenance when you bought it, whether you bought it new or not). The newer diesels have insanely high injection pressures, I have a campervan that has one of these engines (the 2.5L) and I really hope that there will never be a problem with that because it will make your $3000 look like pocket change if it fails in a serious way. In a pinch I think I'd rely on the older and much simpler models rather than to go for one of these hyper efficient versions. They seem to trade efficiency in fuel for a much shorter life-span and a higher repair bill. The government here puts an insane premium on fuel consumption without taking into account the effect of all those fuel saving measures on the total-costs over the lifetime of the car. At a rough guess it is a toss-up, what you gain in fuel efficiency you lose in expensive repairs.

jacquesm 12y ago

Repairs on an older Mercedes are actually quite expensive. I should know because I own one and if hard times would hit - unlikely, but you never know - it would be the first thing to go (and I'd replace it with an old VW Golf/Rabbit diesel).

bryanlarsen 12y ago
VW diesels are very expensive to fix when things go wrong, in my personal experience.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  That's true, but on the plus side, things don't go wrong very frequently. I've run this beast: http://pics.camarades.com/v/jacques/cars/golf/ http://pics.camarades.com/v/jacques/cars/golf/ From '09 to '11 and it had more than 300K km on it by the time I was done with it (and it still brought me back more than I paid for it...). You have to be pretty sharp when you're buying them to make sure you don't buy one that has been maintained poorly. Fuel pump and turbo are the most important things to check. That car cost about $750 to buy and another $200 for fixes required right after buying it to get it through the 'MOT', after that it ran without a hitch for two years.
  - bryanlarsen 12y ago
    And I put $1500 - $3000 into my VW diesel 3 times over a 7 year period. Every car is different, even if well maintained. They said their Mercedes is reliable. An American car is probably better for a poor person than any German car. Sure, you may have to repair it more often, but parts and labour are a lot cheaper. Even if it costs more in total, for poor people a large number of small bills are often easier to deal with than a single large bill.
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      I'd go for a (gasoline) Toyota if I was in the states and reliability and operating costs were my main concern. $1000 / year on average for maintenance is definitely on the high side, but of course it needs a bit more info before I could state that one way or the other with certainty (mileage driven during that time, overall mileage on the car, state of maintenance when you bought it, whether you bought it new or not). The newer diesels have insanely high injection pressures, I have a campervan that has one of these engines (the 2.5L) and I really hope that there will never be a problem with that because it will make your $3000 look like pocket change if it fails in a serious way. In a pinch I think I'd rely on the older and much simpler models rather than to go for one of these hyper efficient versions. They seem to trade efficiency in fuel for a much shorter life-span and a higher repair bill. The government here puts an insane premium on fuel consumption without taking into account the effect of all those fuel saving measures on the total-costs over the lifetime of the car. At a rough guess it is a toss-up, what you gain in fuel efficiency you lose in expensive repairs.