Buying a car?

Add a 0 to every car repair you've ever had done, can you afford the Mercedes at that price? If yes, buy it and be bro-rich for a few years.

No idea if the price is good, but you will likely be able to sell it with little loss.

I sell cars for a living (5+ years) so if you have ANY car related questions, feel free to ask.

As for the elantra vs used MB question. What do you want out of a car? A new, reliable car, or an expensive status symbol. Just guessing since you are looking at an elantra (one of the cheapest new cars you can buy) you probably don't have the scratch for the repairs on a 90k mercedes.

Anyone ever drive / own a Chevy Cruze?

I've done 0 research yet, as I am at least a year out from starting the car buying process, but just skimming now.

After just getting rid of an A6 I will never buy a high end German car again. I loved it, don't get me wrong, but when that thing broke it broke bad and it was excessive to fix it, I had a buddy who worked for the Audi dealership that would fix it in my garage for a bottle of Jeger whenever it broke, if not for him I would have sold it way sooner than I did. The only way I would go back to Audi/Mercedes/BMW is if I was leasing. Just my 2c

Solariss_sl said:

The status symbol was a plus, and I was thinking that both are pretty reliable cars and the MB's can go well up to and past 200k miles I think.

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A very used MB isn't a status symbol, unless you gain status by writing very large checks for frequent car repairs.

Young kids and douchebags see the badge and get excited. This goes for pretty much all the german cars. I love the way they drive, don't get me wrong. The money is ludicrous and I hate how they are set up though (ergonomics and things like that).

As far as reliability goes, I would stay as far as possible from Big 3 small cars. They have always been horrible shitboxes. They don't know how to build a proper small car. Most of that is because they don't make the big profits on them like they do their trucks/suvs. They do however, build a damn good truck.

Stick with a Civic or a Corolla for your small cars. Reliable as shit and they are still worth money 10 years and 150k miles later.

The Korean cars are definitely worlds better than they were 10 years ago, but I just don't trust them yet. Part of that is because they have been caught lying several times in regards to horsepower and fuel economy claims.

I fail to see how a BMW, Mercedes, or whatever is a "status symbol" when it has a shit ton of miles on it. A guy here at work bought a BMW 5-series, had about 90K miles and a month later the transmission dies. Costed him 5 grand to fix.

Get the Elantra, odds are it will be trouble-free for many years if you do regular maintenance.

Agreed that buying a used, high mileage, luxury car doesn't make a lick of sense "status symbol" wise. However I think that people massively overstate how expensive BMW's and the like are to maintain. I've never had a Mercedes, but I've driven a BMW for the past 10+ years, about 3-4 years of that out of warranty, and my service costs outside of warranty have been damn near zero other than routine maintenance. If you're taking it to a dealership, yeah it'll be pricey, but that's the same with a Ford as it is with a BMW. Every large city has at least a couple decent import shops that will cost a fraction of what the dealership will charge you.

But yeah, back to the main point, if all you can afford is a 5+ year old, high mileage BMW or Merc, you probably shouldn't be thinking of buying one unless it's as a hobby car.

Why marry the hot, high maintenance chick when the fat one will treat you better and require less time, money, and has the same vajayjay?

I agree about the status symbol silliness, but that said I would rather have the car I want versus the car everyone else wants me to have. I think German cars are hugely overrated, but that's simply my opinion. Audi's are nice, but give me a Lexus any day. I drove a Chevy Z71 Truck for years because I wanted it when I was younger. It cost me extra for gas, but I loved it.

I think economics should factor into it, but anytime I buy a car I make sure it's the car I want. Autos aren't about investing. They are transportation and have a purpose. I also generally finance even though I could buy it outright simply because at 1.5% I have it in my budget.

Why a Hyundai over a Toyota or Honda? I'm not a car guru, but I'd be shopping for a Civic, Accord, or Camry if it were me.

First off, I think it's a no-brainer choosing a brand new Elantra over any car with almost 100,000 miles on it, no matter the make and model. You have to figure the used car is going to have more need for maintenance, and therefore if you are looking at a used MB or BMW, then that's obviously going to cost more, so you really aren't saving anything.

That being said, I personally haven't had any problems with the BMWs and MBs I've owned. In fact, I've been pretty lucky in general with cars. The first car I ever drove was a Honda Civic that was my mom's old car, I drove that for 4 years, no issues. The first car I ever bought was a 3 series BMW, I drove that for 10 years/100,000 miles, never had an issue with it outside of standard maintenance. The second car I ever bought was another BMW, a M3, I still own that car (15 years and counting!), it's got 120,000 miles on it, again, never a single issue with it outside of regular maintenance. I'll skip my third car for now because it was an expensive sports car and I knew what I was getting into with it as far as cost....it was definitely not a purchase based on practicality. My fourth car is a MB G500, I've had it for 3 years so far, it actually has giving me a little bit of problem, minor stuff, but some lights will go out, etc, so stuff that's an easy fix. No major mechanical stuff on it (yet).

All the cars I purchased new except for the Benz, which was 3 years old at time of purchase, so 6 years old now. It's interesting that it's the only car that's giving me issues, although minor. (My mom's car I guess you can consider used also, and the Honda never gave me any problems).

So I've had only 4 cars in the 25 years I've been driving. Based on this limited sample, BMWs have rated the highest in quality for me, so for me, I would have no qualms buying another one....that being said, I wouldn't buy a BMW or a MB with 90,000 miles on it, especially not over a new car.

Not that it had any bearing, but god you like go no where. 10k miles a year? Where I'm from most people do 20-30k a year easy.

I think I average 12k - 15k miles a year. The numbers are a little deceiving because I drove the cars less as they got older and I got a newer car. For example, my M3 that I've had for 15 years.....I probably have only put on 2,000 miles a year for the last 5 years, I drive my other car(s) a lot more. Same with the first BMW, 100,000 represents mostly 8 years of driving. It's still not a lot I know, I've always lived relatively close to where I work (within 10 miles), and I worked like a fiend in my 20s and 30s, over 100 hours a week, so really outside of my commute to and from work I didn't really drive much.

Car guy perspective inc...

Comparing an E-class to an Elantra is like comparing a well cooked steak dinner at a fancy restaurant to a Big Mac... both are warm food and one is a lot cheaper, but which would you enjoy more?

Just for the driving experience I'd take a used Mercedes/BMW/Lexus luxury car over a plastic econobox any day.

My best advice would be to find a local independent shop (via some MB enthusiast forum) and have them do a pre-purchase inspection, they'll be able to tell you what sort of costs you can expect. Don't go to the dealer because you'll most likely get fucked. If the seller won't let you do an inspection, walk away.

One question I have for you car guru's is when did cars/trucks get so outrageously expensive?

A loaded family sedan is 33k now. wtf?

A loaded truck can be over 40-55k or more now.

I finally traded my old CR-V in for a new loaded 2013 Honda Accord and the MSRP on it was 33,000. I checked out Lexus since at that price I figured it couldn't be that much more and the loaded ES 350s are in the 40s now.

I don't buy cars often, but gads what the hell happened to car prices?

Same thing that happened to prices of everything else - inflation.