So my buddy picked up a loaded out mkz last year. Then he the an exhaust intake and a tune on it and hes in the 12s. I rode itn it, and damn it's nice.quiet, big, quiet, luxurious, has room for 4 adults. And now it's got me wanting a 4 door luxury car. I've always had 2 seats,I want something I can take on road trips and take my friends in. So it got me looking and dreaming, which is hard because I'm still in brazil until the end of May. Anyway, the porsche is paid off. Originally, I was thinking, enjoy it fit another year or two, then trade it in on a gently used amg car, or maybe the ctsv, or an m5. Something of that nature, in the 50,000 dollar range. (I could probably afford more, but I really don't want to. 600/mo is about my limit on a payment amd even that's stretching it). But then I got to thinking: what if I looked at sending that's more of a luxury bargain? There are some really damn nice cars out there around 20k thanks to the depreciation gods. Then I could buy the luxury car I want with refinement and power, and still keep the porsche for a toy. And my car payment would be tiny, and paid off in no time. So here I am. Thinking crazy thoughts. Just looking around, and I could get an e39 m5, or an rs6, or an s600, or even an e55 amg. The ctsv is another option (yeah it's the older one,but that poweeeerrr, reliability, and ease of mods for more power really has me thinking). Not to mention the sts-v. Or I could go crazy and add another porsche to the stable. The cayenne turbo can be had in my price range. Thoughts on a used luxury car? The usual stigma is if it breaks it will be expensive. But you know, after owning the porsche,I don't think it's really that bad, especially since I can turn my own wrenches for basic preventative maintenance stuff. Right now the e39 m5 is topping my list. It seems that must if their owners are incredibly anal about maintenance, and you can find ones with the right supporting mods. Problem is, vanos solenoid are 2.5k if they go out, and the timing chain guides have to be replaced after 80k. Also they eat tires and are a bit underppwrred compared to others. Also the price is kind of crazy imo,for a 12-15 yo car. Shady just bored in traffic and dreaming
My friend has a 2009 Cadillac CTS-V A6 its making 760rwhp/700rwtq with H/C/I/ and pullies. It is black on black and fucking beautiful. Sent me a couple pix of his car:
That's 04chase on the ctsv forums! Such a sweet ride. I've been lurking there a little bit. And yeah I think I'm swayed to the ctsv side again. I've been doing much more reading about the e60 time bombs, and I really don't want to deal with the hassle. Also, with the ctsv v3 coming out, the v2 should drop in price. (Also the ctsv has cheap POWWERRRRRRR...seriously some of these guys are putting down close to 600 at the wheels for 2500 worth of parts and tune, that's crazy perf:dollar)
yup! He has a silverado with a but ton of power too. I was looking at getting a CTS v for myself sometime in the future.
Well it really all depends on my tax return right now. I did my paperwork and through my numbers into one of those free calculators (my taxes are done by ernst and young since I'm workng out of country right now). Anyway, if these number are anywhere close to correct, I'll have a nice sum to play with. Then I'll need to decide what I'm going to do. Ctsv would be super sweet, but I really don't want a car payment, well, one that high. Even if I threw the whole tax return at it, I'd still have a loan for 20k+ What I'd like to do, and what I'm leaning toward, is looking for a loaded 2009/10 335I sedan. Then I could put my original 5k down and have a tiny loan, and save my tax return for some mods and put the rest toward my house or investments. The n54 responds really all to mods and it would be fun to have a project. I think this would be the best plan for me. Saves more money, and gives me something to wrench on. Plus the hmw is nice
My new lust is the e55 amg. 500hp supercharged v8 mmmm. Also it's one of the more reliable amg cars, and parts costs aren't as bad as most other Germans I really need to get back to the states and start driving these things, until then it's just a wish/dream list. I keep having this crazy dream of selling the cayman and picking up a panamera turbo, and that's crazier than buying a 10 year old amg lol
I'd pass on the 5+ year old Euros. That's when shit starts to go south and none of that shit is cheap. Recently did an airbag and compressor on an e500. Dealer quoted him almost $3500. I got an Arnott airbag at half 1/4 the cost of the dealer list and got the compressor from the dealer special order. Our cost came to $2600. That's a lot of money for an airbag and compressor but that's what repairs cost on these cars... and that's just a suspension issue. Having said that, it was "just a suspension issue" that left the rear bumper scraping on the ground so it was not drive-able. If you do decide to go this route, Carfax it and make sure it wasn't a previous dealer lease. One private owner would be the way to go. Otherwise, keep a nice buffer in your checking account for shit like that. Hell brake jobs are close to $1000 if it has slotted/cross-drilled rotors.
Oh yeah I picked up an e55. It's an 04 with Eurocarworks stage 3. Putting down 500/580 at the wheels.
Fuuuucccckkkkk. Jackalope, I am envious. I've been saving all the money I can, as I miss not having a quick car and something I can modify and mess around with. Just doing the same thing day in, day out, thinking I will be repeating the work routine for the rest of my life is a very depressing thought, I need something outside of work to look forward to. Anyways, I was thinking about doing another big turbo 1.8T setup because MK4 Jettas are real cheap now, and it's something I already know very well. I could pay for the car in cash, and start collecting turbo upgrade parts. But then about a month ago, I thought to myself, "Nidex, you know you've always loved W211 E55s. Think how dope that would be!", and the W210 E55 to a lesser extent. I looked just for kicks thinking that they were still up there in price, and have found that the W211s can be had for $8000 (cheapest I found, higher miles though), up to $20k (most expensive one I've found thus far). I could put a nice chunk down and finance the rest if need be, really. I have been thinking nonstop about acquiring one ever since I discovered they're affordable now. I very well may make the 3.5hr drive to Miami in my daily driver diesel W124 and check a couple of them out - there's not many around my area from what I've seen really - one here, one there and that's about it. I do have plenty experience with used/higher mileage German cars, and the parts are not cheap for any of them, really. Even Volkswagen part prices seem sky high compared to Honda or Toyota. Do you mind me asking - how much did you get yours for and how many miles? I know there's a few simple common issues, such as the idler pulley bearing being shot and things like that. I couldn't care less about 5 minute fixes like those, this wouldn't have to be my daily so if it's broken for a week or two, no big deal. If the car breaks, it can sit a week or two if needed, without causing me transportation problems. Have you had any issues with yours since you got it?
I picked mine up with about 90k miles for 18000. It already had the Eurocarworks stage 3, as well as Vossen wheels and the e63 front end. The Air suspension setup had already been replaced with Arnott aftermarket pieces, so that was a huge load off of my mind. ISSUES I've had have been minor and pretty cheap. First thing that happened was my aftermarket tensioner bearing seized on the highway. If I had been at home, it wouldn't have been as expensive as it was, but I was in San antonio. 300 dollar tow to my buddy's shop, then another 250 dollars to overnight the pulley from Houston. Pulley set is normally like 150. Next issue was the crank position sensor, pretty common with mercs. 30 dollar part on amazon, took an hour to replace (it's in a tight spot). Next issue I have (actually having, because i haven't had the time to get under it) is the voltage regulator on the alternator. The car won't hold a charge with the ac radio and headlights at idle and just above idle speeds. (Cruising rpms basically). It was about a 30 dollar part and will take about an hour. I need to replace the a/c heater mixer, that's I think a 50 dollar part and a few hours job, there's videos and write up on it everywhere. The only other issue I need to tackle is the brakes. It popped up a white brake warning a few months ago. I had the code read and it's the sbc pressure low. What this usually means is the brake pump has a high pressure reservoir with a checkvalve. Sometimes that checkvalve leaks by and you'll get that warning. Not a major deal, about 300 dollars for the part. Or I could replace the entire SBC pump assembly, which usually needs replacing around 120k miles for about a grand. I thought it was the chrckvalve, but I actually checked out my brakes and I have a brake fluid leak on the right pass wheel. I'm pretty sure when I fix that leak, it will fix the low pressure warning. Which brings me to my final expenditure: brakes. Going to replace the lines with steel, the rotors and pads. I've priced it at about 600 total and should take a weekend to do. It hasn't been my most reliable car, but everything has been pretty easy to diagnose and repair so far. The engine is built like a tank and so is the tranny. Interior is nice too. And the smiles from romping on it can't be beat I love the car I'll probably keep it another year
I hear you brother. I had to pick up a Tonka to do something besides fix houses and apartments. Not quite done with it yet (yeah right, like I'll ever be ) It is ready for MR&DT season though. Waiting on my Custom Splice AmSteel synthetic rope, then I'll be even more ready.
Thanks for the information man. I decided to pass it up, but not for any of the reasons you mentioned or anything else. First of all, I was only going to put down $5k, so I'd have had to finance $10k for the one I wanted. Not a fan of car payments, but hey, for something like this, it wouldn't be a big deal. The killer was insurance. Florida is a no-fault state and has some of the highest rates in the country. I went around getting quotes on the car, being that for the 2 cars I have now I'm already paying out of my ass. Long story short, I guess back in the '70s down here they changed to no-fault insurance so that people's hospital bills and lost wages would get paid quickly without arguments with lawyers and drawn out lawsuits. Subsequently, this caused a bunch of fraud with staged accidents, so the rates were raised for that. I had to do my best to keep my cool in the insurance office, because they don't base your insurance about anything that has do to with you - the driver, at all. It's all shit that seems arbitrary as fuck. I have some tickets on my record of course, but zero accidents. The stupidest one was that the insurance companies look at is how many of those cars have been crashed. Since E55 AMGs are not that popular of a car and there's a limited amount of them, obviously there's going to be an abnormally high number of accidents. Accidents are, the majority of the time, 100% on the driver, and have nothing to do with the car. What's the difference if some beer bellied drunk old man rear ends me while I'm driving an E55, or a Grand Caravan? Not a damn thing - but to them, apparently it does. The E55 would have been an additional $350 a month. So yeah, anyways, I'm just going to take the money I was going to use for down payment on the E55 and build my other car. Still daily driving my W124 300D, lol.
