is250 vs. 325i

In article >,
(Richard Sexton) wrote:

> >I don't know why people say that BMWs are expensive to maintain.
>
> This is the way my father in law explained it to me 30 years ago: "the
> Germans are quite up front about maintenance costs. The Japanese want you
> to believe their cars are cheaspre cheap to maintain but in reality they cost
> about the same".

I wouldn't buy a German car with YOUR money. (Been there, done that.)

And yes, I "get" German cars. German cars are the expensive, pouty, and
high-maintenance mistresses of the road. Damn, they are a fine, fine
ride...

.....but then the maintenance and pouting kicks in.

At some point, without unlimited funds, you are at a decision point:
continue the high-priced, high-maintenance fun, or go back home and
enjoy your reliable Lexus wife of a car, patiently sitting there waiting
for you to get over the midlife crisis.

Oh sure, she's not as sexy as the German car, and she doesn't handle at
the edge like the German car. She's also not as fickle and high
maintenance and pouty, and she agrees with you much more of the time.
She's always there and never complains, and you come to realize there's
more to life than a high-maintenance relationship with a pouty,
high-maintenance woman--no matter how sexy she is or how fun the nights
out with her can be. Because when she lets you down and demands more of
you than you have to give, and treats you like dirt, you're standing
there all alone outside the club, looking and feeling like an idiot.

Your Lexus wife would never, ever do that to you.

And the occasional fun night out isn't worth what you end up paying for
it, both financially and in time wasted while you wait for the German
car mistress to be in the mood to play.

Do this: start paying attention to cars with tail light and headlight
problems. What brands of cars are you seeing? That's right--VW, M-B, and
BMW. And pay attention to how old, or rather how new, those problem cars
are.

The reality of electrical issues with German cars make Lucas electrics
look reliable.

Now *try* to find a Honda or Toyota, either low brand or high brand, no
matter how old, with non-working tail lights. Good luck.

It's a small thing, but it represents the reality of the situation. You
want to buy a German car? Just buy a GM car. At least the money you're
throwing away stays more inside the country--and you get just as
reliable a car.

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> (Richard Sexton) wrote:
>
>> >The Lexus will be infinitely more reliable.
>> >
>>
>> Yeah. Plus chicks really dig toyotas.
>
> I don't want women who base their choice of a man by what he drives.
>
> (The Lexus isn't a toyota; it's made by Toyota, sure, but an SC400
> screams something way different than a Corolla...)
>
Speaking of SC400's, I had two of them and I really miss them. Too bad Lexus
couldn't have continued them. I understand about "progress" and all, but I
sure miss them!

In article >,
Elmo P. Shagnasty > wrote:
>In article >,
> (Richard Sexton) wrote:
>
>> >I don't know why people say that BMWs are expensive to maintain.
>>
>> This is the way my father in law explained it to me 30 years ago: "the
>> Germans are quite up front about maintenance costs. The Japanese want you
>> to believe their cars are cheaspre cheap to maintain but in reality they cost
>> about the same".
>
>I wouldn't buy a German car with YOUR money. (Been there, done that.)
>
>And yes, I "get" German cars. German cars are the expensive, pouty, and
>high-maintenance mistresses of the road. Damn, they are a fine, fine
>ride...
>
>....but then the maintenance and pouting kicks in.
>
>At some point, without unlimited funds, you are at a decision point:
>continue the high-priced, high-maintenance fun, or go back home and
>enjoy your reliable Lexus wife of a car, patiently sitting there waiting
>for you to get over the midlife crisis.
>
>Oh sure, she's not as sexy as the German car, and she doesn't handle at
>the edge like the German car. She's also not as fickle and high
>maintenance and pouty, and she agrees with you much more of the time.
>She's always there and never complains, and you come to realize there's
>more to life than a high-maintenance relationship with a pouty,
>high-maintenance woman--no matter how sexy she is or how fun the nights
>out with her can be. Because when she lets you down and demands more of
>you than you have to give, and treats you like dirt, you're standing
>there all alone outside the club, looking and feeling like an idiot.
>
>Your Lexus wife would never, ever do that to you.

Try buying a German car that's not thrashed. I've had new Japanese cars
and old German cars and the Germans cars have been far far cheaper to
maintain.

Just another data point.

--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

In article >,
Elmo P. Shagnasty > wrote:
>In article >,
> (Richard Sexton) wrote:
>
>> >The Lexus will be infinitely more reliable.
>>
>> Yeah. Plus chicks really dig toyotas.
>
>I don't want women who base their choice of a man by what he drives.

And I don't want women that'll settle for a toyota.

>(The Lexus isn't a toyota; it's made by Toyota, sure,

Well, that settles that then.

>screams something way different than a Corolla...)

Yeah it screams "look at me I look a lot like a Mercedes
but use even more expsneive Toyota parts that aren't
engineered to last decades". What a deal.


--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:38:17 -0400, "Elmo P. Shagnasty"
> wrote:

>In article >,
> (Richard Sexton) wrote:
>
>> >I don't know why people say that BMWs are expensive to maintain.
>>
>> This is the way my father in law explained it to me 30 years ago: "the
>> Germans are quite up front about maintenance costs. The Japanese want you
>> to believe their cars are cheaspre cheap to maintain but in reality they cost
>> about the same".
>
>Not true.

According to Edmunds.com, the cost per mile for the 2003 Lexus IS
300 is .60 cents, while a 2003 330i is .63 cents, averaged over 5
years of ownership while driving 15,000 miles/year.
epbrown
--
"Everybody wants a normal life and a cool car;
most people will settle for the car." Chris Titus
2003 BMW 325i Black/Black, 2003 BMW Z4 Black/Black

In article >,
Elmo P. Shagnasty > wrote:
> Now *try* to find a Honda or Toyota, either low brand or high brand, no
> matter how old, with non-working tail lights. Good luck.

You're saying the bulbs never blow on Japanese cars? They must be
different Hondas and Toyotas we get in London...

--
*Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"********" (to 'steal' Dave Plowman's favourite expression.

I have driven Mercs old and new for >20 yrs and find them not unusually
bothersome to run. Maybe I don't know what 'usual' is, but I recall only
complete engine failure on a W123 200 (that was about 1984) at about 2000
miles which was fixed under warranty.

People's experiences with Merc and BMW will, of course, vary but I doubt
that on average it is much worse than with other brands, US J D Power
surveys notwithstanding. Sales of both brands are doing pretty well and
they would not be if there were real problems. Merc suffers from dealership
problems in some countries but at least in Britain this has been recognised
and some measures taken.

What really sorts the wheat from the chaff is age. The paintwork on a
BMW/Merc is as good as new after ten years, and so is the interior if has
been treated with a modicum of respect. And the shapes age pretty
gracefully. I doubt you could say that of most Japanese cars. How many
keen drivers are there of, for example, ten-year old Toyotas. Is Toyota as
proud of its seriously high mileage drivers as Mercedes is?

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> (Richard Sexton) wrote:
>
>> >I don't know why people say that BMWs are expensive to maintain.
>>
>> This is the way my father in law explained it to me 30 years ago: "the
>> Germans are quite up front about maintenance costs. The Japanese want you
>> to believe their cars are cheaspre cheap to maintain but in reality they
>> cost
>> about the same".
>
> I wouldn't buy a German car with YOUR money. (Been there, done that.)
>
> And yes, I "get" German cars. German cars are the expensive, pouty, and
> high-maintenance mistresses of the road. Damn, they are a fine, fine
> ride...
>
> ....but then the maintenance and pouting kicks in.
>
> At some point, without unlimited funds, you are at a decision point:
> continue the high-priced, high-maintenance fun, or go back home and
> enjoy your reliable Lexus wife of a car, patiently sitting there waiting
> for you to get over the midlife crisis.
>
> Oh sure, she's not as sexy as the German car, and she doesn't handle at
> the edge like the German car. She's also not as fickle and high
> maintenance and pouty, and she agrees with you much more of the time.
> She's always there and never complains, and you come to realize there's
> more to life than a high-maintenance relationship with a pouty,
> high-maintenance woman--no matter how sexy she is or how fun the nights
> out with her can be. Because when she lets you down and demands more of
> you than you have to give, and treats you like dirt, you're standing
> there all alone outside the club, looking and feeling like an idiot.
>
> Your Lexus wife would never, ever do that to you.
>
> And the occasional fun night out isn't worth what you end up paying for
> it, both financially and in time wasted while you wait for the German
> car mistress to be in the mood to play.
>
> Do this: start paying attention to cars with tail light and headlight
> problems. What brands of cars are you seeing? That's right--VW, M-B, and
> BMW. And pay attention to how old, or rather how new, those problem cars
> are.
>
> The reality of electrical issues with German cars make Lucas electrics
> look reliable.
>
> Now *try* to find a Honda or Toyota, either low brand or high brand, no
> matter how old, with non-working tail lights. Good luck.
>
> It's a small thing, but it represents the reality of the situation. You
> want to buy a German car? Just buy a GM car. At least the money you're
> throwing away stays more inside the country--and you get just as
> reliable a car.
>

Some years ago I used to receive the monthly mag of the ADAC, the largest
German motorists' organization (equivalent to UK's AA but many more members
and, I suppose the USA's AAA), quite regularly. Once a year they would
publish their breakdown/rescue stats, which made interesting reading. Only
brands that sold more than 10 000 cars per year were included.

It was a very rough-and-ready table but put three Japanese brands at the top
(seemingly most reliable) in every class they were represented. I recall
Mazda and Toyota - maybe Honda was the third.

Thing is, the results were not normalised for usage. Thus Merc S-Class
performed relatively poorly in these tables but what was omitted was the
fact that such cars tended to be very high-mileage vehicles.

Make of it what you will.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
---

"Richard Sexton" > wrote in message
...
[...]

> Yeah it screams "look at me I look a lot like a Mercedes
> but use even more expsneive Toyota parts that aren't
> engineered to last decades". What a deal.
>
>
> --
> Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
> Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
> 1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
> 633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

In article >,
Elmo P. Shagnasty > wrote:
>In article >,
> (Richard Sexton) wrote:
>
>> Try buying a German car that's not thrashed. I've had new Japanese cars
>> and old German cars and the Germans cars have been far far cheaper to
>

No, that's been my experience. You may not agree. That's ok
reaosnable people disagree all the time.


--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

In article >,
Elmo P. Shagnasty > wrote:
>In article >,
> (Richard Sexton) wrote:
>
>> >screams something way different than a Corolla...)
>>
>> Yeah it screams "look at me I look a lot like a Mercedes
>> but use even more expsneive Toyota parts that aren't
>> engineered to last decades". What a deal.
>
>Ah. As opposed to even more expensive Mercedes parts that aren't
>engineered to last any more than a few years.
>
>Face it--M-B ain't what it used to be.

I'll be the first to admit that, I don't have much confidence in the new
cars. But if you can afford a Maybach you probably don't care.

I did see an old 240Z yeterday but the point remains you don't see many
old Japanese cars. I imagine getting parts for them might be an issue but
I'm just guessing.

Ironically the motor in that 240Z is a copy of the MB 6 from that era.

Copy copy copy.


--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net