[quote=bearishgurl][quote=flu]i disagree. Sorry BG, but It would have to be some exceptional reason for me to buy a preowned european car (like I knew the exact history of it, which I came almost to doing a few months ago). Particularly a high end, fully loaded with electronics thats more than 2 years old. Too many things and too many unknowns. Buying a high end 1-2 year preowned high end car, I wouldn’t really be “saving” that much relative to the entire purchase price. It’s not like 1-2 year old car will get me 50% off… For example. Let’s figure one wants to spend $100k on a S550. I seriously doubt one would consider saving $20k 1-2 year oldpreowned. If you can afford to be in a $100k car, you aren’t going to be worried about saving $20k for a preowned, you’re not going to be shelling out $80k either.
In any cases, most of these higher end cars are not purchased out right in cash anyway. Most are leased since in 3-4 years, people can ditch them for the latest and greatest…[/quote]
flu, from my friends’ experiences in buying pre-owned used luxury vehicles, I have been told that the “certified-used” dealer premium can often be $3K to $10K (or more) over a private-party sale and is “pure profit” to dealers. One only has to compare the trade-in and private party values on kbb.com for a specific year/make/model to verify this.
If the “electronics” you are speaking of here are maps and TVs/DVDs, then I feel those “add-ons” are kind of superfluous. I have a “library” of paper atlases and road maps, even “specialty” plastic-coated maps for lakes and rivers, that I load my car up with prior to embarking on a road trip. I usually know in my head how to get to a certain destination, having driven there so many times, so just pull off the road and look at a map only if I need to. I think I’d be too distracted by a screen in the dash. Last night, as I was getting gas, the SUV in the bay next to me had Sponge Bob playing in a screen on the dash. I thought TVs were supposed to be facing the back seat(s). I think it’s unsafe to have a video screen facing the driver. But that’s just me. I’ve driven clear across the country and back sitting on vinyl seats with beach towels over them and non-tinted windows (rolled down/no AC) in 100-deg heat more than once :=][/quote]
BG, every late model high end car is fully electronic these days. In fact, most BMW’s high end or not is fully electronic.
1. Automatic transmission is fully electronically controlled now with a joystick like gismo.
2. Parking brake is set and unset via a button push/pull and fully electonic. In fact, if you’re battery is out, you have special procedures to release the parking brake in case you need to have it towed…..
3. The instrument cluster is mostly electronic. In higher end Mercedes S classes, the gauge is an LCD screen basically.
4. Climate control is now integrated into a central computer.
5. Most throttle is electronic, and there is talk about the steer column being replaced by electronics.
6. Even if you don’t opt for navigation, chances are a basic radio, and other things like lights/dimmers/etc are also controlled electronically these days.
7. Your engine is definitely managed via software and hardware these days. Or in the case of toyota, not managed at all 🙂
This is the the sort of gizmo to deal with these days just to drive.
1. To set the parking brake, pull the P button on the console.
2. Push the P button to release the parking brake. But make sure your foot is on the brake pedal, otherwise it won’t let you.
3. To shift into D, on the joystick, press the left button and pull down the joystick, with the foot on the brake.
4. To shift into R, press the left button and push up joystick, with the foot on the brake.
5. To put the car in park, push the “P” button on top of the joystick with the foot on the brake.
6. If you are lazy, and don’t want to keep your foot on the brake while on a red light, push the “park-brake-hold” button next to the parking brake button. It will automatically set the parking brake for you when you come to a stop and release it when you hit the gas.
7. Don’t forget to turn off your lights, or none of this works if your battery is dead…
Kinda like playing an arcade….
It’s just getting almost harder and harder to buy a mechanical car these days.
And IF I were to buy a preowned luxury and splurg a lot for it, I definitely would NOT go for a private party sale, since I would want to make sure it definitely came with some warranty of some sort, because if these things go out. They don’t “fix” a particular part. The replace an entire board or something like that.
