Oh that I agree with.
--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:
First time he enters a Mercedes dealer with it he will.
TDM
What kind of f****it would take a car of that age to a main dealer?
Everything needed (and more) to run it will be available from the usual suspects - Eurocarparts and GSF.
Sure, trace an autobox for it and you will get a quote higher than the worth of the car. Better still: experience a electrical fault due to faulty cabling.
But of course such things never happen.
I do not know about Mercedes but when at Porsche (Porsche Brussels has got about 50 workposts) I see their whole range from the 356 to the latest GT3 and all kinds of work on any Porsche undertaken.
Maybe that is the difference between a f****it driving a car into the ground (or to the scrapper) and somebody who has an older car which he wants to preserve for reasons that are his.
But then again: I was in the UK a few weeks ago. The number of "older" cars (that being pre 1980) on the road is just staggering. Close to none at all and those I saw couldn't be classified as sheds...
Why -if they are so cheap to run and maintain- does nobody drive them?
Tom De Moor
All of which apply to lots of other, more common, cars. I'd prefer to try running a big old Merc. on a budget than a big old Ford or Vauxhall
- just because I know I can get most parts off the shelf from the above mentioned companies.
It's a 500 quid or so Merc S-class. If it breaks in an expensive way, you bin it.
But they're not cheap old bangers.
You don't preserve 500 quids worth of Merc S-class. You have fun smoking around in a big ol' V8 and bin it / flog it on ebay when it breaks anything expensive.
Because the UK market is ruled by people who would prefer to get into thousands of pounds of debt in order to have a new car on the drive rather than keep an older one running.
Old cars are worth sod-all in the UK, 'cos nearly new ones are also worth sod-all, but can also be bought on the never-never by anyone with a payslip.
Because people like their neighbours to see them in a car nicer than=20 their neighbour.
And there are even credit companies selling credit at almost stupid rate=20 to people who should get credit, at prices far higher than they should=20 be. And the credit company owns the garages that sell the cars too.
"yes" car credit was an example although they are gone. Basically they=20 tell you how much you can borrow based on their rating, then work out=20 what cars they have, that money will get. So you don't go to them to buy=20 a BMW, you go to buy a car, over the odds, they tell you, you are good=20 for =A38000 at a silly interest rate, then they sell you a =A36000 car for= =20 =A38000. And they aren't even that reliable even though they are supposed= =20 to be fully serviced and inspected.
--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:
Not if he's just buying parts...
In the UK at least MB have not only not increased prices on obsolete parts but cut them regularly.
Part prices on a C107 like that are probably no more than ~60% of 1989 prices. Think modern 2l saloon just off warranty.
Which means it's sustainable as a cheap car; I was paying less for MB service parts on my W126 than my Mum was paying for Micra parts at an indy...
Yes, you can have expensive repairs, but not *super*-expensive like you can on every other luxo-barge.
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