That's a sweet car. A good buddy recently picked up the Mercedes version of the Land Rover. It seems like a complete rip-off of the Rover, down to the last styling detail.
You may mean the Mercedes Benz G-Class. Check this...they start at $119K 6 figures, for the basic model. My heart says yes, my wallet says no. The Land Rover I've been eyeing that will be available in the U.S., already converted to left side steering, emissions etc, starts around $55K Still a lot of bank, I tend to drive cars for 15 - 20 years, and I don't think gas prices are going to be staying in the low - mid $2 a gallon range for the longer term. With no family to speak of, I want to downsize but still enjoy having the ability to take it off-road. I was looking into Wranglers, because I had good luck with the 4.0 liter Cherokee, but the Wrangler was a really rough, bouncy ride, like being in a kid's inflatable castle...and the road noise at highway speeds was bad. This from a guy with tinnitus and hearing loss. Plus the whole "Jeep" culture thing is a turn-off to me, with the waving at other Jeep Wrangler owners. Yeah, no thanks. I rode motorcycles for years. We'd wave to each other, because we were different from the cages, we're out there exposed to the wind, sun and dangers of life on two wheels...we wave to acknowledge we're a liitle bit crazy in our shared passion. Driving a Jeep Wrangler to pick up gallon a milk and pop-tarts is not a "shared" passion. I'm not going to wave to you just because, oh hey , you're driving the same kind of car, aren't we cool and so much better than non-Jeep owners. You don't get that with the Cherokee, yet with a lift kit and beefed up suspension, my Cherokee could go anywhere a Jeep Wrangler could for the most part. I simply don't like the whole Wrangler culture. Land Rover Defender will provide a very real off-road vehicle with the comforts of a regular car on concrete and asphalt. It's a more refined ride, pricey, but hopefully I can get 20 years of reliable safety and take it off the road to go camping on occasion. We'll see how the reviews stack up once the 2018 model is released in the U.S. If that doesn't pan out I'm leaning towards Toyota or Subaru. The newer Jeep Cherokees are behemoths for a guy who spends 99% of the time driving solo. It's just a waste.
Yeah, dat's the one. My wallet will never say yes to that even if it could. Who'd take a $119,000 car off road? The guy who bought it has been my best bud since 6th grade. I can remember his father buying him a new Chevelle SS for HS graduation and then when he wanted to take his time getting up to Minnesota to help run the lodge his family owned in order to have some fun with the ladies in Tucson, his father threatened to haul fish from Canada to the lodge in the back seat of the Chevelle. He did 2300 miles in 3 days in a VW because he knew his father wasn't farting around. He still has the Chevelle (restored) and when I see him I usually ask to take it out to pick up some fish sandwiches at Wendy's. Until about 6 mos. ago, I had a '94 Land Cruiser that I bought 5-6 years ago from my son when he wanted something new. Super heavy and more than a little under-powered. I finally drove the wheels off it at close to 300k. Good ride, wouldn't get another just because of the gas demand. Toyota makes a pretty good product as you know, but I'd go for the smaller one. ln the meantime, when I gotta do my serious highway driving, usually from here to Ojai or Las Vegas, my '13 Altima does real well.
Unless you have an unlimited budget, yes, it's that bad. Off the top of my head, youi might discover an oil leak...and find out that fixing it will be about $3000.
I used to have an Infiniti Q45. That was a really beautiful car. I miss it, but parts for it were outrageously expensive. It was just not logical for me to keep that car. It looked just like this,same color and everything. I really did love that car.
Not nearly as nice as the Infiniti I had. It's okay I guess. The inside looks a bit on the cheap side though. I've had a few issues with some idiot lights in the car too. Just little annoyances here and there. I make my last payment on the Impala at the end of this month and then it's all paid off. Woo hoo!
Woohoo! My rental was new, under 500 miles on it, so nothing was breaking yet. 100% of my driving is in a pickup, getting into a car is a treat.
The Impala was a year old when I bought it, and my loan was 5 years, so it's 6 years old now. I'm just hoping to get a few more years out of it because I don't want to get into car payments again right now. I want the $$! You must have to drive a pickup for your work?
I hear that, living in Massachusetts where we have snow and plowing all winter. Some of our roads are pretty terrible too.
I own 8. 2 cars, 3 trucks, 1 van, 2 motorcycles. Nothing exotic, or luxurious. 'Coolest' of the bunch is my wife's 2010 Harley trike with custom flame job. Newest is a 2015 F350 Lariat dually, Daily driver is a 2012 Ford Focus. I bought the Focus new in 2012 after doing the math and concluding that it would more than make its own payment in fuel savings alone over the 2007 Tacoma pickup I drove at the time, and still own. Free car, essentially, though cheaper fuel prices now have torpedoed that plan somewhat. Great car. 120,000 miles on it so far, no problems. I purchased the F350 at a dealer near Washington DC last July; was there for the 4th. It had been owned by the government. Black, with every option available other than a sunroof. Tinted windows, and a little aftermarket antenna installed on the roof, true to government form. It had 3,600 miles on it; essentially brand new. 4x4, snow plow prep package, dual alternators, etc. Leather interior, heated and air conditioned seats, touchscreen entertainment, factory premium sound with subwoofer, etc. Always wondered why our government would have purchased such a vehicle, and why they would have disposed of it so soon. Not complaining, I got a great deal. - - - Updated - - - Last payment! Perfect time to start the 'drive free forever' plan!
You have budgeted for your car payment over the last X years. So, you continue driving your current car for the next 5 years and you continue making your payment just as you have. Only now, you're making the payment to YOURSELF, and you're earning interest instead of paying interest. You are now the bank. Drop those car payments into an investment account. At the end of 5 years, scrape off the earnings and trade in your car for a new one. Drive that one for 5 years, and do it again. As an example: $500/mo car payment for 5 years is $30,000. That earns $8000 in interest at 8% return over those 5 years. So, after making car payments to yourself for only 5 years, you will have $8000 every 5 years thereafter (assuming average 8% return) to combine with your trade and buy a modest new car with. Free cars... forever. The real point is that you have already budgeted your car payment into your finances. Now that your last payment looms, it is the perfect opportunity for you to build your wealth without burdening your budget.
Reward yourself, you deserve it! Many people will sign a 5 year note on a new car, and make payments+interest to a bank. Then at the end of the 5 years, they will trade it in and sign another 5 year note on another car. By driving the same car for 10 years instead, making THE SAME payments they would have made anyway, they can turn the whole thing around to their favor and get into a situation where they are being paid interest instead of paying interest to someone else. Average people lack the discipline, but you are above average.
Thanks! I am definitely planning on keeping this car for as long as I can. I don't want to get involved in more car payments and it is probably cheaper to get it fixed when something goes wrong than to have to make car payments each month. I don't have a ton of money to work with so every little bit helps.
