People Judge By the Car You Drive

We had a Mercedes once, we buy old cars that need lots of work. Problem with the Mercedes is that you have to have special tools to work on them, and we could not afford to keep buying tools. I loved how it rode, though. We buy old, inexpensive cars, and we keep the outside clean with a waterless car wash product and we help the insides with an additive that makes the engine parts work more smoothly and it has the side effect of improving our fuel mileage. For insurance it costs so much less to insure a car that is older, it just seems a winner all the way around for us.

OK so if the car you drive is a 2000... how much would a Mercedes circa 2000 be? 2000 Mercedes-Benz C-Class C230 Sedan 4D Excellent - $7,325 Good - $6,850 Fair - $6,100 * Kelly Blue Book Now say that you can get one for $6000 and you get $2500 for your car. That leaves you with $3500 to either to finance or to just pay out of pocket. At 4.76% interest (avg. interest on car), you are paying $104.52 and driving your dream car! Zelo

I don't trust older cars too much no matter what make. I also heard they are expensive to repair (Mercedes). I'll just wait until I win the lotto and buy a new one.

Very good point. When my wife and I went shopping for houses back in '04 we wanted to make sure we didn't get over our heads like so many did at that time and so our house is a modest 2000² ft. With no kids it suits us just fine and although looking back I would have chosen a different house, I can know I am comfortable in this one. My cars are bought off-lease for the most part. The great thing about that is if you wait long enough you can find some (and there are not many) that come off lease with low miles. That allows you to retain the factory warranty and in some cases (as with BMW) an extra warranty is extended on the vehicle for being a CPO (certified pre-owned). I try to work with the same salespeople that tell me up front not what the price of the car is but honestly what the dealership is making on the car. It saves them time and saves me a lot of hassle knowing up front that a $28,000 car can be had for $23,852. THEN because it's a B-2-B warranty (bumper-to-bumper) you have them change EVERYTHING. Tires, wipers (no kidding), air filters, inside/outside detail. I even had my leather replaced on my seats in my current vehicle along with the dashboard and the cupholders (a joke for BMW; they are not even there in the Euro models). Now... even though I am buying a 3-year old used car... everything in it is new. Very little that is not covered (glass and paint are two things that I can think of off my head but it's free through your insurance in FL to get new glass, even for little chips). I have had them re-wash the car before because it was not to my liking and all the while I am eating their fresh-baked muffins, drinking exotic coffee from Jamaica, and watching a 60-inch big-screen (although I'm more apt to be on my iPad now with noise cancellation headset). Zelo

It sounds like you know how to take care of what you own. If all of us were like that there would be no junky cars on the road! Thanks Zelo

You didn't see the Cervello bike that is in my garage.? Looked like a piece of crap when I got it.... A 2011 model can go for as high as $10,000. No kidding. So if I'm biking along the road on my Cervello you going to judge me for that too? Zelo

The question is should it change the view that people have of other people because of the car they drive or the house they live in or the clothes they wear.... Zelo