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What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

Posted February 03, 2012 9:00 AM by CarDomain

A few weeks back, I asked if you had a cutoff for the age of a vintage vehicle you'd own. Answers were all over the map, and you guys had all kinds of good reasons for the year or decade beneath which you would not go. The flip side of the equation, though, is that there's lots of reasons to avoid excessively new vehicles too. Do you have a similar cutoff for the newest vehicle you'd own?

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#1

Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/03/2012 3:47 PM

How did I miss the previous article? I got opinions too!

For new vehicles, can't get too new.

Mileage, reliability, safety all improved so much over the last few decades (on the whole - don't start telling me about your exceptions) that I would with the exception of brand new technology, always go as new as I can afford.

Brand new technology in cars is such a new thing as they stayed basically static for decades, that I try to avoid the bleeding edge until it has a few billion miles on the fleet.

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#2

Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/03/2012 8:43 PM

One that comes to my mind right away is the Corvette. I wouldn't own one newer than the original 1953 to 1962 body style. That design was perfect. The rest, meh -- they're either stupid looking or just ugly. (IMHO.)

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Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/03/2012 10:56 PM

We just bought a new Chrysler 300C Hemi AWD. The reason? Because we could get a LIFETIME bumper to bumper warranty that covers all its zillions of computers and sensors. Engines, tranmissions, suspensions and other mechanical stuff now lasts hundreds of thousands of miles, but microprocessors can fail in a heartbeat, and cost a fortune to fix.

The rule has always been, "Never buy a BMW, Mercedes or Audi without a warranty," but it's getting to where you don't want to buy anything that doesn't have a lifetime warranty. Cars are so complicated today, they are becoming fiscally unrepairable.

And if you do buy a new BMW with a warranty for, say, $70,000, when it goes out of warranty at 4 years/100,000 miles, its value drops like a rock--especially when potential buyers learn that the transmission in some new BMWs costs $18,000 and can't be repaired (it must be replaced). What do you do when your 4-year-old $70,000 BMW is out of warranty, is now worth only $20,000, and its transmission fails?

We bought the 300C for my wife, but I'll keep my 2001 740 and 1997 M3 for as long as I can, because both of those cars can still be repaired.

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#4

Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/04/2012 12:12 PM

I am all for buying the "green" cars that are available today. A synergy-hybrid from Ford, Toyota, Honda, or Nissan would be my choices.

All electric is not going to succeed in any big way, due to the "anxiety" effect. That means that very few people want to drive an electric to the mall and back, because the "and back" is uncertain (a freeway accident-causing delay on a 100 degree day for instance. The A/C will eat up the charge in a hurry).

However, an all electric DRIVE, like the Chevy Volt, is the way to go. It has an on-board charger using a small gas engine, which can relieve that "anxiety". Prices for large batteries needs to fall soon so that these types of cars can be purchased by retirees like me!

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#5

Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/04/2012 7:17 PM

I can be coerced into buying a 2013 but any newer than that seems like a sham to me. I don't need a sham wow.

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Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/04/2012 7:51 PM

I agree. The rumour is that a "crossover" version of the Volt is in the works. That would fit my needs better (must have room for 3 golf bags and 3 players!).

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Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/04/2012 8:09 PM

I would like to buy a Ferrari, but cost considerations limit me to a 308, 328 or 348--so the newest Ferrari I can afford is probably a mid-1980s. Oh, and no computers! But plenty of very expensive maintenance.

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Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/05/2012 1:44 AM

But plenty of very expensive maintenance.

You are not wrong! The gas strut to hold up the rear 'hatch' on a Ferrari costs over$A400. It fails on a regular basis because Ferrari instal it wrong way up because it looks better. A correctly installed after market part is $A40.

I would like a Mitsubishi ASX from 2011.

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Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/05/2012 6:52 AM

What's an ASX? An Evo?

Mitsubishis are wonderful cars, but their dealers suck--in the U.S., any way.

I had a 94 Mitsubishi 3000GTVR4, 92 Talon, and 90 Eclipse GSX--all turbo AWD cars and they were amazing performers. We modded them considerably for road racing. The 3000GTVR4 was 500+hp and the 4-cylinder Eclipse was dyno-tuned to 355 hp at the wheels, but they were "tired iron" and broke a lot.

That's one problem with buying older cars--if you try to race them, they break easily. And if you buy a newer car, you can't modify them, thanks to the ECU. Just put a simple cold air intake on your '11 ASX and you'll probably have to reprogram the ECU.

My 1997 M3 is a good compromise--new enough so it doesn't break, and not so new that I can't modify it.

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Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/05/2012 7:45 AM

www.mitsubishi-motors.com.au is the web address for the Australian models. It is a smallish SUV with all the fruit.

I have a 3litre '91 Verada ( Diamante). We distinguished the luxury models by the name Verada, the base models were called Magna. They ran from 91 to 2003 then the Oz designed and built 380 took over. Mitsubishi ended their Oz production in 2008.

I would be thrilled to drive a 3000 GT.

regards,

Jim

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Re: What's the Newest Car You'd Consider Owning?

02/05/2012 8:31 AM

Jimrat: I visited OZ a few years ago--you have the coolest cars in the world there!

Here's a photo of my 3000GT VR4, doing about 135 mph on the track at Road America.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1008280125679.2002133.1185238563&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=1008282285733&set=a.1008280125679.2002133.1185238563&type=3&theater

I got it up to 165 mph once, before running out of road. It was probably good for 180 mph.

It wasn't stock--we put on bigger turbos and intercoolers, bigger injectors, Stage 4 port & polish, boost controller, and ran about 20 lb of boost.

A 3000GT VR4 was one of the "supercars" of the 1990s (along with the 300ZX turbo, Toyota Supra, RX7 turbo, and a couple of others) and is probably destined to become a collectible some day. Problem is, they are incredibly complicated, and noobdy knows how to fix them--least of all a Mitisibishi dealer. Don't buy one unless you know somebody who can work on them.

That's part of the problem with this new car/old car question. If you find a really cool old car, who will fix it? And if you buy a new car with all the computers and sensors, as soon as it goes out of warranty, it can become fiscally unrepairable.

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