Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

i really like these.... my dad had the saloon version before getting a tesla (massive downgrade imo but hes happy with it...)

I’d mainly use it for long distance European stuff, well- that and donuts in the Saino carpark.

I went France - Germany - Austria - Germany - France - Belgium - France over the summer.

In Belgium and the UK you may as well have a 150bhp diesel. In France and Austria a 300bhp petrol would be good. In Germany you need 450bhp to keep up with traffic.

But stop being so tight and get yourself a Panamera Sport Turismo.

Without bikes?

Yeah, thinking winter.

£?

^^Because 800Nm and snow sound ideal companions

sort of a fastback hearse init ? :)

Ha popped into my head as well

Mid £50ks now. Too much for me.

Obviously a 340i estate, or just a Golf R or something would be a much more sensible bet but I’d like to be Panamera man. With the correct outfit folk would think I was some sort of successful and smart German engineer.

I’m obviously against the basic concept of an SUV but you can get an early Macan Turbo for CLS money.

I spoke to the place that I bought my van from and they said that they would pay £22 for the CLS to retail it (fully sorted, with a years warranty) for £30, so it’s over priced in their view. But- it’s rare and very well specified, with some very rare options, which is why the current seller may be expecting big money.

Macan doesn’t interest me- Taycan Cross Turismo maybe, but £!

I'd have thought it would be worth hanging on for a few months when people to have to remortage before buying a premium car (or indeed, any non-banger).

Stuff like PCP must be about to implode too right? The days of chopping in your two year old car for the latest model on the same monthly payment won't happen with interest rates increasing, and how many people will have saved up the balloon payment?

Oh yes. It’s all going to come crashing down.

It’s kinda different to the mortgage thing in 2008 as that was people’s homes but I think it was <2% of US mortgages that got foreclosed and ‘caused’ a massive recession. In Washington something like 7% of car loans are 90 days behind and 20% are 30 days behind.

The average payment is something around $500. Folk will increasingly just stop paying and get their car taken back.

So is the risk with the financiers who end up with thousands of 0-3yr old cars with nobody to buy them?

Will bangers shoot up in price because that's all people can afford? HODL Mk4 Golfs!

I think the challenge is working out which demographic a car belongs too - that CLS is well within cheap loan territory - I'm thinking the 3.2% for 30k ones which were hugely popular.

That means that as long as you could afford £500 per month you could afford the car - but, not the servicing or fixing any large issues (the one I'm looking at doesn't have any services recorded recently, something I'd like to discuss with the current owner).

I well know what it costs to replace silly things like batteries and suspension on these - it's not cheap, and you're not going to do it if you stretched to get the car.

But go up a few groups and you get to people who are not that worried by the current shenanigans in the housing market.

So - I think the CLS (unless it's secretly a dealer) will be reduced in price incrementally until it becomes more reasonable, or might just go for a cash offer depending on the sellers circumstances, but more expensive cars (Hefty's Panamera) will likely stay where they are price wise.

Yeah ^ and yeah ^^.

That’s generally how recessions go. Those with plenty of money are unaffected or get more, those who have stretched themselves wind things back in.

If you’re 30 you’ve never experienced rising interest costs so your £1000 a month cushion between incomings and outgoings has been plenty, indeed £300 has been plenty. Then your heating goes up £150 a month and your mortgage goes up £500 a month and your shopping goes up £100 a month etc and maybe you’re self-employed and have some lean months, then all of a sudden you have to cut something big, it can only really be the car.

Big engined saloons and estates are always depreciation monsters (I’d imagine you can get an early V8 CLS for c. £5k) for the running cost reasons you mention, it’ll probably continue and worsen from now but you probably know that.

I’m interested to see what happens to the sought-after young bloke sportscars that are mostly bought on finance - M2, Cayman GT4, 458, that type of thing - who will buy those if people stop taking finance? It used to be men in their 50s who bought expensive sportscars for cash after they’d sold their small businesses and the kids had left home, but over the last 5 or 8 years that’s totally changed and you see no end of twenty-somethings spending £1000 a month on finance. Surely this will stop?

The other way to skip big running costs is to own a car for less than the now standard 2 year service interval and just never take it to a garage. It’s really common to see fast expensive stuff with >1 owner for each year it’s been around now.

If you’re 30 you’ve never experienced rising interest costs

It's me!

then all of a sudden you have to cut something big, it can only really be the car child's clothing & toys.

Yes, and on a related note - the advert says 2 owners, but it's had 3, and the photographs are of it on its old plate, prior to the latest ownership change. There's definitely a discussion to be had on that sort of thing, plus service history and so on.

My E63 munched through two batteries (£1,200), rear brakes (£1,000) and it's rear shocks (£1,600) in the 13,000 miles I ran it for, plus an A and a B service and a full set of tyres.

I dutifully did everything it needed, but if money had been tight...

then all of a sudden you have to cut something big, it can only really be the car child's clothing & toys.

Lol millennials. Give up sour dough and Polan O Pyret and all will be fine.

Six hundred pahnd for a battery? M8.

£750

Mad ting.

The supplying dealer covered it, I thought it was crazy but - MB main dealer.

It's just a big lead-acid battery, having recently purchased an LiFePo4 battery for my solar-powered-garage project I am fairly clued up on what big batteries cost, and it's not that much.

I had to replace the main and secondary battery on the E63.