Originally posted by RogerB:
You know, another friend of mine gave me this advice about "exotic" cars: Go for the cherry.



AMEN! I know about this from experience with Mazda RX-7's. When buying an older higher-end car, quality is worth paying for. Make sure things work, or if they don't, you can live without them completely (the passenger window doesn't do down with the driver's switch on my RX-7... no biggie, the car is narrow enough to use the passenger switch). Rust is a cancer, if you want to keep this car long term, rust is unacceptable. If necessary, get a southern car and rustproof it if the car will see winter driving.

That said, the reliability and durability of European cars isn't true anymore. The early 1990's BMW 3-series did hold to this. New ones are about as reliable as Contours (average-to-worse). European cars as a whole are the least reliable continent of origin, with Audi and Mercedes models (and the new 7 series) having abysmal reliability records.

My friends A6 2.8 with 90,000 miles has been a horror story. The lastest is the day he got the car back from having the sunroof fixed ($1800), the transmission won't go into Tiptronic and the car won't coast. Needless to say, I told him to fix the current problem (he has an extended warranty) and dump the car.

In contrast, Ross has 180,000 miles, and I have put maybe $1500 into non-maintenance repairs (and only had three repairs under warranty, one due to the previous owner breaking a rear seat belt). My friend's A6 probably has cost him that much in warranty deductibles.

Brad "Diva": 2004 Mazda 6s 5-door, Volcanic Red Rex: 1988 Mazda RX-7 Vert, Harbor Blue.