What do you drive?


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For you guys talking about painting / maintaining your vehicles, there's two channels I go to for visual aids when it comes to doing repairs I haven't done before, Eric the Car Guy, and Scotty Kilmer.  Scotty Kilmer can be a bit odd and likes to brag, but his channel is jam packed with easy to follow, short videos on how to do various things.  Eric the Car Guy is more laid back, and his channel is also about cars, but from what I've seen he has less of those 3 minute "How-to" videos and has more in depth discussion style videos.

 

Scotty Kilmer: https://www.youtube.com/user/scottykilmer

 

Eric the Car Guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/EricTheCarGuy

 

I am not being paid to endorse these guys, they're just two channels I'm subscribed to that I've found useful.

 

For those asking, "Why do the work yourself when I can pay somebody else?"  Well, unless you take it to the dealership for work, there's a decent chance you'll get screwed.  I've had bad experiences with Jiffy Lube, my family members have had bad experiences with Jiffy Lube and Don't Super Lube stores, and I've seen tons of videos on the internet of people having bad experiences with those chain stores that work on cars.  I've seen them not do jobs but charge the customer as if they'd done it, I've seen them forget to put fluid back into differentials when they had to drain it, I've seen them forget to put bolts back in, etc.  I even had a family member take her car to a place and leave it there 3 or 4 hours to have the transmission flushed.  She called to check on it and the manager told her it was done and to come get it, so she went down there, paid them for the work and left.  After she left, a friend of hers who worked there called her and told her to take it somewhere else and have it done because they hadn't touched her car and were afraid to tell her that when she called.  You don't have to go all out and start buying special tools and changing major components, but things like changing your oil and various fluids are things you can do with a $20 socket set and 20 minutes time, and you can save yourself quite a bit of money.  Changing your oil regularly is probably THE most important single piece of maintenance that you can do to prolong the life of your car's engine, and all you need is one open ended wrench to remove the drain plug and a filter wrench for the oil filter.

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Its really just for when I fly to Modena for the weekend.  But, a little money to the Italian government and I take it out on the road on the way to Lake Como.

My accountant tells me it was over $2.5 million, but I don't ask, I pay him to worry about such things.  I tried to fit it under my new Gulfstream, but it wouldnt work.

I think I'll give it to someone less fortunate... maybe Bill Gates.  I hear he's a car nut.  [ of course Im kidding]

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Nice ride. I have a 2014 E550 in the same color that I picked up in July. Hope you got a good deal on maintenance. It's a bank account murderer without it. ;-)

 

 

Finally got the maintenance sorted out. The dealer offered a plan backed by Ally for almost $4K for 5 years/75K miles. I wasn't keen to taking that on the spot so declined, especially since third party warranties can be a nightmare with exclusions (or so I hear). Found a good price at a MB dealer for the MB direct extended warranty. Paid a little under $3K to push me up to 7 years/100K miles bumper to bumper. Which is great as I learned that the Ally backed plan (VehicleOne) excluded almost all of the electronics in the car...

 

Seems like a good price for the insurance especially since I purchased a former rental car. Also nice to know OEM only parts will be used.

 

 

Updated the post with a smaller image. Should have done that from the start, but I guess the forum uploader no longer does the automatic scaling.

 

Thanks!

 

Looking into quotes on the maintenance now. I was quoted a high price at the dealer on a plan from VehicleOne. I passed on that as I wanted to get more details and so far I'm seeing a better deal extending directly with Mercedes so I'll likely go that route.

 

My Wife thinks I'm nuts as I've been against owning a car forever (hence my late addition to the car owner club). But hopefully it works out well for us and I can get advice from the seasoned members here.

Good thing you got the good warranty.  I was over @ my family's attorney's house helping him with his new laptop.  When I walked in his house, he was on the phone in his office.  I am sitting in there and I hear him say "Are You F%&*ing Kidding Me?!?"  I looked up and my eyes got wide.  He looked at me shaking his head.

A second later he got off the phone.  He told me when he was driving back from getting the laptop, his S500 crapped out on him.  He called local MB dealership , they towed it off and gave him a loaner.  It was the dealership on the phone, telling him it needed a new transmission.... @ $8000 !! LOL

After I finished all the work on his laptop, he said, "What do I owe you ?"   -  You can guess the number I gave him :D

 

Good thing you got the good warranty.  I was over @ my family's attorney's house helping him with his new laptop.  When I walked in his house, he was on the phone in his office.  I am sitting in there and I hear him say "Are You F%&*ing Kidding Me?!?"  I looked up and my eyes got wide.  He looked at me shaking his head.

A second later he got off the phone.  He told me when he was driving back from getting the laptop, his S500 crapped out on him.  He called local MB dealership , they towed it off and gave him a loaner.  It was the dealership on the phone, telling him it needed a new transmission.... @ $8000 !! LOL

After I finished all the work on his laptop, he said, "What do I owe you ?"   -  You can guess the number I gave him :D

 

What year is his Merc? Do you mean S550? Warranty should cover that with no out of pocket.

What year is his Merc? Do you mean S550? Warranty should cover that with no out of pocket.

I think it must be a little older - maybe it is S550 - I know it was out of warranty by like 4 months.

He is notorious for messing up cars.  He had a Jag convertible that he blew the engine because it had no oil in it.  He is a little absent minded, but get him in the court room and he is great.

He was taking some time off for a few months while he was going through divorce, but when he got off phone with MB - he joked about having to get a job @ McDonalds.  Told his kids who were @ his house, that they were going to have to start wearing 2nd hand clothes, and could only eat 2nd hand food LOL

(In actuality he makes about $600K a year.)

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Not quite my truck, I don't have the side-steps.  But it's a 2014 F150 Super Crew 4x4 XLT.   I moved from Ontario to Alberta this summer, and pretty much 2/5 vehicles are a truck or SUV.   My car I had in Ontario didn't have a block heater or anything so to get one installed for the winter was going to be over 500$ and I wasn't sure how well it would do.   So I went and bought a truck end of October right before the 2015 models came out so I got a really good discount on it.   The trucks MSRP was 45K (as it as the plastic flooring, bed liner, etc).  I got it for 36 with a new tri-fold cover.    Had 56KM on it when I picked it up (was 5km more than when I had test-driven it, had 48 when I took it out for the first test).

Being in Texas, there are more F150s here than any other type of car/truck/household pets/McDonald's/toothless hookers than anywhere else on the planet.

I love the F150 - I have had 2 of them and each was a great truck.  Before I got my G37 I seriously considered getting a Raptor - and think about it everytime I see one on the road.

I know you said its not exactly like your truck - but if its remotely close, Im sure you have a great truck.

I would like to ride in the 2015 all-aluminum with the Ecoboost engine -- would be interesting.

Being in Texas, there are more F150s here than any other type of car/truck/household pets/McDonald's/toothless hookers than anywhere else on the planet.

I love the F150 - I have had 2 of them and each was a great truck.  Before I got my G37 I seriously considered getting a Raptor - and think about it everytime I see one on the road.

I know you said its not exactly like your truck - but if its remotely close, Im sure you have a great truck.

I would like to ride in the 2015 all-aluminum with the Ecoboost engine -- would be interesting.

 

It's the same as my truck only difference is I don't have the side steps.  But my truck is still a 2014 F150 Super Crew 4X4 XLT  I could have gotten the XTR package but I decided against it.  My truck has the 5.0L V8 bit harder on gas than the ecoboost but with a 135L tank I get almost 3 weeks to a tank.  

I would love to get a raptor.. but they are a bit out of my price range, I think they start around the 80 mark.  My plan is to eventually trade up to one (using positive equity from the trucks).  Like my truck with a 45K truck, in 5 years I will still get 25K out of it but have paid off most of what I owe on it (even if I still owe 5-10K) I will have 10+K towards the next truck and by then I will be able to save another several thousand hopefully that will allow me to get a 60-70K truck with the same payments I make now (as I will be able to put a lot down).

It's the same as my truck only difference is I don't have the side steps.  But my truck is still a 2014 F150 Super Crew 4X4 XLT  I could have gotten the XTR package but I decided against it.  My truck has the 5.0L V8 bit harder on gas than the ecoboost but with a 135L tank I get almost 3 weeks to a tank.  

I would love to get a raptor.. but they are a bit out of my price range, I think they start around the 80 mark.  My plan is to eventually trade up to one (using positive equity from the trucks).  Like my truck with a 45K truck, in 5 years I will still get 25K out of it but have paid off most of what I owe on it (even if I still owe 5-10K) I will have 10+K towards the next truck and by then I will be able to save another several thousand hopefully that will allow me to get a 60-70K truck with the same payments I make now (as I will be able to put a lot down).

Yes Raptors are pretty pricey.  Its so weird to go to a Ford dealership around here, and look @ trucks that cost more than some Mercedes.

The Raptors are around ~ $50,000 -  crazy.  I used to be able to get everything through the Z-plan as my grandfather worked @ the St. Louis Ford plant for like 20 years - but the SVT cars/trucks are not part of the Z-plan.  A shame because we used to get everything @ dealer's cost (usually about 20% off).

Well, Im sure your truck is awesome  - snap a pic when you can

 

Yes Raptors are pretty pricey.  Its so weird to go to a Ford dealership around here, and look @ trucks that cost more than some Mercedes.

The Raptors are around ~ $50,000 -  crazy.  I used to be able to get everything through the Z-plan as my grandfather worked @ the St. Louis Ford plant for like 20 years - but the SVT cars/trucks are not part of the Z-plan.  A shame because we used to get everything @ dealer's cost (usually about 20% off).

Well, Im sure your truck is awesome  - snap a pic when you can

Taken like 2 days after I picked it up

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Looking at this thread, it seems like cars are way over priced in the US. People buying cars for 6k with 120k miles on it, thats insane. cars like that in UK wouldnt be worth more than 2-3k

I think he just way over-payed for it.  Bluebook on that car at that mileage is $4500-5000.  I see a bunch of them listed on Craigslist with 100k miles for $6k.

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