David Fritzinger
In article <bmh6mhF9ei0U1@mid.individual.net>, Lloyd E Parsons <lloydp21@live.com>wrote:

Lloyd E Parsons
On 2014-02-18 12:26:25 +0000, Nashton said:

Brake Dive, Acceleration Squat, Body Roll Works LLC
What???? Subtract the 2000000 pennies from the price of your Q7 TDI and get an idea how many mac pros he can buy for that change

Nashton
Listen, there is a reason why a Q7 TDI S line is worth $50000 more than the rental fleet Verano. Look it up.

Lloyd E Parsons
No, in fact there isn't any reason that it is worth $50000 more to me. Hell, not even $10000 more to me. And only for those with badge envy would the Audi be worth that much to anyone.

I'm glad you like yours and hope you enjoy it. But I wouldn't nor does it bring anything to the table that is valuable to me.

You keep forgetting that I drive less than 5K miles per year and that is mostly short local trips, with 3 or 4 750 mile round trips a year. If it wasn't for the road trips, I wouldn't get anything more than a small car for local driving. The Audi would be overkill and overpriced for my useage.

Because of my age and driving patterns, all scheduled services will be done on an annual basis because mileage won't be the issue. I'm 70 and driving is just something I do to get from point A to point B when the weather is good.

But overall I've never been overly enamored with euro-cars, nor even the Japanese and other Asian cars. I've had great service from all my north American vehicles over the years and in comparison to euro-cars, spent one hell of a lot less buying and running them.

David Fritzinger
I haven't had too much success with cars made in Europe, but I have had pretty bad experiences with American cars. We had a Ford Escort that gave us nothing but problems. It didn't break down too often, but when it did, it was a doozy, costing nearly $1k each time. Plus, the paint was horrible. I was involved in a minor parking lot accident where they had to replace a rear panel on the car. That made the car look awful, with one shiny fender and the rest all dull. Finally, the car just wouldn't start, and our mechanic couldn't find out what was wrong. We also had a Ford Probe, which had numerous problems. For one, the power windows would continually stop working, costing us >$300 each time. The cause was a $.01 part, but they had to replace the whole motor every time. The funniest (?) was when the car's dashboard went crazy. I heard a grinding noise in the dashboard and took it in to the dealer for warranty work. When I left with the car, the dashboard was going crazy, with the needles swinging back and forth, and lights randomly flashing. The car was so bad that our mechanic gave us a bottle of champagne for all the business we had given him.

Meanwhile, we have essentially had no problems whatsoever with the 3 Hondas we have owned (1 Acura Integra GS-R and two Accord EX's). So, my experience is quite a bit different from yours.

Lloyd E Parsons
Your comments remind me of a officer in charge I used to work for many years ago. He had just bought one of them new-fangled rotary Mazdas and I had just bought a big Ford station wagon. He bragged about the 'honest' 12mpg it got, which was the same as I was getting on my Ford. Then he told me how often it had to be serviced and I laughed my ass off.

David Fritzinger
Had he learned something about Wankel engines (if this was known at the time), he would have realized the problems with Wankel engines: lousy gas mileage and frequent repairs caused by wear on the Wankel equivalent of piston rings. That has improved, but the Wankel still gets relatively poor mileage (though better than before).

Lloyd E Parsons
Here he was scrunched in a little bitty car with poor mileage that he paid way more for than I did my Ford, and then he got the privilege of paying much more to keep it running. My Ford was sold by me with 90K on it in nearly perfect condition after a bit of very little scheduled maintenance and no repairs needed. His Mazda was at the servicer more often in the first year of owning it than my Ford was the many years I had it.