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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (12294)	4/21/2004 1:29:29 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 110194

We put approx 120k miles on our 2nd Regal & my sister got another 35-40k before it gave out. All the others but one had 85k or more when traded in, so I can't tell you how long they lasted. Our first Regal probably went for scrap, but all of the others were still running fine when we traded them in. None of them had any serious problems either (except the 1st Regal). We just wanted a new one. Our Olds Intrigue has 90k + miles & runs like a charm. It still gets almost 26 mpg overall with plenty of power. No major repairs or breakdowns too. It still has the original exhaust system & battery. Zero power train, engine, suspension or rust problems. And I've seen plenty of Japanese cars that look like crap that had less than 100k miles. It's not like they are on par with top of the line Mercedes or Volvos, where a small percentage last a couple hundred thousand miles with few problems. Japanese cars tend to be smaller than GM cars in the same class, yet they cost almost $10k more with the rebate/dealer discount difference. Repairs to them are far more expensive & they still can't match the power/economy of the 3.8L v-6. You have to choose the 4 cylinder to get similar mpg's or pay $3.5k more to get the v-6 to match the power, but you will see a dramatic drop in mpg's. So either way you pay - the wimpy 4 cylinder won't make 100k miles without major repairs or a rebuild - the v-6 will siphon off $$ every time you fill up. All I'm saying is that in the current environment, the cost benefit ratio seems to be tilted slightly in favor of GM vehicles with the deep discounting going on. Japanese cars may be slightly better in overall quality, but that gap is not that wide anymore. And since I have a GM credit card, I have an additional $2500 in rebate money. Plus GM is giving out GM loyality rebates that add another $1000 to $1500. A Toyota Avalon, loaded, has a sticker of $36.5k & a 3.0L v-6. It is slightly smaller than a Le Sabre. It will cost me more than $36.5k to close the deal on the Avalon. And try to find a Toyota, Acura or Honda dealer that doesn't have $500 or more in superfluous dealer add ons. A Le Sabre Limited with every available option has a sticker of $35.2k & the 3.8L v-6. I can take it home for around $26.8k. In five years & about 100k miles on them, trade in value is going to be about $1500 more for the Avalon. That leaves me with $8500 (plus interest savings) & hundreds in fuel savings in my pocket.