From: DAS on
Re Bjorn & Brent:

Cheap Volvo & Merc taxis. In North America one does not see the bottom-end
diesel cars one has in Europe. Plus in Germany and many some other
countries Mercedes provide a high level of maintenance service for taxi
drivers.

Nevertheless, Merc has lost ground to other brands (Volvo maybe mainly in
Scandinavia) such as Skoda, the 'cheap' end of Volkswagen Group.

I also don't agree with the "cheap materials" unless somebody provides
evidence.

Brent: "My guess is too many expensive (but probably not major) things going
wrong so they end up garaged and little used." I agree with you in the
sense that it is a pure guess. Presumably you do not live in LA? If so you
would see stacks of BMWs and other such cars. Do you have numbers to back
up your claim? Top end (new) Porsches, BMWs etc are mainly for the
wealthier anyway, so not so many around, except in the wealthier areas.
Loads in central London, for example.

Brent: "Exception being the 'budget' porsches of the 1980s". If you mean
the VW Porsches then there aren't many left, not very good. Line was
discontinued quite quickly. So which and what do you mean by "large"
numbers? (944s?)

DAS

To reply directly replace 'nospam' with 'schmetterling'
--
"Brent" <tetraethylleadREMOVETHIS(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:i1keaq$n8b$1(a)news.eternal-september.org...
> On 2010-07-14, Clive <clive(a)yewbank.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> In message <i1kcoi$dtk$3(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Brent
>><tetraethylleadREMOVETHIS(a)yahoo.com> writes
>>>. My guess is that the
>>>breakthrough won't be batteries at all, but some sort of onboard power
>>>generation from a fuel or as they called it many decades ago pulling
>>>power from the 'ether'.
>> If the Auto manufacturers can pull energy from fresh air, expect the
>> Governments to tax it.
>
> 'national security', we will likely not see it.
>
>



From: Brent on
On 2010-07-14, DAS <nobody(a)spam.co.uk> wrote:

> Brent: "My guess is too many expensive (but probably not major) things going
> wrong so they end up garaged and little used." I agree with you in the
> sense that it is a pure guess. Presumably you do not live in LA? If so you
> would see stacks of BMWs and other such cars. Do you have numbers to back
> up your claim? Top end (new) Porsches, BMWs etc are mainly for the
> wealthier anyway, so not so many around, except in the wealthier areas.
> Loads in central London, for example.

You've clearly misunderstood. I did not say the cars were uncommon. I
stated that older ones vanish into garages or somewhere, because they
aren't seen often. I see newish ones daily, several times a day
usually. If Chicago's road salt were eating them I would see rusty ones
far more often. But instead there is just a cliff at about 8 years old
where the cars seem to just disappear. My guess is they become too
expensive to use as daily drivers. I'll see the Japanese luxury cars
and practically every other car expensive or not decline into beaterdom
and their numbers drop off slowly. BMWs... porsches? they just seem to
go *poof* as far as road use goes after about 8 years or so. MB has the
same decline as every other make. Audi again... I see them slide away
too... I just don't see some 15 year old beat down 911 driving around...
very rarely do I see them at all. a 0-5 year old 911? Sure, common
sight. Buying the older ones? Easy to find. Seeing them in daily use?
not particularly. My guess is things like this:

http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/1995-to-1998-porsche-911-2.htm
Item Name Repair Cost
A/C Compressor $1,500
Alternator $1,000
Automatic Transmission or Transaxle $3,100
Brakes $790
Clutch, Pressure Plate, Bearing $1,800
Constant Velocity Joints $2,300
Exhaust System $890
Radiator $2,200
Shocks and/or Struts $6,250
Timing Chain or Belt $1,635

Not to mention the environmental attack on the materials in this
climate. It just costs too much to use these cars for daily tasks.

> Brent: "Exception being the 'budget' porsches of the 1980s". If you mean
> the VW Porsches then there aren't many left, not very good. Line was
> discontinued quite quickly. So which and what do you mean by "large"
> numbers? (944s?)

Pretty much. Those are still in daily service in Chicago's harsh
car-eating environment.

From: Clive on
In message <i1klmn$750$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Brent
<tetraethylleadREMOVETHIS(a)yahoo.com> writes
> Buying the older ones? Easy to find. Seeing them in daily use?
>not particularly. My guess is things like this:
>
>http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/1995-to-1998-porsche-911-2.htm
>Item Name Repair Cost
>A/C Compressor $1,500
>Alternator $1,000
>Automatic Transmission or Transaxle $3,100
>Brakes $790
>Clutch, Pressure Plate, Bearing $1,800
>Constant Velocity Joints $2,300
>Exhaust System $890
>Radiator $2,200
>Shocks and/or Struts $6,250
>Timing Chain or Belt $1,635
>
>Not to mention the environmental attack on the materials in this
>climate. It just costs too much to use these cars for daily tasks.
In GB, very few cars fail mechanically. Most are retired because of
rust caused by our continuous use of road salt during the winter months.
I have seen maps of where cars last a little longer or shorter but the
average car fails it MOT through rust at between 9 to 11 years old, and
is subsequently replaced by a new or newer one.
--
Clive
From: Roland Franzius on
Brent schrieb:
> On 2010-07-14, DAS <nobody(a)spam.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Brent: "My guess is too many expensive (but probably not major) things going
>> wrong so they end up garaged and little used." I agree with you in the
>> sense that it is a pure guess. Presumably you do not live in LA? If so you
>> would see stacks of BMWs and other such cars. Do you have numbers to back
>> up your claim? Top end (new) Porsches, BMWs etc are mainly for the
>> wealthier anyway, so not so many around, except in the wealthier areas.
>> Loads in central London, for example.
>
> You've clearly misunderstood. I did not say the cars were uncommon. I
> stated that older ones vanish into garages or somewhere, because they
> aren't seen often. I see newish ones daily, several times a day
> usually. If Chicago's road salt were eating them I would see rusty ones
> far more often. But instead there is just a cliff at about 8 years old
> where the cars seem to just disappear. My guess is they become too
> expensive to use as daily drivers.

Eight year old luxury cars go into export to Middle East, Africa, Asia
und South America. The average export price of a MB or BMW is about 6000
EUR and their expected life time is about 20 years. It is much cheaper
to run an old MB than a small new Toyota or VW.

--

Roland Franzius
From: edward ohare on
On Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:38:04 +0100, "DAS" <nobody(a)spam.co.uk> wrote:

>Thanks. I did not check the facts. I thought that Zetsche had been promoted
>and, indeed, you confirmed it.
>
>I suspect a number of people in North America do not understand the size of
>the Daimler AG (probably true of Europeans as well, but they will be well
>aware of lorries and buses, which are visible everywhere):

I suspect a number of people in Europe do not understand the size of
Chrysler in the late 90s and how PROFITABLE the company was.