With the economic turmoil that is expanding over the world as some sort of latch-up effect that cannot be switched off, it is difficult to deny that it won't affect our lives. As for myself, there won;t be much difference as the company I work for is planning to grow significantly in the next few years and has build the fundaments that are needed.
Recession / depression has its merits. With the turmoil that investors / hedge funds are now (fortunatelly) in, the price of raw material has returned to a more realistic level. Demand is lower then ever and that happened in an unprecedented rate. Many manufacturers have difficulty keeping their operations to a normal level, including the automotive industry.
Some countries are trying to support their industry by a scrap-premium for old cars. The German government for instance offers car-buyers a 2500 Euro premium when they trade their old cars (must be older then nine years). Old cars are stigmatized as polluting and thus declared public enemy number #1. This is a dream coming true for many manufacturers who have trouble selling their produktion slots or even worse excess stock.
In Holland, despite requests from the branch organizations, no such scraping-premium has been implemented and many car dealers are facing bankrupcy due to a sudden decay in business. I don't think our government will provide a helping hand to the industry in a way the Germans are currently doing. Personally, I am glad they don't as it only helps keeping unprofitable organizations in business. Granted those Fiat 500's or Opel Agilas are fuel efficient and clean, but what is the added value for a manufacturer and a dealer? If the latter one is making a 2% margin, he may consider himself lucky, but it isn't enough for a cash-buffer to survive difficult times whilst maintaing a proper service level to the owners of their cars. And teh manufacturer needs to manufacture a lot of them to keep all that staff working.
By maintainging our old and obsolete cars we deny the car manufacturers the cash they need to maintain their operations. But who would trade in his E34S M5 for for instance an E90 318i or worse, an Opel Corsa with Ecocrap engine ? The manufacturers would love us seeing do that but the truth is that we won't. At least not the members on this board (I think).
With other words: Enthusiasts are the builders nemesis.
Granted, we could all be faced with circumstances that we cannot keep our pride and joy. I certainly hope I an stick to mine and I am in the fortunate situation that I work for a company that always kept its legs on the ground. With other words, unless the Dutch tax payer has to pay the price for keeping for instance the ING bank-insurance combination afloat (I'd say there is a limit) there is no reason why not holding on to my cars.
Bear in mind that my BMW's are fun cars and for daily purposes I own a simple Mercedes Benz C180 estate from late 2001. Despite that it lacks a sole, I love that car. It has all the luxury that one needs and although not as fuel efficient as for instance an E46 330i, it is much cheaper to run then the competition. For instance, Mercedes offers a maintenance package that is aggresively priced. Just two cents per kilometer on a contract for 15k km per year for all four cylinder models. A six cylinder model has a price offset of halve a cent per kilometer. And even the AMG models cost 1,5 cents per kilometer more then the simple four cylinder model.
3.5cents per kilometer maintenance for for instance an E55 AMG Kompressor ? Let's calculate: 15k km * 3,5cents/km is 525 Euro's per year. Off course the wearing parts such as tyres and brakes and rpairs are exluded, but what was the regular inspection cost for our E34's whne they were new? And what is the inspection cost for an Audi RS6 or an E39 M5 ?
I already know the answer. And I have to admit that the service organization of Mercedes benz including the Classic center is much better then BMW's. Yes, I know that MB also has its flaws and rust is one of them, but I had a pleasant surprise of a dealer visit yesterday that the corrosion (of which I was not aware) on my W203 was still covered under warranty without limitatins.
BMW may be the more driver oriented car, but at some point in my life I just may not need that anymore and will judge my cars more rationally. Low maintenance cost and low depreciation combined with an excellent dealer organization and high reliability may outweigh the arguments why i keep hold of my BMW's.
That E55 AMG Kompressor appeals to me more with every day ? Maybe when time comes. If so, I will again be the builders nemesis.
In the UK , the BMW tends to be the choice of the slightly younger driver before progressing on to the Mercedes somewhere between 40 and 50 years old .
Saying that , there is a young man that frequents this board who has recently purchased a 55 AMG Kompressor and very nice it is too .
D
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Better a day as a tiger than a lifetime as a sheep !
There will always be a 'core' of enthuasists for certain marques, who refuse to 'sell, trade up or replace' their cars...maybe here in the UK we are more obsessed than elsewhere. During fine summer days you can see a myrid of old cars being driven, from classis such as TR's, MG's, Jags etc, through to the most bizzare vehicles from the '70 and 80's...yes Lancia's and Rovers.
Being different is not wrong, and just look at the volume of classic car publications available and the massive number of parts specialists now available from fabricators through to trim, lights, switches and chrome platers.
Manufacturers may well want us to keep trading up, but some cars with real appeal will just keep rolling, such as E30's, E9's, E34's, E24's and E28's.
BMW does have a real following across the world, maybe more than M-B and long may our cars be driven and cared for by enthuasists!
The biggest worry will be law changes should it become illegal to drive certain cars due to their polluting ways, but I cannot see any major government going down this avenue...when you consider how few cars over 20 years old are actually driven on a regular basis globally!
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"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn-out,shouting, 'Holy sh*t! What a ride!'"
I think the world has far too much new car building capacity.
Cars themselves have become much more long lasting, and we have a lot of them already.
The eco argument about old vehciles polluting the world is un-founded, it's another one of those that when you look under the news headline, the facts are different.
upto 80% of a cars total CO2 emissions are produced when making it, when you include the making of the raw materials and getting it all assembled and through the process to the new owner.
In short, we have to stop making so many new cars.
The people employed making them should be re-assigned (over a couple of decades) to keeping the existing cars on the road (parts, fitting, repairing). This will be a much more globally dispersed activity (ie more local to you, the end user of the process).
I sincerely hope that we loose 50% of our global car manufacturing industry. In the UK this has more than happened over the last 20 years, but it simply moved to a cheaper environment. Now that has to start being closed down.
Look at ship building 25, 50, 75, 100 years ago.
I hope that Barack Obama leads this type of change with the USA's billions, China won't, and Japan can't afford it. Germany? they seem to be going the wrong way IMHO.
Here in Brazil things are a little bit diferent.....
with the crisis for example, the used car price droped "enourmosly", and some dont even buy your car in exchange of a nem one anymore....
BMWs here are not comon, the ones who have then, old or not, are not regular people, its a diferente range of market/people with BMWs, Mercedes, some Audis (imported) etc, because taxes here are huge, so some imported car prices are huge as well...
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'95 3.8 6speed ///M5
You wash your car like it was your firstborn child, you tend to its needs like it was your own body, you rotect it like it's your family, then you drive it like you stole it.
the value of these cars is to the point where, as long as i am still interested in them, there is no reason to get rid of them.
A 150k mile e34 m5 would be lucky to get 9-10k US$, my 110k mile e39 m5 would struggle to get above $20k US. Not worth selling them, what could replace them for that kind of money. Wouldn't mind adding to the stable though.
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Mike
91 M5 Alpine White II, Silver Gray 3/90 production
17x8/17x9 M system with PS2, 20mm touring roll bar; Ground Control Coilovers; EAT Chip, CD43; bmw/nardi blackline steering wheel, 3.8 Cam Gears
08 535i / 6 speed
Space Gray; Gray; Sport/Premium/Nav
00 M5 Ti Silver; Imola/black sportiv --Sold
Engine:
Supersprint Headers, Dinan CAI kit and MAFS, Throttle Bodies, Cams, Ported heads, Exhaust, Custom dinan software, Evosport Pullies, Dinan clutch and lightened flywheel; Ignition solutions plasma coils
Suspension:
Dinan Stage 3 with front and rear Strut Tower Braces, Beastpower Sway bar brackets, Dinan Wheels with 275/285 PilotSport, X5 Thrust arm bushings, Stoptech 355mm 4 piston front, 355mm 2 piston rear brake kit, Dinan 3.45 diff
Interior/Misc:
Eurodash, updated steering wheel, Bluetooth retrofit, Sirius Retrofit, hardwired V1, Widescreen Mk4 nav, M audio retrofit, Ice Link, BSW Stage 1 speaker upgrade, bmw towbar
43 today - but I'm not thinking of deserting BMW for MB!
I must admit it is the special combination of abilities that makes the M5 more of a "keeper" and why it tends to get a fair amount of cash thrown at it.
I agree that there will be carnage out there and it's likely to get worse before it gets better (my job is going down the pan) - but it always amazes me how short everyone's memory is - give it a few years and I suspect the banks will be throwing money at people who can't afford to pay it back once again
- but I'm not thinking of deserting BMW for MB!
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