What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - craig-pd130

Here's a moderately amusing and interesting video series from a US vlogger who bought himself a 'salvage' (i.e. Cat D write-off) Maybach 57 with the intention of seeing if he could fix it up for less than the cost of a non-written-off used model.

When new, the car was $350,000; he paid $20,000 for it. The cheapest used one he could find that had a title (i.e. was roadworthy and not written off) was $40K.

There are 3 videos in the series so far: youtu.be/-DYQdtR_PAI

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - sammy1

What a sensible thing to do. There are people all over the UK doing exactly this. They are re-cycling cars cat D, N,C and S which might otherwise be scrap and saving themselves a lot of money. People buying these cars when repaired are also helping save the planet from the consumer waste that is rife.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - daveyjp

I stumbled across Hoovies Garage a couple of years ago The back catalogue of videos are worth a watch.

He achieves what he does by having excellent mechanics to call on. Wizard does most of his work, but he won't touch the BMWs he buys so he has an expert for those jobs.

It also shows how much it costs to run old exec vehicles.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - gkb40

He achieves what he does by having excellent mechanics to call on.

And also having the ability to spend thousands of $ repairing cars, often losing an awful lot of money in the process.

Still it makes popular & entertaining Youtube content which, of course, makes money so it's not a bad business model,

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - S40 Man

I've seen a couple of those Hoovies vids, I find him a bit irritating. The Wizard is ok though.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - edlithgow

OK, despite the position taken in a recent tyre tread discussion, I'd have to concede that those tyres were probably "a minor motoring expense compared to all the other costs"

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - Engineer Andy

OK, despite the position taken in a recent tyre tread discussion, I'd have to concede that those tyres were probably "a minor motoring expense compared to all the other costs"

Probably cost more than my car is worth. :-) Second hand exec cars are only worth it if the owner can afford to run/maintain the car as originally intended.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - Avant

Indeed so. This thread is a good opportunity to remind people that the costs of repairing a car out of warranty are likely to be in proportion to its original cost when new, not what it cost secondhand.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - Engineer Andy

Indeed so. This thread is a good opportunity to remind people that the costs of repairing a car out of warranty are likely to be in proportion to its original cost when new, not what it cost secondhand.

Rather like a near neighbour of mine who doesn't have a particularly well-paid job, but was running three cars - his daughter's old Polo as a daily driver, a BMW convertible that was barely used and falling apart, so he eventually got rid of because he just couldn't maintain it, and a 'hobby car', a Ferrari 308 GTB, which gets to see the outside of his garage about twice a year for a half an hour drive round the block.

He has the cheek to complain he gets parking tickets because he only has space on his property for two cars. Apparently he spent nearly £2k a couple of years ago on paying parking tickets whilst the Beemer sat doing nothing on his driveway.

What an idiot.

Sometimes buying and doing up an old or exec car works, but it's a big risk. An ex-colleague of mine bought a Aston DB5 for not much, spent over £100k on it restoring it (by himself over a few years), but now it's worth £500k and more. And very nice it is too.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - alan1302

Indeed so. This thread is a good opportunity to remind people that the costs of repairing a car out of warranty are likely to be in proportion to its original cost when new, not what it cost secondhand.

Rather like a near neighbour of mine who doesn't have a particularly well-paid job, but was running three cars - his daughter's old Polo as a daily driver, a BMW convertible that was barely used and falling apart, so he eventually got rid of because he just couldn't maintain it, and a 'hobby car', a Ferrari 308 GTB, which gets to see the outside of his garage about twice a year for a half an hour drive round the block.

He has the cheek to complain he gets parking tickets because he only has space on his property for two cars. Apparently he spent nearly £2k a couple of years ago on paying parking tickets whilst the Beemer sat doing nothing on his driveway.

What an idiot.

Sometimes buying and doing up an old or exec car works, but it's a big risk. An ex-colleague of mine bought a Aston DB5 for not much, spent over £100k on it restoring it (by himself over a few years), but now it's worth £500k and more. And very nice it is too.

Does not sound like his job is too low paying if he can afford to run all those and be paying £2k of fines.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - edlithgow

Indeed so. This thread is a good opportunity to remind people that the costs of repairing a car out of warranty are likely to be in proportion to its original cost when new, not what it cost secondhand.

Rather like a near neighbour of mine who doesn't have a particularly well-paid job, but was running three cars - his daughter's old Polo as a daily driver, a BMW convertible that was barely used and falling apart, so he eventually got rid of because he just couldn't maintain it, and a 'hobby car', a Ferrari 308 GTB, which gets to see the outside of his garage about twice a year for a half an hour drive round the block.

He has the cheek to complain he gets parking tickets because he only has space on his property for two cars. Apparently he spent nearly £2k a couple of years ago on paying parking tickets whilst the Beemer sat doing nothing on his driveway.

What an idiot.

Sometimes buying and doing up an old or exec car works, but it's a big risk. An ex-colleague of mine bought a Aston DB5 for not much, spent over £100k on it restoring it (by himself over a few years), but now it's worth £500k and more. And very nice it is too.

Does not sound like his job is too low paying if he can afford to run all those and be paying £2k of fines.

Nor does it sound especially idiotic.

If one was of a finger-pointing-name-calling disposition, (on Honest John?. Surely NOT?) I daresay one could find a few new cars in the neighbourhood, point the finger, and say

"Depreciation. What an idiot"

But not a minority idiot. So that's OK, eh?

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - _

If running cars is what floats your boat, if you can afford it or not, THAT is YOUR choice.

I made plenty of motoring mistakes, and i was working in the trade.

Whoever, if you enjoy running a car on a budget, even if it gets used twice or so a year, enjoy.

That is your right and privilege.

I have an aquaintance locally, he has an old s type in his garage needing a steering rack and a beautifully restored moggy pickup. He .has a range rover sport currently and changes his car when the urge takes him.

His choice. When you see him you are tempted to give him the money to buy a coffee.

Edited by _ORB_ on 29/12/2020 at 07:36

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - Andrew-T

If running cars is what floats your boat, if you can afford it or not, THAT is YOUR choice..

Absolutely (as almost everyone says these days). But some choices can fairly be classed as idiotic if the majority see them that way - making the owners squander money on wasteful repairs when it would be better spent on more important things ?

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - edlithgow

But some choices can fairly be classed as idiotic if the majority see them that way -

Truth is not defined by majority vote. You are confusing it with received opinion.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - Engineer Andy

Indeed so. This thread is a good opportunity to remind people that the costs of repairing a car out of warranty are likely to be in proportion to its original cost when new, not what it cost secondhand.

Rather like a near neighbour of mine who doesn't have a particularly well-paid job, but was running three cars - his daughter's old Polo as a daily driver, a BMW convertible that was barely used and falling apart, so he eventually got rid of because he just couldn't maintain it, and a 'hobby car', a Ferrari 308 GTB, which gets to see the outside of his garage about twice a year for a half an hour drive round the block.

He has the cheek to complain he gets parking tickets because he only has space on his property for two cars. Apparently he spent nearly £2k a couple of years ago on paying parking tickets whilst the Beemer sat doing nothing on his driveway.

What an idiot.

Sometimes buying and doing up an old or exec car works, but it's a big risk. An ex-colleague of mine bought a Aston DB5 for not much, spent over £100k on it restoring it (by himself over a few years), but now it's worth £500k and more. And very nice it is too.

Does not sound like his job is too low paying if he can afford to run all those and be paying £2k of fines.

Oh he doesn't - a low level sergeant in the Army. His Polo regularly breaks down, bits don't work/fall off, the Beemer was second hand anyway and barely used (it had flat tyres for 3 years plus), and I suspect he bought the Ferrari on the cheap as he's spent well over a decade tinkering with it.

His wife also used to own a Mini (which he used as the run around before the Polo) until that started to break down, plus he also didn't MOT/tax it for about a year but still drove it.

Plod had no interest in that. Not sure about the DVLA though.

The reason why he accumulated the fines was that he 'couldn't afford' a house with space for all his cars. He bought the house when it was when they were relatively cheap in the early 2000s.

Maybach 57 - Buying a near-£300K car for £15K - skidpan

Rather like a near neighbour of mine who doesn't have a particularly well-paid job,

Does not sound like his job is too low paying if he can afford to run all those and be paying £2k of fines.

Oh he doesn't - a low level sergeant in the Army.

A quick Google reveals that sergeants start at about £36,000 PA plus there are no doubt some allowances on the top of that.

Many people would be more than happy to try and live on that and still pay to live within the rules.

Edited by skidpan on 29/12/2020 at 13:20