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07-12-2017, 01:33 PM | #1 |
No more BMWs
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
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What to do with the Mazdaspeed?
Our fleet is pretty satisfactorily full right now. Marisa is enjoying the CX-5 (and I'm learning to be OK with it... though I still hate the transmission). The truck is effing awesome. The Boxster is, well, it's a Boxster. I love it. And the race car is doing what it should do. My Silverado is gone to its new owner, who is enjoying it.
So where does that leave the Mazdaspeed? Our original plans were to sell it once I had time to clean it up. I did that a couple of weekends ago, and have been commuting in it on days that are too hot or too rainy or otherwise crappy for taking a two-seat convertible that I try to keep in nice shape. And... I kind of like it. It gets reasonably good fuel economy, is peppy, has really good A/C and has a ton of space. It's got great seats. It handles pretty well. It's fast enough to be entertaining. And I already have winter tires for it. The other thing is that I don't think it's worth much. Retail blue book value is something like $4k on it. I can't see parting with it for $4k, or even $5k. Maybe not even $6k. I'm not sure what they reasonably sell for. Ones that are in not nearly as nice of shape as ours have been listed for $7k on autotrader, but that's asking price. I don't know what they realistically trade hands for in this condition. The car is really nice (paint and interior are like new.. it's been garage kept and well detailed and it got a new windscreen last year) but it does have 180k on it. It will need a clutch soon. It really should get the timing chain tensioner and guides replaced (common problem with these engines). And it has a light clunk and a little on-center vagueness in the front end that I suspect is tie rod ends but could be ball joints. So, doing all the work myself, about $1k in parts and a solid weekend's worth of work to do. Options: 1) Sell it, and do what I did last year which is drive the truck on really nasty winter days and drive the Boxster as much as I can during the winter (last winter was very mild ... I drove it a lot). The money would just go into investments. 2) Keep it, fix the issues, and use it as a winter beater and crappy-weather daily driver. I was going to include another option: Keep it and don't fix any of the issues, just drive it until it stops running. But I know myself, and I can't / won't do that. So what say ye? |
07-12-2017, 01:42 PM | #2 |
dogged
Join Date: Dec 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: '22 M440 xDrive GC
Posts: 13,299
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I guess I'd vote for running it into the ground first, then fixing the issues if you still want to keep it around at that point. Selling it for $4k probably won't recoup the hit to the Porsche if you put the miles on it instead. And who really wants to commute in a pickup all the time?
Seems like it makes the perfect beater car for bad weather and messy errands. Or parking someplace sketchy. |
07-12-2017, 01:49 PM | #3 |
No more BMWs
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
|
That's very logical. I won't do that. It's either fix it and keep it, or ditch it.
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07-12-2017, 01:57 PM | #4 |
dogged
Join Date: Dec 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: '22 M440 xDrive GC
Posts: 13,299
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07-12-2017, 02:01 PM | #5 | |
No more BMWs
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
|
Quote:
No, as much as I'd like an RX-8 to play with, it would have to be a series 2 car, it would have to not be a grand touring (aka leather and sunroof) car, and either way I don't have time for another project for the foreseeable future. |
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07-12-2017, 05:42 PM | #6 | |
Carmudgeon
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 4,668
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Quote:
I'd keep your mazdaspeed and put the maintenance into it ... I kind of know what you're going through ... I still have my sons white A3 and I just can't get myself to give it back to Audi. I drive it and it feels good but more importantly it was his first car and I think that gets me right in the heart. |
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07-13-2017, 08:38 AM | #7 |
Mugwump
Join Date: Oct 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: E46 330i, Chevy Colorado, Tesla Model 3
Location: NY
Posts: 17,475
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Forget the money you'd get by selling. How often would one of you drive it? Do you care about the extra car sitting clogging things up? Personally, I don't like having only the two ends of the spectrum (boxster + truck, Cayman + wagon, etc). I value having that middle-ground car. But keeping a car you don't use is a pain in the ass and isn't worth it. So... will you drive it? |
07-13-2017, 09:30 AM | #8 |
dogged
Join Date: Dec 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: '22 M440 xDrive GC
Posts: 13,299
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It sounds like he already is driving it pretty frequently.
Funny to consider that our M240i is the middle ground car of the fleet. But coupe/sedan platforms are great for that purpose. It's really their strength. |
07-12-2017, 01:54 PM | #9 |
Relic
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Bethesda, MD
Posts: 12,458
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Keep it.
__________________
2011 M3 2006 Sierra 2500HD 4WD LBZ/Allison 2004 X5 3.0i 6MT 1995 M3 S50B32 1990 325is 1989 M3 S54B32 Hers: 1989 325iX 1996 911 Turbo |
07-12-2017, 02:09 PM | #10 |
lawn boy
Join Date: Oct 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: e46m3, f25x3,C5 Z06, C4 Vette, 06 CTD Ram, and a trailer
Location: Maryland
Posts: 14,029
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The Fix it and drive it option sounds reasonable to me.
When you find it sitting for long periods of time then you can look into selling it knowing that everything is in top shape. It's not like a few thousand in profit and/or parts is going to impact your bottom line. |
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