Cars We Drive!

[Piobaire]



It has little to do with the pricepoint, man - I mean you get asked this all the time, how often do you take your GL off road? You've talked before about getting a proper truck, why not get a proper truck and a real car? I think you could have reasonably great examples of each for a combined $90K sticker - and still get your premium maintenance when needed. The guys in MC apart from Foo are not trying to make one pair of shoes do everything, right?

It reeks of this, man:

I never plan to take my GL off road and it's not really billed as a purpose built machine for that (although apparently it is fairly capable). I do have harsh weather conditions where I live though and appreciate the 4matic, ground clearance, and general tank like nature of the machine. However, your argument is moving around. Now you are telling me I'm not making a "rationale" choice because I have a vehicle that does everything I want it to in regards to luxury, cachet, service, and driveability? You are getting into a position that's harder and harder to defend.

Also, just to examine your claim, a nicely loaded Tundra is about 55k. What full size luxury sedan am I getting getting for 45k? Lastly, MB was giving away the 2012 GLs and my sale price was around 64k on a 75k MSRP. I like to think I make very rationale pricing choices.

Toyota has "premium maintenance" now? It sure as hell did not 12 or 13 years ago when I was driving the first generation Tundra.

 

[nootje]



I can see it. When I lived overseas, cars were taxed to death. It would cost a fortune to run a G over there.

Yup, think some 2K in road tax, and 9$ a gallon to fill it up. Then there would be the insurance, which is another 2K.

Basically the 'classic' amg hybrid I mentioned earlier saves a cool 4K a year in road tax, and insurance. If you buy it with your own company, you can deduct a lot of the costs of buying it in full from your taxes, which can only be done with cars that are 1/3 or more? over 25 years old.

not to mention the 'bpm' tax we get on new cars here, which is 27% for any of the cars we discuss here, excluding the prius. Which makes second hand cars a lot more interesting, most people I know that get new cars get them from a company lease.

In short, us Dutch will go through great lengths to decrease the costs of owning and operating a car, as it can easily become a sizeable chunk of your income.

 

[Cary Grant]

Then again, if you can afford a new GL and an old frame and the labor to do that... Saving a few grand is a lot less of an issue...

 

[nootje]



Then again, if you can afford a new GL and an old frame and the labor to do that... Saving a few grand is a lot less of an issue...

New G class, not GL.

And yep, total package would run up to about 60 to 70K if you import the newer one from spain or something like that. Then again, a new one costs somewhere around 200K euro. For full comparison, Piob's GL500 would run him a cool 137K euro, so thats 175K in usd.....

Our government really dislikes cars

 

[Piobaire]



New G class, not GL.

And yep, total package would run up to about 60 to 70K if you import the newer one from spain or something like that. Then again, a new one costs somewhere around 200K euro. For full comparison, Piob's GL500 would run him a cool 137K euro, so thats 175K in usd.....

Our government really dislikes cars

So glad I left my socialist country to move to the US!

 

[itsstillmatt]



New G class, not GL.

And yep, total package would run up to about 60 to 70K if you import the newer one from spain or something like that. Then again, a new one costs somewhere around 200K euro. For full comparison, Piob's GL500 would run him a cool 137K euro, so thats 175K in usd.....

Our government really dislikes cars

You have those adorable little bikes so loved by our hipsters, though.

 

[nootje]



You have those adorable little bikes so loved by our hipsters, though.

**** 'em.

Nothing ironic about driving a bike here.

 

[Beckwith]

To Piob's point, my car was list $72K, but leased better than most cars. I paid something like $50-$75 more than a Toyota Highlander. Is the GL now worth that much more?I have on several occasions had 4 adults and two kids plus luggage, or 7 adults comfortably. Other than a minivan, I have a tough time finding anything else that mixes luxury with drivability and space. I had my car serviced yesterday, in got a new C class loaner and back within 5 hours to get my car, with one crappy car wash. The dealership is a high volume highly visible dealership on Long Island so they tend to have the nicer loaners, ML, GLK, E and C class. They also had a GT SLS, not sure what the GT is, but a sharp looking car.

 

[Blackhood]

Isn't the SLS about $300,000? I wouldn't mind it as a loaner but I'd be terrified of dinging it.

 

[impolyt_one]



I never plan to take my GL off road and it's not really billed as a purpose built machine for that (although apparently it is fairly capable). I do have harsh weather conditions where I live though and appreciate the 4matic, ground clearance, and general tank like nature of the machine. However, your argument is moving around. Now you are telling me I'm not making a "rationale" choice because I have a vehicle that does everything I want it to in regards to luxury, cachet, service, and driveability? You are getting into a position that's harder and harder to defend.

Also, just to examine your claim, a nicely loaded Tundra is about 55k. What full size luxury sedan am I getting getting for 45k? Lastly, MB was giving away the 2012 GLs and my sale price was around 64k on a 75k MSRP. I like to think I make very rationale pricing choices.

Toyota has "premium maintenance" now? It sure as hell did not 12 or 13 years ago when I was driving the first generation Tundra.

Enjoy your SUV man. You've missed the point, but really, come on man, don't you ever drive down the road in your car thinking it might be too large/too much gross vehicle for a single driver? I know you're childless, so I'm guessing the solo driving time is most of the miles logged. FWIW, an E-class wagon has more 'cachet' than a GL.

 

[impolyt_one]



Yup, think some 2K in road tax, and 9$ a gallon to fill it up. Then there would be the insurance, which is another 2K.

Basically the 'classic' amg hybrid I mentioned earlier saves a cool 4K a year in road tax, and insurance. If you buy it with your own company, you can deduct a lot of the costs of buying it in full from your taxes, which can only be done with cars that are 1/3 or more? over 25 years old.

not to mention the 'bpm' tax we get on new cars here, which is 27% for any of the cars we discuss here, excluding the prius. Which makes second hand cars a lot more interesting, most people I know that get new cars get them from a company lease.

In short, us Dutch will go through great lengths to decrease the costs of owning and operating a car, as it can easily become a sizeable chunk of your income.

The G-wagen Frankenstein thing is pretty genius. I'd hope it's a really nice conversion, do you have any pics of something like this? I get images of old air-cooled 911's with all kinds of 'update' mods. G wagens are subject to getting riced up lately though, as MB did that recent update and most of it was to make everything flashier and more conspicuous than ever. Because you can update the exterior a G wagen from the past 20 years with a lighting and grille swap, I see a bunch with incomplete updates or incomplete Brabus stuff, plus ugly rims (apparently the selection of rims for a G is very specialized and there aren't many to choose from)

 

[A Y]

I can't believe the ballers here aren't talking about the 6x6 G63 AMG:

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

6x more traction!!1! OMG!1@22!!3

 

[impolyt_one]

Not enough of us are Russian drug dealers

 

[gomestar]

my wife wants a G550.

 

[Desi]



I can't believe the ballers here aren't talking about the 6x6 G63 AMG:

Spoiler

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

6x more traction!!1! OMG!1@22!!3

I have dreams involving that beast.