msnovtue's saved articles

He doesn’t drive it much so his annual cost is actually very low. A few years he had big ticket items done for >$1500 which is a lot considering he drives<500mi each year. He adores the car, he’d be willing to rebuild the engine and transmission all in 1 year if that is what you are asking? At the end of the day, his… Read more

depreciation was the biggest expense with old German luxury cars, not maintenance Read more

“But German automakers specifically tend to use more complicated processes”. Yes, 100% true and not just in their automobiles either. I’ve worked on German built aircraft and everything from how the pilots seat arm rest operates to any number of components their needlessly complicated. Read more

You get more, more expensive to repair. How can that be rocket science to some people?

Porsche performance and handling in a sub $20k Ford?
Luxury like an S-class in an Affordable Buick?
Freude am Fahren in a common Hyundai?

It’s like complaining a high-end Intel Xeon is more expensive than an entry level AMD Ryzen CPU. 

Everybody keeps talking about how much German parts cost. I haven’t found the parts to be terribly expensive. More expensive than your typical American parts, and still a bit more than Japanese parts, but not egregiously so. Read more

Rear brake job on my Panamera: $1250 at the shop. In my garage? $212

Took my most recent Audi to the dealership expecting a $7000 bill, but was very positively surprised when it turned out to be “only” $2500, as the expensive-sounding noise wasn’t at all what I expected, and a decidedly expensive job could be struck from the list.
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While some of it is blatant markup for the sake of being German (particularly oil changes and simple maintenance), a lot of jobs on German cars do just involve more time due to complexity. For example, a timing chain replacement on a Ford Modular V8 is around 11 hours book time, whereas the same service on a BMW M62tu… Read more

I know it sounds like Geico but, wanna save 80% on your repair bill? Don’t take it to the dealership. Figure out what’s wrong, buy the part yourself, and if you can’t replace it yourself have a small shop do it. You’ll save enormous amounts of money every time. I’ve owned BMW’s and Mercs... done this with all of them.… Read more

How bout , the most expensive car is a cheap ..... (insert German brand) car .

Ask an engineer what time it is and they tell you how to build a watch. Read more

One comment: The cars used for comparison were largely the top-of-the-line cars. I think that an A4 would cost less to repair than an RS6.

I totally agree, German cars tend to have overly complicated components, or just difficult to access components adding to repair costs as well as unnecessary failures in the fist place.
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This just in: water is wet.

It’s predictably not-great, but it could be a fuck of a lot worse. As low a bar as it is, I consider this progress. We won’t truly be there though until “trans person, who is trans, does a thing, and also they are trans” is no longer a newsworthy event.

The discussion here is pretty bizarre (in a predictable sort of way). I believe the only appropriate response is “YAY!”

Being fit & muscular is a boon in any kind of racing, but anyone can be fit & muscular. There’s no reason I can see why being trans or being a woman would matter at all on a race track, given they are otherwise fit. Read more

Hopefully, it opens the door for more trans people who want to pursue the sport, from an inclusion standpoint. And, hey, maybe someday, we won’t be so concerned with someone’s assigned gender at birth--even if they don’t strictly present as one gender--and trans people won’t be so ostracized.

As a transwoman who loves car, this makes me happy to see that we don’t have to give up on something that is traditionally seen as a masculine.

Hell yeah! Live that pro-race car driver dream!