How can you afford to run your g
So this would ideally belong in a general chat section but there isn't one here. My other car is a 5.0 caddy and I've now also got the G. Recently got married, being in my mid 20's and 3/4 of the way through buying my first house, I've realised I might be financially screwed. I'm trying to live a footballers life on a not footballers salary. I never thought there'd be a time where you have to sacrifice cars to live, but is there? Or do you soldier on until times get better and say I drove un-economical cars all my life and made it through to the other end.
I'm getting philosophical now. I really just wanted to ask what you guys do for a living and at what stage in your life you got your G, if you wouldn't mind sharing...
You asked so here it is..
A216KLR ex MB demo 460 lwb 617 4 spd purchased 1984 from Woking Motors £9000 ,2 years finance [@ 15%!] I was about 35 .
Did c.200,000 miles ,2 clutches ,1 set of pads 1 rad maybe 2 s/h gearboxes.
Sold to Poland in rough condition but it drove there £700 in 2005.
Would have killed 3 or 4 Land rovers so was really affordable for me. [Farmer]
I am a retired mechanic and in latter part of my career was a full time G-Wagen specialist, working on the W460 and W463 models. I left the G-Wagen scene shortly after the G500's came out.
Definitely cannot afford to run one let alone owe one, so I have opted for an economical version of G-Wagens; I am a proud owner of two remote control models and one basic scaled model. Sadly all of them are still boxed.
Good Question.
Wanted something bullet proof and different. Have growing family, needed something reliable and safe to drive my little darlings (and friends) around brought my G for that very purpose. Still have it as my main car 5 years later. Its now 11 years old
Have replaced exhauset, cats, sparks had three 'bumps' in it (two not my fault one my wifes). Had problems with a half shaft and a pully caking up causing the fan belt to slip. Expensive at the time, however as previously posted would have gone through a number of landys by now, and its still going strong. Maybe lost £1,000 per year in deprectaion. (now at 150K miles)
Spider1V
OK - I think I'm who you want to hear from! Yes, I've driven 'uneconomical cars all my life'! I've owned a 280GE for about 12 years now and the secret to contentment is that the mileometer (odometer) only works occasionally so I'm unable to calculate the fuel consumption!
I'm 61yrs old, retired from the recruitment industry, and have owned over 60 cars - ranging in running costs (financial stupidity) from Alfa Romeo Montreal / Jensen Interceptor / Camaro / Mustang at one end of the scale to (classic) Minis at the other. My advice is not to get hung-up on fuel consumption. The difference between putting fuel in a G Wagen for 10,000 miles per annum and putting fuel in a 'sensible' car is probably max £1500 and that's matched or exceeded by the difference in depreciation (unless you've bought a new G500!!!).
My current other car is an old M5. Unfortunately the mileometer works fine and I know it's averaging 17.6MPG so I take the G Wagen when I want to be economical!!
And if you must sell something, sell the Caddy.
Become self employed and make your G tax allowable!!
Accountant's advise
Just put fuel in it and go!
I'm ex MB technician, run my own workshop in london repairing prestige and supercars.
I got my first G280 swb in 1995, second G400cdi in 2001 and now the current one last year.
I've had big engined/high performance cars most of my life, had to give up other things to enjoy being a petrolhead, unfortunately its like a disease with no cure.....so I'm afraid once you've got it you have to accept what comes with it, no matter at waht stage of life you are at!
In my opinion G ownership/running is not that different from say running a Landy or another luxury vehicle as they all will suffer some issue at some point which will cost a bit to put right. Having said that, the older G's are easier to self repair as they are fairly simple vehicles without complicated electronics. The later G's are not really that un reliable as most components are from other merc's just modified to fit the G, so they are as reliable as any Benz out there. Some parts on the G can be expensive, but there are many reconditioned parts availabe at reasonble prices.
Fuel consumption seems to be the major running cost. This in my opinion is not far off from running say a Supercharged Landy diesel or petrol as they too are heavy to run, what one may think they are saving in mpg cost end up paying through the nose for other regular faults like say air suspension failing, electronics failing, engines failings etc.....I know this from the repairs that we carry out!
Enjoy your motors while you can, you will make it to the other end with or without driving un-economical cars and the governmet will carry on shafting petrolheads.....so live it and enjoy it!
My first purchase was a SWB 230Ge auto in 1998..driving 70 miles round trip to work soon showed I couldnt run it for long...so got it LPG'd, i then had a pump fitted to my LPG central heating tank and used that @ £0.17 a ltr...I ran that car around like fuel was free ! I was married with a mortgage and a new born son earning £25k a year from then until 2010 ive had 6 g wagens...the last one was a 5.6 ltr V8...I now drive a van and cannot see me ever owning another one, unless i win the lottery !
.. which of course you declared to the revenue and paid the required duty on ;-)
Got mine two years ago when I couldn't get my classic Saab Convertible out of the garaga due to three feet of snow. Live in the middle of nowhere so a 4x4 is practical. However everyone tried to peruade me to buy a Rav 4 or a CRV or Vitara or something. I don't do practical so I got a G. Don't have children so my horse and two vehicles are my main expenditure. Don't do a huge amount of miles as most of the time either driving round the coutnryside locally or to the station to go to London (Sound engineer).
Definitely NOT economical but far more fun than a Rav 4. Also recently got married so am now paying that off too so know the feeling.
Keep it if you can.
Let me think long and hard about that ...........
Had our G230 for 20 years. After a little meeting with a tractor in Feb2012, I took the insurance and it is currently SORN. Miss it a lot and plan to get it fixed up a bit cheaper when can afford to.
On the fuel costs - I always took the view that saving 5-10mpg isn't worth worrying about. As said above, it only adds up to £1500 a year or so. It still hurts putting £80 in to do just a few trips though.
So to save more than 5-10mpg, I bought a diesel Saab to be economical and had quite a few issues running it on Bio (not sure it was the Bio that caused it though - noone can tell me for sure). Even though I'll get 40+mpg on a run, it averages 32-35mpg. So about twice as economical as my G230.
So the Saab costs about £3.5k in fuel to run (assuming approx 20k miles per year). The G (or any thirsty car) would cost £7k !! That's a lot. But - the Saab cost £1500 and depreciated £1k, so the difference is only really £1k (assuming no major G costs, due to the reliability).
Fuel, cars and life is just more expensive. My take: Drive what you want (a G) and get a small runaround for daily stuff. 2 vehicles will work out nearly as cheap as one and you have options and a spare.
Hi all
Im running a 1983 280GE had it around 6-7 years done some restoration but it's fairly straight
would love it to be more economical but who cares ? It's more fun than a worry, considering LPG one day but don't really want a huge tank in the back.
i also have a 500 sec 1984 that's ridiculous on economy so the G feels economical after driving that lol.
I got my G a few years ago but the owner had lost all the history for it :( I believe it was owned locally to me by previous owner for 15 years. Would love to do some digging on history but nit sure where to start ?
Have fun guys more snow due here down south.
Live just a few hundred feet below the second road in Britain to be closed every year.. Cairn O'Mount.. up a 1/2 mile farm track. Previously I had always got away with FWD in snow and had the 'plough go past my door so just a wee dig out.. this was more serious (mind my neighbour just parks their cars and walk 1/2 mile up hill in blizzard .. sometimes for 4 weeks). My daily runner is a wee 1.9 diesel for mpg and will not tow much so reasoning was that G would tow, do winter duty, be depreciation proof (which is true.. but major work) and could be swapped for convertible for the summer. It was also to be more reliable/easier to fix than a Range Rover (P38 have about 4 computers that go wrong..). TBH now the other half has a Mk1 Rav4 it is sort of redundant as that does 90% of the duties.. still will not look at feet of snow or move the Unimog.
So minimal miles hopefully and depreciation proof means costs are not too bad. Costs so far all DIY; rear panel £80, Headlights+surrounds £200, Wheel arch liners £600, front axle outers rebuild+discs £300, spare alloys £200, respray £400, rustproofing £300, Iron 5 spd gearbox £200, Propshafts £400+£100, window winder £70, Windscreen/glass reinstall £200, Tyres £240 (for 2), Radiator £380, rear springs/both mounts £400, .. my hours.. about 9 mths of 4 hours/night and 12 hour/weekends I guess. So about £4.1k costs =:o in 6 years but it is way better than it was when I bought it and most alternatives would have cost £1k/yr depreciation.. so like to think I am ahead. Expensive yes.. but when I see the depreciation that lots of cars have (50% every 3 years) then the costs do not seem so bad. Oh .. Engineer with a big "E" ;-).. mechanical/jack of all,.. and the oil industry are the only bunch who pay Engineers in this country .. would have never afforded this toy as an automotive Engineer which I did for a wee bit. Helps as no sprogs=less expense.
Sprogless but 2 vehicles and a horse to support= more expense!!
Do all the work myself.. live 3 miles from the office and on do business milelage in hire cars (more from the perspective that 60mph all the way to Milton Keynes is a bit tiresome than the 14MPG fuel consumption!).
Having recently acquired a new family member I've had been giving some thought to what I might do about my truck since it can't even transport 2 people at the moment (stripped out with just drivers seat fitted) - much to the annoyance of my wife.
I'm going to take it off the road in the summer to refit for desert rally anyway, so perhaps will just keep to weekend driving and find something else for the week (an OM606 base Superturbodiesel inspired W123 has been on my mind :D)
As I've said on another thread though, I think people buying old (80s) pre-restoration vehicle and thinking that they can run them free of depreciation are often kidding themselves vis-a-vis the capital costs of maintaining the vehicle.
I'd agree with others here that a 'typical' mid to late 80s UK vehicle will need between £5 and £15K spending on it to bring it back up to something approaching factory spec depending on how much rot there is, how much of th work you are prepared to carry out yourself (the £15K figure would have been to low if someone else had worked on mine for example).
Once you have spent the money, its good for another 30 years and I suspect will move to classic car status and depreciation from the fully capitalised cost will then cease (rustbuckets will continue to depreciate in line with the accretion of FE0..)
Either way, owning a G is an expensive proposition vs a run of the mill car or 4x4 - I suspect that some buyers would do better not to kid themselves and spend the cash upfront to buy a mid 90s 463 rather than buy something with the idea of restoring it.
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Interesting stuff. So not a forum full of millionaires, makes it all the more fun I suppose and given me more motivation. Panzer I'm employed in recruitment but also currently self employed and think I'll look into that option of tax return on fuel - will let you know!