I enjoy reading about everyone’s thinking on spend for audio equipment. And here I am pumped by finding a NIB set of Studio Monitor Speaker Stands for $20 at the Goodwill that allow me to finally get my Klipsh KG 2.2’s up high enough.
I must confess that the Ford GT Racing Blue looks good on the Egglestons.
Mark Gosdin
Tell me about it. We downsized last March and my Salon 2’s now in their new location, wow, just over powered the new room, not to mention their size was just to much in a much smaller room so I sold them last October.
3 days left
They are nice, but I don’t think the new sales rep is in a position to move on it. I’d stopped at an Audi dealer during my “due diligence” recon of available EVs.
I think I’m happy with the Caddy.
It just popped up on my phone, so I thought I’d pass it along.
Glad you’re happy with the Caddy. I’m still trying to figure out a luxury purchase – either used luxury or older classic car, or maybe something in the audio realm. 
This was only sort of a luxury purchase. My daily driver, the Infiniti had continued to make the noises that the dealer says it doesn’t make. Who knows what that portended, so I needed to trade on something. Wife did not like the idea of a smaller car than the Infiniti Q50, The sane electric choice would have been the Hyundai Ionic 6, which is nice enough, but does have less range.
The competing cars in this class are significant dollars more. I suspect there is less snob appeal in a US brand than a Euro-cruiser. Tax incentives and per mile costs are pretty low. About $10 to charge 300 mile range. No gas, no oil. Fluids are washer fluid and brake fluid. And with regenerative braking, even brake maintenance should be low.
My Euro '24 Give-Out-the-Awards-Early-and-Look-Like-a-Fool-Later Awards.
One match is the perfect amount of data for this.
All the above could, of course, look completely different in a few days. That’s the fun part.
A couple I don’t think will be so easily undone:
The “Referee Who Shouldn’t Be There” Award: Jesús Gil Manzano (Heavily favored coming in and abundantly justified it. Michael Oliver didn’t even come close to challenging for this. Anthony Taylor seems like the only other one who could get in the conversation.)
My personal favorite, the “Goal Differential” Award (no, not # scored minus # conceded. This goes to the team that scores the best ratio of quality of goal created to quality of goal conceded.): Czechia (obvious once explained I suppose)
Enjoy the Beautiful Game, all. 
Got it. Cadillac themselves do however call it a “Luxury Electric SUV.”
Interesting about the term “luxury.”
Q1. If I get a used car for about $30k and drive it most every day to work, is it a “luxury” purchase?
Q2. If it’s an Aston Martin DB7, does that change the answer above?
If you get an Aston Martin DB7 for around $30K, introduce me to the seller. I may have a bridge they’d be interested in buying… 
A 2003 DB7 is not that unreasonable at $30k. Maintenance for the next year, however. . …
I did not know that. Whenever I hear the name Aston Martin, I’m thinking $100K+… Sounds similar I guess to buying an older Rolls Royce. Your maintenance costs catch up to the car value pretty quickly.
It depends a lot of if it’s a car that gets driven or one that has been kept for show or appreciation value. Bently has a lot of very reasonably priced used cars. Depreciation.
Definitely a factor. Scheduled maintenance for the DB7 is 6 months / 6k miles at a cost of about $1000 per. Owners Groups indicate that almost everyone just does annual. Doing what’s scheduled for 5 years, maintenance comes to $10k.
Fuel costs, too. DB7 gets about 10 mpg. But I only need about 5k miles per year, so figure maybe another $10k for gas over 5 years.
Ah, the saving grace of luxury cars for regular people. The DB7 has suffered most of the depreciation it’s going to take. Maybe another $5k over the next 5 years.
So, TCO over 5 years is probably around $25k.
But consider the TCO of a new Hybrid Accord or TOTL Prius. Sure, not much in maintenance or gas. Figure maybe $1500 in gas and $1000 in maintenance for my low-mileage situation. But new car depreciation will eat close to half of the $40k or so purchase price. TCO over 5 years is pushing $20k for sure.
So, spend about $1k per year to drive an older Aston Martin instead of a brand-new Toyota or Honda? Luxury choice or somewhat reasonable option? Is that even what “luxury” means – UNreasonable at some level? Really interested in opinions on that last question especially. What makes something a “luxury” purchase?
Now look at older luxury car part prices. When something big breaks. Start with Rolls Royce and Ferrari.
More than a few vintage Rolls Royce (or especially Mercedes) owners put less than Toyota maintenance dollars into their cars. They also avoid dealerships and authentic parts. My brother-in-law bought an old Jaguar with a bad 12-cylinder engine that needed a rebuild. He came very close to doing the “recommended” value practice of swapping it for a Chevy 350, but my sister convinced him to spend $XXXX more for the authentic engine…'cause it was a cool engine…
Old BMWs…stay far away…usually driven into the ground…
I paid $200 for my wife’s grandfather’s 1964 Olds F85 in about 1992. We still have it. Painted twice. New seat covers and interior. Some upgrades, aftermarket AC, throttle body injection, electronic ignition. Gets 20-22 MPG on regular.
Hey mgosdin,
Happy cake anniversary of joining this headphones.com forum!
(sorry)