As many of you have heard I decided to sell my car a month ago. Well I didn't go through with the sale because the weather was quite nasty so I went on and bought a new car that seemed to better accomodate my needs. Mostly my need for AWD, since I live in Chicago.

The reasons why I wanted to sell my G now were:
1) Warranty expires in July
2) New generation is coming up soon, which means the price of this one will go down
3) The weather conditions where I live only allow me to drive the car for 8 months a year
4) the car is already 4 years old, I haven't had problems with it so far but as it gets older I'm sure they will start popping up

So this past weekend I finally took my G out of the garage and drove it for a while and started having second thoughts. I really don't want to sell it, I love the car, I have my complaints about various little things but at the end of the day this is the car I always wanted.

So I have a few questions for you all, to possibly help me resolve my dilema.
1) What kind of maintenance expenses am I most likely looking at after 42K, I'm considering getting a 2 or 3 year extended warranty, 2yr will be $1800 and the 3yr is $2300. I would definitely feel better driving a car that is under warranty I just wasn't sure if it is really worth it. So what do you think?

2) As for the new generation coming up, I heard many sedan owners complaining about their cars' value dropping down drastically after the new sedan came out. Do you all think the same will happen with the coupe?

3) Driving the car in the winter ... may not be so bad after all. I know quite a few guys around my area that drive their Gs/Zs in the winter with winter tires on, but then again it still is a rear-wheel drive car. I just don't quite know how well the car does in the winter with a set of nice winter tires on.

4) What are the most common problems/issues people have come across as their Gs get older. What kind of maintenance problems? When did most of you change their clutch? My friend has a 2003 and he changed the clutch at 50K, is that normal?

So what do you all think?

As for my new car, I have to say it is pretty darn amazing, problem is .. it aint no G35 coupe.

Here is my new ride. It is a 2006 Volvo S60R GT in Sonic Blue, fully loaded except navi, with a stock body kit.

For those that dont know anything about the S60 R. It is a 300hp, 295torque, AWD, Turbocharged. Pretty much the perfect car for Chicago.
Here are some pictures of my two blue babies from the past weekend:


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Would it be feasible to keep them both? I would have a hard time saying goodbye to your car as well. Caribbean Blue 6MT....I would think its a desireable combination considering the rarity of the color.

I understand what your saying, and you make a lot of valid points....I'm in the same boat....I have an 04' with 39,300 miles, and my warranty expires this comming Oct.

Cars are a losing propostion money wise, so maybe they will take a little hit, maybe they will become more desireable depending on the consumers take on the new design...sometimes new isn't really better.....

Maintenance is a normal part of car ownership...the more you follow the recommend schedule, the less chance you have of unforseen problems down the road.

A clutch at 50,000 sounds normal, and if you drive more conservatively, maybe alot longer...it depends on the driver(s)

The maintenance is about par with most other cars....compared to lets say a BMW, I think I would take the japanese car anyday....You cannot overmaintain a German car.


Its always a crap shoot when it comes to whether or not to take an extended warranty.....But it does kind of prebudget your expenditures if something unforseen fails.

As far as winter driving....I was a skeptic about using my car in winter weather as well.....I ended up buying a winter tire set up w/rims...and I think the car behaved quite well considering. I had no problem getting around in the snow when I took my time and drove conservatively. you would be surprised at snows on the coupe...it is literally night and day compared to the summer perfomance tires...which aren't worth the air thats in them in the snow.

I don't know...maybe sell them both and get an 08 Coupe...throw on the winter set up and just drive that sucker like you stole it!

 

maintenance is just part of owning the car. I'd say if you want to sell, this is the best time. The longer you hold on to it, the more it depreciates.

Take pics with you in it....bet it will increase the value.

 

Hehe thank you.

As for the best time to sell the car, I couldn't agree more. This is exactly why I thought of selling it a month ago and maybe I should have done it before I had a chance to change my mind, because now I'm stuck with two cars and I unfortunately I can't afford them both.

I have looked around at the G35 coupe's resale prices and worse comes to worst I will end up getting around $4K less for it than what I got it for. And IMHO $4K depreciation for 2 years is pretty good and for those who are wondering why so little ... lets just say that I got one hell of a deal when I first bought the car.

So I was thinking that ... in lets say another 2 years the car would have depreciated with another $4K-$5K ... (best case), but the Volvo would depreciate much faster (from what I've heard), so I end up losing that money anyway.

Yeah yeah I know I should have thought this through before buying a new car ... but what are you gonna do, I'm a woman I make spontaneous decisions and then change my mind every 10 min or so

 

I was on the fence with my 03 LR but now with 67,000 miles I'm keeping her. I have had (knock on wood) no major costs..

 

You can make the newer turbo (s version) volvo's really fast, pretty easily, and with AWD, it's hard to beat.

 

You own a Japanese car. Reliability is on your side. Your major costs for our Coupes are Tires and brakes.

 

I thought the S60R was single turbo? I am in the same predicament, (Doesnt help that I am still ordering mods) but I will be doing most of the repair work, if any, myself. If your not going to be doing repair work yourself, get out while you can. For example, take a brake job, if you have the dealer perform it, your looking upwards of $1000 labor +$1000 in parts (dealer mark-up), a small repair shop, $900 labor + $600 in parts (shop mark-up), yourself, $700 in (better)parts, and a turkey sandwich. Note: After mildly accelerating from 20-40mph in 2nd gear around 2500 RPMs in the far left lane next to the concrete divider with the driver's window down, the exhaust note was smoothly, but progressively growling "Keep Me", and at that point, I think I agreed.

 

i'd never own a volvo.

might be awd and all that jazz, but there are many many nice awd cars out there that look a hell of a lot better than that.

sorry for knocking the car, but i sure wouldn't drive it unless someone gave it to me for free. just my opinion

 

what oercentage tint do you have?

 

Just wondering ... what nice looking AWD cars are you refering to?
Because after quite a lot of research this is the best one I came up with, and trust me I never thought I would drive/buy a Volvo either, but considering that I want power and luxury and AWD, there is just nothing better out there (in the same price range).

My other choices were

1) Subaru Legacy Spec B <-- interior was poor/ugly, same goes with the STI and the Evo

2) Infiniti FX <-- I havent reached the Soccer Mom stage yet so I'm not ready to ride around in something so big

3) Acura RL <-- I'm under 60 so I didnt qualify to buy one

4) Audi S4 <-- I dont have too much free time to spend it at the dealership while they are fixing all my car's electircal problem

5) BMW 3series X <-- to overpriced ... not enough power

6) Infiniti G35X <--- I dont like the old ones, the new ones are still a little too expensive for me

So I was just wondering what other ones you had in mind, because I personally ran out of options when it came to a nice AWD (non-american) car.

 

30%

 

I don't necessarily have to have all the work done at the dealership, my brother is pretty good with cars, he changed my front break pads, and would have changed the back ones too if they hadn't ran out while I was out of state. So I do have someone to work on the car, and we do have a body shop available on the weekends where we can work on our cars if we want.

 

Keep it. I see you are at a dilema because you purchased that sexxy azz Volvo in the same color.

 

How about the MazdaSpeed 6?