[Ralph]

I agree with you on that one. They buy m5 because of its capability, speed and of course bragging rights.

I'll take a Caddy over any BMW. My aunt has plenty of leaks and klunks from her 735il. I have never felt inadequate being beside a snob in a Mercedes or BMW at a set of lights. I see them looking over my car! It just goes to show that you have to maintain anything or it all turns to junk.

 

[Ralph]

Off topic, but I would not be suprised if the new Mustang Cobra will be 500 hp to compete with the 500 hp Ram V10 or the new Lightning 500. I don't worry too much about the fancy foreign cars, I just know they probably cost more to fix in the long run than any Caddy.

 

[Ralph]

Cars of similar complexity will cost similar amounts of money to fix. In my experience BMW's parts pricing generally isn't any higher than GM's for comparable stuff (though don't even THINK about pricing an M5's S62 engine, complete...) and parts for some Fords are ridiculous ($1000 Taurus C-pillar window, anyone?) if you can even get them (they're starting to obsolete stuff 5-7 years out of production.)

The LS6 in the CTS-V isn't too costly (LS6 crate motors are, what, $7500?) and the T56 transmission is becoming a commodity but those Brembo calipers certainly aren't cheap.

Wow, thats a bit much allright! I felt fortunate that for our 1980 Pontiac we can still get parts (GM is very good at producing parts long after production) except for a new Rad, which off the production line would cost 800 dollars new. (I was told at the dealership.) So we went to a rad shop, problem solved. The cost of labour (sorry thats spelled "labor" for you south of the border) at a car dealership here is presently 65.00 per hour. With prices like that we may as well all drive Ferraris!