Finally... A Worthy BMW Competitor

I’ve been praising Bimmers for some time, and rightfully so.  In my opinion, there are no cars out there that give you as much as a BMW does for your money… the driving dynamics, the power, handling, looks, name brand, build quality, and overall sexiness.  Others have tried… the Infiniti G37 comes close, the Audi A4/S4 are excellent cars but still do not quite match up to comparable BMW models (i.e. the 3 series and M3).  Mercedes tried with the C-Class C350 but still did not hit the mark.  But wait… there is another C-Class that I believe is closer to being a BMW competitor than anyone else in the past.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a 2012 C250 Sport from eCarOne for a full week.  Wait a minute… C250?  Come on… that’s weak!  No my friends, it’s anything but weak.  The 2012 C250 does come with a 2.5L 4-cylinder, however it’s turbocharged and intercooled so it’s no slouch.  The car bone stock makes 200 HP and a hefty 220 ft-lbs of torque.  Notice I said bone stock… this is because if you know much about turbocharged cars, you’d know that there are numerous aftermarket vendors that offer software upgrades that are safe and very effective.  With a turbocharged car, you can simply re-flash the ECU (i.e. software upgrade) and gain at least 15% to 30% more power and torque without doing anything else.  The upgrade is relatively inexpensive and can be done in your garage in a matter of an hour.  For example, a company called Burger Motorsports offers an upgrade for the C250 software under $1,000 that results in a 30HP increase and a whopping 60 ft-lbs of torque increase.  With this upgrade, the C250 will blow away a BMW 328i, an Audi A4, and an Infiniti G37; and may even compete with a stock S4 or 335i.

But that’s all just fun… let’s get down to business.

What is it about the C250 that made me pay attention?  Well, first off, and as silly as it sounds, the steering wheel is quite possibly the best steering wheel I’ve ever put my hands on (well, besides that on the F430 Ferrari).  It’s thick, sporty and has a flat bottom… it makes you feel that this car means business and it certainly got my attention.

The fit and finish is superb. The car is solid and no matter what I drove over, I did not hear one peep out of the chassis.  It certainly did not feel like an “entry-level” car; more like an S-Class after three months of P90X.  The suspension, tires, engine, and transmission are really well-mated to each other because for as long as I remember, I did not feel this well connected to a car since my ’07 335i coupe that I had a few years ago.  I was looking for excuses to drive this little Benz and it was fun each and every time.

What about value?  Well, let’s see…. This 2012 C250 Sport at eCarOne is fairly well-equipped with NAV, Bluetooth, SAT Radio, etc and it had only 10,000 miles on the odometer.   Brand new, this car retails for roughly $45,000 and eCarOne has it listed at about $35,000.  Normally, you’d expect a deeper discount for a pre-owned Mercedes but it’s still a current year model so it’s priced accordingly.  Nevertheless, that price is still very attractive.  So, I can pick it up for $35,000 and add the software upgrade for $1,000 and I’m all in for $36k with roughly 230 HP and 280 ft-lbs of torque in this little economical 4-cylinder sedan.   For that money, you can pick up a used Subaru WRX or a used Mitsubishi Lancer EVO but you will not have the fit, finish, and refinement of this car… not even close.  If I was in the market for a fun sports sedan, I would definitely give this one a test drive.

Thanks for reading.

Show me the CarFax...

I went to college at SMU, which is also known as southern millionaire's university. Although my father was by no means a millionaire, he worked hard to pay for my school and I was fortunate enough to own a new Acura Integra. For me that was more than I could imagine owning as a 19 year old… until I went to SMU and took a look around at all the Bimmers, Porsches, and Audis. It was a humbling experience and in many ways affected the way I looked at things for a long time to follow. Needless to say, I no longer wanted to drive my new Acura for much longer and as soon as I graduated I bought a Porsche…. on a $30,000 a year salary. So, it was used; very used. My first Porsche was a 1987 944 Turbo with 80,000 miles for the cool price of $7500. At that time, the market was about $15,000 for that car but of course I got a great deal. It was great till I flew to Miami, picked it up, drove it back to Dallas and found out the title was counterfeit and the car had been rebuilt. Where was CarFax at the time? Well, today we have not only CarFax but others like Autocheck and the all trusted internet. But is that a good thing? Let's see…

This week I had a chance to drive a 2010 Mercedes E350 with only 14,000 miles on the odometer. This particular car had to be one of the most beautiful E-classes I have seen; with a stunning gray over congac leather and panoramic roof and fully loaded with almost every factory option. So, what's my point? This car had a "bad" CarFax report and is listed by eCarOne at roughly 10% below its book value. So, what do you do with something like this? Do you walk away regardless of the discount? Do you have a pre purchase inspection done and take advantage of the price reduction? It's a tough decision and I hope to be able to shed some light here based on my past experience of purchasing and owning over 30 cars… that's right; 30 cars in a little less than 20 years of driving.

Surprisingly, the answer is much more simple than most make it out to be. A car's value is negatively affected by a bad history report much like a person's credit is negatively affected by a previous late payment or collection. Does this mean that car is junk or the person is a deadbeat? Absolutely not. It simply means that there is something in the past that needs further investigation. In the case of this particular Mercedes, the previous owner had an accident that required replacing one of the rear quarter panels. Given that this car had an original MSRP north of $64,000 it makes sense that any accident would have involved an insurance claim and thus would be present on the history report. So, what does this mean? Nothing… it means you would treat it like any other car… you simply have a competent mechanic perform a pre purchase inspection and go from there. To me, so long as the car is cosmetically and mechanically in line with it's age, that is all that counts. Does the car accelerate, handle, and brake like it should? Is it similar to other cars of the same make, year and model? If all is is true, then I thank the dealer for the nice discount and I take it. If not, then it's no different than any other car… I walk and look for a better example.

The problem today is that we have a bit of information overload and this just means we need to spend a bit more time analyzing this information and deciding what's important and what's irrelevant. Would I buy a car with a previous flood history? No, because a flood destroys so much more than you can see. But would I buy a car that had some sheet metal replaced? Why not?

The point of my post is to point out that a blemish on a history report means nothing until you further investigate it and fully understand the why and how of the report. And of course, it goes without saying that buying a car from a reputable dealer like eCarOne is probably more valuable than any history report. This sounds like propaganda but it is actually an economically supported statement. How? A history report on any car has a potential value up to the car's market value. For example, the value of the CarFax on this MB is potentially $50,000 today because that is the market value of this car today. On the other hand, for a reputable dealer to lose his good reputation the COST would be way more than what he could stand to gain in profit on one or two cars.  Thus, buying a car from a reputable dealer is in most cases the best protection you can get.

Good luck and happy test driving.

Hello world!

So, how did I become the Test Drive Blogger?  A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with my very good friend and founder of eCarOne and as usual we were talking cars.  Although I am not in the car business, I have loved cars since I could talk. We usually toss ideas around and this time I think we came up with something that could be very useful for many perspective buyers out there.  Currently, there are many websites that offer new and used car reviews but none to knowledge offer these reviews based on actual ownership experience.  As a perspective buyer, your only option of researching a particular make or model is to scour the internet and perhaps visit car-specific forums that discuss the ownership experience.

We thought that since I love cars and I go through them more frequently than most people go through shoes, it may be a good idea for us to capitalize on my tendency to get board with whatever car I own.  As such, I will be taking a car from eCarOne each week and using it as my daily driver.  After my week is over, I will post my impression… not an objective test drive but rather a commentary of what it’s actually like to own the car for a full week.  Some of my posts will be informative, some advisory, some purely commentary and of course some you may find useless.

In any case, I will do my best to bring a fresh perspective with each post and as we build a database of various cars, I believe we can start to really have fun.  I hope you enjoy reading and I welcome any questions and comments going forward.  Thank you and happy driving.