Do you ever see a great car, being driven by a little old lady or really old guy or librarian at 25mph in a 55 zone, and think "man, THAT is the used car I want"? I passed a middle-aged soccer-mom looking woman driving a 2nd Gen M3 over the weekend. She was 5-10mph under the speed limit, short shifting, avoiding potholes, and the car looked NEW. I wanted to give her my card and say "when you are ready to sell, let me make the first offer".
Yup. There is a little old lady that drives a mint, totally stock electron blue 99 Civic Si in my town that I am tempted to leave a business card on.
There's a guy near my office who does little more than putter around a black S2 Elise. It always looks minty. Never tracked, which is good for the next owner I guess. But there are only 2 or 3 here, and it probably cost him a good quarter-mil to import, so...
There is a truly old woman, probably late 70s but maybe older... wheeling a blue S2000 around my town. I see her occasionally with the top down on summer days when I'm out running at lunch.
Back in the day there was a little old lady in my town who drove a Rebel AMX or whatever the red-white-blue Donahue version was. Bought it out of the dealer showroom with a 390/4 speed. She said her husband had been a proud Marine, and she liked the patriotic color scheme.
My Grandmother, now in her 90s.. is still a speed demon. She always bought big powerful cars and racked up plenty of tickets over the years. I am due to get her Malibu if she ever stops driving
dinger wrote: Yup. There is a little old lady that drives a mint, totally stock electron blue 99 Civic Si in my town that I am tempted to leave a business card on.
That would be wise. Even just to buy it and park it for another 5 years.
A friend of mine with a brand new Z06 told me he saw no reason in babying it just so some punk kid could buy it in perfect shape when he died and have all the fun he should have been having all along. I see those people puttering along in some race-bred machine and wonder what made them pay all that extra money for the exact same function that a lower model would have served just as well. Surely a couple winglets and a scoop or two aren't worth the upcharge soley for appearance...
There's a lady in my area that has to be deep into her 60's cruising around in a minty stock Mazdaspeed 3- True Red no less- I bet she bought it for the nice seats and cargo capacity. How she manages the clutch is beyond me.... it's not friendly.
ultraclyde wrote: A friend of mine with a brand new Z06 told me he saw no reason in babying it just so some punk kid could buy it in perfect shape when he died and have all the fun he should have been having all along.
Words of wisdom 
ultraclyde wrote: I see those people puttering along in some race-bred machine and wonder what made them pay all that extra money for the exact same function that a lower model would have served just as well. Surely a couple winglets and a scoop or two aren't worth the upcharge soley for appearance...
That's what happens when you don't know about cars but have literally more money than you know what to do with.
I cannot be the only one who read the title as Little old lady "E36 M3"
GameboyRMH wrote:ultraclyde wrote: A friend of mine with a brand new Z06 told me he saw no reason in babying it just so some punk kid could buy it in perfect shape when he died and have all the fun he should have been having all along.Words of wisdomultraclyde wrote: I see those people puttering along in some race-bred machine and wonder what made them pay all that extra money for the exact same function that a lower model would have served just as well. Surely a couple winglets and a scoop or two aren't worth the upcharge soley for appearance...That's what happens when you don't know about cars but have literally more money than you know what to do with.
Yeah, I wonder how many of the upper models are sold based on a limited color or something similar. "Oh, I can only get the lemon frost on the M3, not the 3 series? Okay, I'll get the M3. What does the M stand for?"
Little old lady driving =
^LOL I wonder how that engine ran? 
In reply to ultraclyde:
There's some truth in that. My ex-g/f bought her first M3 back in '95 for two reasons: it was Daytona Violet and she liked the color and it was actually cheaper than the 3-seeries convertible she really wanted. When she bought her second one in '98 (after selling the '95 in '97 due to some reliability scares and a $800/mo payment), the car was her baby - driven on mostly nice days, NEVER in snow/salt (good for a NJ car), and kept immaculately clean. She had no intention of ever selling it until she bought her MCS in 2003 and after a year realized she never drove the M3.
I swear half of our customers that drive some AMG variant MBZ are 80+ years old. Why do they need 400+ HP when they never reach the speed limit? Thank goodness for traction control/nanny electronics I guess.
Years ago my grandmother special ordered her 4 door Valiant with a 426 hemi because "she wanted enough power to pass people." My parents sold it after she passed away in the mid '90's. I wish I had it now as there couldn't have been too many like that. If I remember, it had something like 10k miles and still smelled new. It had probably never been driven more than about 10 miles at a time.
I am pretty sure a lot of the performance versions of high end cars (AMG, M etc.) are bought because they are the "better" version of the car (e.g. more expensive).
There is even someone at my work that has a 6 series with a M Appearance / Interior Package on it! I am guessing this is a BMW factory thing (!?). The stupid thing about that is if it really had a "true" M interior, it would be striped down as much as possible!
Ya'll have defective little old ladies where you live. We've several, and I think they all came from Pasadena. From the Vettes to Vipers, high wheeling 4x4's, and quite a few motorcycles. They ride and drive, and romp em!
And I hope come my dottering old age that I'll still be wheeling around something foolishly glorious. Even if I don't do it to the satisfaction of some pie-eyed whipper-snapper.
mndsm wrote: There's a lady in my area that has to be deep into her 60's cruising around in a minty stock Mazdaspeed 3- True Red no less- I bet she bought it for the nice seats and cargo capacity. How she manages the clutch is beyond me.... it's not friendly.
You ought to come to one of my Miata club cruises. There are several cars , owned and driven hard, by people much older than me and I'm 61.
My grandmother has a '70s corvette convertible. I've never actually seen it driven and the mileage is in the !low 30ks but my mom says she drives it. She is a sprightly 94 next month.
A little old lady at my in-laws beach town has the cleanest Buick Grand National I have ever seen. Low miles and she knows what she has. My FIL says that she was telling him that people try to cheat her out of that car very often, offering $1000 or so. She just tells them to get lost.
There is a little old man E46 M3 that I see around here but,unfortunately, it's that awful mustard yellow-green color.
We had this discussion at work. Guy I work with saw an older (much older) couple in a CTS-V wagon. Basically the coolest thing Cadillac, possibly the whole of GM, made ever. He said "Man, what a waste." I said, no, see, they will depreciate it for you without trashing it. Theirs will be the one to buy when it's ten years old, since you know that they will maintain it, never drive it in the snow or rain unless they absolutely, positively have to, and it WILL be kept in a climate controlled garage. It will be a time warp vehicle.
About 10 years ago I always used to see a lady that looked to be in her 70s driving a beautiful series 1 XKE coupe manual. The car was not mint, but looked to be all original and in great shape. It was pale yellow, I always wonder whatever happened to the car.
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