Kind of funny, but I'm going to be the exception to the rule.
I retired early last year (age 59) and had no desire to get another car. I have a '02 Mustang vert (which is my "baby" and does not come out unless the sun is shining) and a '01 Impala; my DW's car which I use for my volunter work of delivering meals-on-wheels.
When a local Cadillac dealer retire/sold his dealership last fall, the "acquiring dealership" had a list of '07 leftover cars they were offering. I had always intended to get an "old man's car" (Cadillac Sedan) when I turned 70 (or there about) with a big old Northstar V8, but they had an '07SRX on the list. I had an SUV in the past ('00 Olds Bravada) which I had for my wife when I still worked overseas and wanted her to have a 4-wheel "winter car", but I did not like it (since it was on the S10 truck body).
However, the Cadillac SRX (crossover, based upon the CTS small sedan) rode nice and had all the "toys". This one had a V6 (rather than the Northstar 320HP) and listed close to $50k (with the Northsar, add another $5-6K).
We did not come up with a deal (we agreed to disagree).
Anyway, in January of this year I was looking at the classic cars on eBay (as I always do) and just for the heck of it, I looked at available SRX's. There were a few that caught my attention - even to the point of me placing a "low ball" bid on a few of them. In fact, I "won" 2 bids, but did not meet the minimum (nor was interested in raising my bid).
Just so happens, an SRX came up in February, and had previously been bid in January, but did not meet the reserve price; however it had 30+ bids, so the interest was there. It was a one owner, off lease car.
I went ahead and bid on it, $100 over the previous high bid. Interesting enough, I remained the only bidder (I guess folks were starting to get worred about the gas, since it had the Northstar).
Anyway, I won the car (from a Cadillac dealer and the car was Cadillac certified - bumper to bumper warranty till the end of '10) and had it delivered.
For most folks, this would be a "stupid transaction". For me, being retired and only putting on 200 mi/mo since February, and getting a fantastic car (IMHO) it was a dream come true.
Like I said, not most/folks could get by on a car with low MPG, but in "my life" it works
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- Ron