[Silly Little Cars] 2002 GO-4 Interceptor 2 - $3500 - and the true cost of ownership.

Thu Aug 11 13:53:47 PDT 2016

I agree!!!!

Schlomo Rabinowitz
http://tinyletter.com/schlomo <<<My new Artisan Email called PORCHLAND
AIM:schlomochat

On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 1:44 PM, mhlop via Silly_little_cars <
silly_little_cars at lists.sillylittlecars.com> wrote:

> Charles, I watch these forums and I have 2 go-4s and 5 cushmans.  I find
> it incredible that anyone wants to know how you justify your selling
> price.  Anyone who has owned one would be glad to find a nice running
> machine for $3500.00.  I paid over 4k for one of mine and was glad to get
> it for that. Its worth it in parts alone.  I appreciated your detailed
> break out of the costs.  It certainly doesnt account for your blood sweat
> and tears.  If we could sell these with that cost in mind you couldnt find
> one under 10k.  Just my 2 cents.  I always think its funny when you have to
> justify a selling price to anyone.  If you dont like the price find another
> one!!!!  After all it just a silly little car!   Marc
>
>
>
> Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note5, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Charles Marshall via Silly_little_cars <silly_little_cars at lists.
> sillylittlecars.com>
> Date: 8/11/16 3:12 PM (GMT-05:00)
> To: sillylittlecars at sillylittlecars.com
> Subject: Re: [Silly Little Cars] 2002 GO-4 Interceptor 2 - $3500 - and the
> true cost of ownership.
>
> All,
> I’ve received a few emails from folks asking me to justify the price I’m
> asking.  I wrote this up for one of them, however after spending a bit of
> time digging up all the info I think it’s valuable for folks to understand
> the cost of ownership of these vehicles.
>
> As I understand the life of my vehicle, was as a fleet car for a
> municipality, as such it has had a long life 44000+ miles.  I was hesitant
> to start driving the car, and thereby trusting my life to it, without
> having it be completely gone over and repaired such that I could trust it
> as my daily driver commuter.
>
> I post this partially as a cautionary tale, but also as someone who has
> throughly enjoyed repairing and driving the vehicle.  As I say below, I
> love the vehicle, but I can’t justify keeping it after switching jobs and
> having a *much* easier commute 😊.
>
> <<<BEGIN EMAIL>>>
>
> I’ll break down the cost for below, but I spent nearly $4700 on the
> vehicle, and make it reliable and in my opinion reliable for a daily driver
> car.
>
> Vehicle (not running) $1250.00
> ECU $1162.70
> Left Drive Shaft $653.56
> Parts for Fuel/SP/Gasket $248.71
> Labor and Source-able Parts $1372.00
> Total $4686.97
>
> I bought the car for $1250.00, not driving due to a broken computer
>
> The ECU was $1162, the go-4 uses a generic Hyundai ECU (think the cars
> computer brain), but a special part number as it’s flashed with special
> firmware just for the GO-4.  I spent several hours using google translate
> on Korean parts sites to determine this, and went so far as ordering 2
> different items from Korean suppliers, however the parts were cancelled
> later due to a lack of availability, as they had the same ECU, but not the
> same flashed version of software.
>
> Finally I found a westward reseller who would sell parts to an individual
> (several refuse to sell to non-municipalities).
>
> <<EMAIL>>
>
> <<EMAIL>>
>
> Then on further inspection we found that a wheel bearing was worn, and was
> in danger of seizing, in this version of the go-4 the wheel bearing is part
> of the whole left rear assembly, so it was 653.56.  Yes, I could have tried
> to replace the bearings individually, but that could be more dangerous than
> just driving on them about to seize.
>
> <<Wheel BEARING assembly>>
>
> <<Wheel BEARING assembly>>
>
> Also:
> the fuel gauge wasn’t working properly
> the engine wasn’t running cleanly, due to worn spark plug cables
> the main engine gasket was leaking
>
> That was another two rounds of parts, (63.38 + 185.33) = 248.71
>
>
> I’m up to 3264.97, that’s with no labor, the car was at the shop for
> several weeks, had itself disassembled completely, with all evaluated.
>
> With labor, and parts that they could source on their own, the repair bill
> was *another* $1300.00.
>
>
>
> So in total we’re up to $4686.97 by my math.  I’m not counting things like
> having it towed, nor my time and labor (I spent several hours consulting
> repair and maintenance manuals and searching online etc)
>
> I used the car for a year, so I took that to be a 25% depreciation rate (a
> little over zealous IMHO, but I want to be fair).  I regularly have seen
> go-4s on the list and on craigslist, and based on the age and the fact that
> it’s been picked over pretty, I consider it a fair price.
>
> I’d love to keep it, but after switching jobs where I can easily commute
> to work on public transit and shuttles, I can’t justify it based on the
> infrequency of how often I drive it.
>
> CS
>
>
> On Aug 9, 2016, at 22:20, Charles Marshall <charles at wozi.com> wrote:
>
> Much loved 2002 go-4 which I bought off another person on the list in the
> Seattle area and nursed back to health.  New ECU, wheel bearings, fuel
> pump, and full rundown of all systems less than 2 years ago.  Was my daily
> driver until I switched jobs and stopped using it everyday.  It's been well
> taken care of.
>
> https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/permalink/3496338240638700/
>
> <image1.JPG>
>
>
>
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