While driving home today, I caught up to wonderful white horse (and my horse I mean sports car).  It was a very seldom seen 997 based Porsche GT2.  It was an amazing looking machine.   Seeing it, and thinking about the Porsche’s I’d owned..  would I re-purchase (yes.. a 996TT is on my active TO-DO list).   Then I started to think about the cars I’ve owned, and which, if any models I’d bought more than once, as well as which brands I seem to purchase most.    So.. here is the what the mental exercise that occupied my commute home, netted:

6 Mercedes-Benz
5 Ford
3 Dodge
2 Porsche
1 Jeep
1 Toyota
1 Mazda
1 Cadillac

I’ve probably forgotten 1 or two in there, somewhere.   So..  I was a little shocked at how many Fords I’ve owned over the years.  And that soon had me thinking about of all those vehicles, were any a re-purchase, replacing a vehicle with same or similar, or even buying the same basic model some years down the road.  A pattern there was pretty clear.

At the top of the chart is Mercedes-Benz.  Of those they consist of 3 different models, so there were clear cases of re-purchase.  The interesting part (to me) was that in those cases years often elapsed between a ‘return’ to the model in question.

The largest of the pool is the classic W124 E-Class sedans  (’88-’94).   Of that body, I first bought a 260E, the base model E-class available in that year.   I kept it until it was replaced with an ML320 SUV.  A few years later another W124 was purchased a 300E.  They are just great driving cars.   A couple of years after that, I caught a break!  The chance to purchase the flagship W124.  The uber-sedan. The fastest production car that year.  The 300HP 500E (also a W124 body that was highly modified by, of all companies, Porsche).  Sadly the 500’s had a serious wiring issue in the engine compartment, and I decided to sell it off.   I was without a Benz for the first time in over 10 years.

I started to dabble in Porsches next, buying a pair of wonderful 911 varient (964 and 993).  Great cars, but commuting in one seemed like work far benieth the cast of a Porsche.  So it was traded (+ cash in my pocket) for a Mercedes CLK430 (#5).  As fast as the Porsches but a more ‘civilized’ unit for daily commuting.    Eventually, as the economy started to turn, I unloaded the 2nd Porsche, before the values totally tanked, trading it for another Mercedes, this time, another V8, but of the ML variety, an ML430 (MBZ #6).

In the end, I’d re-purchased the W124 twice, and clearly went on the hunt for an ML that I wanted (V8 for towing, I’d become a big fan of the 24 valve little V8 from my time in the CLK) and finally located one north of Seattle.