A question… Are the older gem cars just more repair prone due to design faults, high mileage or did they just sell more of them when tax rebates were available, hence more are available to break. 1999 to 2004 is six years of production. 2005 to 2015 is ten years of production. That’s four more years of production than the early model. I think that the gem factory might have perfected the design over the years and the newer cars are more reliable? (IMHO).
I drove a friends $2,500 new to him, 2002 e4 model today. The first & only early model that I have driven. It’s good that my first ride was in a 2007 or I would have never bought my 2008 gem car. I do believe that if you had a 2002 and added disk brakes, moved the batteries off the motor to the rear. upgraded the motor hp and added other upgrades similar to a 2005+ model… you’d have a better car, similar to a newer model… but still not the same or as good as a 2005+ model. And, at resale time, you’d still have a old 2002 model. Plus you wodn’t have the steering, suspension, electrical and (many) other 2005- 2015 factory upgrades. But what would you spend ($2 to 3,000) to do this? Might just buy the newer model in the first place. I would not buy a brand spanking new one though… too much depreciation. 2 to 7 years old might be the sweet spot? One good thing is that our cars are sure to go up in value as the newest (2016) models really suck…
I believe that a lot of guys buy the older cars for $1,000- $2,000 and end up with 4/$5,000, that they did not plan on spending in the car in a few years. I’ve done that when I was younger with boats, cars, etc… Sometimes that’s the fun of it. If its got a motor or boob’s its going to give you problems…
Rodney (The fries are cold so we gave you some more) poster answered some of my thoughts in a email…
Jerry
The 98 thru 2001 were what I consider series 1. Series 2 would be 2002 thru 2004. 2005 introduced big changes and subsequent models have changed not so much when the government was giving subsidies (2002) they sold a ton. Since then a fraction of that per year. From 2002 up a pretty good car. Steering being the big issue. I took care of that with EZ Steer. The early controllers were superior to what we have today in as much that you could program more features.
This is a good topic for the forum - suggest you post it.
Rodney
Well… any thoughts from from the rest of you dudes and Dudettes?
