What to buy...what to buy?

" I've read so many horror stories about guys buying airplanes, cars,
boats,
etc. that were "good" deals but turned out to need tons of work.

Boy have I learned my lesson there!!! I totalled my truck on the freeway
about 4 years ago. [Pilot error to boot] I had just gotten layed off 2
days earlier and was stressing out about not having a job...daymare over
money when BAM traffic had stopped but I had not. Thankfully nobody was
hurt but...okay now I'm really stressed. Decided not to go out and buy a
new car. What does this fool do...

I saw a used Jag XJ6 that looked pretty nice. I had always wanted a jag and
thought, I'll drive this for 6 months and then sell it. I shouldn't lose
more than $1000 and it will be fun. The owner was a doctor, all dealer
service, so I bought it for $8,000 without inspecting it very closely.
[hmm...no pre-buy inspection...] So I drive it for a month. Oh new tires
$800. Drive it for about a month. Oh, $1,500 service repair. Drive it for
a couple weeks. Surprise, another $700 repair charge. This time the Jag
specialist tells me, "There are a few things you should know about this
car..." Quick trip to Ford and a brand new F150. Dumped the Jag for
$2,000. [couldn't rip somebody else off...]

Cost of 6 months Jaguar ownership $9,000. Expensive lesson. We will be
doing some exhaustive research and a thorough prebuy inspection before
purchasing a plane.

Carl.

PS I'm travelling on business for the next 10 days so I'll be disappearing
for a while.