Question Of The Day: When The Price Of Purchase Is Not The Price Of Ownership…

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

Good news! Warner Bros. Jazz, still smarting from their loss of Pat Metheny to Nonesuch Records, has written me an enormous advance check for the rights to my newly-completed album. It’s titled The Most Beautiful Feeling: A Bossa Nova Tribute To Philip Michael Thomas, the buzz I’m hearing around the industry means I’m gonna have f*&%-you money before you know it.

I’ve decided to do something for you, my favorite TTAC reader. I’m willing to buy you any manufactured object which can be found on the market. Car, watch, musical instrument, plane, train, you name it. You want a Bugatti Sang Whatever? It’s yours. Got a hankering for a G6? I’ll meet you at the Gulfstream dealer or used Pontiac lot, cash in hand.

But there’s just one little catch…

I’m not good at maintaining relationships. So anything I buy you has to be within your capacity to run. Fuel, service, repair. It’s all your problem. Nor am I gonna let you just turn around and sell it. It’s yours to keep. So if I buy you the 928 GTS pictured above, you’d better understand what it takes to do the sparkplugs or you’re going to have a German lawn gnome before you know it.

Choose carefully. The cost of purchase is not the cost of ownership. As for me, I’m taking the money I don’t spend on you and taking a trip to my local aircraft salvage yard. Each fillup of Jet-A will cost me about seven grand, plus a little peroxide for the rockets. I can take two flights a year to the troposphere for same price as a season of club racing. I’m inclined to make the trade, so without further ado, the Lockheed NF-104a:

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • Zeus01 Zeus01 on Apr 09, 2011

    Since you're buying: A pristine Vans RV7 sport plane powered by a normally-aspirated Mazda 13B (pre-Renesis) rotary engine producing 180 to 200 hp, and driving an electric in-flight-adjustable 3-blade prop via an RWS planetary reduction drive. Dark metallic blue in color with silver "Starsky and Hutch"-style stripe, silver-grey leather upholstery, electric trim, full-IFR glass cockpit and a 20-mm cannon under each wing. No pressure...

  • Bimmer Bimmer on Apr 12, 2011

    One 'batmobile', please, with the same war paint and some driving lessons from Jack: http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR1eM78Fmm22f2bilLDynLlDGKpyE-TjNf8Pm8RRlv1-9Xw80ev

  • 3SpeedAutomatic R&T could have killed the story before it was released.Now, by pulling it after the fact, they look like idiots!! What's new??
  • Master Baiter "That said, the Inflation Reduction Act apparently does run afoul of WTO rules..."Pfft. The Biden administration doesn't care about rules. The Supreme Court said they couldn't forgive student load debt; they did it anyway. Decorum and tradition says you don't prosecute former presidents; they are doing it anyway. They made the CDC suspend evictions though they had no constitutional authority to do so.
  • 1995 SC Good. To misquote Sheryl Crow "If it makes them unhappy, it can't be that bad"
  • 1995 SC The letters on the hatch aren't big enough. hard pass
  • Ajla Those letters look like they are from AutoZone.
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