I can empthasize. My first wife came standard with a high-mileage E30 she got for her 16th birthday. That thing was a money pit. I worked on it myself to save money, and that cost about as much as taking my car at that time, an 11 year old Honda, to the dealer. But at least the E30 seemed to live happily on Castrol GTX 20w50. And it was fun to drive, so long as you didn't provoke it too much and have the rear end want to swap places with the front.
I guess one good thing about an ML320 is that probably has an excellent safety rating, so there's that. So as a father that probably makes you sleep well at night.
I just worry about the lessons that young kids are bombarded with today. It takes time and effort to gain the finer things in life. Like excellent grades in school, hard work when you're on the bottom of the totem pole, learning to live with less than you had at home, and so on.
As a point of comparison, I have a fairly young relative who makes a 6 figure salary that doesn't start with a 1, and she drives very modest vehicles. She had a 10 year old CR-V up until last year when it was totaled in an accident. She decided to spend a little more money after that and got a new Golf TDI as she wanted a hatchback that got great mileage but still was fun to drive. When she went overseas, she sold the Golf and when she got to the location she is in now, bought a 2 year old Xterra from another US xpat that was leaving to go back home.
I guess one good thing about an ML320 is that probably has an excellent safety rating, so there's that. So as a father that probably makes you sleep well at night.
I just worry about the lessons that young kids are bombarded with today. It takes time and effort to gain the finer things in life. Like excellent grades in school, hard work when you're on the bottom of the totem pole, learning to live with less than you had at home, and so on.
As a point of comparison, I have a fairly young relative who makes a 6 figure salary that doesn't start with a 1, and she drives very modest vehicles. She had a 10 year old CR-V up until last year when it was totaled in an accident. She decided to spend a little more money after that and got a new Golf TDI as she wanted a hatchback that got great mileage but still was fun to drive. When she went overseas, she sold the Golf and when she got to the location she is in now, bought a 2 year old Xterra from another US xpat that was leaving to go back home.
