Hours matter not when you look at what was done to these airplanes.
Perhaps, but 14,000 hours TTAF in an ostensibly abusive environment implies a wear level beyond what the best of shops may be able to detect or feasibly address. Substructures, load-bearing components,skins, rivets, etc...who knows what lurks deep in the airframe. New is new. Refurbished is well....not.
Having owned flight schools and knowing the narrow margins and intense competition, I could never make a business case for these based on the acquisition cost. No doubt they're nice, but back when these were launched, for the price of a "reimagined" airplane you could assemble a small fleet of very clean comparables and offer them at a much more competitive price. In that end of the training market, the price elasticity of demand cannot support much of a premium on a "super spiffy" airplane. A club, well that may be a different story.
Interestingly one of the reimagined birds did suffer a premature engine failure a few years back.
C150 Engine Failure [
aopa.org]
Cary
