As a C owner, this caught my attention.

[Bartman]

I would have to disagree with the revolving door approach, and maybe that was meant to be said in jest but just doesn't read the same way as spoken. 

I spent the last 15 years getting my J where it is now and although there are much nicer toys to play with and look at in the instrument panel, I know she is in sound mechanical shape and since I help with maintenance I know just about everything about it.  Now if something catastrophic were to happen such as corrosion or damage that's one thing, but if it's an engine, prop, or tank reseal I'm going to invest that into my known airframe.  I do not wish to start on another airframe to work out the bugs, even if it is priced at the top of the market and expected to be well maintained. 

[Bob E]

Everyone's talking about the panel, but there's one other thing:  Although this aircraft is equipped with shoulder harnesses (or at least one for the pilot judging from the available photos), it does NOT have head restraints.  If the shoulder harnesses ever save the front-seat passengers' lives, the lack of head restraints will seal their fate about a second later.

 

[carusoam]

Hmmm…

Headrests and accident protection?

In cars… headrests protect us when being hit from behind…. Whiplash type injury…

Mooney headrest supports are lacking the strength required to help if a Cessna driver was able to catch up to us…. 

It sure would help if the headrests are a cushion to keep the back seaters from becoming one with the front seaters…

PP thoughts only, not a crash engineer…

Best regards,

-a-

[Bob E]

I'm no expert either!  But as the IIHS puts it, although they occur most often in rear collisions, "whiplash injuries can be sustained in any type of crash." 

Here's a video that illustrates how, after being thrust forward in a frontal crash, the head then rebounds back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nv5Qzia0-0&t=9s  Anyway, I've been flying around with just lap belts, and I think a shoulder harness is actually a more effective upgrade.

 

[bradp]

13 hours ago, Bartman said:

I would have to disagree with the revolving door approach, and maybe that was meant to be said in jest but just doesn't read the same way as spoken. 

I spent the last 15 years getting my J where it is now and although there are much nicer toys to play with and look at in the instrument panel, I know she is in sound mechanical shape and since I help with maintenance I know just about everything about it.  Now if something catastrophic were to happen such as corrosion or damage that's one thing, but if it's an engine, prop, or tank reseal I'm going to invest that into my known airframe.  I do not wish to start on another airframe to work out the bugs, even if it is priced at the top of the market and expected to be well maintained. 

What he said. I’ve spent 10 years getting my J to where it is now.  It would take a lot for me to part with all that effort and the time (probably 1.5-2k hrs of sweat equity over the years) it took to get it to a known-known.  I’d probably over value it by 25-30% over vref but it doesn’t mean that other people would. 
 

But this C’s got VGs. :-)