Have A Look At This $18,400 Amish Buggy
Ten years ago, we had a look at a $9,861 Amish buggy seen in a PA community. This one is nearly double that price. Conclusion: Inflation is hitting the Amish hard too!
Well, maybe not just inflation. This buggy comes loaded with some flashy features (at least in Amish terms). So a chunk of the price tag likely reflects those add-ons. Remember this is something you won’t see in all Amish communities. In some of the more progressive areas, they do permit buggies with interiors like this.
The photos and info here are courtesy of reader Jerry. He found this buggy at the recent Gratz, PA Mud Sale. Here’s Jerry’s description of the features on this one:
The first buggy sold was new and loaded with high tech. Rechargeable Dewalt battery LED lights, encased hydraulic disk brakes, air bags suspension and torsion bar axles. It also sported various decorative elements and high-end interior components.
Place foot here to get a leg up.
The interior has a modern country rustic look to it. The piece of “high-tech” you see there is probably a speedometer/clock unit. I do like those cup holders. Simple sleek and fit the overall design.
The duotone seat, strapped down for the time being.
Jerry breaks down the price details here:
It sold at auction for $18,400.00. The consignors have the option of selling with a reserve. This one surpassed the reserve by $400.00. Purchases are not subject to the 6% PA sales tax at benefit auctions and the buyer saved $1,104 by buying here. Also, destination charges ($200 to $400) does not apply.
Jerry made sure he got the price right: “when the buggy sold for 18.4K, I asked the group of Amish men I was standing near, if I heard that number correctly and one replied, ‘Yes and that doesn’t include the horse!'”
So this is the most expensive buggy I can recall ever coming across. But keep in mind this is definitely on the higher end of what Amish buggies will go for, reflecting a more progressive group. Visit a more traditional community where buggies are much plainer with many fewer features, and you’ll expect to pay a fraction of this cost.
Finally, to give you an idea of what other sorts of features are available, I’m re-sharing this feature list from a Lancaster County coach shop (from the 2014 post linked above). No doubt it is longer than this today.
Inside an Amish Buggy: How it all works
Finally, if you missed it, I’ll take the opportunity to repost the video I did showing the interior of an Amish buggy, and explaining what all the knobs are for, and the different features like blinkers, brakes, power source and so on.
Amish Buggy
This was what they could call the Cadillac/Rolls Royce of Amish Buggies I wonder if the company that makes floor protectors makes custom floor covers for the carpeting. All they need is a small heater for the winter time and they are all set.
Shag carpet!
Seems ungodly
Worldlier and worldlier
Between this and details from the Ben & Erik Show I sense a trend. Maybe some day we’ll see hybrid buggies–using a battery-powered electric motor to help the horse get up steep or long hills. Maybe even with regenerative braking on the downhill run.
Steel spoke wheels
I was surprised to see brakes only on the front axle. Hydraulic brakes would be wonderful on all four corners. Either way, it sure beats the old rub brakes on the wood spoke buggies I’m used to seeing. The ride of those airbags would be nice to experience. I wonder if they are adjustable? This buggy would be a smooth ride on asphalt, and it would be much more comfortable on dirt o roads too!
So with a good harness, and a decent horse, you could easily top $30,000. That is quite a bit of money in my area. Hope they enjoy it.
Quite worldly
And they’re supposed to be unworldly. LOL!
Simply complicated
Simplicity isn’t usually about keeping things low cost in the direct sense, it’s more about using money in accord with God’s plan and His ideas of human dignity. If I buy a dress for £100 which will last me ten years, that better meets the simplicity criteria than one that cost £20 which will only last one season. And if you spend more you can often be more fussy about the sources – wages and environmental destruction and so on. I think Quakers often used to wear silk at one point in order to avoid cotton produced by slave labour. And I have the impression there were arguments about it, though I don’t know in any sort of detail! There is limited point in buying slave-labour-produced clothes in order to have more to give to charity, even if the money saved actually does go to charity.
Paying for quality transport may well make sense in the same sort of way. And it’s noticeable that there’s very little in that buggy which isn’t practical in some way.
In the end, it is a complicated thing, and people who hold to it come to a lot of different conclusions as to how the value should be lived out.
Do the Amish actually tend to have a simplicity value as such? Most of what they do seems to be more about preserving family and community, rather than being about refusing to have or do something because it’s not a good use of money, or because it’s unduly luxurious. Though I think in the video on bathrooms, the suggestion is the Amish who reject them, reject them as “too worldly,” which would suggest some sort of simplicity principle.
Personally, I don’t think carpet’s depraved, I think it’s useful insulation! 😛