But 150K is a far cry from the $600-700k that a new one costs, even if you have to drop a new engine in it.
A new 182 in 1974 (the year before that the slope of the increase really took off) was $23,500, equipped, out the door. In 2015 dollars that's $112k....not too far off from the 10 YO Cirrus.
Your typical upper middle class guy....lawyer, doctor, small business owner, vice-president of paperclips at BigCo are all probably within shouting distance of managing that, and my guess is their net worth wouldn't be more than two mil, three at the tops. Lawyers don't even roll out of bed for that kind of chicken scratch.
For someone to drop that kind of coin, $700k, we're talking an order of magnitude or two in net worth to make that jump. The guy who drops that much more over an airplane that is essentially the same airplane as the years before, does so because not only does he have enough money, but he has enough money to not take spending that much more for a "new" airplane seriously.
Richman