hey, hopefully I can give you an idea. Mine is a very late 03 (july 03 in service date) with a little over 55k miles. Right now its actually being serviced, an oil change runs around $60 at the dealer or anywhere else, very fairly priced. Its recc. every 10k miles however I have mine done every 5k and most people say its a better idea. The R is pretty much a regular v8 with the supercharger and upgraded suspension,body kit, brakes, wheels etc. For the price diff now it would be silly not to go with the R if you dont take into account the Rs are much rarer overall and harder to come by. The one thing id recc is buying one with the select edition warranty or still under factory so you can extend it your self. As long as its under 50k miles and has more then 30 days left on the original you can buy the extended. Mine has had a few minor problems as in right now a bad parking sensor in the rear and other small bits ( all warranty) but has never had any major component failure and I use the car as it was designed both to cruise and to run at speed. If you do go with the regular V8 id say def not to buy older then an 03 as it was a major update, 05s update was much more minor and cosmetic in nature. if you have any more questions feel free to ask theres a few other very active R owners on here, Im prob the night owl though.