I was ready to upgrade to a new complex. I wanted two doors and a low wing. My current plane was a Beech Sundowner. Big cabin, low wings, and a pilot side door. If you ever move to an airplane with a pilot's side door, you will never go back to having to crawl over a passenger seat to get to your seat.
Anyway, the Commander obviously came up on that list of criteria - low wing, pilot's side door, and a big cabin (I do not want to rub shoulders with anyone when I fly). I joined the Commander's Owner Group. I spent alot of time on that website learning about the history, design, and different models of this type. As mentioned above, Judi Anderson of Suncoast is indispensable. Don't buy a Commander without her help.
I quickly determined that I wanted a 2nd generation Commander - not a "Rockwell" but an aircraft from the 2nd attempt at building these airplanes. The Commander Aircraft Company which was in business from around 1992 through the early 2000's. Why a Commander from this era? The AD's from the Rockwell's were addressed and the design was tweaked to get an extra 5-10 knots from the airplane (cowling changes). The panels were pretty good for the era as well.
Next up, I narrowed my search to a 114B and NOT a turbo. No reason other than I did not need a turbo but more importantly I did not want the complexity or expense of a turbo (114TC).
These mid 1990's to early 2000's 114B's and 115TC's were great airplanes. They have alot of quality built into them. The cabins are comfortable. You don't touch your passenger. These airplanes were expensive for their time. $350K in the mid 1990's. They just could not compete on pricing, and then in my opinion were dealt the "death blow" when Cirrus came on the scene in 1999. Cirrus went after the high performance single market in a way that put a serious dent on the Commander. By 2003 I believe they were gone.
I found my 1995 114B a few weeks ago. I have owned it all of two weeks. In that time, I have flown it from Long Island down to Texas (initial purchase) and then from Texas to Wisconsin and back last week (Oshkosh). Two long cross countries in two weeks time. I could not be happier with my decision. The plane is the most comfortable 4 place single engine airplane I have ever flown in. This plane is a 1885 TTH airplane. Original panel, paint, interior, and engine. It has the original panel, with a King KLN 90B GPS and KFC200 autopilot. It has actually been kind of fun figuring out how to use that 90B GPS. My other plane has a Garmin 430W, so this definitely was a learning task for me. It actually works pretty good. But, I will be upgrading soon! I got a plan put together at Oshkosh.
I am obviously close to engine run out, but the engine runs great and I am seeing 160 kts cruising at 75%. I figure I have maybe 1-2 years before I will need an engine.
The interior needs the leather scrubbed with conditioner and cleaner, but in reality it is fine. No real need to do anything.
Once I do my panel upgrade (GTN 750 and GTX 345 with some additional stuff) I figure this airplane will be as good as any newer airplane that I could reasonably afford. Two weeks and 20 hours in I am thrilled with it. Great color too.
