Question for Native (or Fluent) German Speaker

msuitepyon

I got a free BMW from my parents as a gift for graduation. Little did I know my "free" car would cost me thousands to repair (up to, and including, me removing the entire engine to re-gasket it). I've always wanted a Euro plate and feel this particular BMW has earned one of its own.

Here's the question: Is "geldgrube" or "geldort" a more accurate representation of the English euphemism "money pit"? My limited German experience tells me the former, but I want to be sure.

Xrdd

Neither. Geldgrube sounds like Goldgrube, which means gold mine, which seems like the opposite of what you want. Geldort is just money place. I'd go with Geldgrab (money grave).

Librarian

Native speaker here. Both Geldgrube or Geldort are not terms you would use for what you want to say. Geldort is not a word people use. Goldgrube(not Geldgrube, that just lead me to some scammy make money online places), which is the word normally used means something extremely lucrative.

Geldgrab is possible, but not a term that is that frequently used and is not part of the Duden German Dictionary.
A more colloquial term would be Geldfresser.

You could say either Geldverschwendung which means "waste of money" or Verlustgeschäft meaning you bought something that ended up being more expensive than the initial cost.

zerzhul

well, keep in mind this is trying to be fit on a license plate, so the much longer words are probably not useful for that

Librarian

Right, forgot about that.
I think you are fine with Geldgrab in that case.