I came to an alarming revelation yesterday...

After walking through the mall last night, I came across a new Boxster on display. While I couldn't pay cash for it, I could put down enough for it to be a viable purchase. To me it still seems outrageous to pay that much for a car, but it was stunning. I keep telling myself "I love my BRZ, I love my BRZ". Now I find myself searching lightly used ones instead of the 10 year old plus varieties...I didn't need to know this...

Except for my 370Z purchase, I have usually stuck with cheap cars. I think this is my first actual realization that I have made it far enough in life that I can walk into dealerships and seriously look at cars I've dreamed about. It was a strange night last night.

Been there done that. Got it out of my system and came back to fixing old ones. It will pass.

I bought a new E92 M3 when they announced the end of the line for NA motors.

It's a great car. I love driving it around town. I love driving it at the track.

But it turns out I don't love it two, three, four times as much as my other cars. And for what I paid, I could have gotten two, three, or even ten of the other things I have in the driveway. And frankly I think it slows down my learning on the track.

It has become my "backup" track car, which I use when everything else is broken, or the track is 6 hours away from home and I don't want to hassle with the haul.

Haha.....yeah. I had that realization a couple years ago. I would probably never ever pull the trigger but I could very easier afford to if I wanted. I mean I walked into the porsche dealer and they just handed me the keys for a cayman S. That was a really odd day for me.

Here I am anticipating buying a $35K car in a year from now. Never paid more than $17K for anything before.

racerdave600 wrote: After walking through the mall last night, I came across a new Boxster on display. While I couldn't pay cash for it, I could put down enough for it to be a viable purchase. To me it still seems outrageous to pay that much for a car, but it was stunning. I keep telling myself "I love my BRZ, I love my BRZ". Now I find myself searching lightly used ones instead of the 10 year old plus varieties...I didn't need to know this... Except for my 370Z purchase, I have usually stuck with cheap cars. I think this is my first actual realization that I have made it far enough in life that I can walk into dealerships and seriously look at cars I've dreamed about. It was a strange night last night.

I keep it under control by not financing cars and amortizing the car to zero value in ten years, and I keep a cushion for writing it off built in.

That means I can buy a 32k FRS new and in ten years have enough saved up for an equivalent new car. It also means that if I did something stupid and killed the FRS on the track, I could still buy another car for cash (Would be a cheaper car though!).

If I bought the Porshe, (more likely the Lotus Elise for me) I would have to care, and worry about it, and pray that it has some resale value at the end and that would take all the fun out of the ownership experience; it's like the car would own me.

While my formula has allowed me to move slightly upmarket as I get older,(hence the FRS) I don't see where I will ever be able to apply it to the exotics.

I've been at this point for a while, but I can't imagine trading my money, which makes me more money, for a depreciating asset. I don't think I'll buy a new car any time remotely soon :(

ProDarwin wrote: I've been at this point for a while, but I can't imagine trading my money, which makes me more money, for a depreciating asset. I don't think I'll buy a new car any time remotely soon :(

agree except minivans. Kids beat them up and finding a good used one is tough. Just off lease, maybe.. 4-5 years old and not covered in boogers.. nope

ProDarwin wrote: I've been at this point for a while, but I can't imagine trading my money, which makes me more money, for a depreciating asset. I don't think I'll buy a new car any time remotely soon :(

Kinda +1 to that. I already have my play car - the FD RX7. My DD is subject to change and would be nice to have a new or new-ish DD to spend time in. I wouldn't spend serious coin on the DD though.

Agree on the money part. It wasn't so much that I was going to go spend that...I cringed at spending all that money on a new BRZ, but just the fact that I could. Typically I am very cheap. That comes from so many years where I had to be, and now am in a place where I can spend more. Cars really are poor investments. The newer and more expensive the worse of an investment they are.

I came to this revelation when I bought my mini-van. I'd never purchased a new car before, but with 2.5% financing, a very low price ($23K) and the piece of mind that the warranty provides it almost made more sense to buy new. I don't regret it for a minute. My whole life I've spent paying attention to little noises and vibrations a car makes--- always looking out for the next thing I'd have to repair. Now, even if something went wrong (which nothing has) I don't care---- it's the dealer's problem....I'll just bring it in, and let them deal with it.

I was also shocked to find that I now have really good credit. I guess I am getting old!

ProDarwin wrote: I've been at this point for a while, but I can't imagine trading my money, which makes me more money, for a depreciating asset. I don't think I'll buy a new car any time remotely soon :(

If you live like this long enough you eventually get to the point where a new car is a very small part of your overall pile of money. It won't really affect the outcome of your saving, but could make you very happy day to day.

ProDarwin wrote: I've been at this point for a while, but I can't imagine trading my money, which makes me more money, for a depreciating asset. I don't think I'll buy a new car any time remotely soon :(

Exactly…my ultimate, price no object, dream car is the Cayman S so it wouldn't take an astronomical amount of money to have precisely what I want.

If I sold all of the penalty free stocks I have outside of 401K and IRA accounts, I could easily pay cash for one and cover the capital gains taxes but I’m only in a position to do it because I wouldn’t do something like that…know what I mean.

I’m fifty and I sometimes get asked why I don’t lighten up a little and treat myself to nice things. Um, my RX-8 is nice, not Cayman S nice, but nice enough.

I’m fine with living my whole life well below my means and leaving everything to my two daughters.

As my grandfather used to say, “if you’ve got fifty bucks in your pocket, you can tell the world to go to hell”.

I guess it’s as simple as that, I’d rather have an RX-8 and the ability to tell the world to go to hell than to just have a Cayman S.

My problem is I can not stand to see cars that are relatively new that need some sort of "major" repair go to the scrap yard. It really is a sickness. It does not help that the locak pick and pull actually sets these cars aside and re sells them for short $$$$. I have the tools and equipment to do most any kind of car surgery so I always end up getting something relatively new and then fixing it and driving it for a while. My most recent is an X type but I got a H2 for my wife that way. I have had a couple MB's (I really like them) that needed transmissions and one needed a motor. No big deal. A weekends work and I have a car that is worth many times what I have in to it. The down side is people that don't know me get a bit weird when they see you getting out of a S500 or S550. New they are 100K cars but I would be all in for less than 15K. I had to stop this due to clients getting weird and me having to explain that no I did not spend 100K on a car.

My next want is either an S5 or an S7. The look of the S5 I think is just fantastic and the S7 seems to be that of a sleeper 4 door luxo machine. The problem is that they do not seem to be depreciating fast enough yet and I would never think of paying NADA value for one never mind what people are asking for them around here.

I can fix that. Go W2W racing. You won't have enough money left for street cars after you get the truck and trailer, nevermind the race car itself.

One day at work my office mate and I were discussing cars, and I expressed my desire for a new Cayman S. I went to the Porsche website and built the one I'd buy, saw the price, and said (regretfully) no thanks. The very next day, a woman from a different office parks next to me in (at least appearance) the exact car that I built online. Maybe what life is telling me is that I should wait until she gets tired of it and make a low-ball offer. The thing is, how could you get tired of driving that car?

I haven't ever seen a new car that was worth the asking price to me.

I also enjoy old quirky stuff. Samurai, big block truck, obscure BMW. With a new car, you are just a insignificant, unremarkable, part of the crowd. Even in a P car, they are common as dirt around here.

This thread is very cathartic for me. Thanks guys! I needed that.

In reply to dean1484: Is it because of the laws in your state? The junkyards near me say that they're not allowed to sell their junked cars.

I don't know. They come with clean titles.

I don't discriminate.... New or old? Yes please. I dd a motorcycle and was tired of my 05 bmw k1200s breaking down, so bought a new k1300s last year....pretty much my dream bike with all the options I wanted. It was a great feeling leaving the dealer on that bike and knowing I didn't have to worry about it for 8 years and unlimited miles (extended warranty). I have plenty of projects and old fun cars to drive when I want, so I try and keep my bases covered. The first new car I recently thought about buying was the Cayman GT4. No allocations available now, which is probably a good thing because damn what a chunk of change, but it's a hell of a car.

I could pay cash for all these cars but what keeps me grounded is retirement planning. If you don't have a pension and you don't trust SS then you need a nest egg so large you only draw 4% per year. A million today would only net you $40k/yr and health insurance alone is currently costing my family almost half that. Looking at the low savings rates of my generation (X) I don't see how they are going to retire - especially after the baby boomers are done with SS.

My advice for those starting to be able to finance boxters is invest that money now while you're young - time is really on your side.

Then again life can be short so who knows. But it can also be long after you're not employable. Personally I don't want to run the risk of living 30+ years in the poor house. And I want to get out of the workforce a little early. YMMV.

jv8 wrote: I could pay cash for all these cars but what keeps me grounded is retirement planning. If you don't have a pension and you don't trust SS then you need a nest egg so large you only draw 4% per year. A million today would only net you $40k/yr and health insurance alone is currently costing my family almost half that. Looking at the low savings rates of my generation (X) I don't see how they are going to retire - especially after the baby boomers are done with SS. My advice for those starting to be able to finance boxters is invest that money now while you're young - time is really on your side. Then again life can be short so who knows. But it can also be long after you're not employable. Personally I don't want to run the risk of living 30+ years in the poor house. And I want to get out of the workforce a little early. YMMV.

This is my primary argument to myself every time I start looking at old Audi R8s. Would I enjoy it? Yes, I would. Would I enjoy retiring that much earlier more? Almost certainly.

mazdeuce wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: I've been at this point for a while, but I can't imagine trading my money, which makes me more money, for a depreciating asset. I don't think I'll buy a new car any time remotely soon :(

If you live like this long enough you eventually get to the point where a new car is a very small part of your overall pile of money. It won't really affect the outcome of your saving, but could make you very happy day to day.

Hey, shouldn't you be driving a Cadillac on a racetrack somehwere?

I've found that, if it's a car I truly enjoy driving and it makes me smile every time I look at it or sit in it, then, over time, I forget what I paid for it because I'd truly rather have the car than the money. That said, I've never owned a $70,000 car.