profit_child

My bestfriend is a BMW junky and been working on his cars a while bmws are cool... just not me and the depreciation just is too RAPID... 50% in 3 years its one of the worst... Great engines tho N55 twin scroll is a great engine.

CosmosMpower

If you track the car much at all you will go through rotors. Stock rotors crack after 2-5 track days. If you track the car at all you will be changing your trans fluid every 3K miles at $700-800 each time plus diff fluid for $200.

I owned a GT-R for a while, it was fun, the power was nuts but the running costs will kill you especially if you have to finance 40K+ to afford it.

C2S is more affordable (997.1), feels more like the S2000 in the handling department and cheaper to run but you don't get the crazy traction, power and attention of the GT-R.

CosmosMpower

M3's have pretty good depreciation. My 2010 M3 had a MSRP of $71,505 when new. It's still worth about $37-38K 5 years later with 48K miles on it (over 50% @ 5 years). A M3/M4 with a 75K sticker will be worth $45-50K EASILY in 3 years which is about 65% residual.

white98ls

If you're hardly going to drive it, why pay so much for a GT-R? You're talking many, many thousands per year for additional financing, maintenance, etc. for 2-3k miles/yr? So you're looking at $3-5 per MILE. All for a car that many say they got bored with. I certainly don't see many GT-R owners saying "I'm going to keep this car forever" like you see with the S2000, Porsches, etc. Seems like short term thrills that lose their novelty after a while.

I know you didn't ask for finance opinions, but you have been receptive to them so I'll add my own. I'm 31, have a good chunk in investments and make about 2x what you do (and my fiancee makes the same as me). I do live in the SF Bay Area ($$$) and have some student loans, but still I am doing pretty well, and at this point in life I would be very uncomfortable paying $70k for a car, even if selling my current car would pay for about half of that. Only way I'd even start to consider it is if A) the car didn't depreciate much, like an NSX or 993/997, and B) I could track and DD it without worrying about major maintenance bills. Neither of those are very true of a GT-R.

Sure you only live once. But why blow so much now at 25 when that money could be used more wisely now... hell, invested right that could buy you a brand new Lambo or Ferrari when you're 35 or 40. When I'm 25, I want to travel, be active, and take advantage of my youth and lack of responsibilities rather than be saddled by big car payments and maintenance bills, to sit in a GT-R that drives itself

Driven

A lot of good advice here... surprisingly, not a single "just enjoy the now" mentality.

What happens when you are 40, have $600,000 in savings, and get killed by a drunk driver. You have a wife and made the wise decision to not have kids.
Your life experiences upto that point has been a few trips, a moderate home, and a few cars. Great, you just spent your entire life preparing for a future that you never got to fully experience.

Why not enjoy what you have now? You can still save for your future and have a fun car, albeit in a far lesser capacity.
Sure, your net worth in 40+ years may be a little less than had you played it safe, but would the experience of having a supercar be worth it? Who knows, depends on what makes you happy.

And who is to say you don't get a better paying job shortly, or a lucky break, win the lotto. At the very worst, you sell the GTR and take a small hit in resale value and you're back at square one. Lesson learned, however the experience will stay with you, for better or worse.
Don't let others dictate financial decisions for you though, you got to determine what is most important to you and base your financial decisions on that.

For me, I'd much rather be a guy who is on his deathbed with 600,000 stories/experiences than $600,000 in his bank account.

CosmosMpower

I agree with Driven. Not saying you shouldn't be smart with your money but some of the numbers thrown out in this thread are kind of crazy.

For you guys that are making 300K household and can't afford a 60K car without feeling uneasy you're either VERY conservative, live in a city with retarded living expenses (high housing, 2+ kids etc) or have a lot of debt.

I bought my Elise when I was 24 making way less than 6 figures, my GT-R when I was making around 6 figures and my GT3 in cash this December with a household income below 300k. Every situation is different. It's possible to make 80-100K if you live in a place with low housing expense, don't have much other debt or hobbies/expenses or a family to feed.

My advice is to figure out how much of your income is truly disposable, write down all the actual expenses related to owning the car and see where you are.

Also white98ls shoot me your number. If you can turn 50K into 350K in 10 years I want to invest some money with you.

white98ls

I just think there's a balance to be struck. $70k car on a $70k income does not strike me as a healthy balance. Maybe when you're 40 or 50 and more established, but not 25.

It's easy to say "live each day like it's your last," but chances are very much in your favor that you will not die tomorrow, or in the next few years, so some prudence is needed - it's better to be ready for bad luck than hope for a "lucky break" as you put it.

I'm not saying to save every penny for when you're 65... hell, I bought an '01 M5 when I was 24, and still own that plus an S2k and definitely don't "need" both cars - I drive 8-9k/yr. But those were a lot more reasonable (both under $20k and with very little depreciation) than a $70k car that has Ferrari-like maintenance costs. And if he's going to drive it 2-3k/yr, why even bother?

In fairness, I do live in an area with retarded living expenses ($2,400/mo for a 1bd apartment that's not even all that new or anything, decent 3bd house is $750k+ here, taxes are insane, 8% state income tax for instance) and I have a bunch of student loan debt and loss of income for 2yrs during my full-time MBA (actually, did full-time in part because I didn't want to spend 3yrs doing part-time and thus not having much fun in my late-20s). So even though we're at ~$300k combined now, other factors make a HUGE difference. Sure, you could say move to a cheaper area or don't get that MBA, but then I wouldn't be making what I do, so it's more or less a moot point.

For these reasons, I typically don't like those "spend up to x% of your income on a car/housing/whatever" formulas, as other things change the picture a lot. With that said, I'm pretty sure no financial advisor ever said "spend 100% of your annual gross income on a car... at an age where making good investments will pay enormous dividends through compound interest." I started investing when I got my first job at 16 (actually before, with bday and X-mas money) and it has surely paid off despite going through two stock market crashes.
It's a $70k car out the door, not $50k. At 10% a year (optimistic, but possible), that's $220k in 12 years (I said 10-15). And that's not factoring the GT-R's absurd costs for regular maintenance - this coming from a guy who owns a 15 year old BMW M car.

Mr.E.G.

I'll be the first to say that I am extremely financially conservative. That said, it sounds like we are in a very similar financial situation, you and I. But, I suspect I'll have my house paid off in the next couple of years. I know a lot of well off people, but none of them had a paid off house at 35ish years old. My point is that there is an incentive to the conservative approach. Once my house is paid off, my daughter's college is paid for, etc., sure, I'll buy a six figure car. Why not? I'm just not going to make payments on a toy like that. There is no such thing as truly disposable income until I accomplish my goals. Until then, it's all opportunity cost.

Naturally, I'm not saying that we need to have the same priorities or that mine are better. I'm just deferring some of the fun stuff until later for peace of mind now.

Mr.E.G.

That's cool. Nothing wrong with that. I'd just personally rather be a guy who left his wife and daughter with a bunch of money instead of a used car if I were to go early. Once I get all the other priorities sorted, then I have the luxury of working on my 600,000 stories.

ludeguy13

I hope to maintain this mindset to some extent as I get older. Wise words my friend.