Originally Posted by MDXLuvr,May 23 2007, 06:31 PM

3. Buying a $180k car means monthly payments are going to be approximately $4500 - 5200 PER month. Let me make sure you register that - $5k per month in car payments.

Originally Posted by MDXLuvr,May 23 2007, 07:31 PM

I would buy a F430 F1 in a heartbeat if you can find me one for $180k.

Thinking of buying a Ferrari and actually buying one are 2 completely different issues. Let me give you an idea:

1. You THINK you are making big bucks you are ready to go buy a Ferrari. So you go down to the local Ferrari dealership and tell them you want to put a deposit for a new car. The manager of new car sales will either - laugh at you or blow you off. You go home disappointed but come back a couple of months later just to dream a little more. This time the Used car sales guy gives you a few minutes of his precious time. He lets you in on a little secret. Buy a used car from them and then you can get on the waiting list. The more you get ripped off on the used car the higher you will be on the waiting list. Then you can buy a car in 2-3 years at MSRP(BTW this is a verbal agreement and the dealer doesn't really have to uphold it). But when you do buy that car at MSRP, make sure you trade in the car you bought from them so that they can flip to to the next sucker. Btw, this was my personal experience. I actually had the new car sales manager completely blow me off and ingnore me the 1st time I went to the Ferrari of Dallas(I was dressed nicely and had pulled up in my friend's Jag XK8).

2. When I was looking at the 2004 F360 the best finance rate I could find was 10.5% interest. That's with me having excellent credit. A 2007 Porsche can be bought for 4.9%.

3. Buying a $180k car means monthly payments are going to be approximately $4500 - 5200 PER month. Let me make sure you register that - $5k per month in car payments.

4. Insurance - Allstate told me that insurance on a 911S for me is $800/6 months. I don't know what it is for my GT3 but I will let you know. They said they probably couldn't insure my Ferrari. When I threw a fit -they said they will look into it but expect it to be $3500 - $4500 per 6 months IF they are willing to insure it. Btw, I have an excellent relationship with my agent. I insure 9 cars, 2 houses and 1 trailer with them.

5. Say you actually go through all this and decided to buy a Ferrari. Well, If you don't drive a Ferrari you are going to have more mechanical issues. If you do drive it and put miles on it then it will depreciate quicker. A clutch on F1 car is $4-5k. Routine maintenance is $1500 - 2k a year, $4-5k every 2 years for a major service on F360. The F430 is actually cheaper to maintain than a F355 or F360 since it comes with a Timing chain not a belt. The F355 requires the engine to be taken out for TB service. The F360 requires the panel behind the seats be taken out.

6. Any time you park it you are going to be absolutely paranoid about who is next to your Ferrari, is it scratched, bug splatter, etc etc.

As you can see buying a Ferrari is a whole different level of commitment than buying any other car. It truely requires that you be passionate about Ferraris. Oh and you have to be perfectly ok with being screwed by the dealer along the way many times over.

Btw, even with all this - I hope to get a F430 F1 someday in the future. I will just settle for my GT3 for now.