How much to spend on a nice first car?

[Ship Ship McGipp]

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Personally, since you do have cash, and can wheel and deal, Id go with a cheap practical car, older used civic, etc for r 5 to 10k, and than pay CASH for a cool 10 to 20k old muscle car (stingray, mustang, etc). If you have a garage this is the way Id go, and you can haggle the [censored] out of anyone if you show up with 20k in a bag.

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'68 chevelle butternut yellow ss if you're cool and wnt bucket seats but the bench seats will do, rally wheels plz

[jaydub]

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obviously jaydub that was one of my problems with the M3, since I get some hard-ish (but nothing too ridiculous) winters in indiana. my first high school car's doors froze, lol. another reason a cts was a car that gave me problems.

i didn't know clayton's br was 5k, i guess i assumed more (must have missed it in the op)

either way, even though my net worth is like 150k or 200k or something, it doesn't seem out of reason for me to spend 30-50k on a car. i mean, it's not like i'm going to just lose the fken thing, it just means that the cost of owning it will be like 5-7k instead of 2-3k a year. it has some resale value, obv, and that's what people are forgetting i think.

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Ship,

No it is not out of line for you at your net worth and expected earning potential.

Regarding the car, Audi S4 is AWD IIRC.

J

[scotchnrocks]

If you are going to drop a ~$30k on a nice car, I recommend getting a used sports car with a documented maintenance history. Supra's, NSX's, and M3's in the $20's and $30's are good buys and you will get a lot of car for the money. Also the depreciation has slowed a good deal. The NSX's and Supra's hardly depreciate at all.

If you're buying a something that is straight up luxury like a Range Rover or 7-series they will depreciate faster and most importantly will not be as fun to drive.

[kurosh]

150k net worth, making about 25k/month conservatively - 50k/month average. 21 years old. Few expenses. Most of the money goes into investments at this point.

What would you guys recommend? I tend to be nitty about big purchases. I was going to wait until I had 200k locked up in investments, but this thread is making me change my mind.

The most important factors are safety and girl-attractiveness. I like the look of the lotus elise, but I'd think too many people would think badly of me because of it.

[jaydub]

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150k net worth, making about 25k/month conservatively - 50k/month average. 21 years old. Few expenses. Most of the money goes into investments at this point.

What would you guys recommend? I tend to be nitty about big purchases. I was going to wait until I had 200k locked up in investments, but this thread is making me change my mind.


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How many months is this average based on? I have a hard time reconciling what you've just posted.

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The most important factors are safety and girl-attractiveness. I like the look of the lotus elise, but I'd think too many people would think badly of me because of it.

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Range Rover / 7 series. Sports cars are generally not safe, the Elise in particular is not what could be considered above average in safety.

J

[jfish]

if you get into an accident in the elise youll probably die.

my 335i convertible ended up being 62.8k and should arrive in a few weeks. im not all that rich (<300k pretax net worth) but [censored] it. who cares. poker is just one giant freeroll.

[kurosh]

I care. A car isn't worth that much of my net worth. I'd like to be a millionaire by the time I'm 30 at least.

After busto'ing multiple 100k bankrolls, I'm learning the value of money :P

[BigPoppa]

I'm interested in the expected amount of satisfaction from a nice car. Someone early on mentioned that unless you buy an awesome car or a beater, your satisfaction is likely to even out after the newness wears off (i.e. After a few months, the $40k car doesn't make you much happier than the $20k car).

I think this is spot on. My mother sold real estate in an affluent area when I was a kid, and I always heard about people with really upscale houses who were just as satisfied/dissatisfied as people I knew with much more modest homes.

[scotchnrocks]

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I'm interested in the expected amount of satisfaction from a nice car. Someone early on mentioned that unless you buy an awesome car or a beater, your satisfaction is likely to even out after the newness wears off (i.e. After a few months, the $40k car doesn't make you much happier than the $20k car).


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I think it all depends on what kind of car you are talking about. Driving an M3 or a Porsche everyday doesn't get old as the cars are very responsive/engaging and fun to drive in general. I would agree that driving a 7-series or any other car that primarily serves as a mobile Lazy Boy w/ a bunch of e-gadgets would not be fun for long.

[Taso]

I wouldn't waste the money on a car when all you won was 100k or so. That's a small amount of $$, a car will chop out a good chunk of it. Real estate FTW. Unlike the car, it increases in value.