IS-SV

Yes, cash sale.

biggie27

you have to understand something about owning one of these cars.....its not about how much the car costs, as much it is the upkeep, maintaining a car like that is costly and very expensive and in most cases ur not ganna get a good return on the car once u sell, these are nothing more than a very expensive toy........having said that, when looking at these cars u do not want to finance them cause if ur gonna finance u cant afford the maintenance on it

19psi

i always say, "if you can afford two of them, then you can afford to actually buy one."

isFiend

Seems like a good rule to go by.

Damn $360,000 / year is quite a bit (well at least here in texas, in california or richer areas of NY that's more equivalent to $700k/year since cost of living is almost double in those regions). Roughly top 1% income.

Guess I'll keep dreaming haha

2002GGPIS3

I once read in excellance a porsche magazine, about a guy living in a one bedroom apartment, takes the bus to work, and makes about $50k a year... his car is a weekends only Porsche GT2!!
In the interview he said all the sacrafices are worth it, and realisticly should have to make five times what he is earning to afford it, but said he watches his money on everything else, again where ever you priorties are..

Going back to the Suze Orman ZR1 question, simple he said he was going to sell two of the other cars anyway, take the rest out of savings and get the damn ZR1!

Life is really short, world is uncertain( Iran, North Korea, economy etc..), and don't worry about losing value driving your ZR1, as you do smoking burnouts down the road! "Carpe Deim"

KA8

iTrader: (1)

I make decent living and I can get a decent $50K car but I don't want the payments and it'll put a big dent on my financials even after I pay off the car. I think I read too many financial books lol. Nowadays I invest every penny I can get a hold of into stocks. Hopefully I will be able to afford an exotic soon.

dunnojack

income = enough to save $250000 in the bank

you can live like a college kid for the rest of your life, and you can have your toys.

i don't need a mansion, and never plan to buy one, unless it's dirt cheap. no point having all those empty rooms.

Dave600hL

Using percentages to see whether you can afford something is wrong IMO. Eg, someone who earns $100K a year and has 50% of that taken in cost of living will not be able to afford a $300K car IMO, however a person who earns $1 million a year and has 50% of that taken in cost of living will still be able to afford a $300K car and have $200K left over.

It is all about priorities, how much of your income you want save, spend ,what you want o spend it on ect, ect, and that is entirly up to you.

dr Lu

THis is insane...but more power to ya..pretty sure that guy isnt married ..no way anyone's wife would let that happen

Big Mack

iTrader: (1)

What if you don't want a house? Realistically, houses are terrible investments when compared with other investment vehicles. The reason that it's a good thing to buy a home is because of one reason and one reason ONLY: to save. This country is terrible about saving money, and a house makes at least a decent investment for a lot of people who otherwise would not save money (IE - they'd buy an expensive car!).

Keep in mind, this is based on the financial premise that you are buying the house on time, and that you are only paying a portion a year. If you own the home outright because of previous home purchases and profits, it's completely different. Housing would still be a lousy way to put $300K into an investment, because the return (on average, not the unrealistic exploded numbers that were the housing bubble) is about 3-4%. That means you're making $9-12K a year on $300K. In stocks (again, not only looking at the last few years), the average is 10%, so you'd be making $30K. You've just lost $18K, effectively, yet you can't write that loss off.

Understand, too, that real estate that pays for itself (commercial properties) is a good investment because you will be earning those gains without the cost since the financing is covered by leasing fees.

That being said, the general rule that several people I know use was already given: if you can afford two, buy one. Since that is based on the maintenance concern, let's add to that - if you can afford only one, buy a Lexus.

Big Mack

mmarshall

You don't have to spend a six-figure price, or anywhere near it, to get a so-called "supercar" today. Brand-new 430 HP Corvette Coupes, though not as powerful as the Z06 or ZR-1, can be had, out the door, for as little as the low 40s.The Corvette has long had a reputation of running, cornering, and braking with many other supercars at a fraction of their price.

xioix

My current take home salary plus two 0's at the end

LexFather

I read Ferrari Chat and there is a thread where owners were explaining what it takes to maintain the cars which was cool of them b/c they were trying to inform potential buyers of the costs. We are talking anywhere from 6-34k for 3-4 years of ownership! So you gotta be liquid or have the credit to just pay for the maintenance.

Thats how you can tell can you afford the car. Thats why cars like the NSX, the new R8 and now hopefully the Lexus LF-A seem so amazing as they can be a DD and you don't have to drop thousands on them to keep them running.

I read one guy averaged his costs to be over a dollar a mile driven!!!

Its a fantastic forum to me and pretty fascinating. Owners are anywhere from never have to worry for nothing money to working an okay job but they just had to have a Ferrari!!

I'm not going to judge how they get it or why they want it, it is simply a dream car to own and more power to them.

Another thing is buying a car. For instance when things were good and you wanted a Ferrari, you are told to buy a used one and get in that way. New people to the brand cannot get cars unless they pay some serious mark up to the dealership. The funny thing is this pisses off loyal owners who have bought Ferraris for decades during good and bad times.

Cash is king

LexusFiend

Not entirely true, you are forgetting two very important factors- tax benefits/penalties and your cost to rent.

A 10% return on 300k in the stock market (assuming its not in a 401k, Roth etc) would be considered taxable income .... so figure at a tax rate 30% of that 30k= 9k in taxes.

You will receive a tax deduction on mortgage interest assuming this is your first year of purchase of 270k (10% down, 5% interest), you can expect to pay 13.5k in interest which in turn provides you with a 4k tax benefit at a 30% tax rate.

At this point you are looking at appreciation(9), interest tax deduction (4) =13k vs 21k = stock gains (30, hopefully) - taxes (9) ....

Based on average rents in my area a 300k house rents at about 1k per month or more so figure a minimum of 12k in rent expense taken directly out of the stock gains ....

Now it is 13k for the house vs 9k to rent and invest, you can assume that property taxes, maintenance, and insurance on the house would close the gap further but either way it is a wash on which is truly the best investment.


Anyways, back to the topic. I would consider myself wealthy enough to afford a car like that if I already had my house paid for and enough money in my retirement account that i could live off the interest. Even at that point, I am not sure I could blow that much money on a car. the cheap *** in me would wait for 4 years and buy one at 80k.

pagemaster

Not really sure if there is a formula but I know Lexus' richest customer (LX570) average $340,000 a year in household. Toyotas richest is Land Cruiser owners that average $250,000 per year.

These vehicle are 1/2 the cost of the R8.

Hope this helps...