I just realized how far I am away from owning one

I'd never buy a new Ferrari, even if I could write out a check for the full price and not miss it.

 

You are ruining my smoke and mirror persona.....now I'll have to buy the GOOD jeans and pretend to be another Steve Jobs

 

it took me fifty years to get mine. i literally had to clean crap off the wall to get it. keep your eyes on the prize. perserverance furthers. if it means enough to you you'll find a way to make it happen eventually.

 

Here's to perseverance! I got my 330 2+2 at 53.

 

Looking at the markets now there is NO where to get a high yield on your money; with that said if you had a loan for a car at 6.5% and your $75K is in play at 10% then I finance and keep the spread; if the note was say at 12% then you need to pay it off quick or pay cash;maybe; as far as "value" and I know nothing about Ferrari's I do know that having had all the other major luxury type brands I am so tired of the brands/dealers telling me the MB,BMW,Lexus,blah blah blah has a higher resale than the other brand, BS!!!!!!!!!!!!! They all depreciate, and in my opinion Jag and Maserati being two of the worst, I know, I have owned them both. Some folks can afford a $1500/month nut but do not have or don't want to stroke a check for $95K for a Ferrari, I get that and hey if financing a depreciating thing is not smart as some of you have pointed out then we all need to dump our houses, lol, just my .02 worth...I have never paid cash for a car and never will, I can do more things with that money ,and generally I do not keep a car that long so putting say $95K in a car that I dump in 12 months at $1500/month lets say is cheaper than me paying in full and the dealer giving me say $65K,on trade, now I am out more than the cost of the monthly payments NEVER to see that back, lease maybe....just the way I look at it, you may disagree, obviously these numbers are just out of the air;..........dog

 

i went to the link.
the comment section is very telling, the jealousy and anger in the country is disheartening.
when i was younger i don't remember anyone bashing the "rich people."
whenever someone saw a fantastic car or newsstory about the "rich" the immediate reaction was always, " wow, cool, what can i do to get there." now it seems the reaction is "what a bastard, he stole his riches from the sweat off my back, he should be killed and all his possessions stripped from him."
remember the show "lifestyles of the rich and famous?" i wonder if they'd get any sponsors for that show today.

 

+1. It's far easier to blame others for their lack of success; be it personal, financial, educational, or career. Sad.

With regard to the article, I challenge those numbers quoted. Sounds like Ferrari, Spa and FNA are engaging in a bit of exaggeration.

 

The country ( world ?) has been ingrained to think wealth distribution and not earning it.
Entitlements not opportunities. I blame the liberal media.
Granted at the sharp pointy end of the stick the market is being manipulated by a few for no other reason than wealth accumulation that provide no benefit to the system.
However the vast majority of business owners contribute and build the economy. Do not lump them with the pigs.

 

Not sure this comparison makes sence. A person could get themself a ten year old used Ferrari 360 for a little less than a brand new top line Mercedes sedan. While this is true, the comparison doesn't help much.

 

Why not? Evo magazine ran a 550 for about 20K miles in about 2 years. All things considered (yes, including fuel, depreciation, tires, servicing yadda yadda yadda) it was cheaper to run than a brand new 535i....

 

I thought it made sense...thats why I commented. The reason for it being that people will spend insane amounts of money on a loaded E or S class and then see a 360 and claim that its out of reach. Its not. And if you didn't have a factory warranty on the Merc, the 360 may be cheaper to run overall. The masses don't understand the numbers/prices of the depreciated Ferraris enough to make a decision.

 

Agree.. my 360 was cheaper than some Chevy Trucks + SUV's (NEW)...

The problem is the average American doesn't run the numbers. What was it.. the average American has less than $20,000 saved for retirement! Their average net worth is less than $50,000 including the house (May be off on these #'s).. Too much instant gratification on credit. Good decisions beget good results. The numbers don't suggest good decisions are being made...

Financed mine. Am sleeping pretty well. ;-)

 

+1

 

The more I read this thread, the funnier this video becomes.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=331570&highlight

In all good humor, there is an element of truth. The responses in this thread seem like they were taken directly from the video.

 

There is a very simply truth that most folks just dont get:


MAINTENANCE IS ALWAYS CHEAPER THAN DEPRECIATION.


Buy a new $75K Benz or BMW or Porsche.... in 5 years it will be worth $40K if your lucky. You may not spend a dime on maintenance, but you have spent $35K on depreciation.

Buy a 2000 model 550 for the same money, maybe it does cost you $20K to maintain but when your done its still worth close to what you paid.



Terry

 

yea, 1.5MIL avg is high..but with that said its closer then to 1 million then 100K. I know my friends and I that all drive 360's and up are all between 400K-1MIL annual income. I think the 1.5M avg is talking about ordering a 458 or 599 GTo straight from factory. Thats reasonable ..cause i don't think i would buy a 300-400K brand new unless im making that much...but then again we still have time to catch up cause we are not avg age of 48..our avg age is the low 30's.

 

I have to agree with the other posters. A used Ferrari is the way I'll go. Yes there are expenses. If you take care of any sports car, there's expenses. My '75 Stingray is a "work in progress". Not that it's a project car, it's a beauty. It's that there will always be something that needs to be addressed. I call it a labor of love. Weather it's a Ferrari or any sports car, when you own one, you'll understand.

 

Ditto here. Bottom feeder...............................relatively speaking.

And don't forget PRIORITIES and FOCUS.

I had a lady ask me how I could afford a car "like that" and I told her, "I don't own a boat".
It went right over her head.
The point is, make the Ferrari a #1 priority and it gets closer real quick.

 

Ill be devils advocate... It's grossly unfair, IMO, to insinuate that somehow a Chevy truck = a Ferrari 360 and the "avg American" just doesnt "run numbers"

I mean come on... Any Ferrari is a toy with almost no utility. Sure, *in theory* it "doesnt depreciate" (if you buy it once it's 10 years old that is), but the maintenance is massive compared to any normal vehicle and the car has very little practical function. And if you pile miles on it the way anyone who really uses a car (ANY car) does, the depreciation hit is catastrophic on a Ferrari. A normal car can absorb 15k mi per year and the depreciation needle doesnt move. A Ferrari becomes unsellable. My typical daily driver gets over 100k miles before I finally sell it and get "killed by depreciation" How would that Ferrari be holding up maintenance and depreciation wise by that point?

As for the angry comments from the peanut gallery on that article... Is it the "liberal media", or the fact that CEO wages have skyrocketed while individual contributor wages are *down* over the past 10 years? CEO wages are up to ABOVE pre-crash levels, yet unemployment continues to creep up and even *well employed* people are *flat* cash wise (which means down) CEOs are realizing these gigantic bonuses by returning shareholder value through cost cutting. Cost cutting in this context means shifting more and more job functions offshore, or to H1Bs, or eliminating them altogether by forcing people to be "more productive". In return they are told they should be happy to be employed, get no raise, and the CEO gets an "OPEX savings" based windfall. Meanwhile, more and more even *upper* middle class folks are finding themselves either un or under employed. This isnt some "liberal fantasy", this is *new economy* reality. It's *awesome* for the top 1%, who having now finished draining the US consumer market can happily turn their sights on *emerging* consumer markets like Asia, Russia and Brazil, but *every* economist has pointed out that the staggering gap between the 1% and the 99% (and most of us are in that 99 btw) is becoming dangerous as is the complete erosion of anything between "poor" and "uber rich"

So yeah... people tend to be pissed lately. The whole "trickle down" and "work hard and reach the top" thing aint happening.

If you got lucky (lets be real... luck is *always* a big part of success), it is very easy to sit back and say "you can do it too!!!!" I try to be a lot more realistic. Sorry to get on a soap box on this one, but this "its all the liberal media, everything is fine!" line is a big pet peeve of mine and this is coming from someone who *grew up* in an investment banking family and knows the business (and the deal there) quite well. Things are what they are, but the fact that we live in a *very* different world than our fathers here in the US is *not* "liberal media spin" (whatever that even means). It is brutal, global economy, reality that *very* few are/were prepared for.

As for the actual OP... Not sure why you'd be surprised. The wealthiest people in the world buy Ferraris. Ferrari doesnt sell many cars at all. Their entire production is a Toyota or GM rounding error. What did you think the avg income would be? $150k? It is *the* car that millionaires buy when they "arrive" (alongside Bentley)

The fact that the used ones that either arent classic enough to trade for BIG $, or were produced in high enough #s that they may never, trade for cheap (esp with lots of deferred maintenance) and are owned successfully by average folks (esp ones who can do their own wrenching) really has no material impact on a demographic study.

 

+9,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999...

 

As a saver myself, my only worry is that the goalposts will move as the car I want appreciates at a rate faster than I can save the money to purchase it.

Am I far away from ownership? You betcha. But I'll get there. It's just like anything else that seems monumental. Just maintain that forward motion towards the end of the race and someday you'll find yourself in the car of your dreams. Perhaps not quickly, but still, you'll get it.

 

Very well constructed, germane post.

 

SO TRUE!!!! I always laugh when people ask why isn't Ferrari making an entry level car? It's the definitition of an aristocratic, elitist car/toy. It's not MEANT for Joe average car guy...

 

true most avg joes think they can now afford a ferrari cause some of them are the price of a new 5 or 7 series bimmer....think maintenance...let them find out for themselves...if you are keeping it as a garage queen maybe maintenance is not that high, but start driving 3000-5000 miles a yr and you will see how expensive it gets.

 

That article made my heart sink.... F U Yahoo finance!!!
I'm 19 years old and going to be an upcoming freshman at college and all I want in my life is a rosso corsa 458 Italia with beige leather seats