Requesting Input on 360 Purchase Plan

Ps. My 360 would have to have a stick and a Tubi and be yellow.

 

The North Carolina guy is Sports Auto. Steve Barney is the best.

http://sportauto.us/about-us/

 

There's no question that you can afford it. You have the financial means, and are debt free. So owning the car from that perspective is a non issue. From reading through the thread, I'd wonder if could actually enjoy the car after spending that amount of your hard earned cash on it? You have to really want the car - it makes zero sense from a financial point of view to own a Ferrari. Given that you are both CPAs, (at least this is how it is with my CPA), what they love the most is saving money, and being extremely thrifty. Owning a Ferrari is at the opposite end of that spectrum. If you are going to spend much time thinking about how you could have better invested close to $100k, rather than blowing it on a car that is now racking up expenses such as taxes, insurance,repairs, gas, depreciation etc etc, then it might not be as much fun even though you can afford it.

 

You seem to have reasoned out all the + and - of this purchase way more than most people ever do.

I would say go for it if not going for it is going to leave you feeling "if only"

Few people think at end of life "I wish i had saved more in my pension fund"

Life is short .... try to avoid feeling "if only" regretful thoughts on your deathbed ..... I bought my 1st Ferrari in 2010 with the view that i might be able to enjoy it for a year or two. Eight years later I cant imagine being without it and as a plus side it has increased in value beyond my expectations.

 

I’ll sell you mine. Been serviced here every year since I bought it
Red on tan
Tubi
sport seats
2001 with latest (TCM) trans cal


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i'm going to take the other side of this - given what you listed as your financial situation i wld NOT spend a real percentage of your liquid assets or a significant percentage of your net annual income on a 25 yr old italian car which cld present you with 15k to 25k in repair bills.

 

Disclaimer- I consider myself financially irresponsible.

My question however, is, if your investments are returning a greater percentage than you could borrow at, would it not be wise to take out a loan, even if unnecessary?

 

Almost all the cars you see for sale at a Ferrari dealer are on consignment. The business model for a Ferrari dealer is different from other high end dealerships. For example, a Ferrari dealer rarely floor plans anything. New cars are presold and used cars are consignment trades. Moreover, given the production time frame, the sales manager knows his consignment backlog. The sales manager will also know the condition of the consignment cars because they were sold new through the dealership. Ferrari will never admit this, but they have lemons. This is why a sales manager can tip you when a good car is coming in. You’ll pay a premium, but there’s no such thing as a cheap Ferrari.

Ps TT is right. Buying a Ferrari is an irrational act.


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your liquid net worth is approx 330K and you have a 4 year old. with a little bad luck you cld have a 10 to 20k repair bill along with all other costs. tying up almost 1/3 of your liquid net worth on something that will be expensive to maintain seems risky to me. Or what if you get rear ended and all of a sudden the car is worth 30 percent less? from a fatalistic perspective i get it. i guess whats missing from your OP is a real sense of uncontrollable enthusiasms which maybe is there but getting drowned out by analysis paralysis?

your OP sounds more like getting advice on buying a really nice but expensive refrigerator.

 

I'm with ttforcefed on this.

Don't forget the biggest cost of lost investment income from having your money tied up in a car. For me, I want to have enough money to raise my kids and put them through college before I'm going to put a significant amount of my assets into a toy. I am surprised by your aversion to debt though. As long as you can get a better return on your money than your interest (which is easy on a mortgage), there isn't anything wrong with a reasonable amount of debt.

I also look at it this way, if you were to invest well and save up more, in a few years you could have enough assets where its a no brainer. I'd perfer to wait a few years and not stress about being able to afford it.

 

There is a difference between having the liquidity/assets to cover a debt, vs being in debt up to your eyeballs. Generally speaking though, I prefer not to run a debt too. For example if you have rental income that would easily cover a debt and still give you positive cash flow, why not have that debt? A random example is 2 rental properties, one fully paid off and the other with a good down payment. If you can cover the debt expenses by renting 1 of the two properties, even if something happens and you get no money out the 2nd property, you still have your mortgage payments covered..... then that is very safe.

 

Ttforcefed's comments are wise. If you end up buying, it's soinds like you'll still have real anxiety on the purchase. That's no way to enjoy the car. It's like buying a bottle of old Pappy. You either are happy to drink it and the money you spent on it, or you aren't.

 

Best wishes to you, and God Bless. Let us know how it goes.

Cheers

 

Happy Hunting! Enjoy the search. I also forgot to mention in my post. With the strong US$ and weak CND$, you might find some great deals north of the border. A number of cars here are ex American machines (mine included), so the importing would be fairly easy if that is the case... not selling mine btw.

 

The answer you don't want to hear is you should finance it. For someone as financially savvy as you clearly are, I don't get the fear of leverage. If your investments are churning along doing their thing compounding towards your retirement, leave them be. Why ear mark $120k cash for a toy? You're in the home stretch so to speak of your earning/ saving. You've got 15 years left maybe?

If you're keeping this car for only 18 months, the cost of financing wouldn't even be a blip on your radar compared to the cost of paying cash. Trust the math.

Edit: Saw your post regarding personal / religious reasons. To each their own, but again I say the math doesn't lie. There is zero risk to a debt with a fixed interest that you can more than cover with cash you were going to spend anyway. Good Luck with your search.

 

Respectfully, I'm going to disagree with many here. You are probably way above the average 1st time Ferrari owner with regards to being able to afford this car. Penfed has great rates so you can finance for next to nothing. Life is short - buy the car and enjoy.

 

Okay, so I was not going to get involved in this but here I go. First for those who don't know who I am, I am not normal, what I do makes no sense to a normal person. No offence OP, but since I do not get any emotional connection to cars I have always enjoyed reading other members posts about how they do. Lets face it, no one needs a Ferrari, they want one. There are far better sports cars out there for 80K (I have owned probably all of them). Perhaps you are not good at putting your passion for the car into words, but if you don't have it, then walk away. You are an accountant (sorry but I always end up telling mine and I have had many what to do) and you know numbers, so you really should not be asking whether your financial plan is sound. You should in my opinion go drive other cars (4C Evora 400, AMG GTS 718 Cayman S, C7 Corvette grandsport) all are better sports cars than a 360, you can get a warranty. With the Porsche, Lotus, C7, and the 718 you can get a manual. Every one of those cars makes more sense financially, and unless you are merely after the badge then I would advise you to go in another direction. I love buying things and after 470 cars (that I can remember), I have made plenty of mistakes, and luckily for me, I can afford to. I have a rule every time I buy a car or a watch (I have around 185 of those now), I donate an extra 10K (I already give every month) to charities, sort my way of keeping a balance. I do not see money the way most people do, nor do I see cars the same way either. They all have a purpose to me, so OP what is your purpose for wanting a Ferrari. If it is because you want a great sports car, well others can fill that purpose far better. If you want the badge, well then the hell with what anyone here thinks, just go buy one and maybe you will get lucky and have no issues. Good luck.

 

That's the rub. IMHO having driven all the above except the Evora, I didn't find them to be better at all. Sure faster in 0-60, but in terms of driving dynamics.. lacking. E.g. the C7 didn't have the readiness to enter the turn below 70MPH. The Cayman driving feel was blunted. It had the refinement of the multilink suspension in the mid-turn, but that left the driving experience feeling "dull". The A-arm provides stiffness and less compliance in the turns, but gives a more ready engagement into the turn at the risk of snap oversteer. AMG GTS, to "refined" and had a similar dullness in steering feel and corner entry that I felt with the corvette. Evora... no desire to even drive the kit car.

 

Go for it if you can and want to, otherwise you'll regret it. The things we enjoy in life don't have to make sense to other people. Just us. Unless you enjoy killing puppies, which in that case, isn't ok.

 

Instead of a 360, you might want to check out a California. The early ones are dropping down to the 80s. They are a lot more comfortable than a 360, not to mention newer.

But, if you plan on tracking the car, get a 430. You don’t get the 360 sound, but a much better car.

Finally, I don’t understand why you’re planning on only keeping the car for a short time. If you take the time to find a good car, why not keep it?


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Well then, I wish you luck in your ownership experience. I suppose I have become a bit tainted over the years, and considering I tend to find ways to fix the faults (which is why I consider cars my adult tinker toys), that they have. Consider this the AMG GTS went around the (the new grand tour episodes on Amazon) their track (in the hands of a Pro) faster than a GT3 (and a lot of other cars), mine is not stock, but I will admit to get the most out of it you have to drive without traction controls (they are too restrictive), I owned a C7, but when I recently drove a grandsport fitted with the Z07 (I think that is what they call it) package I was amazed at how much better it was. I have always believed that each person has different takes on cars depending on their ownership experiences and the way they use their cars I also believe no car is perfect (for me) out of the box and they can all be better, no matter what brand they are. I did own 3 360's (gearshifts and F1), and though I don't get that feeling you do OP, I'm glad the cars do it for others.