Buying a car for the first time is SO frustrating!

I agree with your wife. Buy a Miata. They are alot of fun, and reliable. Save your money.

A car is not an asset, it will always depreciate (with a few exceptions). Money spent on a car is basically just thrown away.

If I hadn't thrown out so much money on cars in my younger days, I'd have so much more now...

Dom

 

Get a $1500 pickup and a Mondial for the cost of a S2000


Seriously, don't spend a whole lot of money on depreciating assets. You can get a lot of cool cars for 6K. If you want an Italian, may I suggest a Fiat X1/9, or Lancia Scorpion, or Alfa Romeo GTV6/Milano? (You'd better have another car too, for when those are in the shop )
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You only live once!

but

Good things come to those who wait

Would you rather have a Miata now and a 360 @ age 30 (hypothetical situation) or a S200 now and a 348 @ age 35?

I'm in your position..well kinda. 22 fresh out of college (no wife though ) with a relatively stable job making enough money to finance a fun toy. My $.02 are... whatever car you get now will fail in comparison to having a Ferrari at a young age. So get the cheap car, save your money, make sacrifies when possible and get the newer Ferrari at a young age!

 

There are 911 SC's for 6K (late 70s). If you can find a good one, you can drive it for a year or two and get all your $$ out of it.

....or gut and track it!

 

92-95 Lexus SC300. You can find them for $5-7k and these things run forever. They have the 2JZ-GE engine which is VERY reliable. If you're into modifying the cars can handle 700hp+ on the stock bottom end also but since you're obviously looking for a daily driver for $5-7k the SC300 would be it. Very luxurious ride, amazing reliability, good looks, and some decent power for that price and you get the Lexus brand. Just my opinion again, Italian cars aren't the most reliable but they are the most fun to drive.

 

I understand the dilemma, being young myself. Considering your situation, i would opt for an Alfa Romeo, either a later Spider or 164, both are definately not boring, affordable, reliable with the right maintenance and pieces arent that much of a hassle, depending where u live.

In the end you get an exclusive italian car with style at a resonable price.

 

Like Darth550 states ,the 911 is the best kept secret in automobiledom ( I just made up a word ).
Lots of fun, flair, and relibility. A little different, and you get you money back on the back end. 911SC or newer.

 

I'll chime in here. Out of college, we moved from Hawaii back to the mainland and needed wheels. Wife wanted a Jetta, and was looking at new ones and also some used ones for $8-12k. I wanted something sportier, obviously (being a car guy), and we ended up with a new WRX. Although the WRX had been bulletproof and a competent performer, and there was no fear of it breaking down or leaving us stranded, the ironic thing is that I would still gaze and admire my neighbor's two old 911's everyday as I walked by (he's been on Fchat too now).

It didn't take long for me to realize that I could have gotten my wife a late-model Jetta and appeased her, and gotten a 70's 911 for me to drive and tinker with, for considerably less than the price of the WRX.

Would I buy the WRX and do it all over again? Who knows. We got a great discount and it has had no real problems for 40k miles. I still look at 911 classifieds though...

 

Another vote for the Miata.

Very cheap to keep; really, really fun to drive.

 

Go with the 911. However, I am not so sure that you want to touch a 911 that is priced much below 11 or 12k. The lower the price with 911s, usually the more issues.

I was in a similar delima to yours right before going to grad school, and I picked up a 1976 911. Like many have said before me, tons of fun to drive, very simple mechanically, and they have VW reliability.

I would recommend a 1978-1983 911 SC. Enthusiasts consider these years to be among the most reliable Porsches made. You can usually find good clean examples around 12-18k. Simply get a PPI, and add gas.

 

In a couple years when the mortgage comes along with kids....you'll love yourself for buying that miata! I didn'y buy the miata. Wish I would have! Buy the miata and start saving the money you don't spend on the S2000.
You think buying your first car is a pain in the a$$. Wait until you buy that first house! THAT'S FUN STUFF!!!!! Buy the miata and build credit and savings. It will make the purchase a your first home MUCH easier. If your trully protecting your future and are looking ahead, YOU WILL LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE! SAVE SAVE SAVE, and KEEP YOUR DEBT LOW. KEEP YOUR DEBT LOW....REAL LOW! Throw away credit cards!

Good luck!

Jay

 

bloody lexus crap cmon there's more to driving than thinking you're more luxurious than a taxi. if that's what you're after then yeah get some 'higher brand' jap crap otherwise get a classic italian that you can fall in love with.

time is the enemy

 

Get the Miata and start saving your money. And, make sure that you don't have credit card debt where the interest is eating you alive. The first part of saving is to not pay a bunch of money on interest so that you can use someone else's money. Having said that, my first car was a 1954 (I know that dates me) Austin Healey. Piece of junk but I loved that car. But, I did pay cash for it and got all of my money back from insurance when I flipped it and destroyed it.

 

I'll also throw in another vote for an older 911, probably going to be my replacement for the 308 eventually.

I always find these time value of money issues interesting though when they come up. Not to crush dreams here, and I'm exaggerating your issue to make a point (you want an S2000), but you get a 430 because you make (or inherited) a lot of money, not because you didn't buy a $6k car when you were 23.

Your $6k would take 45 years in the stock market (avg return) to buy a 430 with no inflation, try 72 years with 3% inflation. A 911 now will be a hell of a lot more fun than a 430 (whatever new model) will be when you're 95.

It'll take 33 years for your $6k to buy an S2000 (8% in the stock market, 3% inflation, $30,000 purchase price).

Buy the 911 (or Miata) now, buy an S2000 (or a 430) when income allows. Save annuities and investment funds for kids education, housing, etc. ie, leave TVM out of car purchases IMO.

 

Also look at porsche 944s. For about 8-10k you could have yourself a very nice turbo driver. Lots of performance and tinkerabilitly (i made that up just now) also very fun to drive. I'm currently looking for one now as well.

 

Don't do it man!! I was in your situation, and I did (BMW 330Ci) and wouldn't do it again. If anything, BUY USED. My g/f got a 2004 S2000 with 2,500 miles on it for around 25K. Sticker is 33K. Still a lot of money for a car, but saving 5-7K by letting someone else drive it for 2,500 miles is a no-brainer. If you want me to set you straight (like several people tried to do for me, but I didn't listen), PM me.

And about the time value of money and buying an F430 only because you make or inherit a lot of money - think about this: Say you had 50K to put down on a piece of property 5 years ago (worth, say, 400K back then), but instead you dropped 50K on a new car. 5 years later, the property (hypothetically) is worth 800K (very reasonable estimate) and the car is worth 15K. The property went up 400K, and you could very easily buy that F430 in CASH now. It's not just about 8% stock market or 3% savings rates...

 

Miata's are great cars. My dad had a limited black edition with the BBS wheels and red leather interior. Fantastic car, decent performance and ultra reliable.

If you want something faster and will turn more heads, get a 91-95 MR2 Turbo. 93-95 are the best but, are very hard to find and will cost you a lot more than $7k.

Here's a 95 for sale at www.bestmr2.com
http://bestmr2.com/95TurboMR2.htm

 

My 97 Miata is my daily driver, and it has been very reliable and easy to work on. They are not known for having gobs of power, but if you find a decent one (95-97s are my favorites), then you can constantly tinker with it on the cheap. Even if you turbo it, you're still WAY ahead of the money sunk into an S.

Personally, while the S2000 has more power, it is only somewhat better at lower RPMs, and is quite 'cammy' as the VVT hits at 6k. Fun, but I don't know if it wouldn't drive me crazy after a while. Miata has more interior room too, and the shift action on the Miata has a much better tactile feedback than the feelingless S. YMMV of course.

The S is a great looking car, and has less of the 'chick car' stigma to it, but after driving one for a while I don't want one any more. I'll replace the Miata eventually, but don't know with what.

Cheers,
JB
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Andy, before i give you my advice, please take into consideration that i'm single, have never purchased a new car before and am notorious for fiscal irresponsibility...


With that said, here's my advice: i decided against going to Monterey this year because i was holding out so i could go to the Ferrari French Quarter Classic.

 

Screw the Miata go with the new Pontiac Solstiace, it has that ferrari/Aston Martin/Viper look to it and they arent that expensive either at around 20k.


I would say go with a Toyota Supra from 93-98, if your lucky you can find one in good contion at around 8k if someone hasnt modified it yet. They are somewhat rare but affordable and reliable plus the possiblity of modifiactions are endless. If you want that ferrari look you might want to look into a MR2 or FieroGT(Not a Fcar replica) Both could be bought for under 6k and deliver some decent performance. The Fiero GT however has some reliablity issues but could easly have a V-8 LT1 swap done for a few thousand bucks more and that will be the end of that problem.

However if you can manage to get that look into a Pontiac GrandPrix GT, the day i bought it i saw my dream car which was a Lamborghini Countach and i had to pass up on a Mitsu 3000GT because i couldn't get approved so i went with the GrandPrix GT thinking it was gonna be horrible and i found out that its a fun car to drive. Its powerful and very reliable.

 

Um, I dont wanna put down women or wives but.....whenever a female says "then" it really means.....never going to happen. But what do I know.

 

Actually, that is a good idea of reality. They say, "you can have it after _____..." not thinking you'll get to that marker before you give up or find something else, to which they can set a further goal.

Illustration: Wife said I could get an Xbox. We had no TV. She didn't want me to buy a TV. An apparent paradox I was allowed to get the game if we ever got a TV, but she was set against getting a TV. One day, about 2 weeks before the Xbox was coming out (2001), I just went to Costco with a buddy and came home with a 25" TV. She hit the roof. I plugged in the cable, put it to Headline News, and left the room. After 15 minutes, the TV was ok.

 

Im going against the tide here, and I know it. But if you have the means, if you have the garage, and if you believe you can maintain the car, I say go for the Ferrari. Right now, there are still 308's you can find for $20K, that if they pass a ppi, you can drive and have some fun, maybe do a little restoration work, and basically have a solid investment you can trade up later for a greater car if you want.

I half heatedly go along with the notion that cars arent investments, but new cars are all basically really big holes to lose tons of money into. Case in point is we bought a 2000 GMC Jimmy, brand new for $27K. We sold it last year for $7K. Thats a average $5k a year loss! You already know your going to buy some kind of car, and I highly doubt a 308 can ever depreciate from this point unless we have major economic collapse. And if that happens nothing else will ever matter anyway. Why borrow $20K+ for a new car that will be worth squat in 4 years, when for the same loan you could buy a 308 that will most likely be worth what you paid or more by then, not accounting for maintainance. If your mechanically inclined you can service it pretty inexpensively.

I lost out on Ferrari ownership until only recently, because they appreciated like rockets through the late 70's and all through the 80's. As someone said, and others said it too, strike while the iron is hot. But don't put the car before your wife or family, first things first. And don't keep the costs from her either, it could destroy a relationship. Good luck.

 

Eh, if all your toys will total less than 10% of your net worth after you snag a 308, then hit that ****.

If not, buy a Honda and work smarter!