I just realized how far I am away from owning one

Trance,
You have a long life ahead, stay focused, I finally got my dream car at 60 years old a TR.
If you can do the maintenance yourself like I do the cost of owner ship isn't that bad. The comment about a boat or small airplane comes to mind.



Ago

 

Well, maybe in the new automobile economy, Fiat/Ferrari/Chrysler will be offer zero percent financing to move the product! Then it would be a great idea!

 

It may seem a long ways away, but the journey from where your at now to driving a Fcar [or P car or Vette or whatever] can be a lot of fun... I may have had more fun beating an old 5.0 Mustang than I ever did when I got my "dream" car.....

 

Good God you're only 19 years old. You have many years ahead to work toward your dream car.
And you're starting out on the "Right Foot" buy furthering your eduction. Don't stop dreaming about your goals and remember, education is the key to success.

 

Great post.

 

In America if you are willing to work hard and meet your customers' needs and beat the competition, you will be able to buy anything you want. Are you willing to work 20 hrs a day and 80 hrs a week? Are you willing to save your nickles and not buy every flashy thing you see? Are you willing to forego getting into debt? Are you willing to praise others for good performance? Winners do not criticize, condemn or complain. Can you do that?

It's so easy cus there's not much competition. Go for it.

 

I wonder what % of buyers are paying for their Fcar with inherited money.

Cheers

 

You have that backwards. The garage queens will need a different kind of maintenance. The one where you have to replace hoses and belts due to cracking and time decay, along with the "majors". The cars that are driven are usually the best ones. Now of course you have a higher chance of damaging wheels, suspension components, and wear and tear items like tires and the clutch. But these affect all cars, not just Ferraris.

Lets just say that the 5 or 7 series was off warranty, those parts aren't cheap either.

My 430 costs less to run that my 7 series and way less than my previous A8L. I have a stack of BMW and Audi service records to prove it.

 

you know what i meant..the more you drive it the more you have to service it...like you said just like any other car. You are right about bimmers...thats why i never keep bimmers out of the 50k 4yr warranty....I need to replace my 6 too, its starting to get exp. I guess because with the f car im more proactive then reactive..but im sure there are plenty of peeps on here that would let things slide and take chances....and by garage queens i mean driving it about once a week, not once a month.

 

+1. I did know what you meant, just responding if others didn't understand as clearly. I should have mentioned that my Bimmer is still under warranty, but the bills "would" have been much higher than its garage mate. I too never keep them out of the 50k/4yr. It will leave you bleeding. Same thing with the Audi. (That damn pop up Navigation!)

As far as people letting things slide, it happens all the time. I always see members here posting a few car choices they have but the dilemma will be lack of service records. The real problem is LACK OF SERVICE. No service, no records. In the long run its cheaper to fix things when its needed as opposed to waiting and redoing everything.

 

aka "most of us are too poor to be cheap"

 

i agree with you 100%

 

Back then there wasn't the sense of hopelessness there is now. In the past you could rely, somewhat reliably, on the whole idea of getting an education and a good job, or even just working hard at a decent blue collar occupation. These days most all of the decent paying blue collar jobs have been dumbed down and sent to foreign lands. There are a lot of well educated people out of work as U.S. companies would rather import Indians or Chinese on H1B visas and pay them at a hefty discount compared to what a greedy American would want for the job. So, there's very much a feeling that it's those with the money to buy new Ferraris that have orchestrated life as it is today. They are the movers and shakers...the policy makers. Hence, the bitterness...

Regardless...paying 200-300K for a car that will lose 1/3 of it's value in a few years time is just being stupid with your money. Anyone want to guess how fast the FF will depreciate?

 

Let's see what Americans are becoming by degrees in college:

787,325 total degrees, 2008-09 (from National Center for Education Statistics):
Business 347,985
Social sciences and history 168,500
->Health professions and related clinical sciences 120,488
Education 101,708
Psychology 94,271
Visual and performing arts 89,140
->Engineering and engineering technologies 84,636
Communication and communications technologies 83,109
->Biological and biomedical sciences 80,756
English language and literature/letters 55,462
Liberal arts and sciences,general studies, and humanities 47,096
Security and protective services 41,800
->Computer and information sciences and support services 37,994
Multi/interdisciplinary studies 37,444
Parks, recreation, leisure,and fitness studies 31,667
->Agriculture and natural resources 24,988
Public administration and social service professions 23,851
Physical sciences and science technologies 22,466
Family and consumer sciences 21,905
Foreign languages, literatures,and linguistics 21,158

If you look at the list above at what areas above are on public payrolls that are being cut or don't have any application to the function of American lives in general.. the numbers are huge. "Leisure studies"? come on. If you consider the ones above with a "->" it's 348,862 jobs that have utility. That's less than half the degrees awarded. This, it can be argued is what America is spending its money preparing itself for...

 

^
Interesting.

About the hopelessness comment a few posts above, as I understand it the unemployment rate for Americans holding a Bachelors degree is approx 4-5%, and hasn't budged over the decades. Perhaps that was misinformation spewed out in the MSM.

At any rate, I don't think people who plan on going to college and possibly higher degrees feels anywhere as "hopeless" as people who are laborers.

What bothers me right now is that throughout the history of the World, and likely for all of history to come, there will be socioeconomic strata...it is inevitable. Humans beings have different skill sets, different work ethics, different "connections," and quite frankly different "luck."
It seemed that people have really understood that, and did their best to maximise their potential. The current perception, for what it is worth, is that people feel that no longer applies, and it is "someone else's fault" and the solution is to target that other person.

Sad.

 

I dunno about who feels more threatened - lots of those trusty bachelor-degree jobs are getting sent elsewhere which used to be only a blue-collar thing. The IT industry, which I work in, has sent a LOT of development and QA jobs far and away and none of us ever thought that would happen. But it is. 4-year degrees are mostly a dime-a-dozen now. Companies are getting smarter about hiring people. They look at real-world experience and tangible skills, not just flashy "paperwork".

College can and does get you in the door though - thats a fact. But, having no degree does not mean you are screwed by any means. Just sell yourself and "force" them to hire you so to speak. If you are a vaulable asset and provide results - they'll pay you and keep you employed. Keeping your skills up to date is crucial and I go out of my way to do just that.

 

Have you ever heard the saying "Perception is reality"? That is crucial here. It really doesn't matter that some would argue a different perception, unless you can come up with a way to convince people otherwise, and show them the path to it. We are still no where near the sort of circumstances that would cause upheaval the likes of which could lead to any sort of 'revolution', at least in most countries. I wonder if the American people might be stirred to action more quickly than people in other countries, as we are descending to a lesser state, not aspiring to something more than we've historically had. In a strange way, I hope things get worse, as only then would we find the initiative to deal with things like our messed up trade situation, health care, immigration, education, and so on...Some painful decisions have to be made, but we never will if we keep figuring out to keep putting band-aids on our usual way of doing things in this country. That the populous thinks it's "someone else's fault" is part of that.

 

That's "Hope and Change" for ya....

 

+1 good.

 

slacker.