Quick Question: Who here is in a lot of debt b/c of F355 or house or whatever?

You should only buy a Ferrari cash.

 

That is a rather personal question there mate.

Not too sure how many blokes will give you an honest reply to that one.

 

You should buy by whatever means you can...

most people dont pay cash for their other cars(Bimmers,SUVs,Honda,Minivans), harleys etc ... so why should you pay cash for a Ferrari? at least with the F car when you go to sell you will get close to your purchase price

 

I have always lived by the mantra of:..... "Never borrow money for a depreciating asset"

Buy a house and "usually" 10 years down the track the value has doubled....... therefore borrowing ok.

Buy ....any.... "New" car and as soon as you drive it off the lot you have lost 30% of its value....... therefore borrowing NOT ok.

In Australia 20 years ago 308's were worth about $20k (au) now good ones $80k-$100k (au) (less inflation and running cost) I would consider this an appreciating asset....

So in a nut shell if you think the car is going to be worth "more" when you sell it than what you pay for it,.... borrowing is ok..... if not save your pennies & keep buying those lotto tickets.

Your level of debt in other areas must also be taken into account, ridiculous levels of personal debt is one of the reasons the world is in the mess it is now.

 

I've always been very debt-averse....but now with prices dropping I'm getting tempted! Smart? heck no. But would I be happy as a pig in you know what to have a 360 CS in the garage? heck yeah!

 

Amen.

If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. Life goes on.

 

Agreed....Forget banks!!!!! Why torture yourself???


Lots-o-fire sales going on these days because of debt...........Too many folks had to have a Tahoe, Bimmer, Fcar and a big a$$ house all by having the bank as a business partner....


The "american dream" was just that-----A DREAM!-----......Fact is, now they are awaken from the peaceful slumber because somebody hit the reset button....


My 2 cents and I'm shopping for fire sales.



P.S.

Two rules to live by---*Never love anything that won't love you back
*You're better off wanting something that you don't have than having something you don't want.

'Weasel-I'm off my soap box now

 

Two rules I live by-
#1: Do what ever you want now and live with no regrets, because you'll be dead alot longer than you'll be alive. (Just found out today a guy I went to school with since 1st grade died in a car wreck last night).
#2: Don't ever get married, that is the single biggest contributor to debt, I'm still paying for my ex's ****. Or at least only let your wife know 50% of your business- that way she can only get 1/4 of what you really have!

 

YEP

 

Too bad my youngest daughter had to go through the divorce!
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WWWWWWW TTTTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF


Jeesh!

 

They even have training equipment now!
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Ernie is correct, you should buy with cash. Why do you need to borrow? If you borrow all the time it gets into a bad habit, borrowing are for suckers, you should be lending not borrowing, that is why lenders are rich and powerful.

 

If you have the cash - keep it!
If you're married - keep that too!

 

When I first bought a Ferrari, I did not pay cash, but it was at a time I knew I could sell the car - even in a hurry - and come out ahead. Now... you better be able to make the payments, because you cannot be sure you could sell it at all. So if your income is steady, and you don't have a bunch of other debt, then you might be able to take advantage of low interest rates and finance a car that is pretty well depreciated.

We just bought the wife a new van and financed it because the rate was so low it was stupid not to.

 

Oh, J/C....as the father of two girls, I didn't need to know that!
This is already what my doctor told me....
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I am in debt because I bought my car, please help and donate...I take Paypal...

 

I'll be the first to be honest, I leased mine and owe on my house. I was making decent money at the time. Currently income has taken a huge hit and I'm not in trouble yet but if things don't turn around in the next year, I'll have to come up with something.

I wouldn't change a thing. Life is short and I never feel the 355 is a waste of money, sometimes I look at the house payment and shake my head but never the 355 payment, tbh I think if it came down to it I'd give up the house and keep the 355 and get an apt. With how awesome real estate is these days, I'm pretty sure the 355 is a better long term investment, at least a more fun one

 

Yes most people don't pay cash for Bimmers, etc. but those cars don't cost 5X the amount of money to maintain. I've always said if you can't buy a Ferrari with cash you don't have any business owning one. I got flammed on saying this exact thing a year ago or so. I've got a strong feeling the reason we're seeing so many Ferraris dumped on the market now is because the owners can't afford them plain and simple. One other thing I've lost money on every Ferrari I've ever owned, its a car and it depreciates like anything else.

 

#1: Do what ever you want now and live with no regrets, because you'll be dead alot longer than you'll be alive. (Just found out today a guy I went to school with since 1st grade died in a car wreck last night).

#2: Don't ever get married, that is the single biggest contributor to debt, I'm still paying for my ex's ****. Or at least only let your wife know 50% of your business- that way she can only get 1/4 of what you really have!

Two golden pieces of advise.

Cash Baby Cash

I bought my house cash. My income goes up and down like a roller coaster. I have had no debt for the last 8 years. the only bills I have are insurance,taxes,food and utilities.
Freedom is well worth it do not be a debt slave.

Don't get married. Women spend money like drunken sailors. I am by no means a tight wad but what I see my wife and some of my friends wives do with money is scary.

 

I am hoping to save up a bunch of money so I can leave it in the bank or give it to doctors before I die.

 

If you have equity in your house and it's enough to buy a Ferrari, I don't see why you can't use that equity to buy the car, provided that you realize that it is $3/mile to drive the car over and above your debt payments. Unless you make a foolish purchase you can always sell the car and shift your equity back to your house. Ultimately, the factor you want to look at is your debt-to-income ratio (DTI). That's the percentage of your gross income that is used to service your debt. There are many different factors to consider, but your DTI should not exceed 40%.

I ran those numbers for myself before pulling the trigger on my F355. By using equity in my house to finance the F355, my DTI became 31% which is higher than it's been for quite a while but I have an aggressive 60-month payback schedule on the F355 (actually Home Equity Line of Credit or HELOC) loan. The interest rate is low and interest is tax deductible.

I read the other answers in the thread "only buy with cash" but I don't think that is a detailed enough answer. Sure, if I never bought the Ferrari and took all of the money that I'm paying on my HELOC and put it into a Ferrari fund, I would have about $82K after 5 years and I could buy a Ferrari 5 years from now -- or -- I could borrow $70K now and buy a $70K car today with the same payments required to completely service the debt in 5 years. So, what do you want? A $70K Ferrari now or an $82K Ferrari 5 years from now?

Wallace

P.S. My next decision is harder. At a car show today, a guy from California asked me what I wanted for my F355 (which is in the show and looks spectacular, BTW). I have $62K in the car. I told him $70K and he didn't even blink. He took my business card.

P.S.2. As someone who has already almost died once, I say buy the car if you can swing it. I have not regretted it once.

 

I almost died once, too. A homemade (by me) pipe bomb went off in my face, and I was almost blinded, not to mention coming really close to blowing my face off, or worse my whole head. I was on the news, interrogated by the bomb squad and everything, at the ripe old age of 14. Because of this incident (evoking the realization that life is fleeting), I've jumped out of an airplane, taken career risks, and bought my Ferrari. You never know when you're going to kick the bucket. If today I learned I had five minutes to live, I'd probably just drink a beer and think about all the cool stuff I've done.

Buy the car but make sure you get a good one.

 

Just got my 355 over the holidays...it was a stretch, but we paid cash and got a decent deal (very good deal in December, decent deal 2 months later). I had just received news that my cancer was in remission...and it seemed like it was the perfect time to fulfill one of my dreams.

I love the car and I am very proud of it, but I have had some serious buyer's remorse. The biggest lesson I have learned in my time as an owner, is that the purchase price is only a small part of the TCO. In the first two months, it has spent 4 weeks in the shop. Driver's side window motor went out 3 days after I got it (FoA took care of that on their dime) and a month later I had to replace the Airbag ECU and fuel pump to a tune of $4500.

Bottom line...weather you borrow or pay cash, only buy one of these if you can really afford it. You will need to spend $$$ on it to keep it up...and if it was too much of a stretch, you might let the cost of service keep you from making necessary repairs.

There was a great episode of Top Gear where James May had the opportunity to drive a Countach...and said maybe you shouldn't try to see your childhood dream in person...you might be disappointed with what you find.

All I am saying (confessing) is that a Ferrari is a car...maybe the coolest, sexiest, marque on the planet, but it is still a car...and you have to "pay to play" in this ballgame.

Thanks for reading...now that I have that off my chest; I am going to go wind-up my dream car to 8500 rpm and smile as I listen to roar of Enzo's legacy behind my head!