Why do I keep my Ferrari? Who's with me?

So in two years you've got $60k, do you buy a more expensive Ferrari or reinvest it in your business?

It IS a good question, and you're not alone, but we're here for a Good Time not a Long Time. You've got to prioritise and start enjoying the fruits of your own hard work before you're dead...or you'll end up a multi millionaire who never lived the good life.

 

I ask myself that same question nearly every week.

Then I had to drive my GF's Sentra from San Fran all the way to Sacto.

Screw the money, it's a quality of life issue

 

it will comfort me i need something nice to drive on the "highway to hell"(acdc playing in background lol)

 

In the end, it dosen't really matter what name is on your car,
it is still just a car.
If you can double the money in a short time, go for it!

 

If I would think like you, .... It would give me nightmares for sure.
I have already "lost" more than 10 times already this amount on F cars.

 

Like the other poster mentioned earlier if the 30K is such a big deal you should probably wait a while until you have more money and then jump back in the game. Secondly it seems to me that buying a F-car is more of an emotional purchase rather than a logical one. At least this was the case in my purchase. With the average new entry-level car in the low 20's the price of admission to a F-car is a bargain.

 

I've got to tell you Mark, I'm more than a little tired of your comments regarding Ferrari owners and their ego's. Maybe the ego problem is yours after all. You infer that it's a problem Ferrari owners seem to have, yet you continue to frequent our site. Why? Maybe you miss it more than you'll admit and you resent the fact that some of us are willing to accept the cost of ownership? If you're having feelings of inadequacy, take it to your shrink. Leave us out of it. Or just go away. Either way is fine with me.

 

I noticed that too. I didn't understand it. Is *not* being attached to the car such a critical part of your identity as to require mentioning it? If every Ferrari owner is a raging egomanic with a penisextensionmobile, why bother hanging around?

Or is it because you bought a car that required too much maintenance and repairs, and now because your dreams of something grand were ruined you spite the marque? To be frank, it sounds like one of those justification excuses. "Oh, I didn't want it anyway."

I'm not saying leave, but lay off it and please don't belittle the general users and purpose of the board.

 

These are highly personal choices because everyone's circumstances and responsibilities are different. I've done it both ways - buy a high-end car on payments with any major repair a real financial disaster when I was younger or out of a modest percentage of investment earnings more recently. (I've also had the father that retired after a lifetime of hard work only to die within a year, that was an ever present reminder to have some fun along the way and not put everything off.)

When I bought my first Ferrari on payments, I could have had a "sensible car" for less and used the extra money for a contingency reserve or savings, but the extra costs of the high-end car left me no margin. There was a lot of anxiety in that situation and I sometimes lost sleep over bills so I finally moved on to some fun, but less exotic/expensive cars (P-cars) for many years.

Looking back from my current perspective, my "go to sleep every night peacefully" method says that you get the most fun, but reliable car(s) you can own after you have ensured that you can put at least 10 (better yet 15) % of your net earnings into savings. If you do that, it won't be as long as you might think before you'll be able to make payments on a high-end car out of the income from your investments.

If you can hold off a little more and use less than half the income you get to make payments on your cars, it won't be that much longer before you can just buy the car out of investment income. At that point, you will truly be able to "afford" the car (by which I mean, if it depreciated overnight to nothing, it would make you blink, but not cause you to jump off a bridge).

 

Help me understand why you still find the time to hang out with the Ferrari crowd here? You may already know but Rennlist.com is the premier P-car hang out; a ton of good information there.

Dane

 

Some of the snobbier P-car guys never felt that a 914/4 (with the VW engine) was a "real" Porsche. Had to be a 914/6 (with the flat-6 engine) to gain admission.

I'm glad someone's keeping a few of the 914's alive. The problem with them is that they're worth so little that very few want to put real money into them to keep them nice.

 

Owning a Ferrari should provide some pleasure for you.
If making lots of money does that for you, great.
In the end, figure out what makes you "happy", and do it.
You may find out that neither really makes you happy.

 

Buying and selling my Ferrari was possiably one of the best moves I could have made. I bought my car for a good price..sold it and made a cool 10k in 4 years..tell me what other purchase I could have made would have done that for me..for the same outlay.

I loved the car had great times with it..but it was time for it to go. I know I will get another one soon..and a newer model..Will I be able to repeat the money I made on my 308? Ha!..probbaly not..but I basicly drove around a wad of cash and made the interest when I sold it.

I now have a nice house to live in..and I can replace my Benz for a newer model..and still have cash in the bank to the tune of close to 30k (of course that includes prior savings). Yep..would I do it again..damn straight!!

 

I think you have your answer, and spike308's preceding post about figuring out what makes you happy says it all.

If you look at your Ferrari and see $30K idle, sell it. It's personal economics - put your money where it maximizes your personal happiness.

If you're a sports car guy, though, I don't know what you're going get for $30K that even remotely approaches a Ferrari 308. I've owned or driven everything else short of the exotics, and at the end of the day the big waste of money was buying a bunch of more rational, reliable cars that turned out to be four-wheeled excuses for not buying The Car I Really Wanted.

So, that $30K isn't a huge price to pay.

 

think "V12".............

 

I don't think that Ferrari ownership can be rationally juxtaposed to anything else. You either have the Passion or you don't. If you do, financial prudence is incidental (as long as you don't ruin yourself). If you don't, Ferraris are ridiculously overpriced and impractical transportation. Entirely your personal call.

 

If $30k means that much to you along with regrets sell the car, honestly you can't afford it, Ferraris are a big risk anyway as at any time something ridiculously expensive can break which you will need to fix or for some require selling the car at a major loss because they can't afford to fix it.

The expenses I have made on my cars I have no regrets and I am more than satisfied with as they have made each of my cars better, the only guilt or regret I have sometimes is that I spend too much time on the cars which I should be doing other things or little things that needed to be taken care of with my business which get neglected.
`

 

Money, schmoney. You could die tomorrow. MHO.

 

I'm glad someone noted that comment about ego.... it's kind of annoying when a blanket statement is made like that... couldn't one say that you got the 914 not because you're NOT attached to your ego, but because you're so self conscious about it that you had to get a 914 to prove you weren't?

Anyway, back on topic, you need to decide for yourself when you have enough money to actually use it to enjoy yourself... if the $30k isn't hurting you financially (i.e. you have plenty more or it isn't making it difficult to put food on the table), and you really love the Ferrari, then the only thing that is left to think about is if you want to have the money in order to purchase certain things that make you happy, or you just love to have money to have money...

I'm not saying you should keep the 308, but don't be a Scrooge and penny pinch so much that you have a lot of money, but never got to enjoy it.

 

Damn Jim, you tell him how it is!

Peter, I sometimes wonder about the $ tied up in two expensive cars and think I might be wiser to sell them and invest the money. But these thoughts are always when I am in the house. Once I go out to the garage, the thoughts subside. Then, once the key is turned and she barks to life, well lets just say its no longer an issue!

 

I don't know of many businesses or investments you can get double your return investment in a year. Besides maybe selling drugs. I just doubled my business by opening another store & my gross income is twice as high but I'm only around 20-25% increase in personal income a year. Which I'll take in any economy. Slow & steady wins the race. And the only race I want to race in has me behind a wheel of a Ferrari! I sensed some troubles in your life when I read your post. I hope I'm wrong. I think of my Ferrari like a woman I have been dating for many years. Sometimes she pisses me off & costs me thousands of dollars. Sometimes I get insanely jealous when someone I don't even know is touching her in the parking lot. It's the price to pay to have a high maintenance gorgeous red head. So when she is stressing me out I think of the first time I got her. The passion, the power & how there is nothing that can really compare to her. When you start to take her for granted & you part ways, you'll regret it. Unless your kicking the old bag to the curb for a newer younger red head. HA!

 

The Ferrari instills confidence in your customers, can u imagine Trump or whoever driving a Yugo?

 

My 308 is the only real item I own, that I can say with cofidence was created by an true artist, in every sense of the word. I cant really afford it some days, I certainly dont make the kind of money some of you guys throw around. But I always wanted it, and I finally got one. Its not about the money, other than what it took to get it, its about the passion. If its about your ego, you have mental trouble.
I had the passion at an age I cant even recall, Mostly my entire life. I see some buy these cars for different reasons, such as wanting to be seen in one, which really pissed off the maker of the car. I see some buy them as investments, which probably pissed the maker off just as much or more so. I bought one so I could connect the dots in my life as a mechanic that started way way back before I knew the mans name, even though I somehow knew the cars. I somehow knew that somewhere, in some small place, like some santa workshop, beautiful machines were being created.
I have seen people lose so much money on cars in my life, including me, thats its insane. My wife bought a 2000 GMC Jimmy for $26K, sold it last year for $7,500. Thats a loss of almost $20K in 4 years. I bought a 97 Expedition last year for $11K, and maybe I havnt lost so much yet, but its still a loss. My god man, I see people with three or four snowmobiles, or the same amount of ATV's, basically a 308 sitting there, and they think we have money? If you aint hurting and you have a 308 in your garage, keep the damned thing man. If your worried that much about your buisness, you probably have a lot more going on than the stupid car being the problem. Maybe you need to ask "why" you own it?

 

Just my two cents.... I recently had to invest 20% of the total value of my Fcar in misc repairs. Keep in mind that a major service at the dealer would average 20% of her value ( $6500 on a 3.2 valued at 34k). Instead of thinking what a terrible waste this was I made sure that I did not have to dip into my savings... I planned on using a company bonus to cover it. I did not cause my family to miss one thing or go without. I kept my investments intact and only spent money that I earned through performance. Was it worth it..... damn straight! Once she was perfect again and I heard that sound I remembered why I work so hard everyday. How do I feel knowing that I am already past the point of any monetary reward from this car? Hummm..... I just saw 4 identical Boxsters while I was driving home and they are starting to look dated. Add to that at least 15 new Mustangs and I can only tell you that EACH time I look at my blue sweatheart I feel the same as the day I got her. Screw money.... thats the easy part of life.... Finding what makes you happy and holding on to it... thats the gift.

 

Buying a 308? ................$~20K


Maintaining a 308?..........$~20K (so far)


Being able to take pictures like the one below and drive it on the road in the pic below that?...........................................................


PRICELESS!!!
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