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One who buys a car without regards to the total cost of ownership (maintenance, insurance, depreciation) marks one as either so rich as not to care, or one who was lucky enough to get together with his money in the first place. The rest of us may want to look at where values are headed and decide do I "really" want to spend $10k a year on this car? $10k a year buys a lot of things. Most people would rather be more informed vs less informed. That being said, there doesn't need to be 20 value threads at any given time: 45 minutes of background research can give a person a ballpark figure for the cost of ownership on any car.
People who research the cost of ownership of ANY car (vs. the typical buyer's calculation of "I will buy the car if I can afford the payment") is likely the savvier planner and smarter buyer. Why others denigrate that type of buyer, I have no idea. My FIL is worth a comfortable 8 figures, yet he would NEVER buy a car that depreciated even $5,000 a year. It is a poor investment and he likes seeing his money grow: he graduated as an EE at the top of his class, has a HBS MBA, and likely smarter than most people posting here. Yet, according to some here, he should just "get over it" and "man up". I suppose some people have more money than brains (although not for long, with attitudes like this).
I want to be " that guy " who's owned his Porsche for over 25 yrs ...that was given to him by his Dad , who was the original owner. I've always admired folks like that, so much history and love for their car.
not Porsche but my garage:
59 Land Rover bought by me in 99, built it from a storage unit of parts: 20 years
98 suburban bought by my father in 1999, went to me: 20 years
D90 bought by me in 02–>sold b/c ex-wife->bought back 09: 10 or 17 years depending on how you look at it
jag super V8, owned for 7 years
Some newer (to me) stuff inc. GT3T. Third new car I have ever purchased (VW TDI was bought back which still makes me sad, still have the Tacoma 3 years now, don’t plan on selling). I don’t have kids to give them any of my cars, my cars are my kids.
On my ownership horizon, the warranty period is a blip. Most of the stuff I own I will keep until I am dead or broke.
59 Land Rover bought by me in 99, built it from a storage unit of parts: 20 years
98 suburban bought by my father in 1999, went to me: 20 years
D90 bought by me in 02–>sold b/c ex-wife->bought back 09: 10 or 17 years depending on how you look at it
jag super V8, owned for 7 years
Some newer (to me) stuff inc. GT3T. Third new car I have ever purchased (VW TDI was bought back which still makes me sad, still have the Tacoma 3 years now, don’t plan on selling). I don’t have kids to give them any of my cars, my cars are my kids.
On my ownership horizon, the warranty period is a blip. Most of the stuff I own I will keep until I am dead or broke.
Nice !
One of my biggest regrets was selling my 914/6. I had it back in the early 1980's when it wasn't considered cool, even w/ the 2.0 flat 6 and webers. During all the years I owned it, all I could think of was the day I could bump up to a 911SC. I can't even find pics of it which would've most likely been Polaroids as I spent the 80's using the Polaroid SX-70 which was not cheap back in the day.
I can't imagine ever selling my GT4. I got an incredible deal on it w/ super low miles and it's my first ever GT car .
Too many of my cars were sold out of haste and general foolishness. No more shoulda woulda could've's for me.
What color is your 59 LR ? been eyeing a Portofino Red 93 Defender 90 Diesel .
Last edited by 911-140.6; 04-04-2019 at 01:25 PM.
Reason: spell
The value threads don't bother me too much. I honestly think that legitimate buyers are more worried about the depreciation *before they pull the trigger. No one wants to buy a car and discover that they have lost $20 to $30k overnight in the first month of ownership. This can obviously happen when purchase prices are 6 digits or more, and the cars are traded differently than appliance vehicles. I kind of doubt the Instagram famous people make up too much of the market. Whomever said not to exceed 5% of net worth on cars... woof, I definitely live a little harder than that. I bought my 997 GT3 to use, could have paid cash but financed a big chunk of it. If it's worth something when I'm done with it, I will consider it a bonus.
I'm also interested in the comments about hastily selling cars. My GT3 is replacing a 944 turbo that I've owned on and off for 15 years. At one point I sold it to a friend, and later bought it back when he wanted a sail boat. I've been thinking about selling it again, partially because I don't want to sink the time and effort into keeping it running. I have no real use for it, but it also isn't costing me anything to keep. I should have learned my lesson from the first time I had to buy the car back.
One of my biggest regrets was selling my 914/6. I had it back in the early 1980's when it wasn't considered cool, even w/ the 2.0 flat 6 and webers. During all the years I owned it, all I could think of was the day I could bump up to a 911SC. I can't even find pics of it which would've most likely been Polaroids as I spent the 80's using the Polaroid SX-70 which was not cheap back in the day.
I can't imagine ever selling my GT4. I got an incredible deal on it w/ super low miles and it's my first ever GT car .
Too many of my cars were sold out of haste and general foolishness. No more shoulda woulda could've's for me.
What color is your 59 LR ? been eyeing a Portofino Red 93 Defender 90 Diesel .
59 is marine blue. 94 D90 is portofino red, just compounded and polished it from pink back to red last weekend. NAS 110 is alpine white, of course (I don’t have Ralph Lauren’s which was beluga black but probably a respray). Been shopping for one of the four “hella edition” special color 94 D90s (or the epsom green or rioja red 97 wagons) forever passed on one from ECR way back when I was poor and am still kicking myself. Anyone has picks of the lazer one or knows where it is (last registered in Ohio) I am all ears.
Because many buyers simply don't have enough fu money to buy.
best post and real answer ^^^^. so many wannabes here, people who need to look in the sofa cushions to scrape together the money. when you are stretching yourself that much to buy a car, the car becomes about the money/value and not about the driving or enjoyment. it's sad really
The value threads don't bother me too much. I honestly think that legitimate buyers are more worried about the depreciation *before they pull the trigger. No one wants to buy a car and discover that they have lost $20 to $30k overnight in the first month of ownership. This can obviously happen when purchase prices are 6 digits or more, and the cars are traded differently than appliance vehicles. I kind of doubt the Instagram famous people make up too much of the market. Whomever said not to exceed 5% of net worth on cars... woof, I definitely live a little harder than that. I bought my 997 GT3 to use, could have paid cash but financed a big chunk of it. If it's worth something when I'm done with it, I will consider it a bonus.
I'm also interested in the comments about hastily selling cars. My GT3 is replacing a 944 turbo that I've owned on and off for 15 years. At one point I sold it to a friend, and later bought it back when he wanted a sail boat. I've been thinking about selling it again, partially because I don't want to sink the time and effort into keeping it running. I have no real use for it, but it also isn't costing me anything to keep. I should have learned my lesson from the first time I had to buy the car back.
A GT3 will not depreciate $20K overnight, provided of course the car is sold in a private sale at retail. OTOH if the car is sold to a dealer, he'll give you the wholesale price. Hence the $20K loss. As for the 5% rule, I think that's a reasonable standard, unless of course you are in your 20s and haven't had a chance to accumulate much in the way of net worth. I'm on the other end of the age spectrum, so I'm a lot closer to 2%.
I've owned 911s for well over 40 years, my first was a 1970 911E. That car was probably 20% of my net worth.
The one car buying method that has served me well over the decades was to truly understand what I wanted in a car, buy that car, and then keep it for many years. The worst thing to do is to buy that "compromise" car that the owner will look to sell within a year.
TBefore buying a new car, decide how long you plan to keep it and how much you plan to drive it. Then estimate depreciation realistically, not based on fantasy and speculation and hope, along with operating cost, and decide whether the car is affordable and worth the money to you.
My GT3 has lots of road and track miles. NOT cheap to own and operate, but it’s fun.
The downside of this market nonsense is that I didn’t get an RS allocation, despite buying several new Porsches from my dealer over the past several years, including two GT cars (still have all but one of these cars, and trying to buy that one back from the current owner). I won’t pay even MSRP for a used car with reduced warranty, that I didn’t get to spec.
04-04-2019, 02:52 AM
