I will write a cheque from my line of credit.

 

YYC930: Are you really going to burden your home's equity with the purchase of your car? Brave man.

RonCT: I meant putting the $35k-$65k down on a regular financed deal.

I have an appointment with a Porsche dealership salesman this weekend. I asked him to explain the ballon payment thing and give me a test drive in an immaculate '04 GT3 they have sitting on their lot.

If they tell me anything different than what we have been discussing, I will post it up ASAP.

 

I hate leasing cars, I always get burned becuase I can't drive a car for more than 2 years before I want another one. So if I did ever lease it would be only a 2 year lease and those leases are almost just as much as buying it. You can write off serious depreiciation by owning cars and in CA I THINK we can sue for devaluation if people hit us on the road. You track nuts will only be able to do minimum DE's with your cars becuase of the milage on a lease. If it's a dedicated track car that is towed to DE's then maybe it will work out.
Buying cars cash is a major waste of money that can be used eleswhere to make you money. The only car I ever paid cash for was a ML500 during that 100% w/o GVW deal a couple years back.
IF you have a good HELOC that works good too, we just all better hope they stop rasing rates now.

 

 

Escalvante..........

I am a car dealer...........I have a $2MM line of credit..........

 

Hey, you guys who are trying to rationalize not being able to pay cash for the car and resorting to all kinds of hidden money traps explain to me why, if you had the cash it would not be better to buy it and invest an equivalent of the car payment in your favorite fund each month?

I always thought you didn't finance a depriciating asset, not that you didn't buy them. Leasing may seem cool but how many who lease a car rent their domicile? All you do is pay interest each month and after 3 yrs of heavy payments have...nothing at all.

I don't get it unless it's just your daily car that is cheap.

If buying seems expensive, check out a baloon. Likely about what a lease would cost, but you're also developing equity.

I, as some here, will just be buying my RS.

 

sorry for not reading the entire thread but here's my point of view.

i used to pay cash for the cars so i didn't have to worry about it. however, i haven't been keeping my car long enough so paying the sales tax (both pay cash or finance) is just stupid. that only applies to CA where i live which 8.25% of the tax is a big deal. u have ur own tax rate. if we don't have to pay sales tax here in CA i would pay cash all day long.

i'm not very good @ numbers so i only see which way i can save more money & makes more sense. recent example is the 2006 M5 i got. i leased the car through BMW. term was 24 month payment was like $1,712.00 including tax with no drive-off (only first month payment + fees). i only kept it for 4 month about $7,600 in it & i walked away clean. my friend paid cash for his M5 & sold it in 4 month also. he lost about 20k on it. another example is the F430 i leased. if i would've bought it the sales tax will be above 20k alone. i knew i wouldn't keep it for long but just using it as a tool to jump into a spider next year. as long as my total payment is lower than the sales tax i'm in a better shape anyways. i hope that makes sense for u.

bottom line, ask urself seriously how long will u keep the car. if the car is a keeper for sure pay cash for it. in the long run it's well worth it & u'll save all the interest money. don't finance if u have sales tax to worry about since the tax will be included in the deal & u'll never get that money back. imo, lease or cash. hope this helps.

 

20C4S:
How do you get rid of the cars before you lose money on them? Autotrader? Trade-In for new car?
This seems like a good idea.

YYC930: I didn't give it much thought but I see how an equity line could work. I just never think to use my equity for anything other than acquiring more real estate. I am going to explore this a little more to see if it makes sense for me as well.

 

ESCALVANTE,
u need to get the idea right.

i didn't say i don't lose money on them but if the lost is within certain range why not experience them all using the same amount of money until u find something u truly love. cars are depreciating asset anyways so don't expect not to lose money. think ahead & knowing what u want is very important. my example was simple enough. i just hate to waste money on sales tax if i don't need to. if i have to pay X amount of $ in tax i'd rather use that as the payments so at least within few months i can see if the car is what i really want.

trade-in the car is the worst way to get into a new car. most of the time u'll get raped by dealers without a doubt. normally dealers make more profit selling used cars than new cars, go figure. if u're thinking about a new car plan ahead to sell the current car on your own. Ebay is a good tool to let the car to be seen (not a good place to finish the deal imo). Autotrader is another good place. the internet forums are actually the best place if your reputation is good.

 

i used to pay $ for my cars, thinking i will keep it forever.
but the fact is that if you are here on RL, you aren't gonna keep your car forever, if you kept it for 5 years, that's a miracle. c'mon, fess up.

if you intend to keep it for say 8-10yrs. paying cash wins (short of crashing like stuka said).
if you lease the car and pay cash at end of 36month, then your total spendning is very similar to financing it over 60 months, see cosmos' numbers (assuming your residual is 50% or more, which a GT3 should be).
but if you have a bad disease like the rest of us who keeps changing cars (i am trying to rectify my disease!) then leasing is best. when you are done, just leave the car and get somethign else.

there are ways to get out of leases early with min. penalty. (i am not gonna tell you AW, i dont want you to catch my disease of terminating leases early and throw $ out the window).

that said, i dont like to have a toy that i can't pay cash for. but once you have the cash to pay for it, there's no need to pay it all out at once.

 

20c4s is right on. he's been through some very exotic cars mind you. ask youreself how LONG you are keeping it and be real. i have not kept a car longer than 13 months in the last 5 years. i am trying to fix my addiction.

 

What are you talking about? You keep them a long time!

Seriously though, I think the best thing here is that I am learning that I am "not alone" with my car "Jones".

 

it's a sickness guys. at least i don't do drugs or drink... gotta find an excuse to make myself feel better.

 

Lease, in the right situation........let me explain.
I'm in pvt practice, going to multiple hospitals, so I lease my porsche thru the practice with pretax dollars, 0 sd, 0 dp, taxes etc rolled into the lease to lessen up front money. I then can 'write off' nearly all of the car and expenses. At the end, as a perk I can buy myself the car, or just lease something else. Yes, I can afford to buy it outright, yes, I could lease something cheaper. But, hey, I want to drive a porsche to work, everyday and like Henry Ford said; never tie up your money in a depreciating asset, spend it on something that appreciates, like a house.
FWIW, I also lease my wife's SUV, it is purely a dep asset, and she is hard as nails on cars. Yes, it's not thru the practice and it's post tax $$, but I couldn't imagine taking a hit every 3 yrs and dealing with trying to sell it later. Just easier, cheaper and yields her a new car to tear up every three years. She's not like me, cars mean nothing to her. Sad really.

 

13 months with the same car- unheard of. LOL.