ESCALVANTE

I am looking into buying a 997 GT3 and was wondering how you guys/gals were thinking about purchasing such this car.

This is one of the topics that is rarely, if ever, discussed and I feel it is about time we got started to give people such as myself insight on what may be the best possible route to purchasing this car.

I planned on a $40,000-$50,000 down payment and financing the rest. Another route might be increasing the down payment by $10,000-$15,000 after selling my M Roadster.

How will you purchase this car? Lease? Pay for it outright? Half down and finance the rest?

stuka

After my last experience with a financed car (see my sig), I will probably alwasy be leasing.

Leasing is great because if someone crashes into me, crahes my car on a servic ejoyride, or me losing it on the track, I pay my insurance deductable and I give the jacked up car back to the leasing company.

Not to mention that you are carrying less debt, and that $$ can be used to make $$ instead of the depreciating asset, since Porsche will make one more GT3's than the demand to make all the $$ that they can and kill resale (as seen on the used 996 Turbo market).

SeanR

So what you are saying is, it's cheaper to lease a car because you can trash it and give it back, than it is to buy the car and take care of it? Did I get that right?

stuka

What I am saying is that it is bad to tie up more $$ than necassary on a depreciating asset.

And that even if you take great care of the car, oil change every 5K with Mobile 1 and what have you, all it takes is someone crashing into you for all that equity to vanish.

Most states don't even have diminished value on cars. Trust me, the Savage BMW episode taught me more than I ever wanted to know about all this stuff.

ltc

There is of course the old school view....

Don't buy something you can't afford to pay cash for.

AW

Don't you also write a big check for all the remaining payments? How does it work exactly?

AW

stuka

Insurance writes the big check.

Listen, having gone through the whole thing with Savage where a nicely kept M3 with clearbra, no paint chips, zymol'ed, 5K oil changes, and what have you, only to have it wrecked on a service joyride, and then having a whole sale blue book value offered to me, I am not into financing something that depreciates any more.

Let somebody else takes the loss of equity (read, diminished value) when some idiot crashes into me or wrecks my car on a service joyride for me. I pay my deductable for insurance, and I give the car back to the leasing company. I get a new car, and I move on.

AW

So that's only if the car is a write off right?

If not, you get to keep car payments while the car is fixed and then until the end of the lease right?

Thanks

AW

stuka

In general, having had intimate knowledge with the autobody business (I can write estimates in both CCC and Ultramate), I am saying that unless your state has good diminished value laws, once your car is hit, and you are trying to own it via financing, you will almost immediately be upside down.

It is true that if the car is not complete write off you still have to make payments until it's fixed and drive it till the end of the lease terms. However, you are not stuck with the upside down equity. If the car was financed, your situation would be worse, like mine with my M3.

And the difference in the montly payments can be used (must have good discipline) in investing as well. But I can do it becaues I am one of those guys that use credit cars with cash back bonus as charge cards. Effectively giving me discounts on everything that I buy.

ESCALVANTE

Stuka,

Do you suggest leasing with minimal money down? If not, How much do you suggest putting down?

Thanks.

enthusiast

... and if you have an on track incident ??? Depends on the insurance company and policy.

Does a Porsche lease cover you on the track?

RonCT

Well, it all depends. At this point in my life, I don't like going into debt for "option" things, like a new Porsche. Save up, pay cash. Many will say that's not good financial management, but at a certain point, piece of mind is worth more than a little VIG.

If you can write off a business lease, then maybe that's the way to go. I did that with my M3 - leased it for 3 years figuring if I didn't like it at the end, I could walk away. I loved the car and bought it CPO through the dealer.

It feels like with a lease, you have options. If you finance, you have fewer options - you might be upside down (look at the depreciation of the 996 GT3). If you pay cash, you have many options because you bought it with surplus. So, maybe you would never sell it...

It's not always about the numbers...

RonCT

Insurance doesn't come through a lease. If you lease, you have to keep insurance on the car to the lease company's minimum standard.

Many policies still cover you if you are on the track, but at an instructional "clinic" that is non-timed. So, PCA (and other) DEs would typically be covered. I know a guy that recently totaled his E46M3 at a DE - fully covered. Of course, I'm sure the insurance company wasn't too happy about that and I bet ever time one of them has to cover a $50-100k claim on a track, that company then has a new exclusion - removing any and all claims that happen on or near a race track.

stuka

0 if you can.

I don't belive in tying up $$ that otherwise can be used to invest. The key word here is invest, NOT nice dinners or shoes or what have you. You gotta have the discipline.

cosmos

I did the numbers both ways and the lease is slighty better.

Finance is lets say car costs $120k

Put down $20k and finance is about $1900 a month for 60 months.

Put $5k down and payments are $1900 for 36 for a lease.

For just 24 more payments you own the thing.