am722

If you are making 250k and spending only 5% of your income on cars then (assuming a reasonable down payment) you can afford a 911. The whole "rule" thing is pretty stupid in my opinion, as people have wildly different spending and saving patterns as well as priorities. If you are relatively young, don't plan on retiring early, and don't eat out every night/buy expensive watches and suits, you can afford a hell of a lot of car at 250k per year. Whether some people think that's irresponsible or wasteful is irrelevant. It's all about what you are comfortable with. Some people "only pay cash for their toys." Good for them, I don't plan on waiting that long to have my fun.
You can't take it with you.

kcturbo

[QUOTE][Originally Posted by Billy Bob Dibble

"Spending 2% of your wealth on cars is a good rule of thumb" or "If you are spending more than 5% of your income annualy on cars your spending too much." For example, I would think someone with only 2M in the bank and no other assets, should not be buying a bugatti veyron for 1M (IMHO)./QUOTE]


The first post above was referring to having 2 million in net worth, not 2 million in income. The two are obviously vastly different.

Likemystoppie?

Not to mention 2% of 250k/year would be $5000 buckaroo's.


LOL $5k isn't gonna get you a new, used or crashed 997tt

(maybe a decent RC/Gas model though, right?? )

TT Surgeon

2.7M, holy crap I gotta sell mine now!

Master Deep

lmao ^^

man this thread is great.

boolala

What the current economic crises has taught us is that irresponsible spending by some people will eventually come back to haunt all of us.

Alex (UK)

Here in the UK the average person spends 50% of what they make in a year on a car (taking the average salary here and the average car price across all sold). So if you earn 50k then you would buy a 25k car.

This is for 'normal' cars though, supercar purchases are bought more with the heart the the head so I would say the range is larger (1% up to 200%)

boolala

Ok. So assuming they keep the car for 4 years they are spending about 12% of their salary per year. Another way to look at this is that it takes 6 months salary to pay for a car. In the U.S. the figure used to be about 4 months salary but I'm sure this is higher now.

carcommander

If you have to ask........ If you want a car you can drive everyday buy a Porsche if you want to be entertained buy a Ferrari. Don't by either unless the question of whether I can afford it or not does not come up.

bonehead

Interesting and enlightening responses here. I too am curious about what people believe is a 'reasonable' amount to spend on a luxury item, in this case, a really cool car

2%, 5%, 50% ()? I do earn a 'decent' living, certainly not in the same stratosphere as many of you here, but okay. A year ago, I probably could have comfortably purchased a well-equipped 997TT, but I've managed to cut my savings in half in the last year on a number of non-luxury expenses. By adhering to some of the rules here, I shouldn't even think about getting a 997TT, while by others, I should be just fine.

There really is no good answer. Some people are content to live in their parent's basement, deplete their savings, and buy a Porsche, Ferrari, or Lambo. Others give different things higher priority. All I know is that if I ever get that car, it'll be a nicely optioned USED one. Depreciation is a B*$^H

Porscheholic

Depreciation can be friend or foe - just depends on what side of the fence you happen to be sitting on. I have been on either side of the fence many times - fortunately in the case of the 997TT depreciation is my friend! Will pick up a used one sometime this year.

jcnesq

I always looked at this as X as a reasonable car budget, plus Y as a reasonable hobby budget! (And then I usually add some more!)

BBTurbo

I think you should look at a low mileage 2007. I bought a near perfect 2007 with under 10k miles for $87,000. The car is Porsche Pre owned Certified and it only had some very minor wear on the interior. The body was perfect. Nice set of options, Adaptive Sport Seats, Sport Shifter, Sport Chrono, Multi Function wheel, Clear Bra, etc. Also has a slick integrated radar detector installed by the owner. With the money I saved I was able to add new wheels, AWE Tune and Exhaust, plus a set of Bilstein's. I'm into the car for just over $100k and it now has 500hp to the wheels.

930man

um yeah... or get my GT2 back!

bonehead

May I ask what color combo you have? $87K low mileage is a great deal!