[quote=BoomerAang]There is the phrase “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”
Well, technically you can at that salary. If I were in your situation, I would be maxing that 401k and working that Roth in order to reduce the taxes instead of looking at such a new toy.
Assuming you have all the space for the toys, that’s a lot of scratch for a vehicle you would be hardly driving. Would you be riding a lot less after getting the is-f? Would you even be tracking it?
You can spend a lot less cash on an older toy car if you are hardly putting miles on it. Most of the depreciation would already hit and you can squeeze out a lot more years at the low mileage you drive. There are a lot of reliable options out there. You can get a cheaper Porsche 996, a couple year old Lexus sc, an Infiniti g37 coupe, a German roadster (z4, slk).[/quote]
I agree with BoomerAang. There are a lot of luxury cars out there of all stripes which are even 15+ years old but have been continuously garaged and even have extensive service records.
The problem is actually finding one of these for sale by a private party. It takes a lot more looking (and wasting time and gas “shopping” at private-party listings) than it does to just roll onto a dealer lot and buy a washed and detailed CPO with a one-year warranty in <1 hour.
The reward comes when you are finally able to buy a great used vehicle (even a lower-mileage one) for $5K-$15K. A lot of people don't seem to want to bother with this type of car-buying expedition because it can be labor intensive for the buyer and there is no "instant gratification."
