Can I afford it? new car

[bearishgurl]

[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."

[flyer]

Guess I’m in the flu/nsr camp.

If I was in the volatile tech field, and dependent on a W-2 job for income and hadn’t purchased a home, and/or didn’t have a solid retirement/exit plan, I would probably be thinking more about those things than cars at 41. Just my opinion.

That said, if you know you will be inheriting a substantial amount of money at some point in time, you might feel comfortable spending more freely.

[Myriad]

Concur, I think at 41, you need to have more in retirement, unless you got a great pension plan.
So at 40 and with $135k salary, you should have at least 2 times that in retirement savings.
Not sure why you have $300k in cash, doesn’t seem like a good allocation in capital.

But it you want to be conservative and have $50k on hand for emergencies, that leaves $30k out of the original $300k.

Not sure how much savings you net/year, but you probably have enough to buy the car, especially if you keep it for a long time.
Of course, if you have kids or decide to buy a house, then you probably don’t have enough.

[bobby]

I’m in a similar situation. Want to get a new car but been deciding the past month. can’t seem to get past the idea that spending money on a newer better car while the old one runs fine is a want, not a need.
my financial numbers are different but still… want, not need, is hard to go forward.

[spdrun]

Buy a more fun car like an early-gen Miata (or a motorcycle), keep the daily driver. Best of both worlds…

[BoomerAang]

Jalopnik answer to all is the Miata…

[joec]

Since you asked…for everyone’s opinion, here’s mine…I agree with what flu and the others say.

I think what you are going through is just a mid life crisis, but with no kids or wife. Like others have said, it’s probably pretty important as to what the g/f with eventually end up or become as a first point to consider.

As someone who went through all this, but probably 10+ years ago (divorce, no kids, left job), I think as guys, we just hit a point and ask, “What now? or Is that all?”

You probably been working for 20+ years and just want to splurge a bit more on yourself and the “car” is the latest thing.

Anyhow, I think 50k in a 401k is woefully behind in terms of retirement. I probably “had” closer to 200-300 in my 30s, in addition to a few hundred k more outside for a house purchase.

Tech jobs over 40+, you will also face age discrimination as well unless you are in a very specialized field so knowing what I know now, I think the 20-35 period is where you want to maximize your income/work since you can afford to (time/no wife/kids).

If I was in your shoes, I’d put a ton more in retirement, for one thing…Agree that if you want a car that’s fun, I’d guess a brand new Miata would be funner to drive, is used a lot on the track/autocross and probably has more “value” and “fun” than the Lexus.

When I was also searching for CPO previously, the prices also didn’t seem that good if you can negotiate well for new…I guess that depends on the car, but with insanely low interest rates, sometimes new wasn’t more than CPO since your selection options are limited for CPO and I never bothered to see how hard the dealers are willing to come down. Just seemed brand new wasn’t that much more at all compared to the CPO prices I saw online.

You could also choose to “lease” a fun car also to not be tied down to any particular one if you didn’t really like that model, but with those bikes, I assume you actually like to go fast and go on a track so the Lexus sounds like a porker…

One thing which can change all this is if you get married/have kids, etc…then, your whole plan maybe working for a lot longer/saving a ton more, ec…

That said, I think if you didn’t splurge and do wasteful things now (within limits), after kids/wife, you’ll probably never do those things since it’s pretty irresponsible and selfish…and expensive…

[Anonymous]

Buy the car. It will show your girlfriend that you value the opinion of an anonymous person on the internet more than you value hers.

Use cool new car to find new girlfriend.

[Coronita]

[quote=joec]When I was also searching for CPO previously, the prices also didn’t seem that good if you can negotiate well for new…I guess that depends on the car, but with insanely low interest rates, sometimes new wasn’t more than CPO since your selection options are limited for CPO and I never bothered to see how hard the dealers are willing to come down. Just seemed brand new wasn’t that much more at all compared to the CPO prices I saw online.[/quote]

A good example of this is an FR-S. Buy a 2014 CPO one here, it runs about $23.. Go up to L.A. and buy a 2016 one that is new, it will run you about $24.9. For $2000, I’ll take new please.

imho, either go cheap and get a cheap used or go all out and get brand new. I have a problem spending $40k on any used car, unless there’s some collector value to it.

(In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a fan of the FR-S as an inexpensive track toy. It’s like a miata, with a hardtop that you don’t need to worry as much if you were to roll it over running on real track. Plus, plenty of CARB legal mods for it.)

[spdrun]

Jalopnik answer to all is the Miata…

Miata, FR-S, and Alfa 4c are the only sports cars in the US that aren’t overweight, over-featured barrels of pigfat.

You can get rollbars for pre-2005 Miatas quite easily if you track it or are generally a fearful wuss.

[La Jolla Renter]

If your girlfriend is hot, nice, loves to take care of you, and is a chronic saver (1 in 10 billion combination), skip the car and buy a 20k car and a 20k ring.

What is your rent? You must be sharing rent with the girlfriend or live in a dump.

How long with the girlfriend?

What does your 300k portfolio look like? Nothing in a roth IRA.

Did the 300k come from savings, sale of house, etc.

Just trying to understand your personality and situation a little better.

Shame you didn’t buy a place 5 years ago, but 99% of us can say that.

PS thank you for your continued income tax contribution.

[kev374]

decided to skip the new car for now, going to wait until next year. In the interim I could always rent a car through relayrides.com if I get the urge to do a Sunday drive.

Given the ridiculously low amount I drive I think the ala carte approach of renting when the need arises makes more financial sense as I not only get to drive various cars but also don’t have to deal with the overhead of maintenance, insurance and the headaches of parking (I have only a 1car garage and street parking in a PITA)

[spdrun]

Bikes are more fun than cages anyway.

[moneymaker]

Good decision! I’m still trying to figure out how to get my motorcycle back in the garage. Much easier to not have to wait for it to cool before covering it. Just noticed the server time stamp is off an hour for CA, time to catch some rays.

[CA renter]

[quote=kev374]decided to skip the new car for now, going to wait until next year. In the interim I could always rent a car through relayrides.com if I get the urge to do a Sunday drive.

Given the ridiculously low amount I drive I think the ala carte approach of renting when the need arises makes more financial sense as I not only get to drive various cars but also don’t have to deal with the overhead of maintenance, insurance and the headaches of parking (I have only a 1car garage and street parking in a PITA)[/quote]

Good decision, IMHO. Flu, flyer, JoeC, etc. all made some good points, too. Save more, think seriously about what you want in the future: wife, kids, house, etc. That will have a major impact on every part of your life, especially your finances. Also make sure your wife-to-be and you agree on long-term plans for childcare, taking care of parents in old age, etc. What if one person needs to leave work in order to manage caregiving for kids or parents (don’t forget potential illnesses where you might **need** a full-time caregiver)?

Good luck!

[Author]

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