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Old 04-05-2012, 04:18 AM   #16
brianbot5000
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Son, let me tell you a little story...

When I was 22, and just a few months shy of graduating from a four-year college, I bought a 1991 300zx Twin Turbo. I had been obsessing about this car for months. This was way back in 1999, back when obsessing over cars was hard to do - for one, there weren't tons of car forums and car sites to obsess over. At that time, I resorted to the free "for sale" magazines you see at the grocery store. I'm telling you, I LOVED that car for months on end, and HAD to have one.

At that time, a decent 300zx TT was around $15k-$20k and up. I had a few grand in the bank, and I rationalized the purchase by saying to myself, "soon I'll have a decent job in the computer industry (this was before the dot-com bubble burst), and I'll be able to easily afford this." So I bought one. And soon, I did have a decent job making OK money - not a lot, but at the time I thought it was. But it didn't matter - between the car payments and insurance, plus general maintenance, the cost was significant. And, the car was so nice that it caused me to stress out about where I parked...it caused stress when I needed to haul anything and couldn't...in general, it just caused stress. And when you're in your early 20's, the last thing you want is stress - that's the time to just have fun and not worry about saving money or paying large bills, cause there will be plenty of that later. It was sad because this car that I LOVED was soon the object of my hate. I literally thought of creative ways to get rid of it, because for some reason the idea of simply selling it (after nearly a year if pining for it) seemed wrong...almost, embarrassing.

Sorry for the long story, but your post reminded me so much of myself and that stupid 300zx. Don't get me wrong, I loved that car and have fond memories of it (I still love those BTW), but I would have loved it even more had I just waited a couple of years, for a time when I could easily afford it and appreciate it without worrying so much about it.

Cliff's Notes: Don't do it. Wait until you're well out of college and make good money. You'll be happy you did.
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