Quote:
Originally Posted by timurrrr
One other way to think about it is that it's not about investment and more about minimizing depreciation.
If you plan to run the car to the ground so that it becomes nothing in value, then your "cost of ownership" = "purchase price" + "how much you spent on it". But if you can eventually sell it for some amount of money, your cost of ownership can be smaller. If you buy a new BRZ for $30k, drive it for a few years, and sell it for $15k, your cost of ownership is significantly higher than buying a used one for $20k, do all those same things, and sell it for $10k.
Someone I know recently sold his Golf R for the same amount of money he previously bought it for, despite putting a substantial amount of miles on it and even doing some autox. Owning that car for a few years only cost him a couple of thousands of $, which IMO is a pretty good deal.
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This. Depreciation doesn't concern me on a $30k car. At worst it'll cost me $18k to own. If I get a Porsche or BMW, besides the initial shock of spending $60+k on something that's not a house, there's the consideration of how much of that money I'll never see again. It wouldn't change how I'd use the car but it does figure into the initial "can I afford it" and new-vs-used equation.
A huge appeal of the twins to me is they're the "practical choice". I'd never feel financially irresponsible getting one. Everyone's financial situation is different but for me there's a lot of grey area between what I CAN afford and how I SHOULD be spending my money. I guess this is part of entering your 40s: Finally having the means to acquire things you've lusted after while also realizing that "saving for retirement" isn't a distant concept anymore.