only because you seem risk averse. If you can't make your peace with knowing the thing could need some dumb repair that tops 4k pretty easily, you should have a warranty. It's a reliable car, but when it does need something, it's going to be expensive.

Whatever breaks is a chance to upgrade imho

 

depending on what part of the country you live in , there are better ways to get your dream car without killing your savings.

this is how i got my cls55 - ( before my 911tt )

saved up $45k to buy the car.

at the last minute - spent 40k cash on a duplex and put 5k into rehab. paint and flooring. rented each side out for $450.

got a loan for the car , and had the tenants make my car payment.

4 years later- owned the car and duplex outright.

had to pay some extra income and property tax, but the whole thing worked out great. just a little creative movement of money.

i agree with most of the posters here that life is short. many people are not lucky enough to even consider this car. don't look back on your life and regret what you could have done. once you are behind the wheel, you will know that you made the right decision. you can always make more money , you cannot make more time. the clock is ticking .

imagine if you wore a watch that counted down the time of your death and you actually got to see how many years, days, hours and minutes you had to live. even those with a long countdown would see how short life is. go for it!

 

Smart strategy! Where did you fine a duplex for $40k? In my neck of the woods, a plan 1 bedroom 800sq condo goes for at least $250k.

 

Go for it - best car I have ever bought. BTW - I think it's funny that you "work in the lucrative investment industry" and are going to invest 1/3 of your savings in a car, which is guaranteed to lose you money lol! (Not a flame, just funny irony)

 

IMHO OP is actually well ahead of the game compared to the average US household.

According to http://www.statisticbrain.com/americ...al-statistics/ the average US household in 2014 has a savings balance of $3,800 and a retirement savings of $35,000.

Consider a popular family car, say a Honda Accord. The Accord costs ~$30,000 and the average household who buys this mainstream car just spent money beyond their savings and have ventured into negative territory (assuming retirement can't be touched). If one assumes that retirement savings somehow can be touched, that's 77% of their total savings. Scary isn't it?!

So OP who is thinking of spending one-third of his/her savings on a 911, he's doing a pretty good job compared to the average American.

I suspect the average Porsche 911 owner or interested to-be-owner, who either buys new or used, is financially more well off than its non 911 counterparts.

 

Also dont forget that Accord will be worth ~$10k in 5 years so they will have "lost" ~$20k.

The 911 that is bought at $60k will most likely still be worth $50k in 5 years so you only lose ~$10k here.

I always wondered how some folks than make less money that me drive around in almost new exotics for 2-3 years then I realized that if you buy one a the "right price" (not overpay) and you take care of it, you can sell it for less depreciation than if you bought a new Honda Civic off the lot and drove it around the same amount of time.

 

I paid for my TT cash. Knowing how well my stock investments have panned out, wish I would have financed at least half. Invested the other half, car would have essentially been free. Not factoring capital gain taxes and so forth, the deal would have had a better outcome. At the end of the day, All being said, I am happy with my car purchase. I would in your situation finance and use the other part as an investment. Let the power of leverage work for you. Most here on this forum at least now about these simple facts that are overlooked by simple minds elsewhere. Don't pay it all off. Invest the rest.

 

There is turbo lag on the 997.2. At roll-on airstrip events, I had to floor the car around a half second before the car would actually accelerate due to the lag.

In addition to airstrip racing, I also participate in track events and the lag was disappointing. The main cause of the lag is the placement of the restrictive cats right next to the turbos. An exhaust that moves the cats or eliminates them completely will dramatically help. A tune in conjunction with exhaust is the best thing you can do. I have heard that headers will further help however I have not tried them.

 

What did you invest in that you got 100% rate of return in a 4-5 year period?

 

A friend of mine worked out a formula to drive an almost new high-end car every couple of years. The key is to buy a car at roughly 2 years old, with around 20,000 miles on the odometer. Depending on the car, this allows you to purchase it for roughly 60% of the original sticker price. Drive it for two years and sell it before it hits 48,000 miles. In this two year period, cars depreciate very little. If you go past 4 years or past 48,000 miles, then the value drops quickly. He has done this with a few BMWs, and I know that he generally sells or trades them for only about $5,000 less than he paid for them. Driving an almost new BMW for two years for $5,000 isn't a bad deal...

 

My neighbors and coworkers who drive "regular people" cars probably look at my cars and wonder how I can afford to waste so much money?

I look at their new Civics and Fusions and $60k highly optioned Tahoes and wonder how they can afford to lose so much in depreciation?

I always say I'm not rich enough to buy a new economy car. I'll stick with Porsche and BMW.

 

[QUOTE=docboy;4289764]Smart strategy! Where did you fine a duplex for $40k? In my neck of the woods, a plan 1 bedroom 800sq condo goes for at least $250k.[/QUOTE

i live just outside st louis, mo . in belleville il. my parents got me started in real estate, they do it in massachusetts, which , like seattle is not as easy to pick up cheaper propertys, but the rents are more expensive as well. this sort of balances it out.

 

Smart.

Smarter > if they owned a business, they could enter into a pre-own lease and write off the entire lease payment, sell the car at the end of the 2-year lease period at a gain (because typically the leasing company will set the residual below the expected FMV at the end of the lease period), not pay taxes on the gain, and then combined with the gain, the tax benefits, and considering all of the lease payments, actually make a profit

 

So Long how much faster would your car be with no lag? I would rather the .5 of lag and the crushing turbos when spooled than an NA moving but only beating me the first 10 revs of the tires off the line.

 

Well, I am going to be in the minority but my advice is to not buy the car.

30% of your savings is bad enough, but do you realize that losing that money now how much money this costs you over the years of compounding?

For instance that $60K that could earn 6% (before taxes/expenses) will double in 12 years, then double again is another 12. So spend $60K now and 24 years from now when you are what not even 55 this car will have cost you $240K.

Then there are the running costs. While you get the car for $60K remember it cost probably over twice that much new and these cars as they age do not get any cheaper to maintain or repair.

My rule of thumb is buying one of these cars should not take your life savings at all. The money used to buy the car should come from separate savings account, mad money or something. I know there is the desire to live for today for one may not be here tomorrow, but most of us will be here tomorrow and for a long time to come.

For instance, my Dad lived to be 95. He retired at around 60 and lived 35 years retired. He was almost retired for longer than he worked after he got out of college (he entered college after he was discharged from the Navy back in 1946). At the end, the last 2 years or so, he and Mom were paying $72K/year for care and just a few days before Dad died the care home raised the care home fee to $84K/year! Even at $72K/year this was about $30K more per year than they were making.

Fortunately my Dad (and Mom) were fiscally conservative and had sufficient savings that none of us children had to help them financially.

My belief is a car purchase like the Turbo should not take any money from retirement, or the kid's college fund, or a down payment for a house fund.

My 1st Porsche was funded by years of hard work and savings -- easy to do since I worked a lot and didn't have time to spend my money -- and doing without some things (like expensive vacations, fancy cars, big screen TVs, etc.) and some stock options that I managed to cash in. Also, I had been fully funding my retirement via max. contribution to a 401(K) plan. (Later on, when I became eligible to do so, I also plowed as much as I could into catch up contributions.)

13 years later and with my 3rd Porsche now I have saved over $1M on my way to $2M and could retire if I wanted to. I don't want to, particularly, but let me point out that I may have to retire even if I do not want to as I was laid off last Sept and have not found a job yet. At my age (63) finding work is tough. My point is you have to plan for what may happen, not what you want happen or think will happen. I'm very glad I held off buying my Porsche until I did, when I was 51. I am very glad I started saving for retirement when I did and being very aggressive about it. (Dear old Dad encouraged me to do this and I am sure glad I listened to him! Thanks Dad!)