Lamborghini Forum - View Single Post

TommyJames · #39 (**permalink**) 04-05-2008, 05:31 AM

Yes, there are so many variables and I think you're thinking about it correctly. I couldn't afford a Lamborghini for a long time because I was rolling every dime into building my business. I know what it's like to sit on the sidelines and wait for the day when I could buy my car. Like you, I read the forums and everything I could about car ownership before I bought my LP.

You have to look at car ownership rather broadly and simply total every dollar you spend from the day you buy the car until the day you sell it and subtract what you get for it the day you sell it from that total. In the case of exotics and hyper cars, miles are a bigger factor than your average car. Some cars hold their value well and others don't for a variety of reasons. You also have to factor in the cost of money. It's not simply a matter of the interest rate, but what that same dollar would do if spent on an appreciating asset. Some people don't finance their cars in a down stock market because of the cost of borrowing is more than the interest earned on that money and others finance no matter what their financial situation. It depends on your available cash too.

As for income level, it's really up to you. Assuming you have the cash to buy the car without financing, and you can afford the depreciation and expenses, I'd think you could own one with a lot less income because you wouldn't have the interest expense with monthly payments. It also depends on how many miles you expect to drive. I know some exotic owners who can afford to buy cars, but can't afford to drive them because of the depreciation cost per mile. They are so worried about driving their cars that they keep them in the garage and put less than 100 miles on the car per year. I bought mine to drive it and I knew it would cost me something to do just that and I'm willing to pay it.

AutoWeek puts out occasional car reviews where they publish the true cost of ownership for various specific models and it's a good template to use for your analysis. If you look at their template, you will notice that the true cost per mile is really high. This is realistic. When you total the numbers, you may be shocked by how expensive it really is, but for me, I think it's worth it. It's a lot like owning a boat and there are no hard rules.

As for net worth, I think the forum has the whole range. You will see some posts on another forum about a guy buying a car with nine credit cards, and others have giant car collections. Both are around to talk about Lamborghinis and income or ownership status shouldn't matter.