Quote:
Originally Posted by DGriz
+1 with Charles regarding depreciation.
Buying a new exotic that depreciates quickly is actually losing you money. Buying an older, pre-depreciated 911 does not. You may have lost the opportunity to invest or spend those funds elsewhere, but after 20 years you may likely get it all back plus some.
Also consider the "bang for buck" discussion. A buddy owns an early 80's Alfa Romeo Spider as his 3rd car. He has a beater 200,000 mile Suburban for hauling and ski trips, and a new Mercedes sedan for his business "appearance" car. We can knock all three for various reasons, but he's said many times that the Alfa has by far produced the greatest enjoyment over the past 10 years for his paltry $5000 investment in it.
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I have a different take on the classic new car depreciation: I bought a new 911 SC Targa in 1979 for about $25,000.-. At first it was my daily driver. Then I got an '82 FJ60 basic Landcruiser, a much more practical car for the big city and my skiing and windsurfing hobbies at the time. Now my '79 Porsche is 34 years old and still only has 50,000 miles on it. The biggest repair I had was the clutch replacement, early on, because of the original rubber clutch. My maintenance costs are minimal and I do small repairs myself. Annually, in average, it probably cost me no more than a couple of hundred dollars. Because of the age of the car the annual registration is about $130.- and the classic car insurance, full coverage, second car, is about $250.- a year. And, best of all, in dollar amount, the 34 year depreciation is zero.