I apologize in advance for the following novel. I've seen several of these threads where the poor guy gets torn a new one by everyone but I decided to try it anyway..
I decided that I was going to get an NSX about a year and a half ago and started saving money for it this summer. I'm 30 years old, have a good job, am married and have a 2 year old.
Both of my current cars have been paid off for a long time.
I currently live in a condo but am trying to get out of it to buy a real house. I have put my condo up for sale and failed to sell it twice already (about to list it for a 3rd time in the next month or two).
The problem with having an NSX in my current place is that I have a shared parking garage under my building with a tandem parking space. The recent snow here has proven that I can actually fit 2 cars in that space if I need to (pathfinder usually parks outside), however the top half of the concrete wall I park next to is chain link fence so it lets some snow/rain in. My TL parked where the NSX would be was covered with a thin layer of snow for a few days when it was really bad (rare around here, but it happens).
The other problem is that I can't work on cars where I'm at now. I end up taking my TL over to my in-laws to do repairs and wash it, so that's not entirely bad. There are some nice winding roads on the way to their house. :tongue:
There are some individual garages that I might be able to rent from someone to keep the car in, but that'll probably cost me another $100/month, so I'd prefer not to.
Are car covers water proof?
The other part of the problem is wife approval. She really wants a house (we've got money saved for that too, if only we could dump our current place). She says I shouldn't be buying a car before we get a house, and I know she's probably right. She's already given in to #1 below, as well as agreeing to park her car in the driveway if we end up with a 2 car garage (very likely). :biggrin:
Here's what I think my options are:
1) Wait until I get a house to get the car. This might be a year or two or longer, who knows. Finish saving money and pay cash for the entire thing. **This was my original plan**
The benefits of waiting include: no car payment, no risk of a car loan messing with my ability to get a mortgage, no risk of ruining car or having it get messed up being in a parking garage, the bonus of me being all responsible, etc. Another possible benefit is prices dropping even more by that time. If I could have any NSX it'd be a blue 2002+, but that is still way more than I want to spend right now.
2) Wait and see if my condo fails to sell this time around, then buy the car anyway once I have enough cash. This seems like a reasonable compromise.
3) Buy it now and finance ~half the car. The payments would be pretty small, and there's the whole instant gratification thing, though not quite instant since I've been saving money for about 7 months. The fact that I've saved that much so fast tells me the payments wouldn't be an issue.
My original savings target was $34k for a 91, but I've seen the prices drop quite a bit the past few months and I don't think I need that much money any more. I'm hoping for a silver/black (DrVolkl's car is almost perfect). I would be using the car on weekends and driving it to work on sunny days, etc.
Anyway you can calculate how much I have saved if you look at my sig.
I have other savings, and money for retirement, etc so it isn't like buying a car would be wiping me out. Can't I do something slightly less than responsible for once?
So the question is.. What would you do, and why?
I decided that I was going to get an NSX about a year and a half ago and started saving money for it this summer. I'm 30 years old, have a good job, am married and have a 2 year old.
Both of my current cars have been paid off for a long time.
I currently live in a condo but am trying to get out of it to buy a real house. I have put my condo up for sale and failed to sell it twice already (about to list it for a 3rd time in the next month or two).
The problem with having an NSX in my current place is that I have a shared parking garage under my building with a tandem parking space. The recent snow here has proven that I can actually fit 2 cars in that space if I need to (pathfinder usually parks outside), however the top half of the concrete wall I park next to is chain link fence so it lets some snow/rain in. My TL parked where the NSX would be was covered with a thin layer of snow for a few days when it was really bad (rare around here, but it happens).
The other problem is that I can't work on cars where I'm at now. I end up taking my TL over to my in-laws to do repairs and wash it, so that's not entirely bad. There are some nice winding roads on the way to their house. :tongue:
There are some individual garages that I might be able to rent from someone to keep the car in, but that'll probably cost me another $100/month, so I'd prefer not to.
Are car covers water proof?
The other part of the problem is wife approval. She really wants a house (we've got money saved for that too, if only we could dump our current place). She says I shouldn't be buying a car before we get a house, and I know she's probably right. She's already given in to #1 below, as well as agreeing to park her car in the driveway if we end up with a 2 car garage (very likely). :biggrin:
Here's what I think my options are:
1) Wait until I get a house to get the car. This might be a year or two or longer, who knows. Finish saving money and pay cash for the entire thing. **This was my original plan**
The benefits of waiting include: no car payment, no risk of a car loan messing with my ability to get a mortgage, no risk of ruining car or having it get messed up being in a parking garage, the bonus of me being all responsible, etc. Another possible benefit is prices dropping even more by that time. If I could have any NSX it'd be a blue 2002+, but that is still way more than I want to spend right now.
2) Wait and see if my condo fails to sell this time around, then buy the car anyway once I have enough cash. This seems like a reasonable compromise.
3) Buy it now and finance ~half the car. The payments would be pretty small, and there's the whole instant gratification thing, though not quite instant since I've been saving money for about 7 months. The fact that I've saved that much so fast tells me the payments wouldn't be an issue.
My original savings target was $34k for a 91, but I've seen the prices drop quite a bit the past few months and I don't think I need that much money any more. I'm hoping for a silver/black (DrVolkl's car is almost perfect). I would be using the car on weekends and driving it to work on sunny days, etc.
Anyway you can calculate how much I have saved if you look at my sig.
I have other savings, and money for retirement, etc so it isn't like buying a car would be wiping me out. Can't I do something slightly less than responsible for once?
So the question is.. What would you do, and why?
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800 is perfect. Well he was able to get a mortgage with 20% down payment.
Plus, the building association frowns on car work being done in the parking spaces. Not that I haven't done it though...
