I am speaking strictly hypothetically but, say, if one has $200K on savings and is ready to shell out half of it on a really nice car keeping in mind options like R8, Lambo, F-car etc - in my opinion based on current Porsche selections it does make sense to go a bit higher to $150K mark as it delivers a substantially different product, if we want simply compare $100K 2010 C2S to $150K 2010 TT PDK.
But it`s just my humble opinion.

 

All that is a useless talk. We all usually do not what is wise to do but what we do really want.

I just hope you are not going to take a 60 month term _loan_ to finance a purchase of a $100K car, right?

 

Oh believe me, if I had known then what I know now, I'd be sitting in a .2 right now. At the time, I had no idea that they were going to have hundreds of 09's as surplus stock. It made me sick to see how cheap some of them were going for last year, I still kick myself to this day!

You may well be right, at this price bracket, in fact for almost all price brackets (given the nature of usability of the 911) the 911 is pretty much the master of its class.

 

God no, I pay cash for all my cars I don't owe a penny in the world!

Edit - That said, with how awful my interest rates are at the moment and with the financing available at ~2% its almost worth using their money instead of your own....

 

Well, some people do incredibly silly things, you never know... And to get a 5 year long loan to pay for a car you will keep for 3 years only is not even the most stupid of them all. But it is an offtopic, of course.

 

Always better to use other peoples money, especially if it is REALLY cheap money.

And, for me, I keep cars for many, many years. I'd rather take out a 5 year loan and use the cash for other investments. Let your money work for you...

If you dont keep cars a long time, then lease. Its the easiest way.

 

You raise some good points. I was always brought up never to finance anything but as I said before, with the way the money market is at the moment, it's almost better to do it through finance deals.

Funny you should mention leasing, my wife just decided to lease her new RX350 for the first time ever, the rates were just so attractive it made no sense to buy.

 

i took porsches money for 5yrs at 2.9%

5yr treasury is 2.5% so +40 is cheap financing for me

 

Dave - I hear you. I paid top $ for all my other cars ($7000 over sticker for my original E46 when they first came out- yikes). I just happened to get a great deal on a 997.2 (close to 20% off sticker). Dont let the fact that you're kicking yourself, cloud your thoughts on how good a car this 997.2 really is.

 

What about a Gallardo?

 

We had an NSX for ten years before the dealer wrecked it taking it away for service. Left with a daily-driver *** glory-fix hole in our lives we considered several alternatives before choosing our C2S. The R8 was certainly one of them and I see no reason to be reluctant to own it. In our case, Cindy knew I'd wanted a Porsche all those years, so she insisted we try them first and the new 997.2 grabbed my soul.

We tend to own cars a decade or so, which makes my next choice far enough in the future that I may have to grab an extra sports car from this era and store it somewhere to get what I want. But if your toy budget will cover the sales tax hit every year or so, you can't do badly with a older Ferrari, an NSX, an Aston Martin, or of course Porsche. Lambos I don't know much about, but people say the same of them. Some of the Mercedes 'sports' car are nice as well.

I would have reservations and comments about any of them but NSX, R8 or Porsche as a daily driver, but that doesn't sound like a concern for you. That being the case, you might as well try as many flavors as you have the cash for. These are all great cars in the most legitimate sense of that word. They are cars that people will be collecting thirty years in the future. I found several of the NSX in the under 10k mile range, loving cared and driven only on sunny days, just as Ferrari owners do. And often in the same garage with a Ferrari (and a BMW sedan for family driving).

One thing I assure you. If you're serious in this class of car, you won't have trouble getting offered test drives complete with a fine lunch anywhere within three states of your home. $100k may sound skimpy to some people, but it doesn't to sellers.

Gary

 

Maybe those people looking at you are thinking that you donīt had the money to buy the Gallardo which is inded the real supercar. The R8 makes the same figure the Honda NSX made some years ago, itīs a wonderful well made car in all aspects but...it doesnīt get there, and every time I see one, the ideia of a AUDI TT on steroids comes to my mind.

Anyway, the effort and work Audi had put on this car has to be praised, and thatīs great for automobile industry, they definitely raise the bar for sports car makers, and the fact their first product can "smoke" the all mighty 911 on his on ground, really shows they made an amazing job.

 

I recently owned a 2009 997 Carrera S and just to weeks ago purchased a new R8 V10. Additionally I have had a number of Ferraris over the years. Unbiasedly, the R8 has at least in my eyes set a new standard. It is a tremendous car.

 

Thanks for all your input everyone, this has been an interesting discussion. However, thanks to a very generous forum member on Saturday I was able to get myself into a Gallardo and my mind is now very much made up.

I will be saving the extra 15-20k to go for a Gallardo, truly an amazing car!

 

Awesome - so where are the pics?