Type R Owners, How much do you make? Financial advisers chime in.

[Hollywoo0220]

Finance 101:

NET Income (after taxes) - Responsibilities (debtors) = Expendable Income
If your "expendable income" exceeds the vehicle payment + gas allowance + maintenance + insurance / THEN you just may be able to afford that vehicle.

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[oliviaiiii]

Bad friends, bad!

 

[CapnCarl]

If you can't pay cash, then you can't afford it.

 

[nick94]

27 year old here looking for opinions and advice for trading in my car for a TypeR. I think the peer pressure of co-workers

and friends giving me shit for not getting a type-R and spending money on the base model is making me

consider trading it in for one, although deep down i've been wanting to get one for quite some time anyway, but i've always

been conservative with my money and have always owned really cheap used cars in the past. So I gross

70k a year and have around 32k saved up right now. I only pay 300 a month rent at my parents' house but am gonna move

out very soon. Would it be a smart decision to take the hit of trading in my sport i've had for 1.5 years and

finance the R? It would be my daily. Is it worth it? Am I just being cheap or am I too poor to be able to afford one? Get one

now or wait for 2020 idk...

No, don't do it. Waste of your money. Your car is still new, enjoy it for another 7 years and then start thinking about the next one. Invest your money wisely, a car is not an investment.

 

[Nanook]

Yes the nannies are an issue. You generally can’t turn them all the way off. Just mostly. Which is why I mentioned them at all. They mask mistakes. Newer cars...good and bad. I’m not sure the “all off” on the CTR is everything. I know my old SRT, you had to do a magic dance to turn it all the way off.

Learning on a good car can help make you a good driver. Learning to drive on a fast car maybe is where we disagree. MR2 wasn’t fast, but it was an agile, controllable car.

Fair enough. A decent car can help a young driver be a good driver. You can learn from the car as long as it’s not “too much” car.

27 isn’t necessarily young by the way. Just when I was that age I was way too brash and stupid for a truly fast car.

Attitude? Old? Wow. Thought we were just having a conversation.

 

[VarmintCong]

Personally I would prefer cash in the bank go on holiday to great destinations, live life to the max through differemt experiences and be able to afford to do what I want rather than get saddled with finance to a car. Me, well Im 52 live in the UK, own my home and dont have a mortgage or rent and earn £70k and I still wouldnt buy a type r, life is for living or perhaps Im just getting old

How much vaca do you get in the UK? Here we get 20 days if we're lucky, and you spend half that staying home with the kids cause the public school takes like half the year off. We could afford 6 weeks of traveling a year, but only have time for 1, 2 at most.

So a car is something you get to enjoy every day, not just 1 week a year. That's why Americans in particular do it, I think. Our work life dominates everything.

 

[VarmintCong]

Depends. Sometimes with young kids you need a break and a release. As long as you’re doing it part time and not hurting financially it would be fine.

Yup. Like I said, take care of yourself. I know guys in their seventies and still going better than some guys in their fifties I work with. One of threads talked about their driving instructor being 70.

Anyway, on the flip side of the argument. I lost a friend when he was 33. So you really don’t know how long you have. In the end though it’s still just a car. Hopefully there are many things in life more fulfilling than owning a car.

I personally am the same, I crave experiences over material goods. I'd rather spend the money traveling to Germany and renting a 911, or taking a Porsche winter driving school, than leasing a Boxster to drive to work on our crappy streets. I find driving fast cars in 55 mph zones and dodging Massachusetts potholes is not fulfilling. But I don't think a Type R is that expensive when you factor in resale. The average new vehicle sold in the US is now $36k. I'd consider one if I had better roads to enjoy it on.

 

[VarmintCong]

I wanted a sports car for nearly the last 2 decades (ever since I sold my firebird formula back in '01) but I needed to focus on life. I wanted my kids to be grown, and I wanted to be comfortably in a 10/10/80 plan. I am now blessed to have my dream home, I'm continuing my 10/10/80, my kids are mostly grown (19 & 13), have a good job with a good salary so it was time to finally treat myself. The beauty of it is we didn't have the type r in the US for so long I had plenty of time to bolster my position before purchase. It's still not a wise financial decision but I have been wise financially in all other aspects of life so I feel I can be a little frivolous.

My suggestion is to wait till you a very comfortable in your career, savings, retirement, and family because then, you likely won't have to post "the time has come for me to part ways with my r...".

Good luck in your decision either way.

That's awesome that the plan worked out. In my case I wanted a Type R for 15 years since I drove a friend's ITR. I just got a job driving for work (25k miles/year), and then they release a Type R. My work car gets trashed, couldn't do that to a Type R.

 

[WCELingad]

You should listen to Dave Ramsey.

 

[cammyfive]

It's interesting to read this thread as I was in a similar position almost 2 decades ago. I was graduating college and was able to buy my then dream car - a new 2001 Prelude 5spd. I had a paid for trade-in so I didn't finance the entirety which was around $27K MSRP or so I think (that is around $40K or so now adjusted for inflation). I started out making a bit less than $50K in my career but as this was the first car I every modified (keep in mind.....this is right around the time the FIRST Fast&Furious movie came out so that market was taking off in the mainstream) wayyyyyy too much of my left over monthly income was going towards the car (Mugen header and cat back exhaust aint cheap! haha). I went back to stock (bolt ons mostly) and traded it in for a new Maxima 6spd a couple of years later which I regret to this day. I say all that to let you know I definitely know where you're coming from but looking back, I was too young/too impulsive to own that car then even though it's filled with great memories. While it may not make sense on paper, there is a lot to be said about buying your first nice car that you've wanted for a while.

Now, I make several times what I made back then but am looking at a less expensive car. Why? Well, priorities change and I've been through a dozen or so nice cars since that first Prelude as well as having a dedicated sports car for occassional use now. The CTR should hold good resale value so if your life changes in the next few years (new house, marriage, kids, etc) you can probably get out from under that car relatively painlessly. One thing I would definitely NOT let sway my decision is my friends' opinions of what car I should be driving. While I normally hate social media cliches, I did see one made by a female not too long ago that went along the lines of "if you ain't feeding, financing or f&#king me....don't tell me how to spend my money".

 

[87elco]

You need at least 6mos In income in your savings...i don't think they're your friends if they care about what you drive...just buy a 2011 and up used mustang gt or camaro or even cheaper an s2000. If you really have too. I'm guessing they drive bmws?

 

[n2da2nd]

I am the same age as you and currently making north of 80k and I still think FK8 is a waste of money for a DD. If you were to move out soon, I would suggest spending that money as a down payment of your home, at least you will get some equity from a home instead of a car. I bought my home last year and I've already received some equity in my purchase after a year; I'm sure that I can't say the same about my car lol. There is nothing wrong with your 10th gen Civic, it's not 20 year-old-car so I don't see the reason for trading it in just because some "friends" are making fun of you. We all are passed the age of giving in due to peers pressure, I'm sure of it. What others think about you is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Save that money and spend it wisely.

 

[typemismatch]

OP ... first things first

You're 27 years old ... it's been time to leave the nest for 10 years.

Until you can do that, don't buy anything cool, you don't deserve it, your parents are subsidizing your life.

Making $70k and living with your parents is just disrespectful.

Now that that is cleared up.

If you are looking at moving out, are you buying or renting?

If you're buying, you can run into issues with getting a mortgage if you've recently made any large purchases like a car. Keep that in mind.

If you're planning on renting, go for it.

BTW remember you live in a northern climate, a CTR isn't the most snow friendly car in the world for any number of reasons. I know there are plenty of people that do winter drive their cars, but that's a choice you have to make for yourself.

At the end of the day ... take my advise or don't, you do you.

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