Thinking about getting a new DD

[G.Irish]

What makes you guys happy may not make HIM happy. I do agree on saving up for some fun but lets do a quick count. He does a long commute everyday, he will likely spend more time being miserable in a crappy car than any length of vacation. If a nicer car makes him happy to jump in it everyday, I say do that instead of the vacation. Being miserable everyday just leads you to want more vacation and more expense. If it makes you happier to drive in a fun car everyday than to take vacations more frequently, I think you have your answer. If you like vacations, then do others. I enjoy vacations and traveling the world, hell I spent 3 months in China, but the chance between going travelling for a month or two, or being able to race a full season, I choose the racing.

Yeah but I would qualify racing as paying for an experience. You get a ton of enjoyment and great memories out of racing. Even in a street car you're autocrossing, drag racing, tracking or whatever, that's an experience.

I agree that a long commute in a car you hate can suck the life out of you so I wouldn't recommend getting an econobox. But when you start getting up towards $30k in price is when you might wanna reexamine what you're looking for.

Look at running costs and value. A 30k new car is 10k at 100K, lost $20k. A $10k nice used car with $4k of maintenace between 100k and 200k, and sell for $4k is only lost value of $10k. Save yourself money (ps taxes on expensive vehicles for both initial purchase and personal property, as well as insurance are also higher). Of course cost is not only factor, fun, wants, needs is another, but that doesnt change between a used and new car.

My 2-cents, of course no one will agree with my opinion :lol:

I think most people here are on the used car wagon. Even just lightly used (e.g. 20k miles) is a big bargain over new.