greanie

So . . . .

Here is a crazy question.

How much do you THINK (These are opinions) an individual has to make (or have expendable income) in order to be able to reasonably afford to own a vette.

Im not really curious what everyones salary is. This is more a question of what it costs to own a C7 Corvette = Payment / Maintenance / Insurance / Depreciation / Owning a second Vehicle . . . . So on.

Not sure if this is the right forum section . . . . Although i am asking this more geared to owning a C7 *NEW* Corvette.

When did YOU say . . . . "I think i make enough Dough to buy one of these"

Thanks for the OPINIONS!!!!







Added 7/15/2015
We can probably put an end to this thread . . .

It appears that alot of Forum Members read my Original post and took it as
"Please Give me Financial Advice!!!", not all . . . . But there are always a few in some groups.

Thanks for all the positive comments and those meant in Jest, Loved them all though!!!.



This was one of my first threads here, for those with negative or un-helpful comments I hope you are the MINORITY Forum Members that i run across during my venture into the corvette community.

rcooper

Boy, is this thread going to get fried. You're going to get more financial advice here than at Price Waterhouse.
It was easy for me as I started buying performance cars in the 60's when they were somewhat cheap. I started while working as a manager in training for W T Grant, if you don't know who that is it was a competitor to Penney's and the like.
My thoughts when I started was that 1 weeks wage for house payment, 1 weeks wage for car and insurance and the next 2 weeks wages for food, fun, gas and girls. Worked pretty well until the mid 80's. Today it is 1.5 weeks for the house, .75 weeks for the C7, the rest for bills, gas, insurance, movies and grand-kids.
As I use mine as a DD I don't worry about the second car thing, my wife has that covered in the Lacrosse.
My thought on this is if you can afford a grand a month for the car then you're golden.
Not very scientific but that's just my .02 on the take.
Good luck!

Cauhauna

retired.

keeks2915

There will be some very intelligent advice and shaky advice to this question.

My advice is likely on the shaky end.

If you have to decide if you can afford a corvette or not, you are likely better off to put your money into paying down debt or investing it wisely.

Virtual Geezer

IMHO, not shaky advice at all -- rock solid!

sanantguy

Yeah there will be tons of interesting advice on this one. So here is mine.

A better question is what percentage of your monthly income do you think it is wise to spend on a car?

I personally would not spend more than 25% of my monthly income on a car.

And here is some more advice.

A corvette is never a practical car. There are far cheaper, more utilitarian ways to get form point a to point b.

A corvette was designed to do a few things, look awesome, go fast and carry a good looking woman as passenger.
If you need your car to do more than that, get another car.

If you have the money to spend and have other ways of transporting people or belongings, then get a vette.

DAFFYDRUNK

My advice is probably reasonable but perhaps not what you wanna hear. Save up. I basically set aside $20Kish a year for a few years for a sportscar and paid cash. Was gonna get a used 997 Turbo, but went the C7 convertible direction instead. Not rich, just patient. Love the C7 but I still want a 911 turbo someday. Time to start another sports car fund...

apex97

I have been collecting cars my entire life and made a few good calls.

Because of this I have mostly avoided the need for financing my toy cars for a long time by simply selling one or two cars from the fleet to fund a new toy.

I did take out a few car loans for cars that I could defend as business related, and I financed my last new Corvette simply because they gave me nearly free money to use. I still traded a paid for 2007 Z06 on a 2013 Z06. I am trading that '13 for a '16 but it was a Lemon law deal so it doesnt really count.

I still think the best way to go is to pay cash, but buying almost any new car is a money losing proposition and if the money is cheap enough, keeping your cash available and using the banks money can actually make more sense.

To answer your actual question though, if you must finance, then if you can keep your payment and insurance under 25% of your monthly net income then you are not being too irresponsible.

That probably is about $50k/year for a guy who lives with his folks or his attorney girlfriend and about $100k+ for someone with a family and a mortgage.

Owning a Corvette is not done for rational reasons, so the question is sort of moot

greanie

I like the Pay down Debt advice. . . . Although i have no debt (other than always having new cars)

I only ask about the cost to own a vette based on . . .. Long story . . . Shortened = I got out of the military after doing IT for a long time I now have near triple my previous pay (Military pays IT guys the same as cooks, Civilians DO NOT). Wasnt an option before . . . I think . . . Its an option now.

Im more curious of forum members experience so i can apply my own personal logic to theirs . . . .
Thanks for the opinions and advice so far PLEASE keep it coming!!!

MACE_Hardware

Well for me, my house is paid for, I have no debt, and I paid cash using savings in the bank.

My last new vehicle for myself was in 1990. My daily drivers are ten and 13 year old pickup trucks.

I think that I had earned the indulgence.

greanie

Also, this will be vehicle number 5 for me. Most of the others are paid. I just really enjoy all kinds of cars.

owc6

Personally, I think you need to make $123,456. It's a nice round number, no matter how many ex-wives you have or how many kids you can stuff in the trunk/ hatch area.

Steve_R

I was thinking $132,465, so we're close.

Seriously, OP, it is a crazy question because everyone's situation is SO different. Are you married or single? Kids? Own or rent your home? Age? Saving for retirement? Etc. Etc. Etc.

There is no magical number at which you can or can't afford a Vette or anything else.

T-TOP TOM

It's isn't how much you have to make as much as how much do you have to give up.

Johnn999

I'm at a solid 2 weeks car n insurance 2 weeks everything else. It's my only hobby no drinking party or anything else so I'm okay with it.

Raisin Man

Don't worry. Obama will buy you a Corvette.

amphora001

On the financing side, for me it's always important to know that I will never be upside down. So I need to make sure I have enough downpayment to be sure that the car can never depreciate more than what it'll be worth.

To answer OP's question, I frankly thinks the absolute minimum is $100k annual for the average worker with average debt. But it all depends. The best way to go is to save for the full price and pay in cash. But that's assuming you already have a house etc etc. It all depends. If you're not sure you should buy something too expensive, I think that you should ask your wife/gf/mom and listen to their advice, no seriously.

C7Joy

My approach had more to do with how much can you save, rather than how much you can make. I just put money away until it was time to pull the trigger.

C8Jake

bingo

Black&White

This is exactly correct. You must figure out how much of a car payment you can afford in your current budget how much cash/trade value you can put down on the car you want usually at least 25% is required and go from there. Contact some local banks and see what rates, terms and limits they will buy you at then calculate a monthly payment on what the window sticker would be on what you want. Only then will you know if you can afford the car once calculated with your other monthly expenses. A ball park number would be a payment of around $900 a month with the above 25% down payment at 60 months term. You must also figure in what it will cost you it insure it per year and that can vary from $800 to $2000 a year depending on your situation. This IMO would place most owners in a $100k+ income bracket.