Why would someone have a car worth 90K...

[Hillbeans]

An live in a townhome that costs $170,000 without a garage to park it in?

 

[Growin'upDisney]

Because their priorities are out of whack.

Maybe they leased the $90K car and therefore aren't paying as much. Still seems all out of whack to me. Some people view their cars as status symbols and want others to be impressed.

 

[Hillbeans]

That's my thought also. People at work see your great car, but not your 1 br condo.

 

[preshi]

That happens around her quite often, or they buy these huge expensive homes but have no furnishings.

 

[Mercy]

What kind of car costs 90k?

 

[Hillbeans]

From what I can tell, it's one of those new Mercedes that's very large with the convertable top. I just went on the Mercedes website and those cars go up to $125,000.

My DH and I used to joke when we lived in our $800 apartment rental at the guy who lived above us and owned a Porsche Boxter, another $70K and above car. I guess some people value a car over anything else or think they'd rather drive something nice and live in a tiny apartment.:

 

[Disney Doll]

I had a friend who had a really nice car, but lived ina real crummy neighborhood. I asked him one day why he didn't spend less on a car, and use the money he saved to move into a better area? His response:

"I can sleep in my car. You can't drive your house".

No arguing with that!

 

[mudnuri]

I see something different here...

DH and I have always had new cars...(take today for instance!)...generally we have at least 3 of them, when only 2 drivers are here. Right now we've got 3, plus 2 motorcycles...we live in a 125K house, going rate for 3 bedroom 1 bath ranch here. We could afford to live in a 300K house, however we dont. We prefer to drive cars that not only look good, but ride good, run good, and wont leave us anywhere..(or if they do, 1-800-gm-getme)...to us it's not a status symbol. with DH's truck and my Envoy, we've got almost $90K in MSRP's....however, it's not about the money or financial outlay to us. It's I guess, a sense of "we work darn hard for our money, and chose to spend it on nice rigs"..

And before anyone tells me about saving vs. spending etc... we have 4 months worth of expenses at our disposal in a savings account earning not much interest, and both DD's have their college education funded through investments, and DH and I can and will retire without having to worry about how. Please note this is not a "brag" this is the way we handle our money. DH is very serious when it comes to saving/investing, and has done a great job setting up a well diversified portfolio for us and our DD's.

Yes, my neighbors probably think we're crazy for spending as much as we do on our rigs, but it's my money thats paying for them, and not anyone else's.

I do have friends who prefer to live in very expensive houses, and drive what I consider old cars, but they are also financially strapped due to the expensive house and have no choice. My house will be paid off in 9 years, they've got 2 mortgages, and will be forever in house debt.

Brandy

 

[goodstarr]

Amen Mudnuri. Different things are important to different people. As long as I'm footing the bill (and not asking to borrow money for the car note), I don't see a problem with it.

 

[Planogirl]

Another aspect maybe. Some people are really into cars and not so much into where they live. They just want somewhere halfway decent to sleep but their car is their true interest. And yes, I know someone like that who owns 6 classic cars but lives in a normal little house.

 

[Lisa F]

Believe it or not, for many people, the largest home they can afford on the largest lot they can afford is not their dream. Many people, especially single people, enjoy the lifestyle that not being tied to a large home with lots of maintenance and yardwork affords them. Living in a condo or a townhome is a conscious lifestyle choice and not necessarily a case of their financial priorities being out of whack. Some people work so that they can enjoy themselves during their free time and pushing a lawnmower around a 1 acre lot or vacuuming a 4000 sq ft house is not their idea of fun... they would rather drive their $90k car... though I guess it probably makes some people feel better about themselves and the choices they have made to think that anyone who doesn't do things the way they would do them has something wrong with them.

 

[Hillbeans]

Hmm...great points everyone. I guess i've got a bit of tunnel vision on this topic because i've always had it drilled into me that a car isn't a good investment because of the rapid depreciation.

I guess for some, it really is a lifestyle choice and the car really is more important than the house.

 

[wuv tigger]

Originally posted by Hillbeans
Hmm...great points everyone. I guess i've got a bit of tunnel vision on this topic because i've always had it drilled into me that a car isn't a good investment because of the rapid depreciation.

I guess for some, it really is a lifestyle choice and the car really is more important than the house.

This is another point. A $30,000 Ford or Chevy will be worth almost nothing in 10 years. A $90,000 Mercedes will be worth quite alot. Many 20 year old luxury cars now sell for more than the original purchase price. If you know what you are doing (I don't) your cost per mile can actually be about the same, but you have a much nicer vehicle if you can afford the initial outlay.

David

 

[Lisa F]

Originally posted by Hillbeans
I guess for some, it really is a lifestyle choice and the car really is more important than the house.

Unless you've been in their house and you know what they spend their money on, it might not be necessarily that a car is more important than a house. After all, you said they own a townhouse, right? Like I said, for many people a townhouse is all of the house maintenance they want to deal with. Saying that a car is more important than a house to them is not really a fair judgement since they DO have a house.

It could just be that rather than spending a lot of money on tons of electronics, new computers, redecorating, lots of vacations, lots of new clothes, going out the eat all the time or any one of a number of things that people spend money on, they decided they want a really really nice car.

 

[Hillbeans]

Both good and true points. I didn't think about the resale value of a sports car over the value of something less.

What mostly gets me is that if I were to ever spend that kind of money on a car, i'd want it in a garage. The elements really ravage cars, the salt, sand, snow...not to mention the kids that play ball in the parking lot. If this person really wanted it as an investment i'd think they'd want it in a garage as opposed to a space in a busy parking lot to really protect it.

 

[MScott1851]

I've often wondered about the answer to your original question, being from the rural south, you see TONS of nice nice vehicles parked outside trailers. My husband used to drive an Escalade, and lived in an apartment, but it was out of necessity... He didn't want to buy a house when he was single and only 25. We used to laugh that all the people who we graduated high school with that skipped college and work third shift at TransMart were doing better than us. All of them have a big new Ford pickup, or a new Tahoe, a big new bass boat, and take a trip to Gulf Shores or the Smokies for a week every year. Of course, they live in the house their grandmother used to live in before she passed away or in a trailer on the land their daddy bought and they make mortgage payments to him, and their social life is limited to going to eat at Logan's on Saturday night and playing cards with their brother and sister-in-law.

But thanks for directing me to the Mercedes website...I just realized that I could have bought one of those ADORABLE little C230 sports coupes for what a Ford Expedition cost...I will be having my midlife crisis in approximately two years when my SUV is paid off...

And I will probably HIDE it in the garage of my $200,000 house so the neighborhood kids won't hit it with basketballs, frisbees, super soakers, etc.

 

[JoNo]

I have a little thing about cars & houses as well. Where we live, there is an indian reservation about 40 miles down the road. All of them get a dividend every month(My GF included) which they can spend on whatever they want. This dividend is quite cushy and a lot of them take it for granted. For example, if you were to drive to the seminole res. out there, you would see small 2-3 bedroom houses with an escalade or an excursion, or some other huge expensive SUV sporting $5,000 rims & a $20,000 sound system that you couldn't take off-road for anything. However, it's all in how it's spent! My GF & I have 2 vehicles, a 1993 ford explorer which will go anywhere (We've had it almost completely flipped sideways off-roading once) and a 1997 mustang and we live in a nice spacious house in town and we save her dividend. She has a job on the res. (which most of them out there do not) & I am finishing up my degree.

I'm sorry if I ranted & raved, but I just had to when it comes down to this topic!

 

[Mishetta]

Originally posted by Hillbeans
An live in a townhome that costs $170,000 without a garage to park it in?

It's done here in (inner city) Detroit all the time. Actually, the houses are not even worth that much!! Try more like $20k to 50k home (at best) with a $90,000 car! Of course, after about 6 months the car gets repossessed & then they come out with a newer model or more expensive car! (I'd like that explained to me!)

 

[DawnCt]

There are a lot of expensive cars on the road, which made me re look at the property liability on my auto insurance. I figured that if I hit one of those "babies", my limitations would be inadequate. For an additional $32 I increased my coverage.

 

[Desnik]

My dad has that Mercedes and we tease him saying it's his mid life crisis car! He and my mom got divorced after 32yrs and he went out and bought himself this car! And he lives back home with his dad!!LOL In the Bronx and no garage. Get this, he also bought my mom a Mercedes, an E-class which is about $55,000.

Growing up we were very spoiled. Both my parents liked looking good. We did have a house and we always had the nicest cars, house. We had the most expensive clothing and every toy. Let's just put it this way, they ended up Divorced for a reason and I wish it would've happened when I was a kid!

I have to admit DH and I are guilty of doing this in the past. We had a $50,000 Mercedes when we rented an apartment! We were young and nieve and had our priorities up our, well you know!!
DH especially loves cars. He has had more that 13 new cars. We have gotten so much better about this. We now have a 2002 Camry and a 2004 Jeep Cherokee. Love them both and combined they cost what my Mercedes did!!! I now own a house and while I like to drive a nice car, I also like to live in a nice home.

I do see it all the time people with nice expensive cars while they live in a hut! Hey, to each his own!
At DH job he has a friend that has a car payment of $1200 a month!!! But, he lives at home, no kids and makes a great salary. To him it's important what he drives. On the other hand he has a co worker that is single, lives at home and has a Honda Civic and he has enough money in the bank to buy my house and pay cash!!! Now that's a smart cookie!!!