Car per income range

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nuppal

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What kind of vehicle do you think suits typical income ranges?
I read a statistic that the average person has a car that is worth about 1/3 of their annual income (US statistic). To me this seems really high, especially if you are the average American and make 50K/year.
For me the range goes like this
1-50K – Bus pass
50.1K-75K – BMW 3-series/Merc C-class/Used car market is full of win at this price level
75.1K-100K–BMW 5/Merc-E/Some SUVs/Porsche Boxter/Cayman/Used car market is still full of win here too, great deals to be had
100.1K-200K–BMW 7/Merc-S/Porsche 911 (non special varient)
200.1K-300K–Maserati GT/Porsche 911 C4s/Turbo/GT3(stretch)/Used Ferrari
300.1-500K–New Ferrari/Porsche 911 GT2/Lambo Gallardo/Bently Conti GT
500.1K+–Anything you want except Veyron/CCR/Maybach
What do you think?
 
I could make $5MM+ a year and be ok with driving a Prius. Or having a chauffeur drive me in a prius.
Fancy cars never really appealed to me. Plus I live in NYC where over 50% of families don’t own cars.
 
Your range is absurd in my opinion. 3 series BMW payment is close to 400-500/month depending on your down payment. Plus higher insurance and maintenance for this car
Someone making 51K gets close to 3300/month so paying 15% of your net as your lease/monthly payment is crazy.
in my opinion - Car shouldn’t be more than 20%-25% of your gross salary. If someone is making 100K, 25K Honda Civic is the one for him.
 
NYCAnalyst86 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> I could make $5MM+ a year and be ok with driving a
> Prius. Or having a chauffeur drive me in a prius.
>
> Fancy cars never really appealed to me. Plus I
> live in NYC where over 50% of families don’t own
> cars.
Yeah, I agree with this. A lot of what you drive depends on where you live. For instance my dad drives a Prius but my mom drives an XJR (that dad bought her on valentines day). Like you said, he doesnt give a rats ass about his car or how it looks my mom on the other hand is a little more image aware.
For me cars are more appealing from a technological standpoint becuase I auto-x/track/go to the mountians with them.
 
Also it depends on where you live.
In NYC you could be a millionaire and not have a car. Some of my friends from LA / Miami tell me stories of people who live in shacks but drive Ferrari’s. In those places, your car says a lot about you.
 
pupdawg82 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Your range is absurd in my opinion. 3 series BMW
> payment is close to 400-500/month depending on
> your down payment. Plus higher insurance and
> maintenance for this car
>
> Someone making 51K gets close to 3300/month so
> paying 15% of your net as your lease/monthly
> payment is crazy.
>
> in my opinion - Car shouldn’t be more than 20%-25%
> of your gross salary. If someone is making 100K,
> 25K Honda Civic is the one for him.
To be clear, I agree, I wouldnt want to realistically spend more than 5% on a monthly payment on a car. I am biased towards new cars. Lets someone else take on most of the depreciation (go look at 2006 BMW 7-series, they can be had for under 45K/Go look at 996 Porsche 911 turbos can be had for under 50K), and also gets you through the breakin period which means you can start enjoying the car right away.
Sure, it’s absurd, however, try and find a materialistic wanna be hotshot working for Fidelity making 75K a year and driving a Honda Civic. This range isn’t for me and isn’t to try and set a guideline for what car you SHOULD be buying per income level. 15% of your income is about 1/6 which would put you BELOW average for %car payment/income level
 
NYCAnalyst86 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Also it depends on where you live.
>
> In NYC you could be a millionaire and not have a
> car. Some of my friends from LA / Miami tell me
> stories of people who live in shacks but drive
> Ferrari’s. In those places, your car says a lot
> about you.
My frame of mind; Its ok to be house broke but unacceptable to be car broke.
I remember on my drive to school I would drive through the Ocala Forest for the last 100 miles. I always remember passing a house where this guy had a Dodge Viper SRT-10/Dodge Ram SRT-10/Mustang Cobra and some lifted Chevy Truck. His house however, was MAYBE 1000 SQ.FT. In Central Florida a house like that MAYBE goes for 90K pre-market meltdown.
Insane.
 
pupdawg82 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Your range is absurd in my opinion. 3 series BMW
> payment is close to 400-500/month depending on
> your down payment. Plus higher insurance and
> maintenance for this car
>
> Someone making 51K gets close to 3300/month so
> paying 15% of your net as your lease/monthly
> payment is crazy.
>
> in my opinion - Car shouldn’t be more than 20%-25%
> of your gross salary. If someone is making 100K,
> 25K Honda Civic is the one for him.
I agree, those ranges are way off assuming you have other expenses like a mortgage/rent, etc
 
nuppal Wrote:
——————————————————-
> pupdawg82 Wrote:
> ————————————————–
> —–
> > Your range is absurd in my opinion. 3 series
> BMW
> > payment is close to 400-500/month depending on
> > your down payment. Plus higher insurance and
> > maintenance for this car
> >
> > Someone making 51K gets close to 3300/month so
> > paying 15% of your net as your lease/monthly
> > payment is crazy.
> >
> > in my opinion - Car shouldn’t be more than
> 20%-25%
> > of your gross salary. If someone is making
> 100K,
> > 25K Honda Civic is the one for him.
>
> To be clear, I agree, I wouldnt want to
> realistically spend more than 5% on a monthly
> payment on a car. I am biased towards new cars.
> Lets someone else take on most of the depreciation
> (go look at 2006 BMW 7-series, they can be had for
> under 45K/Go look at 996 Porsche 911 turbos can be
> had for under 50K), and also gets you through the
> breakin period which means you can start enjoying
> the car right away.
>
>
> Sure, it’s absurd, however, try and find a
> materialistic wanna be hotshot working for
> Fidelity making 75K a year and driving a Honda
> Civic. This range isn’t for me and isn’t to try
> and set a guideline for what car you SHOULD be
> buying per income level. 15% of your income is
> about 1/6 which would put you BELOW average for
> %car payment/income level
True it depends on what city you are living in.
BTW, What’s wrong with working for Fidelity? We are talking about a Mutual Fund Giant. Aren’t most of the sell side Analysts want to work for buy-side firms?
 
Hot shot <> $75K/year, Nuppal.
Your ranges are insane also. How does one go from having a bus pass to driving a BMW?
Also, people who buy used Porsches because they can’t afford them new often find that they don’t make enough to afford the maintenance. Someone I know bought a Boxster used and doesn’t drive it much. Everytime one of those batteries goes it costs like $1k. For something he doesn’t even drive. It’s just a status symbol, and not a very good one at that.
 
My note equals 5% of my income. After I pay my car off next year I will not be upgrading – I will drive it until it dies and I dread taking out another loan. I find the amount of money people spend on cars in America to be ridiculous. No matter how much money I make it will always kill me to buy a new car because it loses a large chunk of value as soon as you sign the dotted line.
Even if was making numi money I would not spend more than 20K on a car.
 
agree with nuppal. two words: depreciating asset.
buy for safety and reliability, performance last. if you need a fast car, you aren’t getting enough at home.
the most i’d ever spend on a car is 40k b/c you can’t get safer or much more reliable past that point buying a toyota or vw.
 
If you double the income levels in those ranges, it would be more accurate. 80k is entry level money, not Porsche money.
 
MattLikesAnalysis Wrote:
——————————————————-
> agree with nuppal. two words: depreciating asset.
>
> buy for safety and reliability, performance last.
> if you need a fast car, you aren’t getting enough
> at home.
>
> the most i’d ever spend on a car is 40k b/c you
> can’t get safer or much more reliable past that
> point buying a toyota or vw.
+1 I drive a Toyota 4Runner (love it btw) and will do so until it dies. Since when does everyone in finance drive a BMW, Mercedes or a Porche?! lol
 
Used 1997 Honda Accord. Paid for. Relatively low miles. Still take the bus to work and drive about 7,000 miles a year. Low gas expenses. Insurance about $400 a year through Geico.
I suppose that if I made a lot of money, I could see myself in a BMW. But automobiles are terrible assets and a fancy ride would be far, far down my list of priorities.
That said, I sometimes get queasy about driving an older car. I get it tuned up and the oil changed, some maintenance, etc., but there’s always the sense that something is about to break at a very bad time.
 
Nuppal has no idea what he’s talking about. He still lives with his mom (Mom – Where’s the f****** meatloaf!) and his parents paid for his college education so he has no rent or student loan debt like almost everyone else.
Used BMW on $51K? WTF.
 
Here is my parody to this thread:
What kind of vehicle do you think suits typical penile ranges?
I read a statistic that the average person has a car that is inverseley proportional to their penis size (US statistic). To me this seems rather sad, especially if you are the average American with average apparatus.
For me the range goes like this
12” or more – Bus pass
8” or more – BMW 3-series/Merc C-class/Used car market is full of win at this price level
6” or more–BMW 5/Merc-E/Some SUVs/Porsche Boxter/Cayman/Used car market is still full of win here too, great deals to be had
4” or more–BMW 7/Merc-S/Porsche 911 (non special varient)
2” or more–Maserati GT/Porsche 911 C4s/Turbo/GT3(stretch)/Used Ferrari
1” or more–New Ferrari/Porsche 911 GT2/Lambo Gallardo/Bently Conti GT
unendowed–Anything you want except Veyron/CCR/Maybach
What do you think?
 
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