The first week we launched our new e-commerce training program, we made a million dollars. A month later, I bought a black convertible Audi R8.
Driving the sports car felt cool, but attracted too much attention. Every 20 to 40 year old at a gas station asked me about it. Driving a car two inches off the ground in downtown Austin, Texas is also nerve-wracking.
I sold the R8 two months later. I lost $10,000.
One year later, I bought a new gray Aston Martin Vantage. It had a higher ground clearance and didn’t attract as much attention as my R8.
There was one big problem: our house didn’t have a garage or driveway. I parked the Aston in the church lot across the street. Leaving a $190,000 sports car in a public parking lot overnight in downtown isn’t a stress-relieving experience.
Also, I didn’t like how the Aston drove as much as I thought I would. Because it only had front-wheel drive, I’d slam on the accelerator and would start spinning out. Getting smoked by a $50,000 Dodge Charger was embarrassing.
I wanted to sell, but the Aston Martin dealer wouldn’t buy it back. Strange. I took it to an exotic car dealer in Austin and they told me the car had paint damage when I bought it. I think they were lying and just wanted to squeeze me on price.
It’s easy to buy expensive things. When buying the Aston, I wrote the dealer a personal check and they let me drive off the lot. It’s hard to sell expensive things without losing a lot of money.
I sold the Auston six months after buying it. I lost $50,000.
Will a Sports Car Make You Happier?
Owning expensive cars doesn’t make me happier. Driving them is fun, owning them is complicated. Repairs are expensive — hitting a curb costs you $10,000. Security is a concern. And, they’re less reliable in quality than mass-market vehicles like Toyota Camrys.
After the first launch, my business partner, Jason, bought a black Porsche 911 Turbo. He loved that car. Driving it made him smile. He never mentioned any drawbacks or negatives. That car meant something deeper to him. Growing up quite poor in Canada, he dreamed of owning a 911. Owning one reminded him of how far he’d come.
Buy One Anyway
Without a test drive, I paid cash for a new Jeep Wrangler Sahara (I can’t remember why I wanted that car). I hated the Jeep the moment I drove it off the lot. Jeeps are the noisiest, worst-driving highway vehicles. Jeep drivers, like Volkswagen Beetle and Tesla Cybertruck drivers, live in cult-like deluded bubbles.
I should have rented, or at least test-driven, that car before buying.
Testing before committing is even more important if you want to buy a high-end sports car. Many exotic car dealers annoyingly won’t let you test drive their expensive cars. But, for less than $1,000 (2% of what I lost on my Aston), you can drive a Lamborghini, Ferrari, or Porsche 911 on a race track. In Austin, for example, The Extreme Experience let’s you book time on a track with a Lamborghini Huracan for $599.
You’ll likely find that driving such cars is fun, but impractical for daily use. Learning that lesson for $1,000 is more fun than learning it for $50,000.
However, should you decide you really want to buy a sports car, here’s how to know if you can afford it:
- You can easily pay cash for it with plenty of money left over to cover your living expenses, familial obligations, and investments for your future
- Or, your monthly after-tax income is at least five times the car payment plus insurance and around $1,000 per month in possible repairs (it costs my friend $2,000 to get an oil change on his Lamborghini)
Buying a sports car isn’t necessary, won’t make you happier, and eats up cash you could invest. So, why buy one if you want one and you can afford it? The risk is minimal.
I spent $120,000 on my R8. I got to drive an amazing car for a couple months for $10,000 (my loss after selling it). To some, that’s ridiculous; to me, it was worth $170 per day.
I spent $190,000 on my Aston Martin; I lost $50,000 when I sold it six months later. Buying it wasn’t necessarily a mistake, buying new was a mistake. Unless I knew I would absolutely love that car and drive it for years, I should have bought used. I would have lost half as much, costing me $140 instead of $280 per day.
If you’re reasonably well off, you won’t go broke buying one sports car. You’ll go broke buying multiple sports cars, a bigger house to store all your cars, multiple homes, millions of dollars in jewelry, expensive hobbies, lavish entertainment, and loading up on debt to buy more. Don’t do that.
If you must scratch the itch, test drive the car of your dreams before you buy it. Then, if you still want it, buy smart knowing you might sell it in less than a year. If you buy it and aren’t any happier, sell it.
This post is part of a series inspired by Steven Pressfield’s calling question, “What would you do if you had three months left to live?” I’d share what I’ve learned with those I love and anyone who’d listen. Here are all Lessons.