baconbff wrote:was kind of curious if anyone on this board has had the urge to make a fairly significant purchase primarily based on the prestige accorded, rather than the utility you could derive from the object. The most common example that comes to mind is buying a luxury car.
The boglehead doctrine shuns such practices, but I'm curious if anyone has ever been tempted to buy a sports or luxury car, and if you caved in and did it or if you were able to fend off your desires.
My friend is in the market to buy an infiniti g37- a luxury entry-level sports coupe, ~40 grand.
I always wanted a fancy car. I drive
very hard, probably the biggest draw is something like porcelain brakes so that I wouldn't warp the brakes within 500 miles of a new brakes, something I do with alarming consistency.
I was tempted to buy an M-3, a Porsche Cayman or 911 Turbo and other cars recently along the way. But I have small children. I could afford all these cars, but the issue lies here:
My wife doesn't care, she would let the kids trash them because "oh, they're little, look how cute they are running around the garage waving a wrench in their hands (hitting/scratching everything in sight)". Or the kids would just trash them period.
Plus, I am a car buff, I like to really
drive a car. I like the visceral experience of a vehicle. I find luxury vehicles just add weight and bloat. They have extra safety features which takes away from the driving experience.
I commend you for the Mazda 3. One of my favorite vehicles remains the Mazdaspeed 3. I might just buy one and mod the hell out of it and blow the motor after 15,000 miles. But that's a lot cheaper than beating the crap out of Porsche!
Hence I go for cheap. I know myself too well as well, I just drive cars too hard to want to own an expensive one because I know I would beat the living daylights out of it into a twisted pulp. I could never bring myself to shift even 50RPM before redline or not 4 wheel drift a curve. It would be a mortal sin to destroy a 40k, even 80k car. Cheap is good.
Have you ever driven a Honda Fit? I'd get 5, because I'd know that 4 would be in the shop at any time with something falling off with me behind the wheel. But those Fits are more fun to drive than almost anything on the market.
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2. Those who fail to plan plan to fail |
3. Do not assume the unlikely is impossible, and |
4. Be ready to deal with the consequences if you do.