How do people afford...
 

Im looking at getting a few things done to my z. One of them being a tt kit. for the kit + install its about 11.5k. Im also looking at rims. theyre 1-2kea. and various other mods.
overall with just the basic things that im looking to get its easily over 25k so im wondering how do most people afford this? do you guys just pay it all off at once? or take out a loan?
im thinking i should use a loan b/c i use my money for stocks but, even a 11.5k loan is roughly 250$ a month.

EDIT:
ONLY post if you think i should/shouldn't finance. its that simple. this thread IS NOT ABOUT how i make money, or how much or nething to do with that other then what is stated in the beggining of this first post.

also i do not plan on getting a tt kit for ATLEAST 6 months. i have a 3 yr warranty and id prefer to not void it. so i will MOST LIKELY get a tt kit in 3 yrs.

I'm sure some people save up and pay in cash and I'm sure others take out loans.

IMO, financing mods is stupid. Average personal loan rates are over 10%... that's just crappy.

ya wells fargo was gonna give me 13-13.5% on my loan for the tt kit, thats just insane. id rather wait and just save lol

If you cant afford the cash for a TT kit straight up, you may not be the type of person who should buy one in the first place IMHO. Blow your motor/tranny, then where are you going to get cash from?

Since I have 4 kids I figure I can sell one of them for the price of a TT, and maybe sell another for the install. That'll leave me with 2 left, I'm cool with that lol j/k!

I'll save money for about a year for the S/C kit and do the install myself.

+1

Exactly.

Most people you see doing this are doing it to their fun car. They just have plenty of cash on the side.

This is my DD, so it's bolt-ons only for me. And I'd never take a loan out to finance any mods... it's just a waste of money.

Don't do it! It'll be a downward spiral from there. A good friend just had to sell his Prized Mustang because he got in over his head. Used a Home equity loan to finance his Supercharger. Car's gone, He's still got the loan.. bad way to go especially now since the house is worth less than he owes on it..:eek:.

I won't get into the "I want it now, We're the entitlement generation" thing as it may not describe you at all, but if you can't afford to pay for it outright you probably shouldn't be doing it. Times get tough and you need to sell that $25K worth of stuff, it may only be worth $5K...

buy things only you can afford.

Exactly. There are things that are fine to finance... like a home or a car. But anything else could really screw you up financially.

If you start financing mods, you might as well start financing Xbox games and groceries too.

If you are having to finance the mods on your car, you should have bought a cheaper car.

Nail on the head. Most financial experts would say that even financing a car is not a good idea, much less specific mods for a car. That's a good way to find yourself in real trouble, real quick.

Financing a car is totally fine if you need it. The only issue we financial experts have with it is depreciation. There's risk involved so that's why GAP insurance or a large down payment is a good idea when buying a car. If you can stay above water with your loan you are totally fine.

Rapid depreciation :D
What's the rule on downpayment? Isn't it something like, 15-20%?
I think financing is okay if done right, but as with all credit, people abuse it. As we have seen in other threads, we have kids in here living with their parents purchasing Zs. Many better things to spend money on than a new car. :tiphat:

don't buy it if u dont have cash on hand. plain and simple

TT is fine if you have $$,$$$ set aside to fix it should it blow. If it does and you have no rainy day fund, well now youre f'd with no car, and a loan for mods on top of your car loan and a pressing need for probably at least $5K worth of repairs. I cant wait to go to Iraq so I can pay this thing off in full. Debt is evil.

say... say the car you bought out the door was 35k and you're figuring on spending another 25k.. thats 60k..

at the end, you have a modded car that is worth less than what it would be worth un-modified..

i would sell that car, go out and buy a lightly used corvette z06 (easy to find these days) or porsche of some flavor...

or i would be something like a 3 or 4 year old WRX/STI or EVO as a second car and mod that instead..

what with the oil over-heating issues, i would be very wary or slapping on a twin turbo kit before its been done extensively and the bugs worked out..

what would be cool (but wont happen) is for nissan to come out with a z in vette price range territory with twin turbos, like they used to on the 300zx...

Overtime $$$$

Not to mention the fact that modifying your car will pretty much destroy its value (to anyone except you).

When I buy a used vehicle I won't even consider a vehicle that has anything more than appearance mods (and only then if I like them).

I'm not at all saying that you shouldn't modify your car...just be realistic about all the consequences; good and bad.

Agreed. It's important to keep stock parts if you can. This way you can return the vehicle to stock (or mostly stock) if/when you decide to sell.

I find it comical when people think they can get more for their modded car than they can unmodified. Some people think a few bolt-ons will add value.

to OP, i think most folks who do these insane mods like TT kit cranking crazy numbers just have boat-loads of money laying around and like others have said, this is one of their many cars and they just truly love this car. from a pure enthusiast standpoint, it would be so cool to have a 700hp monster 370z. but from a practical standpoint, if i had enough money to build a 700hp Z, i'd probably end up buying another car.

loans for mods i think is a huge financial plunder. paying ridiculous interest for a personal loan on mods that would only cause your car to depreciate just doesn't make sense. and then if you ever do decide to sell the car, you gotta go through the hassle of parting it out and whatnot. i don't even wanna pay interest on my six figure worth of student student loans, and that's suppose to be a good investment, let alone for car mods :eek:

Eh, if you can finance it at a low rate, who gives a sh-t, do what you want. As long as you can make the not only the minimum payment plus more.

I would say in todays world 85-90% of the people spending that kind of money on mods are "writing checks their @ss can't cash". Having 55k tied up in a 370z is a total financial loser.

What do you think caused an economical implosion? (Well it was a combination of things) but mostly it was people who made financially absurd decisions; financing a TT kit would be one of those decisions. :confused:

:rofl2:

actually i only had 22$ and i wanted h3 so i put 20 down and payed the rest off 10$ a month... haha jk that would be funny though

its not that i have to finance mods. read my first post if you are confused. i said i have the cash on hand. its just that i make money off stocks. the more money on hand i have the more money i make. so im wondering if i should simply buy the stuff outright or take a loan out since id have more money to work with in the market. i can easily afford the monthly payments.

i think that rule doesnt apply to me :p.. or maybe it does idk :)

yes i know but i dont ever plan on selling this car. ive seen 350z that have had over 100k invested in them selling for 30k-

well then...

That's a very foolish proposition. You end up putting yourself in a dangerous situation due to the amount of risk you have to take on in order to achieve an annualized return of 12% or greater to beat the loan's interest rate and could find yourself losing your money with one bad trade. Those of us in the business learn pretty quickly that no one is bigger than the market -- so don't think it's definitive that you're going to end up in the good.

You seem to be indicating that you make good money, and that you have the money on hand to buy what you wish. If that's the case, just buy it outright. Then you don't have to worry about getting burned trying to out-earn what you're spending on the borrowed money. It's just not worth it.

They already have that. It's called GT-R

LOL - reminds me of a story I just heard about a friend's 350Z he bought. Only had 18,000 miles on it and it seemed like a good deal. Anyhow its been burning about a liter of oil a month. He's cleaning the car out and decides after two years to clean under the seats - finds a receipt to remove a super charger on the car :eek: Anyhow he was planing on building a Stroker now I guess that's a have too....

Point is you start straying from stock for HP you can't use on the street be prepared to spend it all over again....

I wouldn't even finance a car, if I can't pay cash for a toy I don't buy it.

whoa whoa whoa, so you trade stocks yet your asking us if you should get a loan at 10-13% to get mods for your car?

Out of curiosity what are some stocks your invested at right now and or looking at? How much is in your portfolio? Day trade?

As a Fin Adviser, please DO NOT finance any modifications to your vehicle. If I was a foaming at the mouth old fin adv with a pocket protector, I would be telling you financing a depreciating asset such as a car is a bad investment, but live the dream :)

The car has some value, even though it will always be in a state of depreciation. Don't do things to this car that will make it deprecate it even quicker, if you don't pay out of pocket.

Last thing you want to do is end up paying for a car + modifications long after the car is gone IE Repo/Loan/Etc..

wtf! don't listen to anyone. Do what makes you happy. spend some, save some. Its not rocket science. Live life to the fullest! Who wants to work all their life saving money to one day be able to pay cash for their car. You'll be too old to get in and out of it by then.

Given the younger age bracket of most tuners I am certain they don't pay for it up front. And if they do its only because mommy and daddy are somehow helping them with most of the basic necessities such as food, rent, insurance, school and etc.

I also doubt that the majority of that same age bracket is saving up the money to pay for it because though they may be saving the money up for the modifications they are surely running up their credit cards on other thiongs they would normally use cash to pay for.

As for the older segments if they are modding it more than likely is by saving up and doing a little here and a little there though blower and turbo mods are realy not possible that way due to the repeated tuning costs that add up when doing it piecemeal. More than likely they are using their credit power to make the mods and then robbing Peter to pay Paul for 3 or 4 years to pay it off. And by that time they have spent enough on interest to have done the mods twice over.

I doubt if loans are being taken unless it is done against their retirement 401K investments. No bank is going to loan money on an asset that is viewed by them as a liability rather than an asset. Particularly after the wall-stree and bank debacle era we just experienced last year.

So I would say 99% of those doing the high-cost mods are borrowing out their azz in some fashion and ther other 1% can actually afford it without a problem.

And anyone who claims they can easily make such mods are just plain lying out the ying-yang.

You ever see those used car ads like: 1994 Mazda RX7 or 1996 Supra TT with over $50,000 worth of mods, got all receipts and service records, even dyno sheets. Spent over $90,000 including price of car, will take $35,000 OBO need money soon, just got married, bought first home, child on the way, etc.?

But you see these same cars in the ads month after month after month while the asking price drops in increments.

Can you say PYRRHIC VICTORY?

That's fine but almost EVERYBODY says that and they may even mean it (at the time).

I'd be willing to be that a few years down the road, not 1 in 1,000 actually aren't looking to (or wishing they could) sell their car no matter what they said at first. Life (or sometimes just boredom with the car) has a way of happening in spite of your best plans...how many people have an '03 or '04 350 that they've spent tons of money on who now see the GT-R that can hand them their hat (for less money than they've spent on their 350) or the 370 that can in many cases do nearly the same for half the money they've spent not to mention that their car now looks very "dated" even with their modifications.

Again; not trying to put anyone down here...I appreciate what folks do to their vehicles to make they unique...but a dose of reality should always be part of the equation too. :)

I see "welcome to Wal-Mart" or "would you like fries with that" in your retirement future. :bowrofl:

Amen