quick time said:
With few exceptions most cars are not good for investing. Too many varibles. Take the Porsche GT. They only made about 1200 for the world and only about half, 600, came to the US. Sticker price in 06 was about $445K.
Buyers paid over sticker for the first cars in 05 but my neighbor bought a brand new 06 in Feb 06 for $395. Cars were being heavily discounted obviously. Today with only a handfull of new cars left for sale it appears that the market is still headed down on low mileage late model (06) cars. Go figure. And this with only 600 US cars. The CGT just never took off like many thought it would. From all reports it is a fantastic car. Now with 4000+ Ford GT's out there it is hard to see how there will be any real appreciation. I agree just enjoy the car and let the price go where it will. However if we had bougt Ferrari 430's at MSRP it would be a different story.
at the same time a Ford GT MSRPs for 160,000. Even if it depreciated down to 100K thats a 60K hit from MSRP. Now that porche you talk about had a "depreciation" of 50K brand new off of MSRP, which in turn will more than likely further depreciate after its been registered and if it is sold again it will be used therefore going for less still. my point is that EVEN if apreciation/depreciation is of concern, the dollar amount wont be as bad as some other exotics may be. Its almost the opposite of investments, a Good investment is one that gives you the highest
percent return on your money, whereas the
amount said investment makes is irrelavant, the concern is
percentage return(you could make 50K in one investment, but if it took 2 million to make 50K then the percentage return wasnt as much, now if you made 100K out of a 50K investment in the same or about the same time frame, then that was a good investment.)
To get back to the car side of things, while 60K off a 160K MSRP is a considerable
percentage, and 100K off of a 500K car may be a smaller percentage, the hit was less if you bought the Ford GT than if you would have bought a Carrera GT or what have you. In other words the fact that the GT's pricetag was a bargain as compared to some of the higher priced exotics,
dollar amount depreciated may not be as bad in comparisson to the much higher priced automobiles. Now, I dont own one of these cars at this point in time(not by choice), but I would imagine the enjoyment factor out of the Ford GT would be as much, if not more than a higher priced car.
PS. cars shouldnt be investments, they should be tools to enjoy your self. other investments will make you more money if thats what you're after.