Honestly, if you want AWD fun that you can enjoy year-round I would look at a new Evo or STi. That is the most that you could comfortably afford on your current military salary IMO. An RS4 is not a car you want to keep long-term due to cost prohibitive maintenance costs.

Make sure you're saving for retirement with the great options available in the military. Doing more now will go a long way later to giving you a comfortable retirement where you can buy fancy cars, golf, drive on racetracks, travel, and volunteer.

 

I assume that you are not independently wealthy. So if your current car works, then figure out how much money you will have to spend each month on the $70k car. Instead of spending that money, put some of it in a mutual fund or some retirement account and the remainder into a fund for a new car. When you are 60 years old, you will be patting yourself on the back about how smart you were when you started funding your retirement when you were in your early 20's instead of spending every spare penny on a depreciating asset like a car. The biggest cost of car ownership is not the money spent on gas, but rather the money lost through depreciation.

 

Invest in a house before you invest in a car which depriciates. Do you plan on being in the Military for the rest of your life?

If the answer is no, what plans do you have in place after the Military?

For your situation, the only way I would spend that kind of money on a car is if I paid cash for it.

 

[QUOTE=triman54,Jan 11 2008, 06:33 AM] I assume that you are not independently wealthy.

 

My brother is in the service and will have about $40k in the bank when he gets back from Iraq. He'd like to make the military his career. But you know full well that the army will take its pound of flesh out of you in the end. So I'll just tell you what they are doing as they are more your peers than I am. Hope it helps!

Sorry in advance-this is long.

My dad is just finishing his career as an officer (LTC right now) and the bulk of the money he has is from investments in homes as we moved from place to place.

He started as a 2LT with about $10k in debt and three kids--he took a salary cut from $40k/yr to $25k as a 2LT. Long story, not worth it. After a few years, he got that under control and usually had 2 homes at a time, and he had a renter pay the note on one of them while he depreciated the house and took a large tax cut. He netted ~$3000 a year after paying a property manager, but he also got the equity. At one point, he also netted well over $100k in a year on property appreciation (he did sell it). Both his cars are paid off, he has about $200k in equity in one of the homes now, and he invests more than half his salary as the kids are gone and his bills have dropped.

When he's done, his pension will be ~$50k/year, which is about my salary as a just-out-of-college mechanical engineer. Thats a fair bit, but that's not a lot on its own for a 50 year old to live on for the rest of his life. Health-wise, he has a foot long metal rod in his lower back, and he is short on blood at the moment (unknown GI issue from Afghanistan), so though he won't pay for it, he can't really plan to work for another 15 years--he's earned most of what he can earn beyond his pension and savings. That's what he did, and that's where it got him.

Sorry for the long story. Anyways, my brother, trying to learn from this, bought a condo, will put $15-20k in stocks and forget it, and will redo the condo floors, kitchen, and bathroom for cash so he can really enjoy the place. He bought a 45" LCD TV, 2 $2000 couches, and other furniture to make the place nice. He'll likely buy a motorcycle and keep his old beat-to-hell neon for a DD in bad weather. He'll be getting $1000/month GI in school and $1700/month for work too after he gets back. He wants to be a millionaire before he's 50, and he's on track.

You can have anything in life you want, but you can't have everything. You have to plan for the future, but IMO you're a fool if you live your entire life hating today in the name of a better tomorrow. You can put off investing and love driving the car or you can make a large investment and get financial rewards.

One idea I personally like is to invest, then when you have assets worth 2x the value of your goal ($70k car in this case), buy the car for cash and keep adding to the investment. Then you see the growth, get the toy, and aren't hosed for it. But that's my philosophy, not yours.

Good luck, and I know you'll be happy either way.

 

Picture yourself at thirty: you've sacrificed every spare penny you've made for the past seven years -- one quarter of your entire life to purchase a seven year-old car. That seven year-old car is running into the same expensive maintenance problems every seven year-old car is running into. In addition, technology has marched on, and "the platform is just not cutting it anymore" -- there are $30k family sedans that are now just as fast and more modern-looking than your car. Do you think you'll think you made the right choice?

This is the wrong thing to do, plain and simple. You're not accounting for any unexpected expenses. Maybe you want to take a vacation. Maybe you'll want to take up a new hobby. Maybe you'll fall in love and get married. Or, to keep it in the world of cars, maybe your seven year-old European car will require some expected unexpected maintenance. I spend a few grand a year maintaining my four year-old Porsche -- a seven year-old Audi will probably cost at least that much.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but rather to save you from making a terrible mistake.

 

Lots of great advice in this thread, so I'll just sum it up: don't do it, you'll regret it later. Nice things aren't as much fun if you struggle to pay for them &/or have to many too many other sacrifices (saving/investing/retirement, dining out, movies, vacations, etc.)

My Cayman S cost over twice as much as my S2000 did, but doesn't generate twice the fun or make me twice as happy. The law of declining marginal returns def. applies, and you'll be disappointed if you're spending too much of your income on finite benefits.

 

DO IT!! Riding bank account FTMFW!!

 

its nice that you like nice things. A simple answer to you us, does it make sense to buy a car that costs more than double your income? For perspective, my HOME costs twice my annual income.

I wouldnt do it, like everyone in this thread has said, but if you must, leasing is an option. Its not a smart option, but if you have to have a 70k car its a better option.

 

When I bought my new Corvette right out of college, I thought I would be much happier and my dream would be achieved. Not true. I really wasn't any happier having the Corvette than before I had it. Sure, I enjoyed driving it, but it wasn't what made me happy in life.

Relying on material possessions to fulfill your inner needs will always fail in the long run.