Keep the Mustang? Or......

[D.Brown]

I see you have considered the insurance aspect for a new car, but, did you consider your overall salary will not be in the six figures, after taxes. Figure what your Fed Tax, State tax, etc will on your salary and the take home pay is what you should base your decision on. You may want to wait until the 2018's actually come out and look at them. Performance and cost wise it may be the way to go. If you really like your current Mustang, why get out of it. Do the mods you want and make it yours. Enjoy it!

I am not a fan of the facelift, so for me the 2018 is not a purchase I would make. I hadn't really thought of paying off the Mustang, selling it, and getting a 2016 Performance Pack with all of the interior bits and upgrades that I would have liked when I originally bought my base. But after reading this thread, and all of the responses, my first order of business is paying off the car and saving up cash no matter what.

The mustang has always been a "poor man's sports car" but honestly I wouldn't want any other car. I have put some serious money in my car making it exactly what I want and I wouldn't be surprised if even with all I've put in it I'm still less invested than just the cost of an exotic or German car. I have protected my investment by adding 30K of coverage on my car incase of unforeseen accident and because its a Ford Mustang the insurance premium is still butt cheap.


I don't think there is another car on the market that is as customizable and has as much to offer in the aftermarket than the Mustang. Also, because its a Mustang you are not devaluing it like you would if you were customizing an exotic. There is a lot to be said about being able to do what you want to your car, this is what makes the Mustang so great and the S550 is a game changer in itself.

I agree with just about everyone above, take care of your family and be financially smart. That said I also work in a profession that scares me. Life is short and unpredictable so my advice is to enjoy it now as much as you can.


Upgrade your interior, drop some forced induction on it and enjoy the hell out of it. Oh and while your doing that, come see me!!!!! lol

I did a lot of research on other vehicles this weekend, and I came to the conclusion that it'd be a gamble purchasing these other cars and expecting to be as happy as I am when I get in my S550. It is a hell of a car, and you're right about the modifications. First things first, pay it off, save up cash, then make a decision if I'm not happy after slapping on a Procharger that wouldn't break the bank anyway. Spring is almost here! May 1st she comes back out, so let's plan something that month!

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[Hashbrownn]

Keep the car, invest and save for retirement. I say put some new tires on the Mustang and enjoy it for few more years!
I'm not sure who told you to spend up to 50% of your year salary on a car. That is non-sense! Does that mean you have up to $50k yearly on a car? Does not compute in my head. Getting rid of monthly payments would be my goal with the raise.

 

[Maggneto]

Keep the car, invest and save for retirement. I say put some new tires on the Mustang and enjoy it for few more years!
I'm not sure who told you to spend up to 50% of your year salary on a car. That is non-sense! Does that mean you have up to $50k yearly on a car? Does not compute in my head. Getting rid of monthly payments would be my goal with the raise.

It does not mean spend 50k per year on a car, it simply means the purchase price should not be more ran 50k if you make 100k. The monthly payment would be around 10-15℅ of your monthly take home pay.

 

[qtrracer]

Funny story. Was reading about the Hulk and this richer guy who financed the Hulk's lawsuit The funny comment: Single digit millionaires (Hulk) would have a hard time financing these types of lawsuits. The point is, $100K per year is not that much today. If one wants wealth, spending as if one does isn't the way to get there.

Take the extra income and invest it using dollar cost averaging. This means put a fixed amount in the market on a regular basis (e.g., each pay-period) regardless of whether the market is up or down. Be surprised how fast that adds up. Before long, one doing so can be a single digit millionaire too.

 

[ghig302]

Keep the Mustang you have until you hate it...and pay it off. Nothing like having no car payment...I just paid my Boss off last week.
Buy a condo as an investment property....I bought mine in Scottsdale.

Dave

 

[D.Brown]

Keep the Mustang you have until you hate it...and pay it off. Nothing like having no car payment...I just paid my Boss off last week.
Buy a condo as an investment property....I bought mine in Scottsdale.

Dave

Thanks for the advice! Maybe I'll buy property in Temecula! Haha.

 

[Clink]

Are you trying to save the manual transmission, or a bunch of friends named Manuel?

 

[Joshg120]

I would consider a fully loaded 2018, I think the performance package and all the new upgrades would make it a sizeable upgrade from your current ride and it would still be less than 40k OTD

 

[swat 79]

After investing how much lol as opossed to a stock stang ? Those r's only come with 290 lol . I just sold my fully built sti on 93 octane it put down a little over 400 hp . Please don't ask me how much money I threw at that car beacause it's embarrassing lol .

I know what you mean though , it's not always about hp , but you mentioned you have a base gt . Go check out a loaded one , their pretty sweet

My old coach just got an APR Tune for his golf R (doesn't affect warranty either). His 0-60 is now 3.8 and 10 seconds off the 0-140. For 800 dollars he got 74 hp and 98 ft lbs.

If I were OP, I would make the mods you want on the car you have now, and wait until you are ready to get into that 911 you want.

 

[Quackfoo]

The mustang you have is a nice car, and as my grandfather used to say "cash is king". Save up for a house or something, or a rainy day fund if you get fired or laid off. THEN think about cars.

 

[D.Brown]

I would consider a fully loaded 2018, I think the performance package and all the new upgrades would make it a sizeable upgrade from your current ride and it would still be less than 40k OTD

IMHO, the 2018 facelift is horrendous.

My old coach just got an APR Tune for his golf R (doesn't affect warranty either). His 0-60 is now 3.8 and 10 seconds off the 0-140. For 800 dollars he got 74 hp and 98 ft lbs.

If I were OP, I would make the mods you want on the car you have now, and wait until you are ready to get into that 911 you want.

I think this will most definitely be the plan.

The mustang you have is a nice car, and as my grandfather used to say "cash is king". Save up for a house or something, or a rainy day fund if you get fired or laid off. THEN think about cars.

Agreed. The advice has been overwhelming and more often than not has harped the same words you just spoke.

 

[raceredftw]

I make around $130k depending on my bonus, and when I just bought a new car a few months ago my budget was $35k or less. You and I might prioritize saving differently, but I couldn't see buying a $50k-$60k car on this level of income. I'd always figured you needed to be making around $150-175k to comfortably afford a >$50k vehicle, that or have ridiculously low monthly expenses which wouldn't make sense at that income level.

 

[Maggneto]

I make around $130k depending on my bonus, and when I just bought a new car a few months ago my budget was $35k or less. You and I might prioritize saving differently, but I couldn't see buying a $50k-$60k car on this level of income. I'd always figured you needed to be making around $150-175k to comfortably afford a >$50k vehicle, that or have ridiculously low monthly expenses which wouldn't make sense at that income level.

I think you are stretching it a bit. It all comes down to monthly income - expenses. I clear nearly 4k per month after I pay the mortgage, bills and the car/boat payments. I can easily handle over 1k per month car payment * 60 = 60k car. The key is to keep your monthly expenses low, build excellent credit and finance cars instead of paying cash. Not having kids, living in the south, and working from home helps tremendously. I have family in NJ that spends 1k per month on property tax on top of the mortgage and huge college payments to the tune of 30k-50k per year per child. The same house in NJ would cost 500k vs. 250k in the south so 100k in SC is a shit load vs 100k in other parts of the country.

At 100k per year the monthly take home after tax is about 6k per month. That should be enough to finance a 50k car for some people. The first car I financed was a used Porsche fresh out of college making a whopping 35k per year.

 

[tcman54]

Good evening all. I bought my Base Model GT brand new and have pretty much enjoyed every mile of driving it. I now find myself facing an interesting option as I have recently interviewed for a position that will greatly increase my salary. If I do get it, I'm looking at the $100k range for pay. My question to all of you, with varying salaries and to those of you who have had many cars, do I keep the Mustang and continue to modify it? Or move on and upgrade to something else? I found myself struggling to find anything worthy of the upgrade. I was told that half your salary should be the max you spend on a car, so I started looking at things $50k and below. Here are the cars that I found interesting in the price range (all sourced from cars.com under $50k) Let me know what you all think! Thanks in advance.

2014 S6 or S7
2016 A6
2015 GT350 (Kind of a stretch)
2015 Golf R
2015 S3
E90 M3
B8 S4
2015 Macan S
2014 Maserati Ghibli
2015 M4
Lexus IS350
2017 Jaguar F Pace
2013 Raptor
2012 Jaguar XKR

I glanced at your list and somehow jumbled Macan and Maserati to get McLaren, nevermind..

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