Who buys a daily driver for an investment

[mouthpiece]

I've never considered a daily driver as an investment.
Must just be me

 

[Glocktogo]

Certain high value, high demand, low production number cars can be a decent investment, but only if you don't drive them. There is no such thing as a daily driver "investment" car.

If you're VERY savvy on cars, you can sometimes buy a used car at the low point of devaluation, drive it sparingly for a couple of years and sell it for more than you bought it for. Is that an investment? Partially, but only if you want to have a bit of enjoyment beyond watching the numbers change, which may be less than traditional investments such as stocks.

Sometimes you can also buy a good car to enjoy daily that will depreciate far less than a car that isn't all that enjoyable to drive. Say you bought the following cars new in 2013 for MSRP:


2013 Mustang Boss 302: $42,995
2013 Lexus IS350 AWD: $42,780
2013 Chrysler 300C AWD V6 John Varvatos: $43,345

For a control, we’ll use a 2013 Toyota Corolla LE Special Edition for $20,550

You drive 50K in each and go to sell them in 2019 for NADA clean retail:

2013 Mustang Boss 302: $29,050
2013 Lexus IS350 AWD: $22,600
2013 Chrysler 300C AWD V6 John Varvatos: $19,275

The Corolla comes in at $10,300.

So the costs break down on devaluation alone:

Boss 302: $13,945
IS350: $20,180
300C: $24,070

Corolla: $10,250

Now any boring life, boring wife, boring 1.7 kids CPA will tell you you’re a fool if you bought anything but the Corolla. Quality of life doesn’t even factor into a pure mathematical equation. But if you bought the Boss 302, you had 6 years of baller fun, pride of ownership and head turning stares for a mere $3,695 more than the rolling vanilla pudding cup Corolla. If you bought the 300C, I hope they were holding a gun to your head though. Yes I’m aware I’m not factoring total ownership cost, but we’re discussing whether a daily driver can qualify as an “investment”.

IF, you kept that Boss 302 for a LONG time, you’d likely see a ROI that would far outpace the savings of that Corolla too. It’s not an investment in monetary terms per se, but it’s a solid investment in life. It’s up to you whether that makes it worth it. For me? It would. After all...

 

[Shadowrider]

An investment is supposed to bring you a return on the money you spent; vehicles are, with very few exceptions, depreciating assets, which is about as opposite as you can get from an investment.

Generally true, but I've seen old original muscle cars sell for HUGE money. I saw a '69 Z28 Camaro that was a restoration, but numbers matching, sell for $150K to a Japanese buyer in the '90s. Had I only known, I would have made Leno look like a piper!

 

[mouthpiece]

Certain high value, high demand, low production number cars can be a decent investment, but only if you don't drive them. There is no such thing as a daily driver "investment" car.

If you're VERY savvy on cars, you can sometimes buy a used car at the low point of devaluation, drive it sparingly for a couple of years and sell it for more than you bought it for. Is that an investment? Partially, but only if you want to have a bit of enjoyment beyond watching the numbers change, which may be less than traditional investments such as stocks.

Sometimes you can also buy a good car to enjoy daily that will depreciate far less than a car that isn't all that enjoyable to drive. Say you bought the following cars new in 2013 for MSRP:


2013 Mustang Boss 302: $42,995
2013 Lexus IS350 AWD: $42,780
2013 Chrysler 300C AWD V6 John Varvatos: $43,345

For a control, we’ll use a 2013 Toyota Corolla LE Special Edition for $20,550

You drive 50K in each and go to sell them in 2019 for NADA clean retail:

2013 Mustang Boss 302: $29,050
2013 Lexus IS350 AWD: $22,600
2013 Chrysler 300C AWD V6 John Varvatos: $19,275

The Corolla comes in at $10,300.

So the costs break down on devaluation alone:

Boss 302: $13,945
IS350: $20,180
300C: $24,070

Corolla: $10,250

Now any boring life, boring wife, boring 1.7 kids CPA will tell you you’re a fool if you bought anything but the Corolla. Quality of life doesn’t even factor into a pure mathematical equation. But if you bought the Boss 302, you had 6 years of baller fun, pride of ownership and head turning stares for a mere $3,695 more than the rolling vanilla pudding cup Corolla. If you bought the 300C, I hope they were holding a gun to your head though. Yes I’m aware I’m not factoring total ownership cost, but we’re discussing whether a daily driver can qualify as an “investment”.

IF, you kept that Boss 302 for a LONG time, you’d likely see a ROI that would far outpace the savings of that Corolla too. It’s not an investment in monetary terms per se, but it’s a solid investment in life. It’s up to you whether that makes it worth it. For me? It would. After all...

That is a very good analysis and makes tons of $$$ sense to a pea brain like me.
I Never really thought about it like that although I drove a PriusC for 6 years because it was cheap and got awesome mileage which made $$$ sense to me at the time.

 

[TeleStratMan]

One good reason to buy a vehicle is because you like it.

Otherwise ride the bus.

Vehicles are money suckers.

At least most houses do appreciate over time but they are also money suckers.

 

[Mike Duffy]

Daily drivers are purchased and used for transportation to and from what is hopefully a lucrative job/place of business or the gun range. Only investment a DD vehicle offers is saving money on transportation cost or used for work.. Investment cars can be lucrative if you already have some disposable income, but that is anther story..
To answer the original question, most used car dealers..

 

[Glocktogo]

That is a very good analysis and makes tons of $$$ sense to a pea brain like me.
I Never really thought about it like that although I drove a PriusC for 6 years because it was cheap and got awesome mileage which made $$$ sense to me at the time.

Sometimes you can do pretty good on a DD if you do your research, shop hard and are flexible when it comes to the right deal. I wanted a new truck to replace my aging car which was going to need some expensive maintenance soon. Rather than sink a lot of money into a 10 year old car, I opted to buy something else. I'd done tons of research on the market segment (compact truck, but really mid-size). I knew what I wanted, and which options I absolutely wanted. It didn't seem like the local dealers were motivated to sell (IMO), so I did a national search for exactly what I wanted, lowest price first.

I literally bought the cheapest 2018 Chevy Colorado ZR2 V6 Crew Cab in the color and spec I wanted in the country, for what they were asking on the internet. It cost me a one way Southwest ticket to Phoenix and another hundo in gas back to Tulsa, to save $8,200 off MSRP total, off the lot, taxes and fees included. I just looked it up on NADA guides and clean trade-in value with 11.5K on the odometer is only $625 less than I paid for it 14 months ago.

No it's not an investment, but I love it, it does everything I need it to and my total ownership cost isn't going to be bad at all. It still turns heads too!

 

[druryj]

One good reason to buy a vehicle is because you like it.

Otherwise ride the bus.

Vehicles are money suckers.

At least most houses do appreciate over time but they are also money suckers.

Money suckers? Ha! You ain't seen a money sucker till you own a sailboat.

Sailboat: [ˈsālˌ bōt] A floating, primarily wind-powered means of transportation, most often used for recreational purposes. Sailboats are further defined as "a hole in the water into which one pours a never ending stream of money". This is greatly amplified if the boat is kept in warm, tropical waters where algae, barnacles, seaweed, parasites, and various marine crud attaches itself to the boats hull, requiring regular hauling-out, usually in a ship yard, for scraping and painting of said hull with very expensive toxic marine specialty hull paint. Also known as money suckers.

 

[dennishoddy]

Any boat, RV, ATV is a money sucker, but we buy them for the fun factor which overrides anything.