House Or Car?
Today's Question comes from Turboner, and it's a humdinger. So we'll just let him over explain:
I need Jalopnik's help. I just accepted a new job with a salary delta of +$12-15k/year. That's alot to a guy who made $45k in 2006 including quite a bit of overtime. My question is, and I think it pertains to the ~30-40 something reader/writership demographic of my fellow Jalopnikkas, should I buy a house or another car? If it's a car, which I think it will be, which one? Our situation is this:
We do not have, and do not plan on having kids. Ever. Too damn many global problems could be solved by not overpopulating the planet while missing out on your dreams ;)
My wife loves fun cars with torque and the occaisional track day, hates automatic transmissions.
We rent a nice house in a great part of SE PDX from my cousin, who will never raise rent until we leave. $825/mo for a 2 BR 1 BA with fenced yard for our doggie, but no garage, only carport. He even let us put in a hot tub and keg fridge :)
We have two fun cars already: 2000 A6 2.7T Quattro 6 speed, 1995 Talon Tsi AWD 5 speed. Now we will be commuting to different places for work, and the Talon is not always roadworthy, which could pose an occaisional logistics issue. Such is the way of the DSM owner, but it's worth it. They are both great snow/HPDE cars, and I don't want to part with either, but part of me wants a real two seat, RWD sports car for weekends and the track. Part of me wants a convertible (I had one once, it's hard to describe why I lust for another, but it's a different experience on those fun weekend drives, despite the torsional rigidity compromise), the other part of me wants a dedicated track/road warrior with a roof and tight chassis. Part of me wants said car to be economical for spares/parts, the other part wants something so sexy, divisive, and rare that parts are a secondary concern.
So, my questions are: 1. Keep renting and get another car, or buy a house like my society, family, and friends say I should? You can't take it with you, and may or may not provide as much instant gratification as another car, especially a non-daily driver.
2. Buying a house is overrated, and the market is shifting towards a buyer's advantage anyway, so I should wait a year or two. The only question then is, S2000, or M coupe (or possibly a Mazdaspeed Miata). The Honda can be had for ~$15-20k, the M coupe for $20-22k. One would be more economical to run at the track, and have the topless option. Some may consider that crazy, since I live in the PNW, but I'll take my top off at +50 degrees F, or anything over 30MPH if it's snowing ;) The other would be way more sexy, passionate, pure, and expensive to maintain, but that still leaves me with two trackable cars if one is down. I know, neither has a turbo, but I already have 3 in my life :)
Note question number two is fully dependant on question one being answered with "car." Oh, and my wife has already OK'ed this, either way!
Well Turboner, we live in a city/state where no matter what we'll never be able to afford a house, especially at Gawker slave wages. So, we're saying car. Though we would be remiss if we did not point out that you could get a hoonalicious Se7en kit for that kind of money. Take it away, Mr. Navarro! Your thoughts?