I especially liked the one on how all you had to do was spend another $50 a week over the life of the XX years loan to afford it! LOL. That's real money, not like an extra $5 a month. Kinda incongruous to most of the readers and your Challenge event.
The other good one was how S. Carolina was "Centrally located". Um, to where? Unless you live in Florida or the Mid Atlantic it's hardly centrally located to the rest of the USA.
I'm sure it's a nice car and picking it up at the Performance Center is super cool, but you guys had me rolling with those two lines...
I agree with the fact that $50 a week is real money, but I do think that almost all americans piss away more than that on things they don't even remember buying the next week.
Cable TV is $25 per week by itself.
Magazine in the grocery store.
Candy bars/chips/cheetos/doughnuts at work.
All Soda products. cigarettes, coffee, $1 songs and smartphone apps.
Trade the above list for an M235 over a toyota camry? I think that is exactly what many on this board would choose.
tuna and I live within 5 miles of the BMW PC... jsyk...
as does a HUGE amount of readers in Clemson sc/ Greenville...
So it's pretty central to us...
There's just a HUGE difference between say a $300/month payment and a $500/month payment. Chances are if you had the money for a $500/month payment, you have a BMW on order.
The "central location" is hilarious. Yep, South Carolina is pretty central, like say Kansas is....
Greenville is within a day's drive of about 3/4 of the population of the US. Statistically, unless you live in California, it's pretty much the definition of "centrally located."
As for the money, it's probably not the particular mental gymnastics I'd use to justify the purchase, but I didn't write the story. I think the bigger point, though, is that for most enthusiasts it's an attainable goal. The pricing is "centrally located" within their buying power in other words.
The mean center of the United States population -- i.e. the mean average location of all people in the United States -- is actually a calculable location.
Surprisingly, the Census Bureau actually calculates it with every census. In 2010 it was here, 37.517534, -92.173096, which is about 160 miles southwest of St. Louis, Missouri.
Sure, if you remove California from the United States, the center ends up a lot closer to South Carolina.... but California is still part of the US last I checked, and a LOT of readers live there.
You just have to spread it out a bit. That's only $7.14 a day or .29 cents an hour or............ you get the idea. Doesn't sound so bad like that. 
Any mention of 'centrally located' amuses me, as I'm on the west coast and am not catered to whatsoever :)
SnowMongoose wrote:
Any mention of 'centrally located' amuses me, as I'm on the west coast and am not catered to whatsoever :)
You have all the best tracks in the first place!!
It's that kind of funny math that should be used so all of us drive Mclarens! I mean, seriously, it's only $146.50 more a day!
Guess it's just not very "Grassroots" it's more high pressure mortgage broker.
I wrote the story, everyone. You can direct your criticism at me.
Sorry for not responding to this earlier–I've been driving all day, and just finished setting up our subscription booth at the ARRC at Road Atlanta.
As far as the location comment: okay, fine, you got me. Greenville isn't in the center of our country. But it's certainly not Florida or Hawaii.
As far as the money comments: $50 a week is totally doable. I live in a working-class neighborhood full of starter homes, and watch all of my neighbors have their lawns mowed for them every week. I mow my own–that's $50 each week right there. Cut cable (I have an Apple TV), and there's another $25 a week right there. These are all people that already drive new Camrys and pickup trucks, have families, and work average jobs.
No, not everyone can afford a new M235i. But, luckily for them, the majority of our readers can. For those of you that can't, our $3500 SVT Focus sits in my driveway next to the M235i. Tim's daily driver is a 9-year-old Honda, David loves his old wagon like it's a family member, and Gary is determined to drive his old Volvo until it waves a white flag and surrenders. We haven't forgotten about you, but it takes a mix of stories in order to keep everyone happy. If nothing else, rich people are fun to watch. Seen Top Gear lately?
docwyte wrote:
There's just a HUGE difference between say a $300/month payment and a $500/month payment. Chances are if you had the money for a $500/month payment, you have a BMW on order.
I'll take $750/month student loan bills for 20 years Alex.
docwyte wrote:
There's just a HUGE difference between say a $300/month payment and a $500/month payment. Chances are if you had the money for a $500/month payment, you have a BMW on order.
The "central location" is hilarious. Yep, South Carolina is pretty central, like say Kansas is....
?
500/month is ~$35k at 7xmonths. bmw payments are closer to 700 a month...
Mad_Ratel wrote:
docwyte wrote:
There's just a HUGE difference between say a $300/month payment and a $500/month payment. Chances are if you had the money for a $500/month payment, you have a BMW on order.
The "central location" is hilarious. Yep, South Carolina is pretty central, like say Kansas is....
?
500/month is ~$35k at 7xmonths. bmw payments are closer to 700 a month...
The car starts at $44k. $500 a month finances something like $26-30k for 60 months so ... that would be a $500 payment with 15-20k down and tax/tags out of pocket as long as you take the free paint codes and don't option it up with floor mats! That optional BMW limited slip diff is only a $2850 upcharge. Hahahaha.
Methinks we are talking lease rates in the 5 bills range.
Feedyurhed wrote:
You have all the best tracks in the first place!!
California has the tracks you speak of, I'm almost in Canada :P
I was wondering the same thing on the numbers, that they must be lease numbers. Shoot my $16-$17k Cruze is close to $300 a month with zero down tax and tags included. Camry would be closer to $500 a month and the BMW around $700 without a huge down payment.
Do people really buy $50k+ cars with no down payment? Maybe I'm just too financially conservative to even think about doing that.
Tom, like I said, $200 a month is a huge difference for most people. It's not a frivolous amount of money like you make it sound in the story. Are there ways to potentially save that much a month? Well, sure, depending on what you're spending your money on, but I suspect most people are playing it closer to the bone than that...
As much as we all love and own old crap, there are times when a percentage of us actually buy new cars. Maybe they're for our wives. Maybe we want to drive a car instead of wrenching on it. Maybe we like the idea of projects but live in an apartment. Tommy might not be speaking to you personally with the article, but he's speaking to some of us.
A low optioned version would be between $650 and $750 a month depending on your credit rating and rate. That assumes a very low down payment or none, of course. In my opinion, that's a lot of money to pay for a car, and I doubt they have many that cheap on most of the BMW lots. My Dad just bought a new X5, and of the few M2 series on the lot, none were below $50k, and one was pushing $60k. I don't claim to know what the differences were, but they weren't cheap.
They also had one of the I8s in the showroom, and it was above its MSRP by like what, $100k! It was pretty though.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cesan.nr0.htm
Average american spent 51k in 2013 and 9k of that was on transportation.
Assuming about 2K/year is gas and 1k is insurance, that points back to a 500/month car payment (average).
Then add in 50/week = 2600/year or almost exactly 5% of average annual spending, and I would argue that as an average enthusiast, a person might shift 5% (or often much more) of their spending toward their hobby.
Finally, 2600 per year is just a little higher than the cost of a challenge car... haha (but that is assuming you start fresh on a brand new challenge car each year and that you keep them all instead of selling).
Now bear in mind I don't have a M235i, nor do I plan to get one soon. I just agree that it isn't out of the realm of possibility for an average person in america.
My neighbor just gave me his track-driven Craftsman snowblower today for free and my buddy just gave me his like-new 2-stroke leaf blower for free.
I shoveled and raked til now because we live within our means.
If a new BMW payment is within ones means (factually, not fantasy) then hav at it.
It just isn't for me. But I still like to read about stuff I'll never have.
ebonyandivory wrote:
My neighbor just gave me his track-driven Craftsman snowblower today for free and my buddy just gave me his like-new 2-stroke leaf blower for free.
I had to read this twice before I realized that the snowblower had tracks instead of being driven on track. I though that was pretty hard core to have a snowblower just for the track instead of just using your DD snowblower. 
ebonyandivory wrote:
It just isn't for me. But I still like to read about stuff I'll never have.
Never say never. A 2012 328i can be had for less than $25k right now with low miles and a b2b factory warranty. These will be no different. An M235 makes a lot of sense to me once Tommy is done taking care of that depreciation 
In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:
I get what your saying but I've got a $4k budget! (Basically single income and three small children)
I'm looking at 2000-2003 cars!
