Yahoo Autos Watch a Financial Advisor Lose His Mind Over His Client's Fleet of Broken Cars
The automotive hobby is one that can be challenging on the pocket book for a number of reasons. Cars are some of the most expensive items that people buy, and repair bills, fuel costs, insurance, and modifications can add up quickly. These issues only get worse as you add more vehicles to your fleet, particularly if they aren’t well-kept examples. The internet’s favorite financial advisor Caleb Hammer from The Financial Audit got a taste of how quickly this popular hobby can get out of hand, and just about lost his mind in the process.
The star of this sports car-filled audit is a 22-year old named Alex from San Antonio, Texas, who works as a facility technician in the Lone Star State. That position comes with a six-figure salary, which should be enough to get your hands on a nice car or two. Things aren't exactly that simple, however. The discussion about cars starts almost immediately, but you can skip ahead to 8:19 in the clip for the key points.
Hammer quickly discovers that Alex has a fleet of cars that he purchased with high interest rate loans. Not great! Also not great: most of the machines were inoperable at the time of the audit. The list includes a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette, which was purchased for $17,500 at an 18 percent interest rate. That loan alone carries a minimum monthly payment of $413, but Alex also spent around $600 a month fueling the car for his commute. That is until the 6.2-liter LS3 V-8 engine let go, which the owner attributes to their use of nitrous. They also have a small loan balance at 17.75 percent interest attached to a VW GTI, which is also modified and suffering from a dead motor. As if two blown engines isn’t bad enough, our auditee also has a 12 percent interest rate on a loan balance of over $4000 for a Subaru WRX, which is also suffering from engine troubles due to a blown head gasket. Alex says that the Subaru’s previous owner had claimed to have rebuilt the engine before his purchase, but didn’t have a proper pre-purchase inspection done before pulling the trigger. Because of the fleet of busted rides, Alex also owes over $24,000 at 15 percent interest on an Audi A3 e-tron which has replaced the Corvette for daily driver duties. All together that’s over $46,000 in car debt.
Having a broken car that you love can be infuriating, particularly when the repairs are going to be difficult or expensive. That said, risking your financial future on a stop-gap performance car probably isn’t going to end up well. Most cars are depreciating assets, even if they are enthusiast machines. Only a select few vehicles have ever truly managed to outpace the stock market, and they tend not to be 220,000 mile examples. Modifying a car you don’t own also comes with some financial risk, as is made evident in a situation like this. Alex is still young, so hopefully he is able to turn this around and get into a financially-appropriate car that satisfies the itch. We hope he never discovers Porsche 944s.
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