No, a car is a tool, whether it's used for commuting, racing, showing, or just fun. Unless you are planning to garage it for 50 years, keeping it in perfect shape and hope it becomes a collector's item, it is not an investment. NOT everything in this world is about making money. Somethings are about enjoying the utility of it. Since you consider cars and timeshares investments, both of which have traditionally horrible resale values, I would not be inclined to follow your advice.

 

Dear sir. If you will check the posts here you will read one that states that the police spent weeks in an investigation regarding the ongoing problem at this mall. Therefore I feel that they had reasonable cause to proceed. The results show that they were right on. My bet is that they had evidence of illegal cars. And they found illegal cars, didn't they? Good job by the police in cleaning up a mess at that mall.

 

Thanks for the advise, LynnEl, but no thanks. You are wrong.

 

I wasn't giving you advice. I can see that facts have little value to your opinions anyway. And thanks for all those facts to support your declaration.

 

who said all investments had to be good ones? just cuz its got a bad resale value doesnt mean it isnt an investment.......

 

From Pinceton's on-line dictionary: "money that is invested with an expectation of profit." Since one can have no reasonable expectation to make a reasonable profit on reselling either a car or a timeshare, they are hardly worthy investments. Thus, one who would chose to "invest" in them or consider them "investments" should not be lecturing other people on what to do with their money.

 

and not everythign in this world is black and white...as far as i see it, there's nothing wrong with an investment (car) that you can choose to drive for your pleasure, it might not be very beneficial to you in the long run, but as far as i see it, as soon as you start modding your car and adding power and looks, you're bringing up the value of your car...

and also, i do think just about everything in this world is structured around making money, it may not be your intention, but thats just the way it happens to be...

 

hardly worthy, but investments nonetheless

 

Neither of which statements has anything to do with my points, except, as noted below, that cars are NOT investments, in the intent to make money root meaning of the word.

 

Good morniong to everyone posting on this thread. It has been interesting to say the least. Thanks to MaxN for providing the facts in writing rather than just another opinion. Hopefully that sharing of information will steer some folks in the right way and avoid problems with their cars/engine swaps. I am not suprised by the posts claiming that peoples rights were violated, etc. These 150 cars were causing havoc in the mall and they got what they deserved. I think most posters here know right from wrong, so there is no need to beat this issue to death.

It's a great day so I think I'll put the top down on one of my tools and take a drive in the foothills then come home and check on my investments. Have a nice day everybody.

 

but that whole thing about "with teh intent to make money", yeah thats right, but theres more to the equation when considerinig a car....there are certain costs that you need to assume and consisder fixed based on your budget (necassary expense) and once you do its whatever you spend over that, that takes away from the investment you knwo what i mean, and then you gotta factor in what you use the car for, if its an operating expense and you make money off of it and blah blah blah, so a car can be an investment (i know i steered off for a second) but im just sayin

and ur right, generally speaking a car is not a good investment, but if you buy it, and then decide to sell it, did you not invest a certain amount of money in teh whole thing?

anyway, i love my mini and ill never sell it so, so i invested 30 grand in a car that is going to yield hundreds of thousands of smiles

 

Folks, it is pretty obvious these kids WERE breaking laws.

California has an AVID autocross and track day community. I started autocrossing in San Diego, there would be an SCCA, Porsche CCA, and BMWCCA event all at the same time (on three different courses!) at Qualcomm. Regularly, motorcycle cops would show up and hang out, even radar cars on the fast stretches just for fun. You never hear about those events getting 'raided' by the police, and trust me, there are seriously modified cars there.

The police took action here because it was needed. Obviously there were complaints, and in the 'tuner' crowd, there ARE lots of street racers.

If you don't like the laws, change them. Otherwise, don't complain if you get a ticket for not following them.

For example. I do not run a front plate on my car, even though it is required in Wisconsin. If I am pulled over and get a ticket for it, I WILL NOT come onto a forum complaining about it. I'll pay my fine and move on. I understand the risk. Same goes with speeding. If I am speeding, and get caught, then I'll pay the ticket and move on, NOT complain about how unfair it is!

I agree, though, that California laws are probably too strict, but they are what they are. Run for office. Campaign. Do something about it.

 

I would offer advice to "Move to North Carolina", where we have no CARB laws, less of a nanny-state mentality, more open space, less smog, less traffic... but we have too many of you fine people moving in every day, already.

 

No, you expended the money, as there was no intent to make more money on the amount you spent.

 

okay if its only about an intent to make money, than you're right and there's no point to discuss it any further

 

but does that mean that if i buy a tiny house in a slow and declining market area with the intent of say, storing all my surfboards and such....and then 20 years later, something happens and everybody wants to buy houses around my tiny little shack of surfboards....does that make that purchase an investment or an expenditure, if i decide to sell.....im really just curious im not being sarcastiic

 

Again, an investment versus expenditure is based on the intent of the purchase. This doesn't mean that you can't make money on an expenditure any more than it means you can't lose money on an investment.

 

Is that why they call California the land of fruits and nuts?

 

so you're saying that the tiny house purchase would be considered an expenditure even after i decide to sell because my intent was not to make money

if that is the case, and im still a little skeptical but i have no facts to post so im not gonna say anything, then people throw around the word investment too much and too often when it shouldnt really apply....

 

Absolutely correct. FTW.

 

Same here, I bought my MC to keep it stock and maybe put Winter tires on the stock rims and get 16's for the summer.
If I wanted to dump money to it trying to make it somewhat fast, I would've held on to my 300hp WRX that was waaaay more capable than MINI will ever be.
Damn I miss that car

 

I did that, moved from Cali to AZ to NC. I miss NC the most, I think.

 

LynnEI

i thought about this more

the idea of intent is correct, you can thank princeton for that definition

however, i had $30,000 to spend on a car. Minis are an investment because in the longterm i save money with resale value and high mpg. Same could go for other economy cars. S=I

 

That doesn't make them an investment; that just means you don't lose as much. But, you still expect to lose.

 

Hmmm. While we're on this off topic...

I buy a house. Purchase price is $300K. I expect it to appreciate over the next 30 years. I get a mortgage (including taxes) for $2500/month. Over thirty years my total payments are $900K. For simplicity, assume no maintenance costs. In 30 years I sell the property for $800K. This is more than the $750K that I expected it to be worth in 30 years.

Was this an investment, or an expenditure?