Supercars are extremely sought-after cars. Everyone loves seeing a supercar, whether they are a petrolhead or not. Most people would also love to own one, however, most of them are outrageously expensive, so affording a supercar is tough.
The 5 ways you can afford a supercar are:
- Side hustles
- Financing
- Using Trade-ins
- Finding cheaper supercars
- Negotiating for lower prices
These are some different ways in which you can buy your very own supercar, even if you’re not earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from your day job. The likelihood of you affording a supercar by doing these things is directly proportional to how much effort you put in, so let’s take a look.
The 5 Ways You Can Afford A Supercar
1. Side Hustles
Not everyone has a massive salary that they can use to save up for a supercar. In some cases, you might need an extra source of income if you really want to buy your dream car. Luckily in this day and age there are lots of options to choose from.
From real estate investing to creating YouTube channels (maybe even eventually a supercar YouTube channel!), finding the right side hustle can prove to be very profitable. However, this is the item on this list that will take the most effort on your part. If you’re willing to work hard enough, creating a profitable side hustle could be the route to affording your first supercar.
2. Financing
There are a number of financing options you can use to bring down the monthly costs of your supercar, but it will bring up the total cost of the car, as with any form of financing. This will involve putting down a deposit on the car too. The higher your initial deposit, the lower the monthly instalments will be.
You can try various different financing options offered by different companies. Some may offer you lower monthly instalments or a lower overall cost. You can also try different financing terms, for example paying the car off over 5 years instead of 3 will also lower the monthly instalments. However, which type of financing you choose obviously depends on your own financial situation and budget.
Balloon payments are also a way of lowering the monthly instalments. A balloon payment is a large lump sum of money that is paid at the end of your financing term (kind of like a reverse deposit). This is normally a percentage of the car’s value. As financing is very dependent on your own monetary situation, you should do your research to really make sure you can afford it in the long run.
3. Using Trade-Ins
If you currently own a car that has a decent market value it could be worth trading it in. Of course, you might not have a lot of value, but you could use it to at least supplement your deposit on the new car. Trade-ins can act as extra value that is taken off the car you are buying, lowering your monthly instalments if you choose the financing route.
Be careful with trade-ins though, as sometimes your car might be undervalued by a dealership. The dealership will need to resell the car and make a profit, so they will most likely offer you an amount below the market value of your car. For this reason, you might be better off selling your current car to a private buyer if they’re willing to offer you more money.
However, always make sure that you have another car when buying a supercar. It’s not worth trading in your only car to have a supercar. Supercars are not ideal for daily driving, and it may be impractical to only have a supercar available to use.
4. Finding Cheaper Supercars
You don’t necessarily have to buy the latest Ferrari to be considered a supercar owner. There are plenty of cars that also fit the same criteria, but are far cheaper. Granted, they don’t get as much attention as a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, but they’re a lot more affordable and they’re still supercars.
Some of the best supercars that are much cheaper are most Porsche models, the Nissan GTR, and the Audi R8. Many models from these manufacturers can certainly be considered supercars, and some even beat Lamborghinis and Ferraris that are a lot more expensive.
Buying Secondhand
You don’t necessarily have to choose different manufacturers though. If you buy second-hand, you can also find supercars for a much cheaper price. Supercars normally drop in value drastically when they have more than 50,000 miles on the clock.
In general automotive terms, this is not a lot for a second-hand car, but due to the performance aspect and the costs involved in the maintenance of supercars, 50,000 miles is a lot. Of course, you then also run the risk of having some reliability issues with the car, if it has a lot more than 50,000 miles on it.
The problem with buying second-hand supercars is that you never know how the previous owner (or owners) handled the car. Were they reckless drivers who enjoyed pushing the car to its limits? Or were they collectors who loved the car and took good care of it? The more information you can find out before you buy a secondhand supercar the better.
5. Negotiating For Lower Prices
If you’re a good negotiator you can make this work to your advantage. Dealerships can be difficult, and while you may be able to work out a better financing deal, you probably won’t be able to lower the total price of the car. At the end of the day the dealership needs to sell it for at least the value of the car, otherwise they lose money.
However, where negotiation skills can really come in handy is with second-hand cars. Even with supercars, there can still be room for negotiation.
In order to do so you need to really do your research. It’s absolutely vital that you know more about the car you want to buy than the guy who’s selling you the car, otherwise you’ll struggle to move the price. Start by finding the car’s market value, and you can find out how much other dealerships are selling the same car for and get an idea of how much you should expect to pay.
From there you can negotiate the price down by being thorough and looking for minor faults with the car. Anything from small scratches, missing manuals, and imperfect interior details can help you to bring down the overall value of the car. Any big problems of course might put you off buying the car completely.
Look For Minor Faults
Carefully assess the condition of the car and consider the mileage, age and color of the car. As strange as it may sound, the color of the car has a huge effect on its resale value. For example, a red Ferrari will sell faster and for more than a white Ferrari, simply because the red color is iconic. However, with an Aston Martin, a green one will sell better than a red one for the same reason.
Use all of these factors in combination to knock off a little bit extra on the price of the car. Don’t be too pushy though, as if you annoy them too much, they don’t have to sell you the car! You can be assured that there will be someone else who is also interested in it, so try and find the balance.
Things To Consider When Buying A Supercar
It’s not just about paying as little as you can for a supercar. There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes that some people just don’t realize. That’s why you’ll find some second-hand supercars with extremely low mileage. Some people buy their dream car before thinking about the financial burden that comes with it, and sell it soon after buying it, often at a loss.
Budget
The first thing to think about is your budget. Do you have enough money, firstly to buy the car, and secondly to own it? Buying a supercar and owning a supercar are completely different. It’s important to remember that the costs of owning a supercar are added onto the monthly instalments you need to pay when you buy the car.
Insurance
Another factor to consider is insurance. Supercars are expensive to repair, and insurance companies know that. They will charge you a huge amount of money to insure your supercar, especially if it’s an older model and therefore might have reliability problems.
It’s not only the internal parts like the engine and gearbox that are expensive, but even the external parts. For example, the front bumper of a Lamborghini Huracan costs around $6,000. Therefore, so much as a dent in the front bumper can cost a huge amount of money to repair.
Many insurance companies will therefore include a lot of conditions when insuring a supercar on top of an expensive package. One policy you can expect is that the car needs to accumulate less than a set number of miles per month, for example.
This amount will most likely be discussed and agreed upon beforehand. Another common term is that the car can only be driven on specific days of the week, some are only on weekends and others are specifically agreed days.
These policies can help to reduce the monthly cost of insuring your supercar as it means that the car is being driven less and picking up fewer miles. In other words, there’s less chance of damaging the car, or the car breaking down and needing repairs.
Maintenance and Repairs
As mentioned, supercars are built using high performance parts. These parts not only make the car go fast, but they’re also incredibly expensive. If something on the car breaks, it can be an expensive fix.
With many famous supercars being hand-built, it means that their reliability is not always top-notch, and a failure of some kind is not uncommon. When you get to the Bugattis, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris, the costs of replacing parts becomes immensely expensive.
Gas Mileage
Many supercars have terrible gas mileage too. In most cases the high-performance engines go through gas extremely fast. The engines are extremely thirsty, especially if the cars are driven fast. With fluctuating fuel prices, it can be a real challenge just to keep the car running.
Depreciation
Just like any other car, supercars depreciate in value over time. Supercar values tend to depreciate fastest between 50,000 and 100,000 miles. After that, depreciation slows down again. It’s important to monitor the depreciation trends to make sure that if you sell your car, you sell it at the right time.
Resale Value
If you’re planning to sell your supercar it’s important to get a good price. You’ll never get all your money back, but you don’t want to lose too much money. So, you need to research second-hand models of your car and see how much they go for with the same amount of mileage, age and color as yours. Make sure you know the value of your car, as buyers will always try to get a lower price.
Increasing Value
Some iconic cars actually gain value over time. These are usually cars that are extremely famous. Some Ferraris and Lamborghinis have been known to increase in value. Other examples include the Aston Martin DB5, made famous by James Bond. Normally these cars are extremely rare and expensive. Their rarity is the main factor that causes them to gain value.
Final Thoughts
There are a few different ways you can afford a supercar. If you have the time, consider starting a side hustle to bring in some extra money each month. If you don’t have the time, or don’t want to do any extra work, consider selling another car, using financing, or simply negotiating for a better price.
You can also buy secondhand, as this is one of the easiest ways to get a supercar for much less than their market price when brand new. However, there are a lot of factors to consider when buying a supercar other than the price. Most importantly, you should make sure that, aside from being able to afford the car in the first place, you can afford to run it as well.