Carpokes

Oil change
Front brake pads after I completed a set on track last weekend, a 6 hour drive home on backing plate to rotor
Swapped my track wheels back to my street wheels.
A good once over looking for loose bolts.

J-Dub wrote: Sun Mar 01, 2026 10:29 am Oil change

Front brake pads after I completed a set on track last weekend, a 6 hour drive home on backing plate to rotor

Swapped my track wheels back to my street wheels.
A good once over looking for loose bolts.

No waste!!

Just did a little one-hour curvy road run with a friend in his RS5. Been away on business for a week and dreamt of driving her so had to get her out for a little spin ASAP!

Drove the Black Mamba up from the Cape Fear (Wilmington, NC) to her new home in Pittsburgh. Midway I stopped in Lexington and spent the night at my alma mater. Getting there I did the Lexington Turnpike from Amherst to Buena Vista at night. That was a great drive. Next day I headed up the twisty-turvy mountain route through WV. The weather was spectacular and the road even better.

This week I… paid off the Spyder RS.

I put 79.82% of the “out the door price” down, financing the remainder over 5 years.
I secured the financing myself, for what was the verified lowest non-incentive rate in the US.
I paid the car off in 63 weeks, 1 day and 9 hours, or about 24.3% of the original term.
This was done to reduce the total cost of the car, particularly the “cost of interest.”

——-

Typical “great rates” at the time for super-prime (820-850 FICO) buyers was 6% APY for the term.

Historically, a “great rate” was 10% “total cost of interest”, for those putting 20% (not ~80%) down.
That is, for every $10,000 the car cost, after the loan was paid off you had paid $11,000 with interest.
A lot of prime and super prime buyers at the time were in the 16-21% range, again with 20% down.
LOTS of buyer at the time found themselves in the 22-35% range.
People with terrible credit? 70-120% is … sadly, very normal right now.
Yes, with interest, there are many signing up to pay nearly the entire price of the car again in interest.

Well, I shopped the best rate, and with aggressive payoff my cost of interest was 0.648%.
Or that means I paid (with interest) $1,006.48 per $1,000 “out the door” price of the car.
If I instead made minimum payments over the full term, it would’ve been 2.353% instead of 0.648%.
Though again, I only borrowed about 20.18% the price of the car, not 80%, which helped a ton.
I also didn’t have a 6% APY on the term. I had 4.49%. I could’ve got 3.99% for a 40% shorter term.

——-

Paying off the loan early ended up working out to a 4.55% taxable-equivalent yield.
Yes, “opportunity cost of money” and all”, but the loan let me keep an additional year’s expenses on hand.
The labor market was looking increasingly shaky as of mid-2024, more so in Jan. 25 when I took delivery.
Yet that TEY ended up better for me than TIPS, Treasuries, HYSA, CD or other “cash-equivalents.”

——-

So I have completed the goal I set out for myself in the early 2000s — buy something very special, very responsibly.
I also avoided “playing the game” many people are forced do, buying lots of nonsense they don’t want.
I thank a 20+ year prior conversation with a Ferrari dealer owner I had in my early 20s for how to avoid “the game.”

This is one my favorite things said on this board in a long time, I am of the no debt mindset myself.

Good for you!

Goof wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 7:00 am This week I… paid off the Spyder RS.

EEProf wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 5:21 am Drove the Black Mamba up from the Cape Fear (Wilmington, NC) to her new home in Pittsburgh. Midway I stopped in Lexington and spent the night at my alma mater. Getting there I did the Lexington Turnpike from Amherst to Buena Vista at night. That was a great drive. Next day I headed up the twisty-turvy mountain route through WV. The weather was spectacular and the road even better.IMG_9335.jpeg

Nice!

And a great license plate!!!

We have a "personalized plate" Carpokes topic just for plates like yours with 25-pages of creative examples and comments. Yours would be a great addition if it's not already there. (Time for me to revisit the posts there.)

See the topic and the fun examples here

J-Dub wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 8:53 am This is one my favorite things said on this board in a long time, I am of the no debt mindset myself.

Good for you!

Goof wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 7:00 am This week I… paid off the Spyder RS.

Debt is the killer of wealth creation.

blueline wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 9:26 am
Debt is the killer of wealth creation.

100% agree

I am of a slightly different school of thought, though frankly I feel a minor one, and that is " Control Debt " managing it to one's advantage. I currently have a truck on an 84 month loan at 1.90 % and I could not see any reason not to take on a loan as I could conservatively make 3.5% -4.0 % on the money so why not use my funds that way. I will pay off my Credit Cards monthly, but I have taken advantage of 0% offers over the years, especially the ones with no Balance transfer fees. So no real argument here, just a note that balancing " Debt " is more of my manta than having absolutely none.