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Comment by vaksel | Hacker News Reader

Well you have a number of choices...you really didn't tell us what you like.

I'm guessing Luxury/Performance, so I'd recommend the following: For a little bit more than 50K you can get a bare bones M3 Sedan or a C63 AMG.

But if you want to save money, you can look at a 335i, and then after you buy it, spend about 1K on ECU mods. Straight-line performance you'll be a little bit quicker than an M3.

But you really need to tell us what you want you like, since pretty much the only thing you said it that it needs to have 4 seats and be under 50K.

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Is this forum really so wealthy that a casual recommendation for a $50k car seems normal to most of you? Or is this just posturing? Serious question.

well its not like he is asking whether he should buy an F430 Scuderia or a 911 GT3-RS.

50K is really not that much for a car, all things considered. Most college grads end up with a 30K car after college anyways, even when they start with 40K salary.

So 50K for someone who is running a startup, which is beyond noodle profitable(I doubt someone would be buying something as big as a new car, if they weren't) seems pretty normal.

car payments and insurance on a $50k car is approximately half of post-tax income at a $40k salary.

and people wonder why the economy is shit?

Figure that the people with the $50k cars are making at least $70k -- not unreasonable at all for developers or successful freelancers.

Damn, that is insane. I lucked out and made $110k my first year out of college and rewarded myself with an almost brand-new Camry that had a couple of scratches for $12k. Now I'm kicking myself after finding out about the Chevy Prizm through this thread.

I can't believe someone who was making $70k (~45k after taxes/social-security) would trade in more than a year of 8 hour days 5 days a week in some shithole development job just to be able to commute in style (though perhaps he just wants to engage in parking-lot dick waving for some girl at the office; fine, I can believe it).

I got a new Elantra. I'm happy with it.

A rule of thumb I've used is that your vehicle shouldn't cost more than 1/2 years salary. Just as a method of keeping things in proportion.

A $50K car on a $40K salary is basically a recipe for fail, based on some of icey's previous comments, I'm going to guess he's a tad above the $40K salary range.

While I appreciate everyone's concern for my financial well-being, I promise buying a car won't put me in the welfare line.

I said this elsewhere in the thread, but it's grown much larger than I'd expected - I don't expect to spend 50k on a car, but it at least provided some limitations - I mean, with an unlimited budget I'd go buy an Aston Martin Vanquish and use that for my daily driver.

Maybe there are people who aren't me who are interested in similar things. I didn't feel like over-limiting the question; I honestly didn't have the intention of making this a "Dear lazyweb, buy me a car plz ok?" sort of thread. I was genuinely interested in what sort of daily drivers hackers prefer.

For whatever it's worth, there have been some very interesting answers that have had me spending time at Edmunds looking up cars that I hadn't thought about checking out before.

I think the question skirted the bounds of HN - but I think you're just ok. For those complaining - this is likely (I haven't seen the stats) predominately male audience full of people who generally like gadgets/electronics/engineering/technology. There's going to be a lot of car-guy overlap into that.

I'm currently driving a Toyota Celica (and definately enjoy it) - although since toyota withdrew them a couple of years ago - your only choice is 2nd hand now.

And for my recommendations: 135i Mazdaspeed 3

Seriously! Basic financial management needs to be taught in public schools... I'm blown away by some of the comments in this thread.

There's probably enough people on the forum for whom that's a reasonable number that it's worth asking about it here. And honestly, even if you can't afford it, lots of people (techy guys in particular) tend to know a TON about nice cars which are out of their current price ranges. I can tell you all about the R8, and Bugattis, etc... but I sure can't afford one (and even if I could I probably wouldn't spend that much money on a car).

I've never bought a new car and never spent over $20k. That said, I've had some pretty serious success with my latest company, and my next car will probably be in the 50-75k range.

Your latest company appears to be one of the larger Java web consultancies in the market; maybe the 50-75k would be better spent starting your own shop. The 50-75k car --- isn't that how they get ya? ;)

I think you must be confusing me with someone else or something. I do some consulting through ClearLogic consulting which is a very small consulting company, but I was actually referring to Spark::red, a company I founded with a couple of other guys. It's a niche managed hosting provider and is definitely my "own shop" :)

Was looking at your profile box; you should update it. =)

yeah, this does confuse me, also. but then again, i don't work in a major metropolitan area (yet). i suppose its priorities. i could afford a $50k car, but i'd be sacrificing so much other stuff that it just isn't worth it to me.

Realistically, I don't think I'll be spending nearly 50k; one of the other reasons for looking now instead of later is that there are some seriously amazing prices on cars lately. A lot of cars that list around the 50k neighborhood can be found very slightly used (12k miles or less) for a deep discount.

I'm not rolling around like Daddy Warbucks, but I have been fortunate enough to sell fragments of previous startups for enough that I don't feel like I need to pinch every penny. Unfortunately I spend enough time on the road (around 15 to 20 hours a week) that this is one place where I will spend a few extra dollars.

50k is simply a lot of money for a car. Normal people don't spend 50k for a car. 50k has you outside the entry level for both Audi and BMW. But get a bunch of professional geeks talking about cars, and you're going to bias towards the 40-60k range of "aspirational" cars.

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