Cars are investments.

[MgoSam]

A friend of mine called buying a pair of waterproof portable speakers as an "investment." I asked him, "What, are you going to be renting it out for parties?"

He laughed and explained that he needs it for when he goes boating or when he's in the garage working on something.

You know what my garage music maker is?

Old WinXP computer running free Mint Linux and piping the tunes through one of those beige computer speaker plus subwoofer combos from the 90s that came with Dells made by Hardon-Karden brand.

Sounds outstanding.

My cost? Free. Nobody wants beige computer equipment anymore.

I'm getting ready to upgrade the computer to a WinVista era HP or Compaq computer. Same free Mint Linux. Same no cost speakers. ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine_(software)

I'm confused at the relevance of your post?

[Papa Mustache]

A friend of mine called buying a pair of waterproof portable speakers as an "investment." I asked him, "What, are you going to be renting it out for parties?"

He laughed and explained that he needs it for when he goes boating or when he's in the garage working on something.

You know what my garage music maker is?

Old WinXP computer running free Mint Linux and piping the tunes through one of those beige computer speaker plus subwoofer combos from the 90s that came with Dells made by Hardon-Karden brand.

Sounds outstanding.

My cost? Free. Nobody wants beige computer equipment anymore.

I'm getting ready to upgrade the computer to a WinVista era HP or Compaq computer. Same free Mint Linux. Same no cost speakers. ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine_(software)

+1. Harman-Kardon. But I'm sure they'd have sold more if they were Hardon.
I too have the beige speakers that came with a subwoofer for my 2000 "Dude It's A Dell" workstation. My parents have it hooked up to a Win10 PC I made for them.
Have you tried Neverware? I used that to convert a HP laptop circa 2006 to a Chromebook. I like LinuxMint but now love the simplicity of Chromebooks, especially when old hardware is repurposed.

Nope, never heard of Neverware. WILL be looking at that one. THANKS. Yeah - Harman - not the other version. ;)

[Papa Mustache]

A friend of mine called buying a pair of waterproof portable speakers as an "investment." I asked him, "What, are you going to be renting it out for parties?"

He laughed and explained that he needs it for when he goes boating or when he's in the garage working on something.

You know what my garage music maker is?

Old WinXP computer running free Mint Linux and piping the tunes through one of those beige computer speaker plus subwoofer combos from the 90s that came with Dells made by Hardon-Karden brand.

Sounds outstanding.

My cost? Free. Nobody wants beige computer equipment anymore.

I'm getting ready to upgrade the computer to a WinVista era HP or Compaq computer. Same free Mint Linux. Same no cost speakers. ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine_(software)

I'm confused at the relevance of your post?

Relevance: Why go buying fancy bluetooth speakers for your garage when you can get sounds just as good from (usually) free computer speak castoffs. If the beige color of said castoff speakers are a bother there is always spray paint.

Those same speakers are turned into bluetooth speakers via a bluetooth transmitter/receiver that can be had for $10 from the internet retailers.

Hi. My name is Jethro and I'm a cheapskate whose forum replies seem out of order b/c I don't sit on the forum and reply real time.  ;)

[Secretly Saving]

1965 Datsun Fairlady. Bought in 2005 for $2,500, book value now $20,000. Plus it was my daily driver for 8 of those years.

1988 Lotus Esprit. Bought in 2011 for $20,000, friend in the club just sold his exact same model for $45,000.

I'd call those assets. Pick the right car, buy when they're priced low, hold. Same as my stock fund really.

Yes,  ^^^  this is what we do.  Identify older vehicles that are cheap, but rising in value.  Fix them up, drive them, and turn them for a profit.  IF you know what you're doing, you can make a lot of money.   It has worked for us over and over.  Best win was a car that sold for more than 18 times what we bought it for  -- a world record at the time!   

That being said, I agree that for most people cars are not investments the way that they are for us.

Can you give some examples of cars you bought or are thinking of buying, that you think are going up in value?

If you bought anything exotic or very classic in ~2010, you will almost certainly have made out like a bandit by 2015. Fastback mustangs, chargers / challengers, NSXes, ferraris, lambos... some were going for as low as $20k and are now six figures just a few years later, with a pretty minimal investment in doing all the not-done maintenance.

Gimp, to answer your question, we select cars from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.  Rare or extremely popular models (exotics and classics) -- usually foreign imports. 

[Apostrophe]

I make my cars into investments by renting them out on Turo.

I've had a Honda Civic Hybrid up there for a couple years now, and just added a Toyota Prius. The Civic paid for itself in about a year, and I expect just slightly longer for the Prius.

[Syonyk]

Were you the one who had a car or two totaled on Turo, or was that someone else?

Yes, they pay for it, but that's still a pain in the ass, and not something I'd be very interested in because it takes time to get a vehicle into "fully understood" state.

[gimp]

Gimp, to answer your question, we select cars from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.  Rare or extremely popular models (exotics and classics) -- usually foreign imports.

That's what I thought. Basically stuff that's desirable, but for most people, it's out of their means (knowledge and time) to get the car legally imported, certified, registered, titled, etc - but not out of their means (cash) to buy.

And right now the prices for these things are going up like hell.

How many Nissan GTR R32 cars have you imported? I bet you can make out like a bandit on those right now. Or, like I said before, import the R34 and leave it in a warehouse for a few years...

[JLee]

You can get busted for storing a car that is not driven?

Import laws.  It's illegal to own a vehicle newer than 25 years old and does not meet federal standards in place for the year it was manufactured.

It's illegal to register/drive one on public roads, but I don't think it's illegal to own one for collector / racing (i.e. off road) purposes.

[Apostrophe]

Were you the one who had a car or two totaled on Turo, or was that someone else?

Yes, they pay for it, but that's still a pain in the ass, and not something I'd be very interested in because it takes time to get a vehicle into "fully understood" state.

Yeah, that was somebody else. I have a Civic Hybrid and a Prius on Turo now, both rented regularly.

I had a renter get rear-ended while out with my Civic once, but that was really the biggest hassle. I had a check in a few days to cover the repair, but the damage was so minor I just left it alone.

[MilesTeg]

Getting my oil changed at Toyota (I know, but I'm not mechanically inclined, and I don't have time to deal with it on my own.)

Took a walk around the lot to look at trucks (Tundras).  Base models are selling for 40k, and as high as 55k.  Hole. E Sheet.

I bought a 2006 Tundra six years ago for 17500.00.  It is a work truck, it makes me money, and sits on weekends.  I believe it's still worth around 10-11k.  I just can't believe prices on the new ones, and the mileage is worse!

I can normally justify any expense, but 50k for a truck?  Nope.  I will be driving mine into the ground.

The mileage isn't worse, the measuring stick has just changed. Pre-2008 and post-2008 numbers can't be compared as they changed the speeds (and other parameters) used in the mileage test.

Of course, with a truck it's "shitty" or "shittier" any way you look at it ;)

[TheGrimSqueaker]

You can get busted for storing a car that is not driven?

Import laws.  It's illegal to own a vehicle newer than 25 years old and does not meet federal standards in place for the year it was manufactured.

It's illegal to register/drive one on public roads, but I don't think it's illegal to own one for collector / racing (i.e. off road) purposes.

I was unable to import my vehicle at all back in 1998 when I moved State-side due to differences in "safety" standards for that year. Things could have changed since then, but the idea of the USG getting somehow less protectionist makes me giggle.

[CabinetGuy]

Getting my oil changed at Toyota (I know, but I'm not mechanically inclined, and I don't have time to deal with it on my own.)

Took a walk around the lot to look at trucks (Tundras).  Base models are selling for 40k, and as high as 55k.  Hole. E Sheet.

I bought a 2006 Tundra six years ago for 17500.00.  It is a work truck, it makes me money, and sits on weekends.  I believe it's still worth around 10-11k.  I just can't believe prices on the new ones, and the mileage is worse!

I can normally justify any expense, but 50k for a truck?  Nope.  I will be driving mine into the ground.

The mileage isn't worse, the measuring stick has just changed. Pre-2008 and post-2008 numbers can't be compared as they changed the speeds (and other parameters) used in the mileage test.

Of course, with a truck it's "shitty" or "shittier" any way you look at it ;)

Learn something new everyday!

Agreed, definitely "shitty" either way.

[JLee]

You can get busted for storing a car that is not driven?

Import laws.  It's illegal to own a vehicle newer than 25 years old and does not meet federal standards in place for the year it was manufactured.

It's illegal to register/drive one on public roads, but I don't think it's illegal to own one for collector / racing (i.e. off road) purposes.

I was unable to import my vehicle at all back in 1998 when I moved State-side due to differences in "safety" standards for that year. Things could have changed since then, but the idea of the USG getting somehow less protectionist makes me giggle.

Was it over 25 years old at the time?