Does your car match your house?
 

I'd always thought that an expensive late model luxury car also meant a rich lifestyle with all the trappings... imposing house, staff, yacht etc.

But with so many high-end luxury cars available on relatively small monthly lease payments, it seems they're within everyone's reach. In our street - an average suburb with many average houses and a scattering of what you might call low cost mini-mansions - I have seen:

- a late model Ferrari,
- 2 SLK's (one is my wife's)
- Skyline (hmmm)
- 500SL (R107)
- 2 SL500's (one mine)
- BMW wagon

Now, our home is not expensive, but my wife and I love good cars and that's the reason for having them. We don't match the old money lifestyle, nor does anyone else in the area.

So have things changed? Are cars now just a commodity that don't have the exclusive 'rich club' ownership like the past decade?

And with the current rapid depreciation values, are we going to see more expensive cars sitting outside average homes?

Ken Silver
--------------
~1993 SL500, glistening triple black, xenons: http://www.kensilver.com/SL
~1999 SLK 230 Kompressor, silver /black, CD, immaculate (my wife's)
~1991 Daimler, shiny grey / grey leather, best in country!
~ex 350SL, 230E, 280E, MX5 and a lot of other makes not nearly as nice.

Twenty years ago you would have never seen my 533 out in front of my house, it was living the luxary dream in the rich parts of south Florida :) I see what your saying though it does seem like you will find high end cars anywhere now but maybe that is just down here in the south. There is a shack beachside with 4 SL's in the garage now thats the life :)

Lessee...
I have a mobile home(that's soon to be rectified) & a Benz.
Nope. Don't match;) :D

20 year old Benz, 21 year old house. Yeah, they match. Oh, and the trim on the house is maroon and so is my wagon.

My dream is to have apartment-sized living quarters over a 12-car garage. ;)

That is STILL my dream...but I got married and my wife won't go for it!

I almost had the wife convinced of a house like that awhile ago. We were gonna buy a piece of land, build a pole building on it(a big one) and build a living quarters in the upstairs. She actually liked the idea for awhile.
But my goals have changed(much to her relief). We just want a nice old house in the 'burbs now.
With a 3 car garage out back.;)

Old house (1892) old cars (80 SD300 and 77 530i)

yup

You mean an old house and an old car? House 1930, car 1985 and lake 1931:).

the grand cherokee wasnt in the pic:D

Absolutely don't match. Family of five loves cars. Our house is not small, by any standards. But our aggregate garage space is bigger than the square footage our house. Heh.

If I sold the Benz, bought a rusted Nova and put it up on blocks in the front yard, maybe.

Better stop, hey,
Whats that sound...

B

What might be an intersting twist is, the relative worth of your car and it's payments, to your home.

I would rather have my house with no car payments to worry about , than have a nice new car and worry about the payments on that as well.

I know quite a few people who have lease/car payments that exceed their monthly rent/mortgage paymemts.

To answer the original question, my house is only 6 years old and my SDL is 17 going on 18.

Other house and car:

http://209.20.249.66/pix/house-car.jpg

House payment: I'll never tell
Car payment: less than house payment

Opportunity: Priceless

My house is a 4 bedroom single level ranch, about 2400 sq feet, built around the same time as my MB. Just on the end of the house is a 30x36 garage usually stocked with stuff other than vehicles. At any given time, only 2 cars get to live inside. The house sits on almost 3/4 acre and iis right on the river, so the number of cars really aren't disporportionate to the property.

All in all, I think things mesh pretty well. At least there haven't been any complaints from the neighbors. LOL.