If you had about $50K to piss away....

[Perfectlap]

take a gander at this month's Excellence.
They take a CaymanS, 997 Turbo, and 997S through their real world paces.
All of these cars were well modified from different tuners. The CaymanS had like $30K in upgrades, the donor car was about $35K and in the driver's opinion was the best per pound and pony. "No matter who was driving the CaymanS, it was right there with the other two".

If power appeals to you, (being that your considering an M3) and you are looking to plunk down $50K, I'd take a look at taking a nice Carrera or Cayman getting some of those tuners who are hurting from the economy to make some upgrades.
Maybe call the tuners featured in the Excellence article directly and see if the have cars for sale.

[Adam]

If you are keeping the boxster in the fam then I'd get the BMW. Adding a 996 to the stable is a bit redundant.

[Lil bastard]

With the market being what it is right now, if I had 50 large to play with, I get into some carefully selected equities and forget the car altogether.

Good, solid stocks are incredibly cheap right now, maybe the best bargain hunting in our lifetime! In little time, you could easily see gains of 100-200%, and then you could walk into the showroom and pick the exact model you wanted and pay cash for it.

Of course, there is some risk. But, a car is the surest depreciating asset I can think of. There you'd easily see your $50k turn into $30k in just a year or 2. In any event, there would certainly be absolutely no prospect of a gain.

[ekam]

^He doesn't have 50K, he said he'll pay 20-30% and finance the rest.

Well, we need to go get this economy going again sooner or later. Go ahead and treat yourself with a new ride.

[unklekraker]

You got a good point there Lil B

And probably Perfectlap could point you the the right direction.

*don't mean to put you in the blast, PL

[Perfectlap]

Yeah since its a bonus and you're not selling your current Pcar, I was going to suggest investing it like LB says. But this is not an investors market yet, definitely a traders market.
The exception being that I was going to suggest buying gold (GLD or IAU) and T-bills until the market starts to pull back up instead of continuing to search for lower and lower bottoms. Once we see a recovery in the stock market (which will probably come well before an economic recovery--house prices going up, unemployment going down) get out of gold and bonds slowly and get back into stocks like energy, tech and bio tech. You'd probably miss the first 10-20% of the recovery with this strategy but if you are speculating on 100% to 200% return then you aren't missing out much, you just have to pay attention. We had a nearly 30% pull back after the Presidents inauguration in financials like Bank of America and Chase but that disappeared quickly....there's just still too much bad news yet to come like we saw with AIG this week. anyhooo.....

But if you're going to throw away money at a car, this might be the best time to be a buyer. Just drive a very very hard bargain. Like "your life depends on it" hard bargaining. That car will be worth way less in 12 months, which is how long I think it will be --at least-- before people start getting comfortable with loans again.
It's a tough call. Depends how much you have in your retirement already.

[Mike_Yi]

The Porsche, though in all honesty, I'd probably go for a Z06 that's a year to two old. I'd get an Exige too, but I don't fit in them by like two feet.

[Viper5]

I'm not a fan of bmw's and getting the porsche would be a bit redundant as someone said earlier. I would personally go with something like a dodge viper. You could get a convertible version for the same price if it were a 05 with about 10k miles. Thats just me.

[conradtan]

WOW and HOLY SMOKES!!! So many varied responses! Most seem loyal to the boxster/cayman line, others recommend other semi-exotics. Not too many fans of the bimmer M line. Yet others recommend putting the $$ under a mattress for a rainy day. I trully appreciate the input everyone! I really do! I just wanted a little something that says I've come a long way from driving a 1983 dodge colt for all the years of work I put into school and work. Seem silly to be stroking my ego I suppose but in a way, isn't that why we all own these cars? I do miss a back seat. Many times I have left my buddies on the sidewalk and taken the girl instead. (Haha!) I wish I did not have to finance the balance, but I'm not THAT successful yet! Well, for now the money is in the bank and this damn economy is still tanking so maybe prices of all things exotic will continue to fall. I'll heed the advice of the mattress bankers and save it up for now. Damn... that 911 sure looks good don't it??? And if I can get one for less than that one I found... maybe even (dare I dream) a TURBO? *pinches self* haha! Well thanks again for the input fellas. Much appreciated!

[Adam]

Originally Posted by conradtan

WOW and HOLY SMOKES!!! So many varied responses! Most seem loyal to the boxster/cayman line, others recommend other semi-exotics. Not too many fans of the bimmer M line. Yet others recommend putting the $$ under a mattress for a rainy day. I trully appreciate the input everyone! I really do! I just wanted a little something that says I've come a long way from driving a 1983 dodge colt for all the years of work I put into school and work. Seem silly to be stroking my ego I suppose but in a way, isn't that why we all own these cars? I do miss a back seat. Many times I have left my buddies on the sidewalk and taken the girl instead. (Haha!) I wish I did not have to finance the balance, but I'm not THAT successful yet! Well, for now the money is in the bank and this damn economy is still tanking so maybe prices of all things exotic will continue to fall. I'll heed the advice of the mattress bankers and save it up for now. Damn... that 911 sure looks good don't it??? And if I can get one for less than that one I found... maybe even (dare I dream) a TURBO? *pinches self* haha! Well thanks again for the input fellas. Much appreciated!

If your buddies are taller than 4 ft and you wanna give out rides then another reason to go with the M car. Can't fit more than a couple little kids in the back of a 911.

[vath2001]

If you must ... pick up a new Kia for $12 or the Nissan Versa for $10k. And put the rest under the mattress until you feel better about the economy.

In the mean time... drive the "fun" out of the Boxster.