“Frugal” Friday

I am going to stretch the concept of Frugal Friday, maybe until it breaks. Until now I have focused on a dollar amount and year range for cars. Yesterday’s post that featured a Rolls-Royce Camargue got me thinking about luxury makes that could be acquired for less than luxury money.

Consider that at the Mecum auction in Kissimmee in January a 1988 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur hammered at $13,000 meaning the buyer paid $14,300 all in. A 1999 Silver Seraph hammered at $18,000 meaning the buyer paid $19,800. From bentleygoldcoast.com a picture of the latter:

If you’re buying a car like this for status then your friends and neighbors almost certainly wouldn’t know what you paid for the car, just that you’re driving a Rolls-Royce.

So, for today’s Frugal Friday I have picked a couple of luxury makes and then searched for the least expensive example. Sticking with Rolls-Royce, on cars.com one model, a 1976 Silver Shadow with 75,000+ miles, was listed at $3,995, but looked to be in very poor condition. In my very superficial search for one that looked decent I found a 1983 Silver Spur with 59,000 miles listed at…$11,900. In a still from a YouTube video here is an example of this car:

OK, so you’re probably still going to have to pay Rolls-Royce prices to have the car serviced. Just think, though, that you can buy a Rolls-Royce for $11,000-$12,000.

How about Ferrari? Going back to the Mecum Kissimmee auction a 1986 Mondial, still a Ferrari, hammered for $26,000 meaning the buyer paid $28,600 all in. From bestcarmag.com a picture of a 1986 Mondial:

On cars.com a 2001 Ferrari 360 Modena was listed for…$4,501. That price and the lack of exposition in the ad copy made me suspicious that the car doesn’t run. Some cars are not worth buying no matter the price. The next “cheapest” 2001 360 Modena was listed at $43,988.

How do you like this car?

From dyler.com a picture of a 1997 Ferrari 456 GTA. A car like this is advertised on cars.com for $39,999. That example has about 30,000 miles. Like with the Rolls, you would have to pay Ferrari prices to have the car serviced and $40,000-ish is not cheap, per se. Still, the average price of an average new vehicle in the US is approaching $40,000. As regular readers know I would MUCH prefer this to an SUV or pickup truck. These cars were powered by a 5.5 liter/333 cubic-inch V-12 rated at 436 HP/398 LB-FT of torque. C’mon! A V-12 Ferrari for the price of a mundane SUV! The 456 and 456 M were produced from 1992 to 2003 with a total output of almost 3,300 units.

I would very much like to read your thoughts on today’s Frugal Friday.

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