essay · Tuga Car Nuts
In Defence of Owning a Car That Loses Money
A rational person does not buy a 30-year-old machine that breaks on schedule. This is an essay for the rest of us.
Depreciation is supposed to be a warning. To the classic-car owner it’s a purchase order.
We are told to think of cars as assets. A sensible asset does not leak oil onto your garage floor as a form of self-expression. And yet.
The honest maths
You will spend more than it’s worth. You will do it on purpose. The return is not financial; it’s the specific noise a straight-six makes at 4,000 rpm, which no spreadsheet has a cell for.
Beautiful, obsolete, and gloriously bad investments.
That’s the whole thesis. Everything else is justification written after the wire transfer cleared.