Monday, April 07, 2008

More Subprime Fun.

Earlier while perusing the 'net I stumbled upon an incredibly outrageous thread on an exotic car message board. It's actually far more complicated than just this part, but what I want to focus on is the fact that "a kid" purchased his "wet dream" car, a Lamborghini Gallardo, from a dealer who let him purchase the car using 9 (that's N-I-N-E, nueve, or however else you want to put it) credit cards. NINE CREDIT CARDS. It gets even better, since this kid wanted to flip the Gallardo for cash, which he wanted to use to get a Murcielago (an even more expensive Lamborghini), but I digress.

What the hell is wrong with society? From the tender age of about ten, I've fawned over Lamborghinis, had models, posters, and drew them ad nauseum, and have imagined what it would be like to own one one day. And yes, you can count on it - I WILL own one some day. It might be well-used and I might be well past my retirement age, but when i get it, I'll be able to afford it and I'll consider myself a legitimate owner. What the hell is up with a dealer letting some douchebag kid buy a Lamboghini on NINE freaking credit cards? Many posters in aforementioned thread say it's none of our business what the kid's personal finances are; perhaps he wasn't extending himself at all and he just happened to want to arrange the purchase that way. I don't buy it. Reading the kid's approximately 10-year-old-level writing tells me this isn't a wunderkind exploiting the benefits of interest rate arbitrage. It's just some dumbass maxing himself out so that he can get his dream ride. It'll eventually be repossessed, so no harm, no foul, right? Wrong. WE pay for it. Somehow, through the repo process, through interest rates, through dealer markups, we end up absorbing the costs of morons who buy Lamborghinis on nine credit cards, just like we are paying for the actions of the irresponsible buyers and lenders in the mortgage crisis.

I always thought that guys who owned Lamborghinis were richer than stink, with so much cash that when they had to pay for a $20,000 routine maintenance they would have no reaction other than "it better be fast." I'm still sure that the vast majority of owners are that way, however, I'm still surprised by the number of stories I run into where someone with seemingly no means is driving a car waaaaay beyond their reach. They aren't ruining our party, but I guarantee you that their actions are somehow screwing every one of your bottom lines in less-than-transparent ways. So by all means, if you run into someone that's fully-leveraged on a Lamborghini through diversified credit card schemes, kick them in the nuts for me.

1 Comments:

Blogger Christopher J. Bottaro said...

Very interesting post. ...and jayzus!!

4:52 PM  

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