"I'm a car guy and it was a dream of mine."

So, how do young'uns (~new college grads) afford supercars?

As one involved in the local car scene, I've seen some number of folks around the same age as I who have pretty nice cars. Two weekends ago, I was at the Cars and Coffee at Santana Row and saw a guy who has a new BMW i8, which nominally lists for $135,xxx before taxes, fees, and dealer markup.

Consider the average new-grad (with well-off parents, so no student debt) who gets an offer at a big tech company, say, Hooli. The typical full time offer is $100,000 base salary, $15,000 sign-on cash bonus, an estimated $33,000 (63 shares) equity bonus paid at the end of the first year, and a projected $15,000 year-end cash bonus. Take home from the salary after tax and with the tax refund is around $75,000. Bonuses are taxed differently (roughly 50%), so that's approximately $16,000 from equity and $15,000 from cash bonuses. Since the tax refund, equity, and year-end bonuses are not received until the ~end of year 1, we only have $67,500 after tax with which to work, or approximately $5,625 each month.

As for costs, let's assume we live in Silicon Valley. We will garage our supercar, and apartments with garages don't come cheap. To cut costs, we'll split a 2-bedroom with a roommate, which should run around $4,000/month including bills, so $2,000/month each. Since Hooli provides free food (albeit not the best), we only need to cover meals on weekends. Assuming we eat $100/weekend, that's $400/month. Car insurance will probably run $350/month [1]. Amortized maintenance is about $250/month, though some makes such as BMW provide free maintenance. If we assume an average of 15,000 miles driven per year, 15mpg, and $3.75/gal, then that's $3750 in gas per year, or $312 per month. So far, we have $2313/month remaining.

For the BMW i8, which lists at $135,xxx, BMW quotes a lease of around $1,7xx/month for 3 years/30,000 miles with a $7,500 down payment (but before any incentives -- governmental, in this case). Add taxes and fees, that $1,7xx balloons to approximately $2,000/month, which leaves around $300/month for miscellaneous, or maybe even savings!

Other exotics in this price range (≤ $125,xxx), as of Aug 2015:

• Various Porsche 911 Carreras
• Jaguar F-type R
• Maserati GranTurismo
• Audi R8 V8
• Various used Aston Martins
• Various used Bentleys
• Used Ferrari California or 430
• Used Lamborghini Gallardo
• Used Audi R8 V10
• and more.

*

Now, let us expand our population to include those with student loans. The MIT Student Financial Services department reports that 40% of students have a loan, 32% are tuition-free, and 28% paid some tuition but didn't take out loans. The average cumulative debt for a student who graduated in 2012 is $20,800, so assuming that it grows at 6% yearly, would make approximately $26,500 for a student graduating in 2016. So we must resolve that before indulging.

The average new grad who gets a full-time offer at Hooli usually received an internship in the year preceding. These pay around $7,000/month now, which makes $21,000 for the summer. After 40% taxes and deductions, that's around $12,600. Add back a 15% tax refund, and your total is $15,750.

The sophomore year internship is usually less glamorous, if anything. These pay around $5,000/month now, which makes $15,000 for the summer. After the same tax calculation and adding the tax refund, your total is $11,250.

*

Now, the effective income from these two internships is barely enough to cover the average student loan. What about some less common ways to earn income?

• Getting an on-campus job (i.e. research, tech support, teaching assistant) or externship during the semester or during winter break
• Finishing your degree in fewer than 4 years, and maybe starting work early
• Running an independent consulting firm given solid background knowledge
• Tutoring other students at your college or at a nearby college
• Contracting for a `sharing economy` company, e.g. ride-sharing, Handy, Fiverr, TaskRabbit
• Collecting donations or subscriptions from running a popular twitch.tv stream or Youtube channel
• Trading (on more than just the equity markets)

*

There you have it: this is how a new grad can afford an exotic.

[1] http://www.car-insurance.com/price-07/2015-bmw-i8-14316-base_4wd_2_dr_coupe_i3-insurance-quote.html

[2] https://due.mit.edu/news/2012/undergraduate-student-debt-mit

Porsche 918 Configurator LIVE!

The most expensive car whose price is shown in an online configurator is...the Porsche 918 Spyder! And to add further insult, all 918 examples have been pre-ordered.

Here's to hoping I'll have a chance to drive one of these bad boys!

San Francisco

Immediately after my internship, I flew to San Francisco for a short one-week vacation to chillax while I still had the chance.

Jet lag produces excellent morning photos

I made a day trip to south bay to visit Apple. I had lunch with my mentor and then went for coffee with a few others on the iOS team.

The reason I chose to go to south bay on this day is that Apple organized a small auto show at one of the campuses. I got to see a number of supercars and classics.

AC Cobra

McLaren MP4-12C air vent

Wings of freedom

Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera mirror cap

AC Cobra Coupe

Salute

McLaren MP4-12C mirror cap

McLaren MP4-12C engine

McLaren MP4-12C door opened

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG front emblem

The most intriguing supercars were the McLaren MP4-12C and the Mercedes SLS. I may just have a thing for door mechanisms, but I gotta say, scissor doors are the coolest. I think they intrigue me because I don't have a clear picture of where the hinge mechanism is mounted -- there's no obvious flat edge on which the door pivots like in traditional doors (leftmost edge) or gullwings (topmost edge).

I'm not too versed on classic cars, but I did recognize the BMW 2002! Oh, the things I learn from playing Forza 4. There were also a bunch of Cobras and a Porsche 356 Speedster in British racing green.

Automobiles aside, staying in San Francisco, specifically SoMa (South of Market for non-natives), was quite pleasant. Compared to the Tenderloin, where I stayed for an on-site interview. The surrounding area was decently clean (I would say not as clean as the loop in Chicago) and had plenty of attractions. Namely, the Apple store was only five minutes away by foot. :) Plenty of restaurants were close by, including Chinatown. (Aside/funny story: we went to a dim sum place for lunch, and I was awed when our waiter computed our bill (including tax!) in his head. I joked that I would never be able to work there.) We also walked along the piers and went to Ghiradelli Park one afternoon.

That said, rent in San Francisco is laughably expensive, to say the least. It turns out that rent for a one bedroom corner unit in a relatively nice location is $4k/month. To put this in perspective, a two bedroom/two bathroom unit in the penthouse tower in Chicago is $3.2k/month. One would think that high rent and high income taxes would be sufficiently large deterrents.

But inexplicably, I think that I will be sucked into this vortex known as the Bay Area.

Automobile Shortlist

If you had unlimited funds to obtain the 10 cars of choice, what would you have?

1. Porsche Boxster (981), daily driver.
2. Lotus Elise (S2), in which general awesomeness can be had anywhere and everywhere (except in snow and rain).
3. Jaguar C-X75, for its epic twincharged 4-cyl hybrid powertrain and its wonderful sports bike-like exhaust note.
4. McLaren MP4-12C, high-speed beast, also nondescript enough for a viable occasional driver
5. Lexus LF-A, for its lovely F1 exhaust note.
6. Mercedes-Benz S600 (W222), because Magic Body Control and I need a limo.
7. Tesla Model X, for all things that require a SUV and the exotic falcon wing doors.
8. Mercedes-Benz 300SL, because every stable should have a classic, and who can deny gullwings?
9. Koenigsegg Agera, for the exotic Koenigsegg doors and their no-compromise philosophy reflects what I want to achieve.
10. Porsche 911 Carrera (991; in Guards Red, of course, and perhaps a GT3), because I've always wanted one as a kid.

A Summer of Cars: Part III

A generous salesman by the name of Matt at the New England Aston Martin-Lotus dealer volunteered to teach me how to drive a manual. Thanks for making my summer complete!

After arriving at the dealer, we took this beautiful white Lotus Elise to a nearby parking lot. Matt pushed the car quite hard to show me how nimble it was -- very! It showcased the car's favorable power-to-weight ratio.

A bit more about the Elise: it's a sub-2000lb roadster powered by a 180hp Toyota engine. The car is very stripped, whose interior consists of…almost nothing. The mirrors are manually adjusted. The seats don't have a backrest adjustment. The passenger seat is bolted to the chassis. As in, it doesn't move back and forth. And that's why I can't believe this car has power windows.

Now onto the fun part. I've watched several videos of people driving a stick, heel-to-toeing (an advanced technique), and such, but they don't reveal the subtleties. In particular, the clutch behaves more like a sigmoid than a digital function, to my surprise:

When you shift into gear, you (slowly) let go of the clutch until you feel it grabbing the engine, then give the engine some gas, and finally (slowly) release it. Releasing the clutch too fast, and the engine stalls. Release it too slow, and the clutch wears and may start smelling badly.

We started off by starting the car, shifting into first, driving in a large circle, shifting into neutral, and stopping. This took a few tries to get, and even then, I sometimes still had trouble because I was releasing the clutch too quickly after it engaged with the engine.

Next up was shifting into 2nd, which was fairly easy. I pushed the car a little harder by going faster (about 20mph) and making tighter turns while doing figure eights.

Impressed by how quickly I have progressed, Matt let me shift into third, which went smoothly, although an ominous smell emanated from the clutch. Oops!

I then tried starting the car on a 5* hill. The process was more or less the same, but I had to give the car a little more gas to counteract gravity. I took a few tries to get it since I wasn't stepping on the throttle enough.

Finally was reverse. I found this the trickiest, mainly because I suffered from some cognitive dissonance -- I illogically thought that reverse was so different from the forward gears. I got it after a few tries, but wasn't as good was shifting into first, etc.

As for the ride experience, the car is very loud. The engine drones, since it cruises around 3000-3500rpm; if you've sat in the godawful Smart ForTwo, it's a comparable experience. You feel every single imperfection in the road, and know which tires ran over the bump. An accurate description is a box on wheels, or a street legal go-kart. But it's so undeniably lovable, and I think that makes me sad if I were to turn it down.

So here comes the really heartbreaking part: I have to make a choice between the Elise and the 981 Boxster before the end of the year, since the lead time for order a bespoke Porsche is 6 months. (Porsche essentially shuts down the factory to handle all of the special orders at the end of a model year.) I'm not sure if I'll be able to live with the Lotus and its dearth of practicalities, such as next-to-nothing sound deadening, track seats, briefcase-sized trunk, and possibly awkward blind spots.

But for now, I'll live and dream as if I had both.

A Summer of Cars, Part II

Last time, I said I would test drive the Mercedes-Benz SLK and the Lotus Elise. However, neither dealer has a testable car, so I doubt I'm testing either this summer.

Think that's all? Would you like to hear about some Aston Martins?

I thought so.

Today, I went to the joint Aston Martin and Lotus dealer in hopes of testing a Lotus Elise. I thought the dealer was closed when we got there, since it looked quite dim, but I noticed a salesman sitting at his desk. I walk in and head toward the Elise, parked amid several Vantages, Vanquishes, DB-9s, two Evoras, and a couple of classics.

Mercedes 190SL Roadster.

I got to get intimate with the cars. There was an immense amount of detail in the car not captured by marketing materials; I present several below. Getting up close with the cars convinced me to put Aston Martin back on my shortlist.

Glass buttons amid piano black and satin metal trim.

Door sill insignia.

A client picks up his car; fitting for a doctor. Note that the door tilts up when opened, and that the tail light fins have a similar pattern as the Aston Martin emblem wings.

Lotus Evora interior. Surfaces are either leather wrapped or covered with aluminum.

Aston Martin custom interior. Note the matte wood on the center stack. Apologies for the iPhone 5 sapphire flare.

Attractive glass needles on dials. Apologies for the iPhone 5 sapphire flare.

Extruded + on column-fixed paddle shifter.

A tasteful combination of matte burled wood, satin metal, and leather.

Illuminated keyhole.

One more thing…

Orgasmic, isn't it?

A Summer of Cars, Part I

As promised, I have test driven one (1) car a week every week I have been free. Here's a brief writeup of each:

Porsche Boxster (981): Wicked awesome. Great exhaust note, especially with the top down. Accelerates slow enough such that I could enjoy the exhaust note when merging onto highways, or accelerating from red lights. I was surprised that noise isolation was decent with the top up, in contrast to what I've read online. The interior fit and finish is good without full leather, but would be incredibly sumptuous with a special order two-tone natural leather with mahogany wood. I think this car could be a real winner (hey, it won a 10Best award from Car and Driver).

Porsche 911 Carrera (991): Unfortunately, I liked this test drive the least. I found the sport exhaust to be overwhelming; with it enabled while cruising, the exhaust is a loud, unpleasant droning noise. Sport plus mode was exceedingly scary, holding the engine at 5000+ RPM in second gear on the highway. I was also disappointed to find out that I could not fit in the claustrophobic rear seat with an extremely tall driver. So much for the #911fund.

BMW Z4 sDrive30i: Drove a pre-owned one since the dealer doesn't stock Z4s. More of a GT (grand tourer) than the Boxster. Engine roar was good, but quiet for my tastes. Lower quality interior materials than the Boxster, but not sure how a full leather interior would look. Steering was slow and light, unlike the Boxster's, which did not inspire confidence. The car also has poor rearward visibility with the top up. Also, to my horror during the test drive, the temporary license plate fell off when opening the hardtop.

Audi TT 2.0T: Drove a pre-owned one since the dealer doesn't stock TT's. The salesman said that I could "take my time" with the test drive, so I detoured from the normal route and drove on some smaller backroads. The steering was light compared to the Boxsters's, but had a tighter ratio than the Z4's. The accelerator was also very odd; it did not require any effort to push. The engine had unpredictable turbo lag (floor the car and the engine doesn't respond for a second), and did not sound as good compared to those of the Z4 and the Boxster (because of the turbo in the TT). The seats and steering wheel seemed unpadded and were very hard. I was delighted to learn that I can special order one with a manual gearbox to lease.

For kicks and laughs I test drove a Lexus CT200h. In short, it's Lexus's Prius, with the same lethargic powertrain, but considerably better fit and finish. Coming from the TT to a CT in Eco mode, the car was incredibly unresponsive -- pushing the accelerator halfway does practically nothing. Sport mode was marginally better. The car reacted to the throttle, but still moved relatively slowly. The engine roar was an irritating drone that I unconsciously blocked out. Steering was light, but somewhat twitchy. The brake pedal had a very short throw, which took a while to get used to. The synthetic leather feels really odd: it has a much finer grain texture than leather.

Some comments about the dealership experiences: I'm amused that I pass as a potential customer. At ze German dealers, the salesmen were not naggy at all, I think partly because I knew quite a bit about the respective cars. There was also a greater amount of trust: none of the salesmen came on the test drives. This was not the case at the Lexus dealer: the salesmen took every chance to ask if I needed help, and tagged along on the test drive. The Lexus salesman also seemed disappointed when I was "just looking," unlike the respective German marque salesmen.

Next up: Mercedes-Benz SLK and Lotus Elise!