The Acura NSX debuted when I was in high school way back in the 90s. It was my perfect car.
I’ve always been a car guy and the NSX was:
- light
- simple: normally aspirated, no power steering
- great in the corners: its chassis was tuned by one of the best F1 drivers in history
- reliable: yay Honda!
- beautiful: NSX’ curves still look great after all of these years
But, I would never have one. At least I didn’t think that I would…
NSX Dream Become Reality
I didn’t grow up with money. Most of the cars my parents owned were used ones when Detroit wasn’t doing so well. My father’s fervent “Buy American!” stance led to ownership of vehicles like the Chevy Citation:
I remember my poor father spending many, many nights and weekends under the hood of our cars trying to keep them going. Profanity spewed out the garage.
Side note: To be politically correct, my parents told everyone my first word was “car.” My mother admitted to me once that it was actually “f***.”
Anyway, the starting price of an NSX was about $60,000. I’d never have the money to buy one. I didn’t have high expectations for myself and never dreamed that I’d amount to much.
But then, my money insecurity led me to bust serious ass for a couple of decades. It wasn’t the right decision, but hey, now I’m sitting on a big pile of money. Life is good.
When the pile started to get pretty big, I started casually looking at NSXs. I always talked myself out of buying one though. I hoped that the desire to own one would go away, but it never did. So, in May of 2017, I pulled the trigger:
Here is the first picture I took of it:
I drove it from Wisconsin back to Colorado. Speeding down Wisconsin country roads was incredible. One of the silly joys of life is downshifting into a turn and then laying on the gas.
The Joy Wears Off
So, this is true:
The pursuit is often more fun than the ownership of it.
We decided to get rid of the NSX for several reasons:
We didn’t drive it much: We have three cars and barely need one. I’m vastly underemployed and Mindy mostly works from home.
Mental bandwidth: The NSX was in really nice condition and I’m a scrappy guy. I was always worried about nailing it with a tool or spilling something in the car. One day, I came out of the house and my children were circling the car on scooters, inches away from the body. I nearly crapped myself. On top of all of that, it was yet another mechanical contrivance to maintain.
We bought real estate: If everything goes as planned, we’ll close on a live-in flip on Friday. If we didn’t sell the car, we’d have to sell stocks and get hit with capital gains.
I’m done with gas: Electric cars are an epiphany. There is beauty in simplicity. An internal combustion engine is a Rube Goldberg machine compared to an electric motor. I may never buy another fuel-burner.
No more joy: In the end, the most important reason is that it just didn’t bring us happiness anymore. Sure, it was fun to stomp on the gas on highway entrance ramps and mountain corners, but those moments were few and far between. I don’t regret buying it because the car is now out of my system, but I’m happy to see it gone.
Here is the last picture I took of the NSX, right before the new owner drove it away:
Money
We paid $45,000 for the car and sold it for the exact same amount. A friend who is obsessed with the NSX stated that I should be able to get about $50,000 if I had patience.
Normally, I would have waited for the selling season (spring). However, we needed to come with cash for the upcoming home purchase (more on this next week).
Had we held on to the car, we would have had to sell stock and incur about $3,000 in long-term capital gains taxes. Even if we would have been able to get $50,000 for the car in the spring, we wouldn’t have come out that far ahead. Plus I wanted to reclaim garage space. And mental space.
Most supercars are notoriously expensive to own. Not the NSX though. It was up to date with maintenance when I bought it, so in the 2.5 years that we owned it, I changed the oil every spring and washed it regularly. That’s it.
Full coverage insurance was more expensive than our Mazda 5 or Honda Element, but still wasn’t too bad either at slightly less than $400/year.
Bye-Bye Sweet Car
My heart hurt for a couple of minutes as the NSX disappeared from view. But I’m glad we did it. The car should be owned by someone who will drive it more than we did. The new owner is a car guy, so it’s going to a good home.
I will probably have a fancy car again someday, but it will be electric. If I had to buy one now, it would probably be a Tesla Model S. Good examples of the latter can now be had for under $40,000.
But, we don’t need another car. Mindy and I have two and we barely need one. So, there will be no Tesla in my near future.
Thanks for the memories sweet NSX. I’m sorry that we didn’t get to drive Highway 1 in California. I do regret that a little bit. I hope that your new owner treats you right.
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I’m equal parts psyched and saddened for you. Congratulations on owning and enjoying a singular, amazing piece of automotive history — and double congratulations for freeing it to make someone else happy before it became a serious albatross! Is that what maturity is like? Weird.
Very cool. Nice to hear you got it out of your system. I’m happy with owning a scrappy car. We can’t care too much about it in this neighborhood. Almost every car is dinged up.
It was great fun going with you to look at it in WI.
That was enough to get it out of my system. 🙂
But I, too, have Tesla on my mind these days….
You can get nice examples of the Model S for around $40,000 these days. Supposedly, the car is going to be refreshed soon which will further depress the value of existing ones. 2020 may be a good year to get one!
Hooray, congratulations! That was a nice maneuver overall, ‘borrowing’ that car for several years at almost no cost, enjoying some fun experiences and collecting some funny stories, and then passing it on to the next person.
And I love to see yet another example of how there is always more than way to get the same results in life. You could have bought a brand-new $100k Mercedes instead which would have now depreciated to $50k. Many people, even with much lower levels of wealth do exactly that, every year. Financial Independence style decision making is such a fun game.
I’m a car nut. I’m forever looking at listings, watching Doug DeMuro videos, and daydreaming about owning a S200, Ferrari 360, Tesla S ludicrous edition, or (quiver) an Aston of any flavor.
I’ve never pulled the trigger or even come close. Reality tugs at me and it’s a constant battle. “When will I have enough money to do it?!” despite being a millionaire (not exactly what you think it means, by the way).
The problem is that my brain says things like “it’s a depreciating asset, you don’t even have a garage, there are speed bumps on your street, you work from home and never go anywhere except the lumber yard, you can’t carry lumber in a Ferrari, the maintenance and taxes each year could buy a rental property, etc.
Meanwhile my heart is painting a picture of me wizzing down mountain roads or the back way to the beach wearing my sunglasses and listening to nothing but the purr of a 12 cylinder motor.
I think that, like the lottery, the best part is the daydreaming.
THE STRUGGLE IS REAL!
I lusted after the NSX for two decades and I’m also a total car nut. I will say that the shine wore off quickly for me. If you ever do pull the trigger, I hope the shine lasts a bit longer…
Parts of Highway 1 have been closed on and off for the last couple of years, landslides. No REGRETS! 🙂
Whoah, is it still not fixed?!??
You teased us with the sales price in the article (implying it was less than $50k) but didn’t explicitly share it! Enquiring minds want to know!
Glad you got that out of your system. I’m feeling great remorse this month for purchasing a $868 carbon hard tail mountain bike, though I’m considering converting it to an Ebike to make my 14-mile (round trip) bike commute a dream. Would you recommend the Ebike conversion you did? I’m thinking a mid-drive conversion like you did would be pretty slick.
Nope, it’s there. Look under the Money heading:
“We paid $45,000 for the car and sold it for the exact same amount.”
Damn! Missed it! All the other numbers in the post were super bolded and my eyes gravitated towards them.
Holy crap, your insurance was only $400/year? I’m paying about 5 times that much here in FL…
man, i drove that whole darned hwy. 1 once and i got car sick. we did it at sunset and the 1st hour was spectacular just north of santa barbara. then it was just glare off the water as we headed north and there was hardly a way to get off the 1 and inland onto the 101. changing your mind wasn’t much of an option. 4-5 hours later we were in monterrey. there are no refunds on that road. i say start at one end and drive on some nice curves and look at the ocean for 40 minutes and turn around!
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Well, at least you got to “rent” your dream car for a couple years and only pay the cost of maintenance (and opportunity cost). That seems like a pretty great deal considering!
Now that your “all grown up” and over fancy cars, I’m curious to see what you’re investing the money into. Hopefully it’ll have a better ROI this time around. 🙂
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I too had always wanted an NSX and finally bought my 97 targa with 48000 miles on it 16 years ago for 43000.00 and sold it 3 years ago for 45000.00 Loved that car but only put 10000 miles on it during time of ownership. But gosh I loved that car and the way it handled and looked!
The nsx is a really Nice car, I have to admit. But it’s pretty silly to have 3 cars when there’s only 2 drivers. Also, the Honda element is a pretty awesome car, right up there with the Mazda 5…both unfortunately discontinued, and neither getting superior gas mileage. That’s pretty awesome that you could sell the nsx for what you bought it for. Very few used cars would do the dsame, unless they’re extremely cheap already. Didn’t Mindy have a guest on her podcast that has done just that…Basically drive his cars for free?
Buying an expensive vehicle and selling it 2.5 years later… This is how America rolls. Maybe some people can learn from you that owning a high-dollar vehicle isn’t as fun as it seems.
*I almost crap myself when my kids are around my $5,000 vehicle.
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“Buying an expensive vehicle and selling it 2.5 years later… This is how America rolls.”
Actually, it’s more like 6 years, but that’s still pathetic: https://www.autotrader.com/car-shopping/buying-car-how-long-can-you-expect-car-last-240725
The right answer is to take very good care of your vehicles and keep them forever. My 2003 Honda Element has 176,000 miles on the clock and the only issue it’s ever had was a seized caliper.
Nice pic of the Chevy Citation. I still remember going to the dealer when my Dad bought one back in 1980. I remember the commecials ‘Its the first, Chevy of the 80’s …’..
I thought it was a big improvement over our ’69 Chevy Nova. Man, was I wrong!
Dark days for Detroit indeed…
Congrats on the experience! I did the same thing, on a much smaller scale, with my 1995 Miata M-Edition. Bought it for $3500, owned it for a year, drove it under 1000 miles, sold it for $3500.
I keep thinking of buying a “fun” car, but then I realize that my leisure pursuits cause me to do major highway miles, and I’d rather have comfort and advanced safety features for that.
I’m also waiting for the next generation of EVs. I’d love a used Model S, but I can’t get over the company’s numerous jerk-moves (beta testing Autopilot on customers, an awkward used buying process, Elon’s ego).
Next generation of EVs! I think about that all of the time! In another couple of years, we’re going to have a ton to choose from. It will be awesome to have options, but the competition and economies of scale should drive prices down too.
Nice Job Carl! It would be fun to track that $45,000 for the next 2- 1/2 years. What kind of fun, joy, challenges it brings. As MMM said, they are little soldiers. It sounds like it will be rolled into your live-in flip, They will probably recruit more to the their platoon, and also give you some exciting adventures along the way.
Live long Explore often,
Kermit! Nice to see you around these parts!
Fixing up the home will bring me WAY more joy than the car did. Call me nuts, but I love working the nailgun and tile saw!
As someone who has lived smack dab in the middle of Wisconsin (I think you actually know a couple of my soon-to-be FIRE’d friends who live in the same city!), I can attest to those nice country roads for opening ‘er up a little!
Funny too, when I was a big video gamer and became temporarily obsessed with the GTA series, the NSX was my favorite car, and I put all my ingame money into souping it up to game car perfection. I remember at the time thinking that, boy, if I ever come into some money, I would love to have one of those.
That feeling seems to be gone these days. I drool over bikes, not cars, for the most part. For some reason, those little silver Mercedes coupes look really slick to me. Maybe one day when I have bought my FI freedom, and have more money than I know what to do with, I’ll think about it. They’ll be uber used by then and it’ll be a project car, maybe. Until then, it’s the Specialized Rockhopper and the Mazda3 on occasion for my transpo needs! (And maybe Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars getting Coffee for some vicarious car gazing…)
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BC! The Dairy State has some really, fine roads! I’m especially partial to the driftless region west of Madison. Besides the roads, it’s so incredibly beautiful out there.
Specialized Rockhopper! That was my first mountain bike.
And I too drool over bikes. However, I talk myself out of them: “Dude, you’re paying a couple thousand for a couple pounds! Just eat less, lose the gut, and accomplish the same thing!”
Haha, yes, the bike upgrade syndrome! I used to ride with a guy who regularly logged 10,000 mile seasons (obsessive road rider) and he told me once “you know what the difference between a $2,000 bike and a $10,000 bike is? About $8,000 plus tax.” I’ve found once I stopped caring about the speed I was going or anything to do with racing, my bicycle needs cost a lot less. MTB for commuting and the single track, and my Lemond for meandering those nice Wisconsin roads. I think this is an allegory for consumerism in general – once you step out of the bigger, better, faster mindset, it becomes more about enjoying the thing, instead of spending on the thing.
I’ll have to check out that area west of Madison – I seem to mostly go to Madison or Milwaukee in the southern part of the state. There’s a great singletrack system between the two.
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Hey, how did you sell the car for such a large amount as a private seller? I’d love to sell my car soon but I get paranoid about bad cashier’s checks and/or getting mugged for a large sum of cash. Did you use an escrow, or sell to a known person? I know every state also handles title transfers differently but I’m more referring to the transfer of the money part.
I’d love any advice on such a scenario. Good luck on the new home purchase!
It was a cashiers check which scares me. What could possibly go wrong?!?? Ha, EVERYTHING!
However, I took tons of precaution. I called the bank that was issuing it and worked with them directly. I had the bank email me a copy of the check beforehand. I also called the bank the day of the transaction as a double-check.
That is a really good story and it came with a happy ending! Hurrah!
You said you wanted to get rid of it just because you were scared of harming it. I get it man! I’m terrified by all the nice things I own. I almost want to scratch them up just to get it over with.
But I’m too careful 🙁
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“I almost want to scratch them up just to get it over with.”
Haha, I know, right?
This is why I like owning old things. If someone dings my 2003 Honda in the parking lot, I’ll be slightly annoyed, but only because the other human was careless.
SO and I about downsizing and becoming a one car family soon. Any tips on the actual selling process? You mentioned Spring is the best time of the year for selling, so I wanted to unoackage that and see if you had any other recommendations.
Tips!
1) Staging is everything. Humans have no imagination. Make your house look like something from Instagram. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money here.
2) If you live in a hot area, consider a flat-fee MLS listing. Make sure that you off a good commission to the buyer’s agent though.
3) Selling FSBO is pretty difficult unless you’re in a super-hot area.
4) If you want a full-service agent, their commission is negotiable. Don’t be afraid to ask for a discount. Just make sure they don’t skimp on the buyer agent commission.
This is a beautiful car that you sold.
You regret selling the nsx yet ? 🙂
Not even a bit! It was fun while it lasted, but it turned the negative (another nice shiny thing to worry about) overwhelmed the positive.