89 - Drive your dream vehicle . . . and have written car goals to make it happen!

Reason for having Car Goals:  Some of us have a fascination with the automobile and dream about one day driving our dream car.  The majority of people own their own cars; however, it is foreseeable in the next 10 years that there will be a shift to autonomous cars, which people don’t own but share.   Regardless, the fascination with being able to drive a dream car will never vanish.    

There is something special about the dream of owning a sporty car, and driving with the windows down on a sunny day, with an open roof and the music playing.

What are your car goals for the type of vehicle you'd like to own?

For some, it is their dream to drive or own one of the following vehicles:

• A luxury, 4-door sedan
• A 2-door sports coupe convertible
• A vintage car
• A pick-up truck 
• A 4 x 4 Jeep
• A sport utility vehicle (SUV)
• An electric, self-driving vehicle  

The premium automobile brands that are valued most highly, tend to be the foreign vehicles manufactured in countries like Germany and Japan, although all automobile manufacturers produce sought-after vehicles, including US car companies. 

Note that this goal doesn’t necessarily say that you need to own your dream vehicle; you could just drive it.  The cost of owning your dream vehicle may be too much for you.   There are companies that allow you to rent common dream cars and take them around a test track, or take them out for a day.  

Other car goals . . . 

If you are a car enthusiast and really passionate about them, you'll want to write down goals to . . . 

• Buy an old car and fix it up
• Collect a certain type of car or vehicle
• Buy a brand new car (sport, luxury, vintage, off road etc.)
• Modify a car and make it stand-out 
• Own a convertible sports car you drive only on summer days

Suggested Car Goals:    Choose your dream car and own it someday.
Your Outrageous Car Goals:   Own or drive several dream cars and store them in your 4 car garage!

My dream car, when I was in my late twenties, was a Mercedes 500SL 2-door sports coupe convertible, a car that is well out of reach of the average person.   It was actually written down as one of my original 100 goals, written at the age of 30. As I’ve evolved over the past 25 years, my taste in automobiles has changed, and I’m now more inspired by other automobile manufacturers.  

At the time of launching the 100 Goals Club, I had not purchased my dream car.  

After extensive research and vacillating on what vehicle to purchase to replace my 13 year old Honda Odyssey, Kathy reminded me of my recurring dream to drive a self driving car.  Often during a late night drive home from her parents house 1 hour away, I would comment on how excited I was for self driving cars to become mainstream.   She said why don't you test drive a Tesla Model 3.   I took her up on that suggestion about 3 weeks later and after just 5 minutes in on the test drive, while testing out autopilot on the highway, I knew that this was the car for me, the car I had been dreaming about.  

My dream car morphed from a Mercedes 500SL to a Tesla Model 3.  Click here to find out all the great reasons why you should own a Tesla Model 3 too, explained in my Quora post (its received more than 25,000 views)!

Caution . . . 

One thing I do not want to encourage is purchasing your dream car (or a too expensive car) before you are financially ready to do so, which is the mistake of many young people.  As a general rule of thumb, you should only purchase a vehicle that is valued at no more than 10% your gross annual income, or 5% of your overall net worth.  

1. You should never buy more car than you can afford
2. You should not replace a car that is still serviceable and only replace when servicing becomes problematic
3. Buy the best car you can afford

Reference a great website that I’ve been following for the last couple of years, for detailed rationale on this:

https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-110th-rule-for-car-buying-everyone-must-follow/

It’s also a general mistake for you to buy expensive items for status reasons.   Vehicles are depreciating assets.   Some of the most successful people drive modest vehicles.   The purpose having car goals is to figure out what would make you really happy to own or drive, and then make it happen, within your lifetime.      For me, I did not purchase my dream car until I was age 55, 25 years after writing down my goal to own my dream car.  We focused on wealth building during much of this time.  

Return to lifestyle goals. 

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Last updated: October 14, 2019