New $120k Mercedes sitting in a repo lot (photo at link)

http://valleywag.gawker.com/5118652/a-six+figure-car-at-silicon-valleys-repo-man

Spotted at Collateral Auction Systems, an outfit in the Bay Area suburb of Fremont, Calif. which sells repossessed cars: A Mercedes biturbo V12 SL600, a car which sells new for $120,000.

On the license-plate frame: the logo of Cisco, a San Jose-based networking-equipment giant which makes everything from cable set-top boxes to telecom switches to home Wi-Fi routers.

There's a story behind this photo of someone who lived high off of Cisco's rich stock options — an engineer? an executive? a salesman? And just as suddenly, the spigot of cash shut off. In six months, the stock has fallen by more than 40 percent. Cisco stealthily laid off employees even as its cheerleading CEO John Chambers said the company wouldn't cut staff. We don't have the details on how this six-figure driving machines landed in a repo lot — but the picture tells a story all the same.

be driving the car.

Of course, anyone that pays that much for a car imho is an idiot.

you drive."

And this city DESERVEDLY gets ridiculed for being
PHONY because most of the Benzes and Lexi (!) I share
the freeway with (in my PAID-OFF Honda) are probably
leased/financed ...

There's a side to me that's almost tickled by this
downturn because it will hopefully bring down some
who have lived beyond their means for far too long
and need to experience their "comeuppance." (Yes,
that's a "Magnificent Ambersons" reference.)

I would think that it is equal to the mortgage payment most pay struggle to pay each month.

I see their cars and I KNOW that what they're paying
for their ride is about half what I'd need to own
even a condo here ... They get no sympathy from me,
sorry. If there's a tiny silver lining to this mess,
it's that now the pain is even getting to THOSE PEOPLE.

I can't imagine the stress that comes with it.

Thank God they did years ago and now I'm debt-free;
I'd hate to be the "me" of even 5 years ago in the
current economic climate. It's only stressful
after they cut you off (which is what's happening
to a lot of the Lexus drivers just about now), but
up until then, it's all "here's a new Platinum
Card" and "use these checks before 12/31/08 to
help you through the holiday season" ... It's
ridiculous how easy it is until ... it's
suddenly NOT.

I vowed then to get free from credit card debt.

sure, the credit card companies and our mortgage companies gave us a grace period of 3 months - but they didn't stop the interest and they let the grace period lump it all together - the payments at the end of the "grace period" were startling (think of a balloon payment - one of those type of loans).

I couldn't afford to buy much "stuff" for the first year after Katrina and then, when I was on my feet, I had no place to put stuff - a travel trailer is not conducive to owning things.

A new dealer purchase loan for 60 months on a $120,000 car, with 10 percent down and a paid-off $30,000 trade-in, will cost you $1610.64 per month.

The same loan for 48 months is $1960.66.

This from kbb.com's loan calculator.

Two thousand a month for transportation. No.

Not even if I won the blessed lotto.

That is just insane. Thanks for the info - the confirmation that some folks are just plain stupid.

:puke:

unfriggin believable $2k a month to lease, you don't even get to own it at the end of the lease period.

PT Barnum saw 'em coming.

I can understand leasing a $120,000 piece of equipment for a business--the tax treatment is different and the payments go in a different account, so leasing makes sense there.

Leasing for personal use to me makes no sense at all. Just BUY the fucking thing and trade it for a new car in three years.

thanks again for the numbers and the clarification.

that gravy train ended in 2001 at Cisco with the .com crash. Furthremore, Congress then changed the rules, and as a result cisco curtailed giving out options to all employees, and then beginning in 2008, only a handful of them get options.

Plus, the stock while down now lately, it has largely been flat the last 8 years.

In any event, I do wonder about that car. My best, educated guess is that it belonged to an account manager who services one of the large banks. Once they stopped buying gear, those sales guys saw income streams in the 6 and 7 figures dry up rapidly.