I'm 53 and ever since I was 23 I have pretty much had a car payment. With a couple of exceptions I have enjoyed or loved all of them except a couple, and I totally agree that you should love what you drive. Driving a new or almost new car is the one luxury I allow myself, I will eat Spam 24/7 if I have to in order to drive something I like. Having a nice ride is what motivates me to get my fat a$$ out of bed everyday and go to work. With that said make sure you do not get in over your head, I am sure the dealers are going to try and rape the first buyers of the speed3 just like they did with the speed6. We checked out the speed6 when they first arrived and the dealer where we test drove was willing to sell us one with a $31,000+ sticker for $38,000 out the door. Needless to say it did not happen, but I am sure they will try the same thing with the 3. Wait six months to a year and then pick one up a lot cheaper and pay down any debts in the mean time. If you can swing it now then by all means do so but, do you really want ot buy a new 260+ horsepower FWD car going into the snowy winter season?

 

new6fan makes a good point.....if you buy one now, you'll only have about a month (if that depending on where you live) to play with then comes winter.....wait till spring then you'll have 7-8 months of fun

 

very good points on getting raped with the Speed3... what's gonna happen is this:
I will be selling my 626. With the money, I will buy my uncle's 95 Eagle Talon ESi.
I will be selling my Ghia. With the money, I will pay bills, buy my uncle's 65 Volkswagen Baja and use the money i would have spent on the MazdaSpeed 3 (actually much much less) on what I will be calling "Operation Lightning Bug". more info on that once I get it.

You can all still feel free to buy me birthday presents if you want.