With Christmas this month I've been thinking a lot about gifts, mostly who I need to get gifts for and what to actually buy them. The 'who' list is easy, but the 'what' can be a bit tricky with some of the people on my list. So to distract myself from that whole mess I started thinking about what I thought about giving cars as gifts. Just to make things clear, I'm talking about an outright gift. Car bought and completely paid for, not one that has a loan on it.
Now on the whole I think most things can be a gift, whether it's a jersey/clothes, video games, or a chance to drive super cars. You get the picture. All these things are well and good, but I don't know if I would ever want someone to gift me a car. I used to think it would be an awesome gift, and how I always hoped my parents would have gotten me one for my 16th birthday. That never happened. But now? No, I don't think so. Here's my thought process on that.
Yeah, it would be great to get my dream car, but what if it wasn't the right paint job/interior or it had the wrong engine, or it had a spoiler or other body mod that I didn't like. And then you start thinking about comfort. What if my dream car is really uncomfortable to drive?! (You can tell you're getting 'old' when you think that.) I don't think I could be happy unless I had some hand in actually picking it out. I'm picky, I'll admit it. Whether someone gave me my dream classic car or my dream modern car, there are so many things that could go wrong. And those things could be an expensive fix for me.
Then there's the whole thing of paying taxes on the gift. Did you think of that? It's going to vary depending on what state you live in (or country I suppose), but most often the recipient (that's me) gets to handle ALL the tax paperwork on it. Does that sound like fun to you? Because it doesn't to me. So you're giving me a large gift that I have to pay taxes on. Sure, it's much less than what I would have paid if I bought it myself, but... that's still a good chunk of change. Check out this article from the DMV to get more info on tax and title transfers. Link.
Now I am very happy to get car accessories as gifts! Whether it's new car mats, a trunk liner, or even new rims. I would be one happy guy. Or maybe some new music to listen to while I drive. Pretty much anything car related and I'm good.
What do you all think? Would you like a car as a gift?