How to drive an Exotic Car for Free (Top 10 Best Cars)

What's up you guys, it's Graham here. So, this has been the most requested video topic in the history of the entire YouTube internet, and that is: how to car hack and drive an exotic car for free. I've been pretty fortunate that, with the last two sports cars I bought, I was able to car hack them, lose absolutely no money on them, and essentially just drive them around entirely for free.

In fact, this 2008 Lotus Exige S 240 has been a cheaper car for me to own than my last Toyota Prius. I've actually ended up making money on this car, and some cars actually appreciate higher in value than the stock market, so let me explain.

It's a very common misconception that exotic cars need to be expensive to own. You typically see the complaint that the average car will lose 46 percent of its value within the first three years, and exotic cars are absolutely no exception to this. For instance, we have this Aston Martin Vanquish, which is selling for a 65 percent discount from its MSRP after only three years. Or we have another one: this 2013 Bentley GT Convertible, a two hundred and thirty-one thousand dollar car that you can buy for just one hundred and five thousand dollars five years later, which is just forty-five percent of its value after only five years.

See, the thing is, if you're a car enthusiast like I am, you're probably in a position where you would love to be able to drive cars like this, but the depreciation would simply eat you alive. However, many exotic cars have a rather predictable depreciation curve where, if you time it correctly, you're pretty much able to buy the car, drive it for a year or two, and then sell it for pretty much the same price you bought it for. The overall cost for doing something like this is often less than your newer grocery-getting minivan.

So here's how this concept works: most mass-produced cars will lose about 50 percent of their value within the first four years of ownership. Then, after that, depreciation tends to slow down to more like five to ten percent of the car's value annually, depending on the type of car and the mileage. After about ten to twelve years, the car's really lost most of its value. It still tends to go down in price, although not as significantly as in the first ten years.

Now, exotic cars are killed a bit differently. They will see the majority of your depreciation within the first five years of ownership. After that, the depreciation is still there; it just slows down dramatically for an additional few years, depending on the type of car, the mileage, and the options. But then we have something that happens; it's very much unique to exotic cars: unlike any other mass-produced car out there, at a certain point, they tend to stop depreciating and instead, they just hold their value.

Most exotic cars tend to have this base level value where they're always going to be worth at least that. For example, let's take the Ferrari F430: it's very rare to see these cars selling for under $95,000, and the majority of these cars trade anywhere from one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. They've been selling within this range for the last few years, even though the cars are getting older and the mileage is getting higher.

Compare that with your average Mercedes C-Class, which just continues to drop in price, getting cheaper and cheaper until you have a thirty-five hundred dollar Mercedes on your hands. That will never happen with an exotic car, except for maybe Maserati. This could probably be said about over a dozen cars out there that you can buy, drive entirely for free, and then even make money on when it comes time to sell it. I'll give my personal list towards the end of the video, where I'll go over my favorite cars that you could potentially make money from. It will cover cars in every single price range from fifteen thousand to over a million dollars.

Also, with interest rates as low as they are right now for three to five-year periods, as long as you can qualify for the loan, you should have no problem getting a low interest rate, investing your money elsewhere to offset the cost of that interest that you're paying, and then you pretty much just enjoy the car. Put miles on it and just enjoy the fun of being able to drive an exotic car without knowing that you're losing a ton of money in depreciation or maybe you're even making a little bit of money.

Now, because I'm sure some people are gonna be getting a bit triggered right now, and I can feel it— I can feel it; it's coming up—it's very slow, and it's going to the fingertips, and people are just gonna be in the comments section. I'm gonna be disliked; unsub! My clickbait is not actually free because you actually need to have money to put down and buy the car. It's not free, ya know?

You're not gonna be able to be like 17 years old with no money and go and buy a Ferrari and drive it for free; that's not how it works. My rationale behind this is that if you're getting a car, you've got to get a car. So instead of buying a Honda minivan and having it lose twenty thousand dollars of its value over three years, you can buy that Ferrari at the very bottom of its depreciation curve and spend less maintaining that car than you would lose in depreciation on the Honda.

Don't get me wrong; yes, you will have costs associated with buying that Ferrari like taxes, maintenance, insurance, gas, all that other good stuff. But again, when you buy it right, it's pretty much like putting your money in a savings account that you can drive, lose very little money on, and then sell it to recoup your investment. In some situations, that savings account that you can drive will actually end up making you money.

So let me give you a few examples. In 2009, I bought a 2006 chrome orange Lotus Elise and I paid thirty thousand dollars for the car. I sold it two years later with nine thousand more miles on it for thirty thousand dollars. Then we have this car behind me. This is a 2008 Lotus Exige S 240 that I bought in February of 2014 for $50,000. A year ago, I was offered by somebody fifty-five thousand dollars to buy this car because they were specifically looking for an aspen white, which is this, and they only made about fourteen of these cars for North America in this color.

This means that over four years, this car has gone up 10% in value, despite me putting on an additional ten thousand miles on this car. It's also really easy to spot these price trends: a few weeks of searching and going in car forums will give you a really solid foundation of knowledge to see which cars tend to hold their values better than others. Looking on AutoTrader and eBay are also great places to start researching as well.

You'll notice that with some cars, mileage and year tend to make very little difference in price. These are the cars to go for. They also get really interesting when you find a car and buy it under what it's worth, just like buying a property under market value and having instant equity in the house. You could do the same thing with a car. If you find a car and buy it for less than what it's actually worth, this is when you get into people actually making a profit by driving the car for a few months or a year, and then flipping it and actually making a profit while owning that car.

Your only real out-of-pocket expense when it comes to this is really just gas, insurance, and maintenance, which really isn't as bad as you'd expect on some of the newer exotic cars out there, where also independent mechanics can often fix things for a fraction of the price that a dealership would want. As an example here, dealerships often want three hundred and fifty to four hundred dollars to change the oil in this car; I could do it myself for sixty dollars in about an hour of my time, and I'm the stupidest person that comes to buy, by the way! If I could do it, if I could do that, so can you.

So let me now give you some examples of some cars that would work really well to be able to car hack, drive for free, or you can even make a profit on these. Again, these are just my opinions. If you want to add on to this, comment below; let me know your thoughts. I'm sure there are many options that I've missed out there, but these are the ones that I'm most excited about that really come to mind first.

So, the first and one of the least expensive cars you can do this with is the Honda S2000. Some of the low mileage stock examples have actually been going up in price recently, so this is actually an opportunity for you to buy a sub twenty or thirty thousand dollar car, drive it, and potentially even make money from it. Well, this is definitely not an exotic; it's still a really good sports car that holds its value really, really well. These cars are selling for about thirteen to fifteen thousand dollars all the way up to about thirty thousand dollars depending on the condition and mileage, and they've been selling within this range for quite some time now.

Next up would be the 2005 to 2007 Lotus Elise and 2006 to 2010 Lotus Exige. The Lotus Elise is really just like a Miata on steroids, and the Exige just takes it to the next level. Because these cars were produced in such low numbers and were a very road-focused driver's car, they became a really amazing value for car enthusiasts.

These are also cars that have been slowly going up in value since they ceased production in 2012 for the U.S. market. With the Lotus Elise, you could pretty much buy the car anywhere from twenty-seven to thirty-seven thousand dollars and you will drive the car and sell it for pretty much the same price you bought it for. This is also one of these cars; it's absolutely bulletproof to run and drive. It's basically a Toyota car with Lotus bodywork all over it. Imagine pretty much as driving a Toyota Celica GTS with the engine tuned and then everything else different, but the car is super reliable.

Certain Lotuses are even going up in value too. For instance, if you can find a Krypton green Elise or Exige, these cars command five to ten thousand dollars more than the exact same car in any other color. The Lotus Exige is pretty much the exact same thing. You can buy these cars anywhere from forty-five to sixty-five thousand dollars, drive it, and sell it for pretty much the same price you bought it for.

Now, my next choice would probably be the original Acura NSX that was produced from 1990 to 2005. This has been an absolute classic for car enthusiasts and also known for its Honda reliability. These cars have been shooting up in value lately, especially as unmodified original Acura NSXs just become harder and harder to find. So if you can find one that's unmodified with preferably low miles, you've got yourself an absolute winner.

Now, similar to the Acura NSX, the 1996 and 1997 Viper GTS is another perfect car for you to car hack. These are the only two years that produced the GTS and the classic blue with white stripe, and these are known among the car enthusiasts as being one of the Vipers to own. This is also an example of a car that's gone up in value tremendously over the last few years. I remember in 2014, when I was looking at the Lotus Exige, you could find a 96 or 97 Viper GTS anywhere between thirty-five and forty thousand dollars. Those same cars right now are selling between fifty-five and sixty-five thousand dollars.

Now, as we get into the $60,000 price point, we have the first-generation Aston Martin Vanquish, produced from 2001 to 2007. This is a car that gained some significant recognition for being the James Bond car, but it also had an extremely low production of just over a thousand cars. These are cars that have started going up in value as collectors hold on to their cars in expectation of them continuing to go up in value, limiting the number of cars for sale. This is the perfect example of a car that you can buy right, drive for a few years, and then actually sell it for a profit. Just make sure to keep the mileage somewhat reasonable on this car.

But honestly, I'm not gonna lie: besides this Aston Martin Vanquish, for the most part, Aston Martins make terrible cars to car hack with. They simply just produce too many cars for these cars to really hold their value very well, and they change them up so often that they just continue to depreciate in price. Take a look at the Aston Martin DB9, for instance: this has just continued to drop in price year after year.

So in my opinion, the first-generation Aston Martin Vanquish would be the only car from Aston Martin that I would like to do this with, besides like the DB5s and older cars like this. For the most part, it's really just the first-gen Aston Martin Vanquish. Now, in this price point, you also have the '90s air-cooled Porsche 911s, the 993, and these cars can get really expensive—anywhere between fifty-five thousand to past two hundred thousand dollars, depending on the car. These are also the cars that have outpaced the stock market lately in terms of return, which is just absolutely incredible, but being air-cooled adds an entirely new level of collectability simply because of its simplicity.

Air-cooled Porsches are usually just simpler, faster, lighter, and more reliable than other Porsches. Collectors also really like the last of when it comes to cars, so the last of the air-cooled Porsche simply makes it automatically a good collector car. Combine that with the heritage and racing history of Porsche, and you've got yourself a great car to car hack, drive for free, and more than likely make a profit on the right car.

Now, as we get into the hundred thousand dollar price point, we start to get into some really cool cars. The Lamborghini Gallardo comes to mind: a manual Lamborghini Gallardo or a 2006 or newer Gallardo in the range of ninety to one hundred and ten thousand dollars. These cars are a tremendous bang for the buck at a price where you can pretty much buy the car, drive it for a year, and sell it for pretty much the same price you bought it for. The trick to doing this is really just finding a reasonable mile car that has been well taken care of.

Now, because mileage does matter when it comes to Lamborghini, finding something on the lower side of things will just give you a little bit more wiggle room when it comes time to selling it and making your money back. Now, if you could splurge a little bit more money and find a manual Gallardo, I have a feeling that these will continue to increase in value by a rate of probably a few thousand dollars each year. This is because they didn't produce very many manual cars to begin with, and collectors are holding on to these cars because of how rare they are to find. Because of this, the values just continue to appreciate year after year.

And I'm sure with this, we can also squeeze in the Lamborghini Murcielago here as well. They seem to have really bottomed out in the hundred and thirty to one hundred and sixty thousand dollar price point, and I really can't see them dropping much lower than that, especially because they're a V12. For any less than that, they're pretty much in Gallardo territory, and I would say the Murcielago is just a rarer, superior car.

Now, I have a feeling that from here, the Murcielago isn't really going to drop much in value, especially for a V12. But the only variable when it comes to this is really just maintenance, which could be astronomical in a car like this. So it's really important if you're considering getting a Murcielago: first of all, buy it at the right price and get a car that's really well taken care of with all of its service history. I have a feeling you're not going to lose much money, if any, on depreciation, but you could lose a lot of money on maintenance if something was to break.

Now, in the slightly more expensive price range to this, you have the manual Ferrari F430, which usually sells anywhere from about one hundred and forty thousand on the low end to sometimes about two hundred thousand dollars on the high end. I remember reading somewhere that they only produced about 1,000 manual Ferrari F430s, so to actually find one is rare. And most people who buy them hold onto them and keep them as collector cars. This has led to these cars skyrocketing in value, and I think this is just the beginning.

Now, as you get into the 150 to 200 thousand dollar price point, you have one of my favorite cars, and that is also the best money-making opportunity, and that would be the BMW Z8. This is a car you will rarely ever see driving around. They only produced these from 2000 to 2003, and there are only about 5,700 of these cars in existence. Cars like this that have limited production runs, especially if they're used in a James Bond film, are just primed for going up in value. Also, as these cars get more scarce as collectors buy them and hold onto them and not sell them, supply dwindles, and prices just continue to go up.

Now, as we get closer to the $200,000 price point, we have probably one of my favorite cars out there, and that is the Lamborghini Diablo. This is a pretty rare car that has been shooting up in value lately, especially the 2001 Lamborghini Diablo 6.0. I remember a few years ago, you could pick up one of these cars for about 150 to 160 thousand dollars; now that exact same car is selling for more like three hundred thousand dollars. If you've got the money to plunk down on a very rare Lamborghini, this would be it. I highly doubt you would lose any money on it, and if anything, if I were a betting man, I'd put money on it that you'd probably even turn a profit if you kept the car for a few years.

So now that we're getting into a higher price point, we have another one of my all-time favorite cars, and that is the Ford GT. The funny thing is, these cars did absolutely nothing in terms of appreciation when they first came out, but all of a sudden, after a few years, once they've been discontinued, the value has just shot up in price. The crazy thing is these are still climbing up in price.

The demand is also really skyrocketed, especially as the new Ford GT comes out and draws attention to its predecessor. Now, I'm sure very few people watching actually have the money to buy a Ford GT like this, but if you do, my recommendation is: first buy a house and then spend your money on a Ford GT.

Now, I'm sure there are also plenty of other cars out there in higher price points that I can mention that would make a lot of money. I have a feeling that is not the demographic watching. But for those who are curious, if I were to venture to guess, any of these cars would say most likely the Porsche Carrera GT, the Porsche 918, the Ferrari F40, F50, or Enzo, and also the original Mercedes 300SL Gullwing.

I'm sure there are plenty more out there that I'm forgetting, so if I am—or if you want to add on to this list—comment down below and let me know your thoughts. If you agree with me, if you disagree with me, if there are other cars out there that you've bought and you've sold for a profit or that you think are just good investments, just comment them below; let me know! Like I said, I read every single comment that's posted. I reply to many of the comments out there, so just, just, just comment! Just comment!

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