<prompt> Human: Im honestly a little tentative about posting this here, but I have a chronic case of analysis paralysis, so Im just looking for outside perspective. About a month ago, I found out that I 27M am going to be a father. My wife and I are very excited for our first child, but obviously this has caused me to examine some of the choices I have made. I am a car enthusiast. I enjoy the act of driving, working on cars, and really anything that has to do with cars interests me in one way or another. I am also financially conscious, and because of this I tend to own and work on old depreciated cars that interest me. This leads me to my dilemma. I drive 24 year old BMW. Its a car I really enjoy and I have done extensive work it to make it my own. With fatherhood on the horizon, Im starting to question whether or not I really want to cart my kid around in this car regularly, largely for safety reasons. Because of this Ive been looking into new cars, but my enthusiast side has pushed me to look at cars right around 40,000. I know this is a lot of money for a depreciating asset, but if I am going to make payments on a car I want to make sure its something I like.Here is where rpersonalfinance comes in. My wife and I gross 160K, and net 100K, 125K with 401k contributionsmatching included. I budget 4,500 per month, on recurring expenses, and 5,500 per month with forecasted expenses vacations, hobbies, ect.. We put a little over 10 of our monthly net income into savings which is now at 32K. Another thing to note is we just paid off my wifes car, and were making double payments, otherwise our savings would be quite a bit higher. Ive also paid off my student loans and never carry a credit card balance.I dont want this to sound like a humble brag, but I know that we can technically afford a car in the price range I am looking. What I have trouble with is the opportunity cost of investing what I dont spend on the car. Am I just being too cautious or am I an idiot for thinking of spending 40,000 on a car?TL;DR - Car enthusiast thinking of buying 40K new car, with 100K net income, and 45-50 savings rate. Am I an idiot or too cautious?Edit - Did not expect so many replies. Trying not to ignore all of you with decent insights. I thought I should provide a little more information since some of the same points keep coming up. My wife drives a 2013 CX-5, this will be a primary kid hauler. I plan to keep my car. Its a 1992 BMW 525iT. Its a wagon but its also a bit of a project car being 24 years old with 200k miles it is ready to retire from daily driver status. My savings rate is calculated based on my Total Earned Income, which I calculate as: Net Income Retirement contributions company match We have a home with a mortgage. Conservative equity of 50K after owning 5 years. We have a NW around 180K including home equity. Not a brag, but someone said it helped.Assistant: Remember, your future kid is probably going to destroy the inside of your new 40K car with Cheerios, bodily fluids, dirt, and every other car-ruining fluid, gel, melted crayon thing under the sun. If youre okay with that then fine. But I dont think its a good idea. You need to be okay with something that is going to get very messy very fast. Human: Haha, yes I expect as much, but I dont think it could be worse than keeping my wifes car clean which we haul our Irish Wolfhound in. SO. MUCH. FUR.SO. MUCH. SLOBBER. Assistant: Good god then you definitely need to control yourself! Your new car is going to STINK. Why cant you keep your fun BMW and get a decently priced car for shuffling around baby and furry baby? Human: Well, realistically the dog would not be riding in the new car. She is hardly comfortable in a mid-size crossover. The majority of kid and dog duty would still be on my wifes car. Im not looking a coupes or small sedans for this reason, because I do want to have the option if there was an emergency and her car was out of commission.Assistant: Fair enough. One other question. Have you considered what you are going to do about child care? Daycare is insanely expensive. Did you factor future daycare costs into your budget? Human: Yes, I am fortunate enough to live pretty close to both sets of grandparents. They will be fighting over who will watch the kid more, most likely. Also my wife has the ability to work from home semi-regularly, and would do so 2-3 days a week.Assistant: Try not to underestimate the energy required for childcare. Unless your grandparents are in outstanding physical shape, they may not be able to physically keep up with the demand. Just something to consider.Human: Maybe I was unclear. I meant my in-laws and my parents, they are in their late 50s, so they are still fit enough to watch a kid.Assistant: If you havent had explicit conversations with them about childcare, dont assume that they will be watching your child for 40-50 hours a week. Theres a reason daycare is expensive - its a hard job.Human: Oh, this is one of those situations where our parents where begging us for grand kids for a few years already, and they have been explicit in their desire to help out. I know its a huge factor in the cost of a kid, but luckily its not much of a factor for us.  <response>: Doesnt necessarily mean they want to watch the kid every day. 