It costs a lot of money to buy and run a Lamborghini Gallardo – but you don’t have to be rich to do it! I should know, I bought one in February 2018 and I am a long, long way from being what I would consider as ‘well-off’.
There are a number of things you need to consider before buying a machine like this and it’s important to base your decision not just around emotions. You have to consider the long term impact doing this will have – and there definitely is one. Only once you have the facts should you consider phoning up the salesman and telling them that you’ll take it!
The above is advice I should have taken and adhered to prior to purchasing mine. After I decided I wanted one, I just used some special man-maths to both justify the purchase and to consider it viable. It’s difficult to justify an extravagance such as this though so there will always be a large amount of emotion and passion involved in the decision. If I could do it all again, I’d still get one – just maybe a slightly cheaper one 🙂
Anyway, the purpose of this article is to share with you the costs of buying and owning a Lamborghini Gallardo.
The Car
Although I had decided to go for a Gallardo, I hadn’t decided whether it was going to be a special edition, a Spyder (convertible), which year, how many miles or even what color. To get to my final decision took me quite a few months of research and of course, you’re restricted to what cars are available at any time. It can take months and months to find a car in the color and spec that you want!
In the end, I decided to buy a 2013 Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder in Arancio Borealis (orange). When I picked it up, the car has 6,800 miles on the clock.
The reason I chose this car was down to the below thinking:
- I went for an LP560-4 as the special editions I saw were all too expensive or had too many miles on them. Also, I thought 4WD would be a better introduction into supercars than the 2WD editions.
- The manufacturing year I wasn’t as bothered about but I did like the styling changes that were made to the front splitter on the 2013 version. Also, this was the last year of the Gallardo so would have included all the improvements they had made over the preceding 10 years.
- I wasn’t sure whether to go for a Spyder or not. I liked the look of the Coupe’s better I thought but then there’s nothing quite like taking the roof down in the summer and hearing that 5.2 liter V10 scream. In the end, I just decided I liked the look of it and went for it.
- After going out in a higher mileage Gallardo on a test-drive, I thought about it for a bit and decided I wanted the mileage to be as low as possible. This meant that I could do a good few miles on it, without (in theory, at least) being worried about it.
- The color – all I knew was that I didn’t want it to be in black, white or grey. I figured that if I was going to buy a Lamborghini, it might as well be in a loud color. Arancio Borealis looks absolutely stunning in sunlight and after seeing it in the flesh, I was convinced.
Costs
This is where we get into the nitty-gritty. These are the things I’d rather not think about or talk about! However, for a potential buyer, it’s very handy to know what you’re going to have to be spending your money on for the next few years!
Actually, before I go on – I have a book that I wrote all about the dangers of purchasing a supercar without performing due diligence beforehand. If you’d like to take a look at everything I learned from my own experiences, then please check out the article which shows you how you can easily get hold of it.
Initial Purchase
The biggest outlay and the vast majority of people (I think I read that it was 75-80%) finance the purchase of these types of cars. When I bought my Lambo back on the 10th Feb, 2018 – it cost me £118,000 (~$145,000). With hindsight, I didn’t really need to spend that much as other Gallardo’s could have given me what I needed, for less. However, you live and learn, as they say!
Financing a Lamborghini Gallardo
There are very few people out there who actually buy supercars outright. Even if people can afford it, often they choose to still finance it. Why? Well, what’s the point in tying up that amount of money for so long? As long as you can earn more money with it than you are paying in finance interest, it makes sense to just get in on finance.
There are a few different financing methods but the most common is likely to be the Personal Contract Purchase (PCP). This is where you typically pay a deposit followed by regular payments and then usually a balloon payment on the end. For me, I paid a £40k (~$50k) deposit followed by (what will be) 48 monthly payments of about £800 (around $1,000).
At the end of these four years, you then have a balloon payment of about £58k (about $70k). So, at the end of the term, you can either pay it off in one go or re-finance. Most people who finance don’t reach the end of the term. They either sell and refinance a new car or sell and pay off the debt.
This is where depreciation and the interest on the finance deal can really hurt you. If the value of the car drops too much (not helped by putting on lots of miles) then you could find that if you want to get out quite early you end up substantially out of pocket!
Insuring the Lambo
Depending on your age, the insurance that you need to buy every year could scupper any hopes you had of owning a Lamborghini Gallardo. It does of course vary, depending on so many factors, not least geographical. So, all I can do is tell you how much I spent.
Based in the UK, I was 48 at the time of purchase with no points on my license and it cost me just over £400 (~$500) to insure the Gallardo for a year. This was a pleasant surprise as I was assuming the insurance would cost me closer to £1500 (about $1800).
Another thing you need to consider is Gap Insurance. What is this and why do we need it though? Well, even though you’re insured, if you damage your Gallardo seriously and it has to be written off you may not get what you thought you would get.
So, for instance, if you write off your $150,000 Lambo the insurer may only value it at $100,000 – so this is what they would pay you. Gap insurance protects you against this so will pay you the difference, in the event of a claim such as this. Gap insurance cost me about £400 (~$500) for two years.
Servicing the LP560-4
Again, so many variables but I will share my experience. The Gallardo needs an annual service or at 7,500-mile intervals, whichever comes first. So, usually with these cars, it will be an annual service.
The service is typically a minor followed by a major with more checks performed after 6 years (or 30,000 miles). Of course, if you go to a Lamborghini dealer, you’ll pay a bit more but you’ll get the stamp in your logbook (helpful for when you sell). In general, these will cost around £1,000 (~$1200) for a minor service and around £2,500 (~$3100) for a major service.
A six-year service can cost over £5,000 (about $6,100), depending on what needs done. This is an important point actually and as I picked up my Gallardo from its six-year service just two days ago, it’s fresh in my memory. My car has about 14,000 miles on it, my trip to the South of France contributing almost 2,000 to that!
My six-year service from an authorized Lamborghini dealer came to just £3,000 (about $3,700), including two new rear tires. This is a lot but not as much as I initially thought. Because of the relatively low mileage of the car, a lot just didn’t need replacing, so it wasn’t!
Fuel
For you lucky people in the United States, this won’t be as much of an issue as us located in Europe. Average prices in the US at the moment are around $2.90 per gallon. If you were paying Euro prices over there then that would be over $7 per gallon!
You wouldn’t expect to get great fuel economy from a V10 5.2 liter Lambo, and it’s good that you wouldn’t expect that – as you’re not going to get it! I’ve had as low as 8 MPG on ‘spirited’ drives but I also averaged over 20 MPG over the course of my trip through France, which included lots of nice twisty stuff through the Western side of the Alps.
In the UK, it will cost about £300 per 1,000 miles to run the Gallardo, on average. In the US, that will be around £125. So, with the average amount of miles being around 3,000 per year – that’s about £900 per year in fuel, or about $375. So, you can see that at least in Europe, you do have to consider the cost of fuel as almost £1,000 every year is a factor.
Paint Protection Film (PPF)
I would recommend anyone buying a car of this value to have PPF installed. If you can’t afford to get the whole car covered, at least get the front done plus the wing mirrors. Not only will it protect you from the cost of stone chips damaging your paintwork but you will find it makes the car easier to sell when it comes to that time.
I could only afford the front of my car to be protected by PPF and it cost me about £1,700 (~$2,100) – bear in mind it also gives you something less to worry about when you’re driving!
Road Tax
Here in the UK, we have to pay road tax and for the Gallardo LP560-4, it is £570 (about $700), every single year. In the US, things are a little more complex with registration fees varying from state to state. Looking at these though (source here) they seem really cheap compared to what I’m paying over here!
Lamborghini Depreciation
Car depreciation is something I got wrong. Or maybe I chose to ignore this when I bought my Gallardo! Of course, a five-year-old car is going to lose a lot less money in a year than a brand new car. However, recently (especially during 2019) the value of supercars has taken a hit across all marques.
The Gallardo I bought for £118,000 back in Feb 2018 (~$145,000) may be worth around £105,000 now (around $130,000), although it’s hard to tell. The trouble with valuing this kind of car is there aren’t many to choose from.
Right now, there are no 2013 Gallardo lp560-4’s in my color being sold nationally and I can’t remember the last time I saw one. So, if someone is looking for a car in this particular color, they may pay more for it.
Also, the price of these cars can go up. Maybe not the Gallardo for a few years but look at what the Murcielago is doing now and the Countach even more so. Of course, Lamborghini made a lot more Gallardo’s than they did these, so we’ll probably never see the increase in these as we did for them.
However, back to my point – don’t forget to factor in depreciation and that number should probably be around £5k (about $6k) a year but remember, lots of variables such as age, condition, service history and especially mileage impact this.
Things I Did Not Consider At The Time
Basically, I didn’t consider anything that I deemed to have a negative impact on my savings! I think once I had decided I wanted one I was going to buy one, no matter what. I justified pretty much everything, especially the running costs and servicing.
I won’t make these mistakes again. I love the car but would I have been any less happy with an older Gallardo with more mileage or even a Gen 1 Gallardo? I don’t think I would have been – doing this would have saved me thousands.
The Future
I’m not sure what the future holds. I had a drive in a Huracán recently (it was actually the Evo which is way, way out of my price bracket) – however, it did really make me want a Huracán! For the time being though, I’m keeping the Gallardo. When a sunny weekend comes where I’d rather do something other than take it out, then that will be the time to sell!
Now then, do you fancy a supercar? If you’re wondering whether you can afford a supercar then check out my article. Many people are surprised to learn that after looking at the numbers they can actually buy one for themselves!