I am thinking of buying a GS-R or a VTEC Prelude, 94 or up. I am planning on putting performance parts on it. But Everything I find in my price range have 90K plus miles. I have come to ask myself if buying one of these cars and putting performance parts is worth it? I mean you spend let's say 9,000K getting the car and you add about 6,000K to 9,000K in perfomance parts. Then when the car gets top like 150,000K miles you got to get ride of it. And when you sell the danm thing you will not even cover the cost you put on the car. So you LOSED some serious money for what? Weekend cruising, Racing a few cars, Talk about how much **** you have on your car. I guess I am at the point where the glamour of this performance car **** has faded and the reality has come forth. The only way I think it is worth putting all that performance **** on your car is when you get it almost brand new. In my situation does anybody else agree with me??????
Please tell me what you think I am going CRAZY just thinking about it all the time

 

thats why cars are called money pits
get used to it
nobody gets their investment back when you add parts to a car.
sorry. just the way life works.

and because ITS FUN to go fast.

 

hold onto about $4-5k off your money and then when your engine is done buy another and transfer whatever mods you have on your old one to the new one. i have spent around $10k on my car which i know i'll never get back, but a lot of those can be removed and put on my next car or sold separately.

 

also, if you're thinking of getting rid of the car before even getting one, maybe you should spend the money elsewhere. i was in a similar situation as you, but i haven't looked back since. good luck.

 

From what I've seen around don't expect to get 50% back from what you put into a car. If you want to sell something you've worked on you'ld get more to return the car to as close to stock as possible and selling the parts seperate. If you're really interested in modifyed cars then I'm sure it will pay for it's self in other ways to you, but if you're just into it for the "fashion" of having a car w/ performance (or otherwise ) mods then you're prolly better off getting a stock car you like and spending your money in other places IMHO.

I myself am just getting ready to jump into the modified car scene and I am undaunted, even after starting to list all the mods I want to do and the price of them (can you say several times the value of the car :D) even w/ my pathetic 6k a year parttime job. but that's because the whole thing intrieges me, my newest big hobby, coming even only w/ my workstation class computer

What am I getting myself into

 

quote:
I mean you spend let's say 9,000K getting the car and you add about 6,000K to 9,000K in perfomance parts. Then when the car gets top like 150,000K miles you got to get ride of it.


I kinda see what you're saying, but at the same time, engine rebuilds are possible too. I look at it as an opportunity to add more performance, such as higher compression pistons, etc.

 

Older cars are the best. You get to replace all the old broken parts with bigger, better, faster, newer, aftermarket parts. Usually the technology of an aftermarket part today is much better than what people knew about that particular thing 10 years ago. If you have a new car, you are replacing brand new parts with aftermarket parts. That sounds like more of a waste of money to me.

Just for an example, my first civic was ten years old. The brakes started going: slotted rotors, and new race pads. The exhaust was rusting off: new cat back exhaust, high flow cat, and stainless muffler. Ignition coil started to go: new MSD ignition system and blaster coil. Air filter getting old: short ram intake. Clutch started to go: centerforce dual friction, and while the tranny was off, LSD.

I could go on but I think I've made my point. I spent 4K for the car, and it only had 50K miles on it. Now it has 160K miles on it, and I just got my new crv engine w/ only 9K miles. Just waiting for the tranny and the swap will be in. Plus I still have tons of aftermarket parts that I can slap on the new engine.

Sometimes I wonder what the point is of people hooking up new cars.

 

there really is no point in doing it if you see it as a waste of money. the way i see it, this is a very EXPENSIVE hobby and at least you get some respect out of it, thats if you aren't "RICE". if you just doing it cause everyone is doing it and it seems cool then this is NOT the hobby for you. since i started this hobby 4 years ago i have put maybe almost what my car is worth into building it inside and out and have lost most of the money, with the exception of what i sold off the car, but then again what i made selling those parts went towards buying new more expensive parts. now im just starting on performance, i have a h22 that just arrived last week that costed me 2+ g's and now i have to put out more $ to build the motor before dropping in the motor in. it does save money that i do all the work on my car myself but still a lot of money goes into it. this is prob the most addictive and expensive hobby with sometimes no rewards except the self satisifaction you get when you roll up somewhere and everyone is hopefully looking at you car in admiration so ask yourself a question, is the self satisifaction worth all that money? and if your answer is NO then i suggest you just put your money towards a new car and drive it stock because what ever car you modify, new or used, you will end up losing big money.