Best decision was getting an e36.
Yeah, I realize now how stupid I was by thinking Ill pay for it someday and buying it today.
Ive got a little less than 3 years left on the truck and I plan on keeping it for a while after its paid off just to not have a car payment.
Ive got the quad loan but thats cheap but it seems like Ill be paying it for the rest of my life. Its a fixed interest included bill of $69 a month (I pay $80) so its not a huge deal though.
Dump the quad-figure a way for someone to take over payments or something. Good move on wanting to keep the truck until the wheels fall off…
I really don’t see how some people ‘afford’ some of the vehicles they drive. I guess in reality, they don’t. Not many people can truly afford the costs of living and the payment on a 30K+ vehicle.
Im not worried about the quad and the way they depreciate its probably only worth about half of what I owe on it anyway. Ill ride it one of these days although its been about 2 years since I went on a real ride.
Best decision was selling the money pit my car audio monster of a blazer and buying my sts-v.
The car puts such a smile on my face every time I drive it. I’ll DD that thing as long as I can (I can imagine winter will be impossible unless we have another winter like last)
Best decision was trading in my Civic for my GTI.
Worst decision was beginning the mod process and dumping money into the GTI…Even though I can’t stop and I love it!
Worst: Buying my M3
Best: Crashing my M3
Trading in that damn Subaru. No more burning or leaking oil!
Every vehicle I have owned has developed an oil leak. It’s a terrible curse
Ive never made a good automotive decision.
best: buying my 2001 suzuki swift, cheap to buy, amazing on gas, and was alot of fun.
worst: buying 20"s from APG back in the day. got screwed hard.
Best Decision was hopping on a motorcycle and realized how amazing riding was.
Worst Decision was buying a motorcycle in the dead of winter without properly inspecting it. I literally lost thousands of dollars on that bike in mere months.
No vehicle purchase is ever good, rarely do you make money off a vehicle.
That being said, I don’t even want to know how much I’ve spent on cars. But look at the good times, friends you’ve made, people you’ve met, the experiences you’ve had. Stop and think how many people you know just over some steel with rubber tires. You can’t put a price on that.
Exactly!
Why does a vehicle purchase need to make you money to be ‘good’?
Good purchase- A car that has no major issues, and requires minimal maintenance, and gets good mileage for it’s purpose.
Good purchase- A car that brings you joy, even if it’s a piece of shit.
Whatever, fagets
Best: Investing in projector headlights for my Maxima. Those things were freakin amazing. I will never daily a car that doesn’t have projectors again.
Worst: Although I love my car, spending that much on a relatively new car. Dumb investment when you consider how fast most cars depreciate. Had I known how much these cars go for at clean title auctions (lease returns, small dents/fender benders, etc.), I would have had my best friend get me one there instead of spending somewhere around $10-12k more than I needed too. Not to mention Lia Infiniti painted this car. Bottom line, 9.9 out of 10 dealers are a bunch of lying douches. I was told the car was never involved in an accident. Why the hell was the front left fender/bumper repainted then?
Lessons learned.
I hear you. Prime example is the Toyota Supra. Virtually all of them have been in accidents, and most of the ‘low mile’ ones have simply just had odometer fraud commited it’s entire life.
Best: Finding out I love to make stuff automotive related. Learning a lot every step of the way. This opened up many doors in my life.
Worst: Putting off my own automotive related work; repairs, maintenance, mods. This costs me alot in fines, broken things that could have been prevented by proper maintenance, and frustration when I finish some bad ass car for someone else and get in my shit box to drive home.
BUT I am looking forward, not backwards. “race forward” is forever written on my pit board!
Hard questions. Would probably have multiple answers.
Best: While sexy, that white E46 M3 I purchased had nothing but issues. Cost me dumb money, glad I unloaded it. Same with the G35 I had, garbage.
Worst: Selling my Lightning. I should have just held onto that truck. Could of just been the timing though, it’s not so much the cars… as it is the time period in your life that you’re enjoying it.
Trained eyes can pick those cars out. Easiest way is to look for orange peel or complete lack there of on a car. EVERY factory paint job has a % of orange peel in the paint. they are mechanically sprayed, and NOT sanded/buffed glassy. Repainted parts from a body shop are always cut and buffed to remove dirt, dust, runs, sags, and excessive orange peel. The repair will look great, and the colors can be spot on, but the finish in the surface will not usually match the rest of the car. OR, they will be lazy and not buff out a repair and you can see more orange peel than the rest of the car. Always look in door jambs for a faint line of hazy clear between the door gap ahead of the seal. a special tape is used, or a taping technique is used to keep excessive overspray out of the jambs when shooting panels. But its not perfect and will leave a slight sign the panel was painted behind on the inside jambs. Hell you could tug a door seal off the pinch weld if you suspected something was up and see if there was a paint line in there. Say a rocker was damaged, you have to pull the gaskets and paint the entire jamb, there is always a tape line somewhere.
I could go on and on, about finding out all these little tell tale signs to a car that was hit getting repaired. I know someone recently got burned on a car this way. Car was a clear title no accidents, but i know for a fact it was creamed in the back and painted all the way up to the front doors. Its not cool when they lie about shit and push a car off on someone that doesnt know exactly what to look for.
This.
Ford is notorious for terrible orange peel.