modding costs

Look at it this way...

You could mod your car for X amount, and have no car payment

-OR-

You could buy a newer car, with or without mods, and have the cost of modding it plus a possible car payment.

The choice is ultimately yours and yours alone, but that's my 2 cents. Good luck.

I spent about 12k on my car so far but it makes me smile everytime I start it and look at it so im VERY happy I didn't just go out and buy another car which is what I was gonna do.

Something else you might be forgeting is fuel cost. You always here people bitching about fuel prices, and I would probably be bitching too if I had a car payment of $XXX.XX and also have to pay these current gas prices on top of the car payment/insurance. But if you have a car that is completely paid off, then all you have to worry about is the gas money and insurance, which cuts your monthy car spending in half. Which gives you more MOD money!

Now if you buy a new car with a payment of say.....$400 per month +/- and then add fuel costs on top of that plus insurance, your looking at over $800 per month total cost with a new car. This monthly amount also depends on intrest rate, fuel consumption, insurance rate, so it could be more or less, depending on your credit and how much your drive and how you drive. Then add MOD money on top of that and.........

Everything on my Cobra is paid for including the car, and I spend maybe around $160.00 to $200.00 a month on gas. Plus I would like to think that my car is pretty fast with my mods. I have owned my car for over 8 years now.

William

Engel said:

do you fellas have some type of upgraded insurance??


oh and nice car there turbo!

Click to expand...

Thank you.

As far as insurance goes, It depends on what company you are with, USAA is whom I have insurance with and what they do is get an estimate done by a buisness that does these type of estimate's, then you send that official estimate to the insurance company, then they insure your car for that amount. Kind of like getting insurance on your 60's hot rod that you have $50,000 dollars invested into. or even better think of all the cars that sell on that Barrett Jackson auto auction, cars selling for hundreds of thousands..... Most of them over priced in my opinion lol

William

im grateful for not making any car payments especially in the time we live in with economic problems. i think i did a smart thing. i moved back to my parents house, worked more while studying, and saved money until i wanted a new used car. i found my car, negiotiated the price with cash and BAM ! i spend around maybe around $80 a month on 93 gas since everything is close by. since i got my car, i spent at least $600 in mods. im including intake,h-pipe,pulleys,tune-up, gears and install. moding is not expense depending where you look and who know.

im planning on keeping my car when im done with school. now im just savoring the moment with no payments and low insurance rates

Also think about if you want a newer stock car then put your mod $$ into a payment... Me I want something special and I am on a very small mod budget but the car I drive now does not resemble the car I bought 4 years ago and I have about $12k into it (includes everythign but oil changes) and the longblock and trans are still stock. But I love it... In about 2 weeks it should also be rolling with some nice custom paint (but low $$)...

My wife, she would rather have a nice new car with all the bells and whistles... so that is what she gets...

or do like i did. i bought the mustang, paid it off, then i spent years moding it to where i was comfortable with it. then went out and bought a nice fancy fully loaded daily driver. its not sporty by any means, but it satisfies my comfort level.

its all in what you want. i think about how much money i've spent on my car and how much i could still spend on it and it does make you want to sometimes just go out and buy a new 03 cobra or something but ultimately, i love the blood sweat and tears that i've put into this car to call it my own.

If you have the expendable fun money, by all means mod it. If you are gouging yourself to do this, you can't afford it. So (like me) you shouldn't go through with it in the first place. Nor should you be buying a new car all together becuase, again, you can't afford it. If this is the case, you need to get over your WANTS anf avoid getting yourself in trouble becuase nobody will help you get out of it. In my case, I can't afford new heads, so there my car sits (paid off 9 years ago), a mere $1800 away from being totally sweet. It's so tempting but I've kept things in perspective. I never should have assumed I could afford the mods I set out for and I should have stuck with the stock car. Now I have a car with no finished motor but I'm safe financially. I WOULD have had a running car and be safe financially.

Anyway, all I'm saying is don't dig yourself a financial grave to satisfy a hobby.

^^^^^^^^^^ Well put!

I think its only natural for us to want to mod our cars. Ive owned Mustangs now for ten years and this is the first of the six Ive owned that Ive put major money into. This is mainly because Im 27 now, have two god jobs (soon to be 1 good job with more pay) and I can afford to do so. My first Mustang I missed payments because I was more concerned with putting work into it. How stupid is that? Thats being 17 / 18 for you.... The only thing I miss from those days is my hairline! Even now that I have more money, Im still tempted to go out and buy everything I need and want and say screw everything else. But my thing now is that I do a lot of research, look around and then when I decide I need something, Ill wait a few days before purchasing it so its not a spur of the moment thing that comes back to bite me. A young kid that works at my dealership just got his first Mustang and all he thinks about it what he can do to it. Gotta admire his eagerness. He thinks Im crazy because I have a storage unit full of parts that I havent put on yet. This includes a 351 roller block, a T5 and 90 percent of the associated parts for the swap, the parts for the black interior conversion, 3.73 gears, etc. Patience has its virtues. Its what allowed me to look around until I found all the pieces I wanted for the lowest prices possible. I got the roller 351, sn95 T5 and bellhousing as well as the PCM, shifter bezel, pedals, etc for around 500 dollars total. The parts are out there and can be had at good prices if youre willing to wait. As for costs... well it is what it is. You gotta pay to play. If it was cheap, everyone would be driving around 400 HP monsters. You gotta decide what you want out of the car and then work at it slowly. I know what my ultimate goal is but its not feasible to start on that right now. Instead Im upgrading the suspension and brakes in support of whats to come down the road. I have one year of car payments left and one year of payments on my plasma TV. After that and when my insurance goes down, Ill have 500 dollars a month of free money. Then the real mods will begin.

I guess the whole point of that is to just be patient. It seems like you may be more interested in just going fast, as opposed to whats getting you there. If you like your Mustang and want it to be faster, come up with a game plan and start budgeting for it. If you just want to go fast, then Im sure there is a newer car out there thatll get you there. But again, you still gotta pay to play.

IRS is over rated IMHO...if you want to handle there are plenty of options like MM kits to make the solid axle handle VERY well.

Power wise for less than 1k I was running 13.1 @ 107 on a factory stock never cracked open intake to oil pan.

I bought my 94 in early 99 for $10,500 IIRC with 59k miles and 100% bone stock. After my trade in and down payment my loan was only for 8k at 4yrs. Paid it off about 8mo-1yr early and it is 100% a toy at this point. I really doubt I have 20k in mine. Being smart with your mods and having a clear goal is the key.

Research what you want and find those who have reached those goals and find out what they used/ran. Do not listen to those who have "heard from so & so", "had a buddy who's cousin", "know a kid in high school who". Granted this site can be like that but for the most part there are MANY who will jump in for the correction to make sure good info is getting out. Plus enough people have shared their combo information that several others know what works...in short this site is a good resource.

I have been driving the tar out of mine lately since it is legal (after over 4yrs off the road legal) and will be putting it up for the winter at first snow/ice and may bring it out on the random nice winter day. If its a toy you need to make sure you can walk away from it when you need to. Like said don't go to the poor house from a hobby.

I have no plans to get rid of it...unless someone has a 32 3 window ford or 37 coupe ford project (at least a glass body and roller with no driveline w/ a 9in) they want to trade me.