When is enough, enough?

jozsefsz said:

Have you priced new or used cars these days? What you've put into a car -- that sounds like it's a blast to drive when it isn't getting beaten too hard -- is a couple months' payment on anything newer, along with sky-high insurance premiums. My philosophy on cars is that if it isn't rusting away or has become tremendously unsafe (SN95 GT with anti-lock brakes and airbags is arguably as safe as anything they make in 2021), it's always worth it to fix (especially if you DIY). The market value is meaningless unless you're looking to sell for a profit - it's the value to you to have the car or not that counts. Sell it and you wind up missing it in a few months, regret it, and then start all over again. If I get tired of a project, I park it for a while until I get up to feeling like it again. Just not in a field with no air in the tires. And if you find yourself getting towed too often, look into a rider on your insurance policy - I think I pay $2 or $3 a month for towing coverage. It sucks when stuff breaks down, but that's life. With that all said, if you don't care for the work, and find things like rotors or hoses or bushings an expensive pain in the rear instead of an enjoyable weekend hobby, maybe a 25+ year old car isn't right for you. Also if you're looking for ROI, the SN95 and Mustang II are probably the most undervalued so it's likely never going to win the lottery. Though I'll be honest I spend more time fixing expensive crap on my 2000+ cars than I ever have on the SN95, turbo included.

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This is actually the newest car I've ever owned and the most I've ever paid for one. Also I never intended this car to be a weekend hobby. At the moment the only other vehicle I own is my trusty '83 F150 that's been on daily driver duty since it was brought into the family in 1993. Tired is a good word to describe the truck these days. I figured, I like '94-95 Mustangs, it has EFI so it should start easy in winter and get descent mileage, it stops on a dime and parts are readily available for it so it should make a fine daily driver. Though in reality I'm still not sold on the EFI and the brakes seem very touchy. Plus these airbags scare the crap out of me. Every bump in the road I'm waiting on one to blow out but this car was designed to log miles and go A to B so I figured it would do. It's just all the money in this thing. I've had toys where I knew I'd never get my money back but I had fun driving and working on them. Who knows how many thousands I've put into my F150 but the sentimental value is there to keep it going and I know I'll never sell it anyway. Maybe I'm just not into this car. I've always wanted one and this is the first Mustang I've ever owned but something's missing. Could be the fact that so much has already been done to the car and most of it is things I wouldn't have done and would really want to change if I keep it. I wish I'd of shopped around and found a nice, mostly original GT and went from there. I've already looked around for the stock wheels that would've come on my '94 and the part that really got me to buy it was that the interior is basically stock down to the original radio. Just a nice solid cruiser would've been my best bet. The cars too heavy to be a drag car without gutting the original interior. It's not setup to really be a practical daily driver anymore. To run AutoX it would new the entire suspension rebuilt and replaced and still need to lose weight. There's no real path to what this car could be. This car had been parked when I bought it. No tag, no insurance just sitting there. I suspect the previous owner also didn't know what to do with or what direction to take.