Forewarning, everybody: Beer-fueled rant...

I bought my car bone-stock at 87K (just your run-of-the-mill GXE), but with nice paint and no rust (for whatever it's worth). Anyway, I purchased it for $4K and I'm sure have spent in the neighborhood of $6-7K in maintenance / mods...I guess it's not too bad overall, considering that it's reliable (most of the time) and fun to drive (7-8 months of the year). Oh, I forgot about the FOUR winter beaters I've purchased to drive in the winter so I can keep the Maxima away from the cold, salt, and crappy drivers sliding around on the ice...

So all of this, plus 100's of hours of labor, and 1000's of hours of research, for a car that still puts out less than 200hp, is FWD, and if I sold right now, I would be lucky to get $3000 for...

I'm just pissed that as I approach graduation from college and face getting a real job in the real world, and face the decision of keeping the Max or sell it as I buy another car, it slaps me in the face by demanding a tranny rebuild (give or take $600 by my estimates) and a fresh set of tires in the spring (around $400), along with another $200-250 of assorted parts.

And I STILL haven't painted the bumpers / whatever with the $600 worth of paint / materials I bought in May! :stfu:

Hey, at least I warned you guys it was a rant...

 

Ha, and you were trying to sell it to me and put that load on my shoulder! BA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont sell it, use it as your winter beater when you move to your oh so nice and warm climate land when you start living in the real world

 

You spent "1000s" of hours researching your car and didn't realize the short comings that you listed? And what the hell did you spend $6,000 - $7,000 on?! That is enough to replace the power train several times, have it professionally painted, and redo the interior. Hell, that much money would duplicate my car.

 

Lessons in auto life 101:

Maintenance is a requirement - bling is an option ............. and to be chosen wisely.

 

Of course I realized the short comings, the only times it gets to me are like right now...And owning this car has taught me to turn a wrench. And I suppose my "1000s" of hours of research were mostly spent either reading or B.S.ing on the org. I still love the car, it just likes to d!ck me around now and then...

Price Talley (rough estimate):
Tranny Swap: $1000
Wheels/Tires: $700
Stereo: $1000
Springs / Struts: $1000
Front Brakes: $400
Other Bolt-Ons / Mods: $750
Exhaust Stud Job: $500
Paid mechanic right when I bought the car to do: steering rack, front struts, timing belt - Parts / Labor: $950

Still to come:
Tranny replacement / rebuild: $600
New Tires: $400
Paint Work: $250?

And you have no room to talk, John...you've send thousands on a car that is still stock!

 

stereo you can pull out and reuse -$1000
Wheels sell seperate if you still have stockers to put back on -$200

the rest would be normal maintenace things, but you went beyond that.
Cars in General are a lmoney pit. if you ever expect to get back what you put into it you are sadly mistaken or think that you are me
oh and 6-7k means you spent less than $200 a month on it (based on your join date) which isn't a bad monthly payment

 

Others have made some good points here. A car is NOT an investment, you shouldn't expect to earn anything on it, or to break even financially.

The "profit" that you get from a car is all the places it takes you, and the pleasure you derive from it. You will ALWAYS loose money on cars.

You also can't count money you spend on "bling" against the car, it doesn't NEED that stuff to operate reliably. You list $700 for wheels and tires. You could have used stock wheels to save some of that cost. I just put fresh tires on my Max for under $400.

Needless to say, the car did not REQUIRE a $1000 stereo system. Also, as internetautomar pointed out, the stereo can be removed from the car, and moved on to your next vehicle. The system in my Max is actually a combination of the two systems I had in my van, and my Accord. I junked the Accord, and gave the van to a cousin who needed wheels, and moved the stereo equipment into my Maxima. I don't have quite $1000 in it, but it sounds awesome. Prior to getting rid of those two vehicles, I had an old Sony AM/FM CD, and the CD didn't work, and I wouldn't buy a system for the Max because it needed other work.

$1000 for springs and struts, I am assuming that you didn't use stock replacement parts, which would have been a good bit cheaper. Again, the car didn't NEED high performance pieces, the stock replacements would have worked just fine, and saved you some cash.

With a $400 bill for the front brakes, you either paid a mechanic to do something that you should have done yourself, or you put some expensive hardware into those brakes. I did the front brakes on my Max for a bit under $200. I could have done it for less, but I chose pads and rotors that were a couple of steps above the cheapest ones.

You did front struts, timing belt (always a good place to spend money) and a steering rack when you bought the car, and then spent $1000 on struts and springs, so you replaced a new set of struts with more new struts and springs. Seems like money that you didn't need to spend there.

Cars always take money. You can either pay $400 or $500 a month to the bank for your loan, and a ton more to the insurance company to insure it for you, OR you can save the money on the loan and insurance, and spend it at the parts store. It's your choice.

I personally spend the money in the parts store. I also take care of the necessary things, and use stock replacement parts most of the time because it saves me money.

The lesson here is don't spend the big bucks on bling, and unnecessary performance parts / add ons, then complain that your car is costing you too much money.

 

i still don't see where he was complaining about spending the money......i thought he said something more along the lines of... but maybe i'm mistaken?

you people are so negative.....except john

 

Mine would thank me

 

You're not telling me anything new here, guy. I KNOW I don't need a nice stereo, I KNOW I don't need Koni/Eibach suspension, bolt-ons, and 17-inch wheels with sticky rubber, and I KNOW I won't ever get much return if I sold the car/parts (I knew it when I did it, too)...And I'm not complaining. BTW, read my sig and you'll see what all I have, and why my brake job (upgrade) cost $400.

The same goes for anything else one may have...I don't need to wear nice sunglasses, I don't need nice clothes, smoke nice cigars, drink good booze, ride a nice snowmobile, or have a nice house...but I do because I want to and these things reflect who I am...just as my car does...it says I am tasteful, yet discreet...The only things you'll notice about it upon first glance is that it sits a bit lower than stock, and has different rims (but they still say Nissan and are off of a newer Maxima!), and has paint that looks better than most cars 10 years newer...

Bottom line: go big or go home...and treat your habits well (car modifying or otherwise).

Oh, and it is totally worth it when I look over to see a riced-out Honda hatchback (example) and know that my tasteful 4-door is faster, has better handling, and doesn't sound like a can of bees when I rev it.

One last thing before I stop rambling: There is a 2-lane road in town that turns back 270 degrees. A ricey-looking Del Sol tried to look cool and take it fast earlier today...I went cruising by him on the inside without producing any of the annoying tire squak coming from his car. That made me feel good...

 

Do you mind if i quote you on that in my sig? what a wise statment
EDIT: and if my car could talk...she'd probably hate me right about now but love me at the same time

 

Mine does talk to me but all she ever says to me is fuel level is low or lights or on. Now on topic, if you have put that much into it I would keep it and drop a little more if you really need paint but i'm sure if you take care of it, it will run well for you for a long time. What i do is add up all the money i have into a car (not counting system type things, they will go to the next car) then divide by how many months i have drivin it and if it's lower then making a new car payment i'm happy. i.e my 85 i paid $1000 for it and i have put in maybe $50 (new af and breaks) and i have been driving it for 4 months so it comes out to $262.5 a month. so insted of making a new car payment put that money aside in a car payment fund and after some time you could really add some mods to your ride and have a car thats faster and nicer then any car you could buy for that monthly payment, plus don't have to worry about coming up with the payment every month if things get tight.

 

mine would say "paint me! for god sakes I look like an idiot." "and so help me the next time you rev me past 5500K i'm gonna use the automatic seatbelt to choke your a$$!" goodthing my car hasn't seen the movie Christine

 

my relationship is def. a love/hate dysfunctional one.
and general rule is the cheapest car to own is the one you currently are driving. there are exceptions though

 

if mine coudl talk, it woudl tell me "hurry up and finish what you started, you ashhole! I look ridiculous!"

.....but we'll delve into that later.

 

Everyone's entitled to a rant like this. Just don't lose the love since it is a labor of.


I don't know where you get your car "professionally painted," but for a car to be "professionally painted" I would expect to pay upwards of $6-7k not including parts.

 

His car was rebuilt from the ground up and painted by a long time/respected member of this forum that would not rip anyone off by charging $6-$7k for a paint job.



Edit: The car michael painted.

 

lol is is because I've spent most of my annual earnings on a 15 year old car that you say that?

Ben your head unit looked pretty basic... did you spend those thousand bucks on the damn custom woofer box or what?

 

MINE TOO!! haha. Mine's not too bad... just it needs washing and for me to finish the darn rear fascia. It would though, thank me indeed for getting a real job and fixing the stuff that nags me, and well, it.

 

I wonder what mine would say.... thanks for the premium gas and keeping me clean by bathing me on a weekly basis when possible?

 

"Rip off?" I completely disagree. Now you could get ripped off for that amount of money if you are just talking about sanding down, primering and painting. But, that's not "professional" in my sense of the word. When I think "professional paint job" my understanding of that is taking every panel, door etc, off, stripping the car down to metal, using the primers (as in more than one type) and then repainting the entire car. For all the labor involved in my sense of a "professional paint job," $6,000 is an average, if not good price. But, you get what you pay for.

You can spend $3000 and get a great paint job, but if everything hasn't been gone thru and the old bondo underneath the old paint you didn't realize needed to be stripped starts to expand over time, you might as well not have done it in the 1st place...and to me is not "professional." (imho)

 

I never said my car was professionally painted. I simply stated "Hell, that much money would duplicate my car."