DOWN WITH E3
Revamp Or Buy New?
By Eddie Habeck III
Posted on Jan 3, 2006

Knowing your limits is what makes life interesting. Whether it is at a bar, a gym, at the plastic surgeon, whatever — the smartest people know themselves well enough to end things as needed before it gets unpleasant. For example, I used to e-mail Rob Granger, the editor of this mag everyday telling him my underwear was dirty until I found out he added me to his blocked email list. So I stopped doing that, for my own good. Punk! (Now Eddie, you know that’s just not true... - Ed.)

Cars don’t really have limits, but they should. The kid that dumped two years of drive-thru-window paychecks into his grandma’s busted-ass Beretta needed limits. The guy that swore after enough money that his Mitsu’ Mirage de coupe could be an 11-second car needed limits. We’ve got to learn from these people that dreams cost, and failed dreams are just wasted funds.

When we build cars, there’s always a voice in the back of our heads whispering, “What if you want to sell it some time?” “What upgrades will I be able to get away with and still be able to sell this thing?” “Will I ever sell this thing?” When we first get a project car it’s so hard to determine how far we’re going to take it and what we’ll do with it in the future. In my years of experience in the custom automotive scene, most of the time I see people start projects that never really get finished, and they end up selling them at a great loss. Not that any of the work we do to these cars really ‘adds’ resale value to it, it’s more like street cred value (which, regrettably, doesn’t really pull in the Benjamins). Most of the time, we start with upgrades to a car that are sensible. They can be effortlessly removed if needed.   

If it’s the simplistic bolt-ons your shooting for, it’ll be real simple for you if you choose to ditch the car — put in one afternoon in the shop and your ride can be back to stock form. I suggest starting every vehicle with upgrades like this until you’re sure that you want to go all the way. You could be planning a $50,000 Civic build-up, but if you hate the car after throwing on a set of wheels why take it any further? Stop while you can. Play around with straightforward mods first, and if you still heart your car, dive deeper.

For most enthusiasts, more often than not, the point of no return comes when they decide on their external bodywork. Once you start hacking away at your sheet metal, molding on body kits, and loosing door handles, you kind of obliterate the idea of your car ever going back to stock. I urge getting into the bodywork only after you’ve tinkered with the car’s basics first and you’re sure that you want to keep it. Once you start at this level of customization its till-death-do-us part (or you take a major loss if you try to sell it).

So, what if you keep going and don’t stop with the upgrades? When is it ever enough? My outlook on it is if you ever deem the car isn’t going to be what you ever want it to be, or it will never achieve what you want it to achieve, stop and get rid of it. You’ll save yourself a lot of money in the long run once you face reality and come to the conclusion that maybe there is a car with a platform more fitting to your needs. Cars are addicting, so know when to say when.  You might get too comfortable throwing money into something without thinking about it, only to realize that you should have stopped several thousand dollars ago and now your f’d. Congratulations — you could have bought a house, but, instead, you have a car you don’t like. Look at it this way too: Many times, people build cars just to be cool and pick up chicks.  Is your car coming through for you with the cool? Do you have more girlies than a Nelly video? I didn’t think so. Stop spending money on it - it’s not working for you. Go buy a big gold chain with your initials spelled in diamonds or something, you might attract more female attention that way. (I think that’s how Nelly does it anyways. )

So, if you just started your car or just started your car for the fifth time over, is it enough? Know when to call it quits — you’re only helping out your wallet in the long run. Now, if CAR SOUND & PERFORMANCE would just unblock me from their e-mail so I can get this to them on time...  <<