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The long haul, stick with it or trade it in


Jerboa113

Trade it or mod it  

17 members have voted

  1. 1. Trade it or mod it

    • Trade it, reliability and economy are more important than performance fora daily driver
      4
    • mod it despite the reduction in reliability economy and the diminishing value and warranty periods
      13


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PLEASE READ THIS POST BEFORE VOTING

 

I have had a poll like this before I'm sure, but things have changed and as such so have my perspectives on future modifications and whatnot.

 

Basically I am balanced on the edge of a fence, on one side of the fence is a pile of mods for the legacy, on the other is a new car... I dont know which way to lean.

 

So my poll is:

 

Keep the legacy and do the mods even tho its going to eat the last of the equity the car has and reduce resale value, reliability, and fuel economy

 

or

 

trade in the legacy, a daily drivers reliability is just as important if not more than its performance.

 

Some more information for you on these 2 topics.. I'm picky when it comes to my daily driver, I like to have all my service done by the shop and I like to keep it in warranty. I have fun with my daily driver but its important that its reliable first. A car thats out of warranty has unpredictable expenditure and can result in down time and/or possiblly the need to rent a car from time to time if the vehicle starts to fail. I know that my legacy is only an 05 and has less than 40k miles on it, but a friend who has an LGT manufactured within the same month as mine with twice the mileage is having expensive problem after expensive problem just outside of his warranty.

 

Mods that I was looking at was a rather simple list, jdm spec b bumper with 3.0R mesh grill, spec b 18s or possiblly rotas or something, I want 18s I'm tired of 17s. cobb suspension (sways and springs) cobb stage 2, use their exhaust but prodrive mufflers, dont like the cobb sound. Perhaps a carputer again, and some other minor cosmetics, jdm tails, anything else I feel like.

 

Cars I've been considering is quite another beast as they're all pretty expensive.

 

infiniti G37 coupe, bmw 335i coupe, cadillac CTS (08) audi A4/S4 lexus is350, corvette, acura tl-s.. thats about it so far. I want navigation, hids, bluetooth, heated power leather seats, andI want 0-60 in the 5s preferred. I'dalso like automatic as much blasphemy as that sounds, I dont want to deal with a manual in bumper to bumper atlanta commute traffic.

 

So, let the opinions pour forth.

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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All of your listed mods don't really jepordize the longevity of the car. The "riskiest" mod would be stage II which plenty of ppl have here, w/o much reliability issues. The key to any car is proper maintenance and the way its driven. If you plan to drive the piss out of the car and beat on it constantly, I personally don't think it matters much what car it is since its reliability will go downhill FAST regardless. If your LGT is currently in good shape I don't think you need to worry about future reliability so much despite the mods. Are you the original owner for the 40k miles? If so, you've done a good job keeping the car in shape and I don't forsee you starting to beat the crap out of the car just because of new mods.

 

Any of the new cars on your wanted list is at least $35K+, which means you have to fork up in excess of $15K to get into one. This should be your main consideration. GL

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I'm the original owner, and even tho I did proper break in, I drive all my cars pretty hard. I'm leaning towards keeping it tho at least iun the short term, it will be nice to have something paid off, but thats not stopping me from doing some test drives this weekend.
"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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well thats kinda the thing, I just recently got a new job and it pays better than my last one (and thats an understatement) I've always been a huge fan of luxury performance cars, bmw in particular, but I'm debating on the idea of not having a car payment and being able to do mods when I want vs having to mortgage a car for 5 years.. and really, the price of these cars would be a mortgage-esque payment unless I save up a good chunk o dough for a DP.

 

It seems every time I convince myself to keep the car it does something that I dont like or that concerns me, or I hear of a problem someone else is having with theirs that concerns me, so it keeps me on the fence. As of right now the poll is about 50/50 lol so its not really pushing me one way or the other

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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I would say you have a couple of things to consider:

#1- What is more important to you time or money? I ask that because most people at some point in there life have to balance both in order to aquire/achieve something. If you really care about a car nickel-and-dime'ing you to death more than having/saving money, then you should lease rather than buy a car.

 

#2- How much do you want to mod the car? If you plan do more cosmetic or electrical changes that are reversable then maybe you can get away with selling your car without eating too much of what you spent. Engine mods can change the reliabilty of the positively and negatively and normally are not going to be fully appreciated ($$ wise) buy the buyer, surely not buy the dealership if you trade it in.

 

#3- A bird in the hand is worth 3 in the bush. If the car is paid off, keep it if you can. If you have an extra place to park it why sell it just pay for insurance and upkeep and blam you've got another whip. If you're not making a payment on any other car, then every month save up what you paid or what you think you could pay for a BMW, G37 whatever for like 6 months - there's your down payment and you know if you can afford it.

 

My $0.02

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Fixing an existing car is always (within reason) going to be less expensive than buying a new one. Remember, with very rare exception, cars do nothing but depreciate...the more expensive the car, the bigger the hit in the first few years.
It is still ugly.
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very good points, and really thats exactly whats been going through my mind, mostly the aspect of irreversible mods. I would like to go stage 2 as the car doesn't really feel fast at all to me, and since in the last year my rearend has lost traction almost a dozen times, suspension mods to help it hold to the road (I really have never had this problem before) both of which would be hard to reverse (or at least a pita) and would make it hard to sell or tade in to a dealer. The cars not paid off, but its MOSTLY paid off, 1-2 more years currently.

 

If my payment was not going to go up, I would have no problem trading it in for something, but as you probablly could tell the other cars are TWICE what this one was, so I would effectivley be doubling my payment unless I did a sizeable downpayment (IE $20k sizeable) and really by the time I have that much money in lump sum in my account I wont be able to blow it on something as my brain will tell me theres more important things to spend it on.

 

Normally a car is cheaper to maintain than deal with depreciation etc., but one of the factors in this car is that its AWD and turbo.. thast 2 rather compicted components (lots of moving peices and in the turbos case a volitile environment for the cylinder heads on that side, not to mention impeller bearings) that could fail.

 

Another factor for me is my NEAREST subaru dealer is an hour drive on the interstate on a non-commute day. if I break down or the car is running in an altered state, it would have to be towed to the dealership for serivce.

 

(yes I am aware that there are dealers in atl that are TECHNICALLY closer by drive distance but location makes themn a traffic nightmare and on top of that I have not heard they're reputable so I only go to subaru of gwinnett)

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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well, 1st day of testdriving was today, looked at G37s, cadillac CTS, IS350, ATTEMPTED TO look at BMW 335i and corvette and was flat out denied a test drive by both dealers.. next weekend will re-test an IS350 possiblly CTS, also like to look at the audi S4 if in stock, 335i and corvette.

 

Conclusion so far.. mod it :p

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato
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