Halfcent

I successfully avoided this problem in my 20's with my Cavalier. I bought it new and never changed a single thing about it. It was dealer mainted pure stock with 160,000 miles on it. I was 31 when I bought this Cobalt and it was my plan from the begining to mod the **** out of it. It wasn't my plan for the first engine to take a **** and cost me 5 grand, but that's life.

celicacobalt

well im 22 as well, id have to say im addicted to modding cars. i cant leave a car stock not even my friends cars i always get them to mod it in one way or another, im not sure why i feel the need to do that but i cant help it since it makes me happy. anyway ive always wanted to take a sorta quick car like the cobalt for example and turbocharge it. ive been saving for the last 2 years to buy the car i wanted and turbocharge it and do some other things to it, but i always make sure there is food on the table for my wife and daughter and the house i own has electricity and heat and fresh water and all the bills are apid on time, granted i do have a good ammount in credit cards but after the turbo kit gets dropped in then i will be enjoying that for a while since ill be working alot of OT to pay off those credit cards plus throwing in my extra paychecks when there are 5 fridays in a month plus my income tax so i hope to be turboed and debt free in about a year. to all those die hards like me, keep modding if that makes you happy but still be sensible about it and make sure everything is gonna work out.

halfj99

its a good thing i dont have much money or i prolly woulda fallen into the trap...i have some mods planned n all, but i refuse to ever put anything on credit.if i cant pay for it out of pocket...ill just have to wait

badg1rl

well as we all probably know...i have a modification problem....i did put a lot into my car. but ...from a business standpoint i def. use this as a marketing tool for the business.
so i kind of have an excuse...not really...but...its the most valid reason to do up a car with as much work into it as mine has. other people i see at shows kind of make me wonder how they got where they were at such a young age and what gradification they get from a shitty 12 inch trophy they win. i dunno.
but when i was 19-22 i couldnt afford **** either...which is why i waited. i dropped some money into the cavi. not a lot though. i took care of college and bills first. now i am at a good point in my life and working to get my old debt out of the way, making goals for myself so when it does come time to have kids, i can do so without feeling the money crunch.

nomoreavril

yeah theres a lot of people that say they save money on not modding there car, but i'm sure some of them just waste the money else where. big screen tvs, surround sound, computers, etc. we all waste money on something!

Cobalt443

I'll come in from the other side of the spectrum


ENJOY YOUR CHILDHOOD!! (if that's what you still want to call it)

I'm still mad at the world for having to grow up so quickly. Kids make mistakes, that's what being a kid is all about...and learning from it. You can't always have someone hold your hand through it all.

I am only 19 years old and own a $325,000 house along with $60,000 worth of cars (not all by myslef, my fiance is invloved also)

No we are not very wealthy, but I have been working my a** off since I was 13 and never really got to have a child hood. When I look at kids who live at home with their parents, working part time jobs, and going out every weekend, I'm actually jealous, even though I have more than them, I don't have and never will regain that child hood.

So I'll repeat it again, ENJOY YOUR CHILDHOOD while it lasts because once the real world welcomes you in, you'll never get that all back

alleycat58

This is the WHOLE reason why I got the SS/SC, because I wanted a quick car with decent handling that I could be happy with. I do plan on doing suspension upgrades, but power wise, nothing major. I have an intake on it now and just got a pulley - total spent: $160.

I guess I had the "benefit" of having young and slightly immature parents. My mom was 22 and my dad was 24 when they had me as a "surprise" less than a year after they got married. Money was always tight and my mom had a lot of debt from modding her Mustang and her dirt bike. The Mustang she got rid of, but kept the dirt bike until I was about 4 years old. She dropped out of school to get married and couldn't get a job with just an associate's degree, so she had to go back to school. She took out the max amount in student loans and blew it on herself because she felt she was being "punished" by having to take care of a baby before she wanted to.

I always watched my dad make sacrifices for me and work extra long hours to make sure we had food on the table. A lot of times he had to give up what he wanted to do, taking trips with friends and things like that so that we'd have money or so that I could do the "normal" things kids did like gymnastics and dance class and sports.

Gave me a whole new appreciation for money and how to spend it and how NOT to spend it. I'd rather save more money now and work hard, then the REALLY fast cars can come when I'm older and have the time to enjoy them. A "quick" economy car now is nothing compared to a FAST sports car later...

8cd03gro

This is what people need to really think about...are the mods you are doing really going to make you happy? I for one really only have one other hobby...snowboarding. I spend about 400 bucks a year on snowboarding (calculating in buying new gear every 2 years) which really isn't bad at all. My only other hobby is my car, so really if you think about it, if im going to spend 4 grand on my car in mods the whole time i have it, i am really not spending any more (actually far less) then i would if i were to play hockey, or paintball (most expensive sport in the world) etc. Modifying my car makes me happy and i really love learning new things about it, but people really need to sit down and think about wether or not these modifications are really going to make them happy enough to be worth the money. If they do, go for it, happiness is all that matters as long as you arent ruining somebody elses life, but if it's really not going to make you happy enough to be worth the money, don't do it.

qcpursuit

Everything you said is right at my point of view,im 23 now and I was planning big for my pursuit but even if i have a great job(45000$ca with a lot of adventage) I realize that my car doesnt give me real happyness and even if im passionate by car why would I put 10 maybe 15k or more in a car that i bought based on a small budget.My step father was into car modifying(mostly muscle car) when he was young and he stop doing that at the age of 34 and he was still living with his parents,I dont want to be like to live with my parents because all my saving are under a superb carbon fiber hood and seriously people who care about your cars really dont care about what you have beside your car.

Adam youre right and for me I found it hard to admit that I had to put my dream to have a unique custom car to later when ,if its happens, I have money on the side to play with cars but for now buying a house is more important than have a big bad ass blown ******* pursuit.

Forseti

You are right on. Too many bad financial examples are on this forum.

(and a lot of bad grammar and spelling....which probably ties back to my first point...)

bigd2114

how about my situation work hard, play hard, study harder....i have over 20 grand in investment including a 401k, stocks, mutual funds, and in a cd. i am trading in my sky to get a cobalt ss/sc so this way i dont have 2 cars including my sky and the cavalier this way i just have 1 fast car. i say all this becuase i read your stories and i see that people really do dig their own grave. i work very hard for everything no mommy to hand me anything. dont take me as a pompous jerk i just want everyone to know you really can have everything if you are willing to work hard enough for it.

bigd2114

oh btw i just turned 21 2 weeks ago.

MachiBLue

Thats a real nice write up Adam. That is what exactly I am going through rite now. I've been working all summer long and managed to earn about $3500. Being only 19, and no prior employment I figured that earning that much is good. I was planning on spending all of that on mods, but I remembered that I didnt get any of the scholarships I applied to which really sucks. So now I have to pay around 7 thousand in tuition and books. Last year I only paid about $200 and books. So most of my money earned during the summer will go towards school, and the rest in the bank. I guess modding the Cobalt will have to wait until I get more money (enough to cover tuition and have some left over) or graduate. All in all, it can wait, I don't wanna be in crazy debt by spending all my money and having to take out mad amounts in loans.

Adirondack_Cobalt

what's funny is i make over $20 an hour and i find i spend it faster than when i made $12 an hour... the more you make, the more you want.

Crazy circle.
being an adult blows goats most of the time

Scott

BlueThunder2006

I can relate in a way. I actually bought the Cobalt for the purpose of saving money. Until I got it, I was one of those people who HAD to have a truck, no matter what. I was spending $370 per month on a lease payment on an '03 S10. Yeah, that's right- I was throwing away almost $400 a month just so I could have a truck. On top of that, it got an average of around 14 MPG, so I was blowing who-knows how much on gas as well. I pretty much just woke up one morning and decided it was stupid. I had never hauled or towed anything with it or off-roaded it; why waste the money on it?

So I bought the Cobalt (no more leasing) and plan on getting it paid off and keeping it for as long as it's feasible. I won't be dumping money into modding it; that would defeat the entire purpose. Someday, after I take care of other, more important obligations, I might have a car (or truck) for 'fun'. But that's not in the cards right now. Sometimes 'growing up' sucks, but I guess we all have to do it at some point...

saturnd00d

I can totally relate to this situation. As of right now, I am mostly done modding my car. Anything else I do will be small, and infrequent. I am getting married in two days, and I want to get a house within a year, be able to take vacations, and of course, be able to have money in the bank. Car will become something I enjoy to drive as of now, and no longer a hobby. Again, i don't mind to do something here and there when the bills are paid, however the next car I buy will be family oriented, and nothing more.

NJHK

I want to thank everyone for reading my thread/life experience and hope someone learned from my mistakes cause I sure have.