[acerboo]

ive spent about £

[makkan00]

Too much mate.
However if it gives you satisfaction and you can afford it, who cares? As far as you are happy and can put the car back to original condition when it comes to selling, you are fine.

[AlanYoro35i]

Bmw tax is high on AC/alpina and other makes.

[gangzoom]

It all depends on personal circumstance, its like asking how much can you justify to spend on a house/watch/phone/laptop?? It depends on your personal needs/finances etc..

I've spent a fair amount on mods for my car, in my view it was needed because stock the car just didn't cut it (no LSD, poor traction, poor damping, wanted a bit more power etc). The mods I've done to the car means now the only car I can see my self upgrading to would be a M5/XJR etc....so according to my man maths, spending ££££ on mods have actually saved me money (even taking into account I wouldn't see a penny back from the mods I've put on the car) because it works out cheaper for me to keep my current car (may be even fit some hybrid turbos in the next 12months) than buying a F10 M5 or XJR (Don't feel comfortable with the idea of leasing, and £50K+ is a lot to drop on a car in one go when I still have a mortgage to pay off)

But actually any 'premium/performance' car is a luxury and in way a waste of money, my wife's Civic diesel cost £12.5K as a 6 months old pre-reg 5 years ago, has cost next to nothing to run, is more practical, better equipped, much more economical and comfier than my car. It gets from A to B as well my car...but life would be very dull if we all drove around in Dacia Duster's for the sake of saving money

[mowflow]

Yeah, it's a very personal thing.

I always weigh it up between the value of the car, how quickly it is currently depreciating, how much the mod costs, does it add value, can it be whipped off and the cost near enough recouped if I decide to move on.

The fact is that fannying about with cars as in doing the mods myself is my hobby but I've discovered that I much prefer doing this on older, less expensive cars. It's a lot easier to be brave stripping a £2k car than it is fiddling with any part of an almost new £30k car.

[acerboo]

Personally I intend to keep this car for many years (fed up losing thousands on cars) so I don't mind spending on it to make it just right for me which it now is. my question was, can how can anyone justify spending £37,000 on a car on mods, even on a £90,000 car. When you consider what you are actually getting for your money you could buy a very nice new car. I suppose if you have millions 37 grand is loose change?

[gIzzE]

I find it very hard to spend much on mods, anything more than 10% of the cars value to me is a waste.

Friend just upgraded wheels, suspension and but an LSD on his 335i e92.

It cost him £4200 including labour, this is on a 57 plate car that is probably worth around £12k. To me that is madness.
I would have just sold the car and bought an M3, that £4200 is quite simply lost on the 335i, fine if he keeps it for 5 years, but he won't.

But everyone is different, for some it is the modding that they enjoy more than the car itself, so spending money on it is great for them.

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by mowflow

Yeah, it's a very personal thing.

.....but I've discovered that I much prefer doing this on older, less expensive cars. It's a lot easier to be brave stripping a £2k car than it is fiddling with any part of an almost new £30k car.

Bingo, tinkering with old cars is much more fun for me and you don't need a laptop to do it

I won't be modding a newish car again, too much money and its never as good as factory, every mod has a negative impact too, especially on a family car, and the constant trips to Darren Wood etc soon mount up.

Something old and fun is a different matter though, do the work yourself with no pressure to get it running for work on monday mornings.

Since I sold the 335i my bank balance has become very healthy indeed.

If I take the depreciation and mod costs into account, then the contract hire E63 AMG i'm waiting for will cost just over a third of what the 335i cost me per month overall... as long I can resist the 680bhp/1000nm remap that DMS have released for the E63.... doh

[ad500]

I can justify whatever "the previous owner" spent modifying it

My car previous to my 335, the owner had spent $10k in mods over 2 years and sold the car to me for around $15k. Similar cars without the mods were still selling in the 12-15k region.

Most of the upgrades he couldn't part out or didn't want to spend the time sourcing, swapping and selling the mods, for ex. bodykit, pistons, cams, upgraded turbos, FMIC, VPC,BC, T/timers, exhaust.

Id only spend my own money if I were modifying a car that had bottomed out on the depreciation curve. Id also buy the majority of parts from forum owners who usually deeply discount perfectly good or in some cases brand new parts that they aren't using.

[DMH-01]

Originally Posted by acerboo

Personally I intend to keep this car for many years (fed up losing thousands on cars) so I don't mind spending on it to make it just right for me which it now is. my question was, can how can anyone justify spending 37,000 on a car on mods, even on a 90,000 car. When you consider what you are actually getting for your money you could buy a very nice new car. I suppose if you have millions 37 grand is loose change?

I remember a few years ago I went to the French Car Show.

One guy had spent 60k on mods for his Renault 5 and another had spent 30k on mods for his Peugeot 206. Complete madness imo.

[gangzoom]

Since I've pretty much finished all the mods on the car this thread has given me the excuse to do some quick sums....

Bought the car stock for £20K, including all service/mot costs and assuming all mods on the car don't add any value, and assuming 3 years on the car is now worth £8K px-exchange, the car would have cost me about £500/month, a value which I'm quite comfortable living with....the biggest cost in running the car is still depreciation by a long way. Even without spending anything on mods the running costs work out at about £370/month, so actually £136/month on mods to make the car the way I like it is almost a bargain in my mind...I know people who spend almost that much on Sky subscriptions

I know you can lease quite a nice car for £500/months, but I'll never be comfortable driving around in a car I don't actually 'own'. It's probably a outdated point of view but it was the way I was bought up and I cannot see my self every borrowing money to buy anything but a house

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

I know you can lease quite a nice car for £500/months, but I'll never be comfortable driving around in a car I don't actually 'own'. It's probably a outdated point of view but it was the way I was bought up and I cannot see my self every borrowing money to buy anything but a house

Yes mate, old fashioned, but in a good way from days when folks worked and waited for their things.

It's a good way to be though, paying 100% saved cash is a very satisfying way to buy a car, and these days with such low returns on cash savings, you're better of spending it (if you have it) rather than getting a loan.

Although having done it both ways in the past, I find no difference to the "ownership / useage" experience.

The worst way is to do what I did and buy the car new and then do all the modding as well, double pricey!!

[nicktyler]

Originally Posted by doughboy

If I take the depreciation and mod costs into account, then the contract hire E63 AMG i'm waiting for will cost just over a third of what the 335i cost me per month overall... as long I can resist the 680bhp/1000nm remap that DMS have released for the E63.... doh

That map would be insane. I'm sure I would be in the same position, especially as I have had to rebuild the turbos and do the O2 sensor and water pump in the last year on top of all the mods.

But where do you guys get these amazing deals on leasing new cars from?? I just can't seem to figure out how to get a reasonable deal on anything!

[doughboy]

off topic......

Google and contracthireandleasing.com are your friends. Don't go near a franchised dealer unless they have the best deal on offer.

Some deals say 'business users only' but this is usually not true, they will usually make you a personal deal, which will just be the business rate plus VAT.

I found the top 3 deals then rang them to get better deals to beat each other.

Back on topic.....

But modding is a strange thing, you know it makes no financial sense but somehow it draws you in..

[RCUK]

Sometimes people spend so much on their car that they could actually have bought a much better car in the first place!

Ive only ever really played with audio stuff etc -never really done engine mods. My cousin on the other hand has recently bought a shell for a Honda Integra with the intention of rebuilding it!

[LexS]

I used to spend quite a bit on modding, £5k on a £3.5k car for example. Was a hobby to me though so the outcome was always fun. Since buying into BMW I've not done any mods and put the savings into what will soon be a lovely weekend car. So long as you enjoy it who cares.

[Sir_Pigley]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

I find it very hard to spend much on mods, anything more than 10% of the cars value to me is a waste.

Friend just upgraded wheels, suspension and but an LSD on his 335i e92.

It cost him £4200 including labour, this is on a 57 plate car that is probably worth around £12k. To me that is madness.
I would have just sold the car and bought an M3, that £4200 is quite simply lost on the 335i, fine if he keeps it for 5 years, but he won't.

But everyone is different, for some it is the modding that they enjoy more than the car itself, so spending money on it is great for them.

I agree. Completely insane to spend that much.

Moreover I think that a lot of mods are bought for pure vanity. e.g.: Some people will spend £1,000s on upgrading brakes on a car that has perfectly adequate standard items, just because they get some nice colourful calipers to show off! They'll try to justify the investment as giving better brake feel or less fade, but for road use they're usually just overkill.

Not saying it's the case for everyone, but for some it's deffo true. If they've got money to burn it's up to them. I haven't so I get grumpy about it!