Quote:
Originally Posted by King Rudi
Was. The car ran great, but it seemed like every other week something was wrong it. I'm no mechanic, which explains my online residency here, but I did what I could with it but most everything else was handled at the shop.
In all fairness, a lot of my time spent with it was paint correction, painting calipers, painting wheels, vinyl wrap and other cosmetic stuff. Once the cosmetic stuff was completed is when the mechanical stuff started. After that, it seemed like once a month I'd start the car and instantly need to reach for the OBD to pull codes.
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I keep mine in top cosmetic shape but I spend all of my money in keeping it mechanically well, its largely bone stock. The other thing that helps is I havent had a car payment in years and I just started banking that cash into a car account for repairs and towards another car. It was CPO so no real repairs the first few years and noting major since so the account has 30k in it.
Since Ive got that reserve I do "shotgun" repairs. If something breaks (or is statistically about to break) and its a bitch of a job no wear or fragile items get put back on. Starter goes? All of the hoses/clips/etc under and touching the intake plenum get replaced. One coil goes? All 6 get replaced. waterpump reaching EOL? It, the stat and all of the hoses they touch, gone! Shocks were EOL? Replaced it all. Shocks, bump stops, boots, bushings, tie rods, etc. Car steers like new. My OCD ass even replaced all of the soft-touch plastics inside that got soft and tore, so even the interior is like new.
As a result Ive only had 1 honest to god breakdown (knocking on my solid ash desk) in the 9 years Ive owned the car, when the valvetronic motor died.
My original plan was to put another 5/50,000 into it and reevaluate but who knows now since I no longer commute to work. It might end up being 10/50,000. As long as I can be confident it can get me to the beach or tow the bike to the track on any given weekend it will remain in the stable.