| I graduated high school this spring, and I'm attending Georgia Tech this fall- luckily I don't have to pay for college. I've even had the luxury these past two summers of working at an office full-time making $12 an hour. Very good for a high schooler. I haven't done one single 'mod' to my car since I got it in February of 2002. I've spent a lot of money on it though. When I first got the car, I had actually planned to do a TT conversion THIS summer, lol. Yeah, right...to do it the way I want to have it done, I figured it would cost over $4000 in parts alone (many upgrades). There's just no way I can afford it now. I've had to save spending money for college, pay a couple of tickets (~_~). And I kinda like having a social life- taking chicks out is expensive as hell, even when you do cheap dates like I do =) Concerts also add up in ticket prices. Going out to eat a lot. Things like that- it's not worth it to me to not enjoy my life so I can save up for a car. Trust me, it will end up costing you more than you can ever plan for. I purchased a fairly clean 90NA with 105,000 mi and about 30,000 on a rebuilt engine. A couple of months after I got it, the alternator went out. Tried to change the timing belt that spring break- somehow didn't put the intake cam gears on right and they sheared off the pins on the camshafts when I started it- 3 months later I finally got the Z back with rebuilt heads from Z1. That cost $1500. Add to that the $350 or so for the 60k kit, and another $200 for the extra tensioner after I broke one and an extra belt after I messed mine up. My starter also went bad- that was around $200 (from Napa). My front brake rotors got messed up by the pads wearing down too much (my fault, but still cost almost $300 with Nissan rotors and then aftermarket brake pads). Those were the major problems- there are other numerous little things I fixed b/c they annoyed me, that add up over time. And those prices I quoted above are for me doing the work myself ('cept the heads)...I don't even want to think about the labor charges I would have had... I have a failr nice dent on the passenger side door and rear quarterpanel...I'm not even bothering messing with those for the time being. Absolutely no bodywork at all. So pick and choose your mods wisely. Look for 'bang for the buck' mods. And don't expect your model budget to work exactly as you hope it will. Hope some of my experience helps, lol- Rob
 
|
