As someone who is a true professional in spending money on cars in 'useless' ways, I commend your weekly update! :)
I've spent $34k on a Lexus IS300 in order to sell it for just a tad over $15k on an online auction last year, and I'm currently pouring money at a meteoric rate into my Lexus SC400 in order to build something that Toyota should have but didn't. So, I'll show them....yeah, joke is always on me!
At least your experience has landed you with a serviceable car that you enjoy. I’ve dumped thousands or tens of thousands into cars, actually paying shops their full labor rates, still hated the way they drove or presented, and sold them at a loss.
But yes, I remember making that exact same point when the million-mile LS 400 was in the news cycle. Here you are with what is a zhuszhed-up Camry and arguably the least complicated thing that could credibly call itself a luxury car at that time…and you still put thousands into it.
That’s not something most people could or would do, and it’s why even if you find a supposedly clean car like this, it will likely be victim to some sort of deferred maintenance.
—
I did, last week, acquire a lovely 2020 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 LWB. It came from a JLR dealer—who took the Lyriq for way more than it was worth, for some reason—and is in fantastic shape. It’s also black over “peanut-butter,” which is a classic color combo.
I purchased a very expensive warranty from my local dealership that should have me all the way out to 6 years and 80K miles from now, so I can pretend to be Doug DeMuro.
Maintenance costs and fuel are expensive for it, but…well, I like it, and so that’s that. Being the LWB with rear seats that move every which way, it sates my usual desire for a LWB flagship sedan, although I still have both the Phaeton and the XJ12…which are exactly that.
Me: A little. I wouldn't say I'm the foremost expert but I've replaced head gaskets in the driveway in the dead of winter and worst of summer before.
Co-worker: My wife is looking at this Range Rover at X's car lot. They have a really good price on it, 23 grand.
Me: Here's what I want you to do...go to the bank and take $5,000 out in cash, then put it in your front yard, cover it in lighter fluid, and set it on fire.
Co-worker: **hard blinking**
Me: If you can burn that $5,000 without a thought or a care, then you have the right mindset to burn at least that much money every year or so to keep that Range Rover running. If, on the other hand, the mere suggestion of it makes you mad then you tell her you'll sooner pound your testicles flat with a wooden mallet than allow that purchase.
Yep, just got the Lyriq, but it was annoying and somehow I managed to get out of it with a four-figure check.
Will I keep the Range Rover for six years? We’ll see. It would be nice to prove everybody wrong about how long I’ll keep it. I hear there’s a betting pool going on about how long I keep cars, to include such members at my best friend, my partner, my mother, my Russian car buddy, and my grade-school teacher (screw you, Mrs. Pierce!)
It’s one thing to burn money frivolously - as Jack has done with this old Lexus - but it’s another thing entirely to incur guaranteed transaction and switching costs again and again and again because you can’t make up your mind!
You may need to call your therapist first (!), but do you have an idea of your sum total transaction / switching costs (surely there will have been some gains too given the sample size) over time?
If it makes you feel any better, my good friend bought his daughter a 2007 Lexus IS with 4WD for Pennsylvania winters for about $7,000. This happened after she got pulled over in her previously beat-to-shit super cheap Chevrolet Impala that they procured for $1,500. Her car looked like it was driven by someone who cooked meth for a living and I joked it was rolling probable cause.
Well, turns out that wasn't a joke. She didn't get searched because the officer who pulled her over had been trained by her father so he recognized her name and her resemblance to the ol' man. Rather than keep hoping for that kind of luck, he wanted to get her something reliable so he went Lexus.
...and then the list of parts that needed replacing over the next couple of years came in, with labor factored in he spent about $8,000 fixing her $7,000 Lexus.
What you undertook was basically a restoration. "Well, while you're in there..."
I tried to restore a 1970 Chevelle coupe in my driveway. I learned the hard way on that one.
On the plus side, in the end you have a really lovely piece of automotive engineering and they literally don't make them like that anymore. A group of men did man things to make it work again, learning and fellowshipping in the process. Good was contributed to the universe.
But you also see the wisdom in my "Next car I buy is probably gonna be a well maintained Lexus ES" plan. It just makes sense.
Try rebuilding a third-gen Firebird with a blown engine at a rate of about a hundred bucks a week, WHILE you're only a year into your car-guy learning curve.
All I got out of that project was memories and a feeling of having been lied to by Hot Rod magazine.
The resulting satisfaction from a job well done and a car that gets fully sorted (or sorted to one's standards) is nice, and good. At 186k, my 08 Outback is getting many of the big/bigger ticket items redone (by me, almost exclusively) that need redoing by such mileage. And fixing other things that were left or neglected. The market in the $5k range (or even a few thousand more) is not great, so better the devil I know...and have fixed up.
That reminds me of when I first got into cars 30 years ago, I'd devour Car Craft (or Camaro Craft, if you prefer), Hot Rod, et al. One of them had a section where they'd showcase a car owned by somebody under the age of 25.
The reason this stuck out is because in this issue, it was a '68 Charger with a 440, supposedly owned by a 23-year-old who'd used it for his daily driver in high school. Allegedly, this guy and his dad had pulled it out of some Utah scrapyard for $200 and did all the work themselves.
Yeah right, a B-body Mopar carcass free-and-clear for 200 late-80s dollars?
Double yeah right, a junkyard that would sell you an entire car AT ALL?
So what's missing here?
Well for starters, assuming this wasn't all horseshit, the article was the usual "just a regular guy with a passion for cars" fluff, conveniently leaving out the near-certainty that the guy's dad was the usual third-generation hot rodder who was on a first-name basis with every machine shop owner, mechanic and body-shop guy in the county. And who also had a fully-equipped barn with lifts, shop air and space to work.
So YES, you CAN do a cheap car. As long as you have the tools, connections and will. Which are the hallmarks of a rich man.
You see this in those woodworking videos and TikToks, “my wife wanted a new $4k buffet, I made it with $250 worth of wood!” Yeah, and $10k+ of woodshop tools.
Many years ago there was a tool shop in the west Loop of Chicago. I was in there for some reason and they had a literal wall of wood chisels from the size of a telephone pole - I exaggerate slightly - on down to smaller than a pencil. It was at that time I realized that a woodworking hobby was likely as much about the tools as it was about the woodworking.
I should write a longer post about this, but I got into cars in college, late. I remember cramming projects into late evenings in the apartment garage, and north of a decade of begging, borrowing, and bribing various friends and acquaintances garages for space to use while I wrenched on shit.
Having said that, finally having a barn that cost about as much as a used Mulsanne to put together is a huge enabler for owning cheap cars.
As a long time purveyor of basket cases and “easy fix” hot rods, I’ve basically worked things out to the following:
- EVERYTHING needs ~ $3k plus your labor
- If the car is extra rough, double it
- Don’t think that by spending $20-$40k on the initial purchase that you’re getting away with it
- I’m probably the only person on the planet who tries to sell cars at near 100% sorted and ready, prepare for the opposite always
- the Dave Ramsey argument is horseshit without privilege. You need a car to drive while you’re fixing the other, you need a place to fix it, and you need TOOLS which are very much not free. I don’t want to know how much I have invested at this point, only that they have paid for themselves 10x over.
- Could you imagine being burdened for weeks at a time when the shop has your car in limbo/que, waiting on parts, finding the next bad surprise waiting? All while needing to put food on your family’s plate?
- The ONLY way any of this works is to not fix things until they have completely failed and left in a position of stranded. Limp it along until you can’t and then face the inevitable.
- Car payments may be constant but they are easier to make than lost time. You need to figure out what carries more value before digging into a project. As I’ve aged my time working has become worth more than the hours spent trying to save on self wrenching. Unfortunately I’ll never change there.
- Sure even new cars break, but it’s usually systematic in order.
- the “smartest” thing I could’ve ever done car wise was to spend the money upfront for something NEW and nice and just kept it for the past 25yrs. Too bad I was broke as a joke at 17.
You either “enjoy” your $4500 at $4500 until you run it into the ground, or you reinvest to double or triple your time of use and without headache. I say this as I prepare to order the next $800 round of parts for my then only 38k mile ‘nice used car’.
Cycling $4500 cars as they shit the bed isn’t exactly the path to wealth either. Insert whatever number you’d like as example.
PREACH. $5500 used "cheap car" with fairly recent $4000 repair bill prior to my ownership, was just the down payment to keep a high mile ride going. I am 2/3 or so the way to that ~$3k number, with my own labor. That $3k should sort the car for a good while. We're all fighting entropy, and if we're honest, cars are some of the best lesson teachers in that.
Baruth, you, as the kiddos say, are an absolute savage for this one. First rule of Shitbox Club is to never total your receipts. You have fearlessly gone where most men would quail, and for that, a tip of the cap to you, good sir.
I have poured thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time into a series of B-Bodies that I have modified into worthlessness. By my account you have at least another 5k to incinerate on this one.
I did a heavy DIY refresh of a '92 Bonneville SSEi around 2016. I think I spent about $4,000 on it all in but I also got the car for free.
Before the COVID times, you could find runner domestic cars fairly easily for under $1,000. That's not really the case anymore unless you want a Northstar. There's still a "Toyota Tax" but it's a lot less than it used to be on things over 20 years old.
I acquired my Grand Prix for free as well. Being a tech, parts is the only thing I've got to worry about. Second on the pre-COVID $1,000 runner price. Lately prices seem to be coming down. Shocked to see Geo Metros going for ludicrous money all smashed out and zero parts availability.
Thanks for doing dumb shit. You ended up with a nice car and hopefully some more stories that you can tell us about how you got it back into shape. Now you need to get some social media accounts for the cats so you can sell a book and do more of these hijinks. I can't afford to do something like this and I would take the newer Lexus but as reader this is fucking great. Also, you got a daily driver out of this.
Hopefully you have an LLC that you can deduct the cost from your income for doing this wonderful project but if you don't monetize the cats. They won't know and maybe you can deduct the car food bills.
Its even ACF Green; perfect for Trick or treating (aka getting a peak in your neighbors homes and chatting up local milfs while getting free candy) in the township!
I know that but if you could deduct shit wouldn't you better be protected by an LLC. I am thinking you could deduct expenses if you were doing a expose on why you don't want to buy a used car.
Llcs are for liability. Jack could probably deduct some of this shit against his substack income but he is the only human in the usa who has been audited in the last 12 years and apparently he got nailed and is hesitant to be aggressive. And he refuses to hire me!
As someone with an ever expanding hooptie fleet. You're going to love the LS430. Best reasonably priced road trip car IMO. It has the strongest will to live of any of my cars. It's got the stealth wealth approach, comfy leather seats, supremely supple air ride (if UL), will happily sip 87, good hydraulic steering that feels firm and graceful at speed, fantastic climate control with oscillating vents, rock solid reliability for the things that matter. What's not to love for something to take on long trips? Granted not without faults, steering column motors, deferred maintenance, little stuff breaking, and starters in the cylinder valley are the warts of an otherwise brilliant automobile. I hope to keep mine cruising for the next 50 years.
This one is owned by an ACFer and it's the zero-frills model, but that's okay with me as I don't want the air ride and I can probably put a modern stereo in if desired.
Good write-up. In 2017 I bought my wife a 2011 ES350 with front collision damage for $7000, put a couple thousand into a new radiator, front bumper, hood, and other miscellany, and it served us well for about three years and 50k miles. I loved that car because it was quiet, comfortable, and the cheapest way into ventilated front seats. It went to my sister in Dallas next but must’ve taken a rock to a radiator hose at some point and overheated the engine. My post-collision repair may have neglected to properly replace the plastic underbody shields.
As someone who learned the “good enough” type of auto maintenance, I wouldn’t ever spend so much on repairs. But I do appreciate reading about people who do - it must be satisfying in a way to maintain at a higher level without simply learning to live with countless quirks. How many of the ES300 issues were mission-critical?
This mirrors my experience owning one of these, virtually identical 2001 ES300 for about 7 years, 2012-2019 from 90k miles up to 180k. I didn't fix everything at once, but put some money into it over time as needed. And because I am me, I bought a new shift lever and had the wheel recovered. And swapped in a set of the optional HIDs, the halogens were so bad...and sourced and installed the Nakamichi stereo bits. It was a nice car, durable exterior and interior that cleaned up nice, my various passengers were continually surprised it was a 2001 in such nice shape.
It wasn't particularly cheap to run, old cars still need fixing even a fancy Toyota Camry. Any OEM parts were not cheap. And the aftermarket parts are of questionable quality. Owning this car made me question the economics of owning an old car for the long haul when your only choice in repair seems to be cheap aftermarket junk that lasts a year or two, or buy the known quality OEM parts for occasionally heart stopping prices, e.g $400 alternator, $1400 brake booster, the steering wheel? $2300. I did most of the repairs myself. If I was short on time, any stop at the Toyota or Lexus dealer was minimum $1000.
I have trouble reconciling the absolute price competitiveness of Toyota and Lexus with the insane pricing of the parts. Is it some kind of Gilette razor model?
$2200+ for an OEM catalytic convertor for my older Outback. No way. $200-500 aftermarket cats are a minefield. Ponied up $800 for a Magnaflow unit (OEM-like with primaries snaking into a specifically-placed catalyst, O2 pickups, and flange) that I had to pull two weeks later and modify to make it flow properly and get back those missing ponies. Works great now, and it allowed me to find two severed grounding straps that I believe now have cured my year-long CEL ghost misfire code struggle. I LOVE CARS AND SAVING MONEY...RIGHT???
Seems like you are the lucky recipient of many years of deferred maintenance. Apparently, deferred until Jacks ownership. Having played with both the 80 Trans Am and the 90 ZR-1 this week, some things become clear. Everything is better in the Corvette. The extra money Chevy was willing to spend on, and charge for, it, plus a decade of develop are huge. It’s just better in every way. However, better also means much more complex and expensive. I get why guys like these old pre computer cars, like the Trans Am. While I might have the most complex American V8 of the seventies, it being turbocharged and all, but it’s still pretty damn basic to work on. And unlike, many more modern cars, it seems that it just wants to run, even if it’s doing that running poorly. GM HEI and a Q-Jet are about as good as old cars got.
That is the danger of the Lexi. When you get them from a first owner with ~ 100K on the clock, you're getting something an older person with money bought to be a comfortable appliance. They took it to the dealer and did what was recommended.
The second owners tend to take them to the dealer once, find out that the Lexus dealer is charging at rates that remind one of what Lisping Lindsay Graham must have been up to in order to spend $400,000 in one week in Kiev (just how many male prostitutes and how much blow *IS* that? Dude must be injecting rhinoceros horn directly into his shaft)
So the maintenance doesn't get done. And then you have that 150,000 mile Lexus that's getting sold for not cheap, but also not expensive because it has hit the point where it needs the purchase price in work to keep it on the road for another 70-100k.
Same applies to my Tundra. I snagged mine in the sweet spot. Over 100K, but religiously maintained by a former engineer who wrote dates on the differentials, transfer case, and engine cover from when he changed the fluids himself. But he'd never done the transmission fluid. It was at the perfect stage where it needed a little bit of deferred maintenance (brakes, for instance, had never been done) I could use to negotiate but a couple of grand later and she's good as new. Beyond that general sweet spot of mileage and price are the Tundras with aftermarket wheels and lift kits and you know that every bit of the money spent on that truck went into the wheels and tires and the custom vinyl logo for their instagram and not things like making sure the transfer case and differential fluids have been changed.
Below that you're into Tundras that cost at least 8-10 grand more for not much less mileage. They haven't been maintained correctly either, but at least with the lower mileage you are well inside the envelope of safety on the items that need doing.
Jack that is first rate mentorship of the young men (women?) helping with the refurbishment of the Lexus and keeping them from being in the Jiffy Lube pit. Hope they can use the experience to further their future careers as pit crew members for a paying race teams. Memo to file: I have been told that the primary source of pit crew members for NASCAR are formers members of Div-1 Football teams ????
Hey, man, I bought plate frames for my car, too, and not after some considerable thought given to their matching the car! ;) I'll put them on when I put my old alternate-background plates when the registration is up for renewal.
As someone who is a true professional in spending money on cars in 'useless' ways, I commend your weekly update! :)
I've spent $34k on a Lexus IS300 in order to sell it for just a tad over $15k on an online auction last year, and I'm currently pouring money at a meteoric rate into my Lexus SC400 in order to build something that Toyota should have but didn't. So, I'll show them....yeah, joke is always on me!
Oh, I'm more than a little interested in this SC400 build. Go on...
Take a look my friend:
https://youtu.be/SQK08LsdD3s
https://youtu.be/gP8hbFC04T8
Those SC400s are great cars, and a T56 is probably about the only thing they needed to make them even better to us enthusiasts.
At least your experience has landed you with a serviceable car that you enjoy. I’ve dumped thousands or tens of thousands into cars, actually paying shops their full labor rates, still hated the way they drove or presented, and sold them at a loss.
But yes, I remember making that exact same point when the million-mile LS 400 was in the news cycle. Here you are with what is a zhuszhed-up Camry and arguably the least complicated thing that could credibly call itself a luxury car at that time…and you still put thousands into it.
That’s not something most people could or would do, and it’s why even if you find a supposedly clean car like this, it will likely be victim to some sort of deferred maintenance.
—
I did, last week, acquire a lovely 2020 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 LWB. It came from a JLR dealer—who took the Lyriq for way more than it was worth, for some reason—and is in fantastic shape. It’s also black over “peanut-butter,” which is a classic color combo.
I purchased a very expensive warranty from my local dealership that should have me all the way out to 6 years and 80K miles from now, so I can pretend to be Doug DeMuro.
Maintenance costs and fuel are expensive for it, but…well, I like it, and so that’s that. Being the LWB with rear seats that move every which way, it sates my usual desire for a LWB flagship sedan, although I still have both the Phaeton and the XJ12…which are exactly that.
"a lovely 2020 Range Rover Autobiography 5.0 LWB"
Doth thou insist on dying for our sins?
Co-worker: You know a lot about cars, right?
Me: A little. I wouldn't say I'm the foremost expert but I've replaced head gaskets in the driveway in the dead of winter and worst of summer before.
Co-worker: My wife is looking at this Range Rover at X's car lot. They have a really good price on it, 23 grand.
Me: Here's what I want you to do...go to the bank and take $5,000 out in cash, then put it in your front yard, cover it in lighter fluid, and set it on fire.
Co-worker: **hard blinking**
Me: If you can burn that $5,000 without a thought or a care, then you have the right mindset to burn at least that much money every year or so to keep that Range Rover running. If, on the other hand, the mere suggestion of it makes you mad then you tell her you'll sooner pound your testicles flat with a wooden mallet than allow that purchase.
Please keep spreading this gospel to keep the residuals low!
Residuals? You mean the downpayment.
Wait, what? Didn’t you just get the Lyriq?
And are you really going to keep the RR for 6 years?
Yep, just got the Lyriq, but it was annoying and somehow I managed to get out of it with a four-figure check.
Will I keep the Range Rover for six years? We’ll see. It would be nice to prove everybody wrong about how long I’ll keep it. I hear there’s a betting pool going on about how long I keep cars, to include such members at my best friend, my partner, my mother, my Russian car buddy, and my grade-school teacher (screw you, Mrs. Pierce!)
Do you have a dealer license?
It’s one thing to burn money frivolously - as Jack has done with this old Lexus - but it’s another thing entirely to incur guaranteed transaction and switching costs again and again and again because you can’t make up your mind!
I do.
You may need to call your therapist first (!), but do you have an idea of your sum total transaction / switching costs (surely there will have been some gains too given the sample size) over time?
It simply isn’t that serious. Haha.
So what was annoying?
- EV charging?
- electronics UI?
- general GMness?
I’m still amazed that as a former ELR owner, and current Bolt owner, GM put 0.0 effort into trying to sell me a Lyriq. Nada.
The EV part was fine. The other two things, absolutely they were annoying.
Great trade! 5.0 supercharged Rover is such a nice ride. ATB is icing on the cake.
Jack should comp your membership for making him seem sane. Cool cars though
I like the cut of your jib.
I am AMAZED and envious by your ever changing garage. How many miles did you actually put on the Lyriq?
Somewhere around 2,200. Keep in mind that it spent two weeks in the shop.
If it makes you feel any better, my good friend bought his daughter a 2007 Lexus IS with 4WD for Pennsylvania winters for about $7,000. This happened after she got pulled over in her previously beat-to-shit super cheap Chevrolet Impala that they procured for $1,500. Her car looked like it was driven by someone who cooked meth for a living and I joked it was rolling probable cause.
Well, turns out that wasn't a joke. She didn't get searched because the officer who pulled her over had been trained by her father so he recognized her name and her resemblance to the ol' man. Rather than keep hoping for that kind of luck, he wanted to get her something reliable so he went Lexus.
...and then the list of parts that needed replacing over the next couple of years came in, with labor factored in he spent about $8,000 fixing her $7,000 Lexus.
What you undertook was basically a restoration. "Well, while you're in there..."
I tried to restore a 1970 Chevelle coupe in my driveway. I learned the hard way on that one.
On the plus side, in the end you have a really lovely piece of automotive engineering and they literally don't make them like that anymore. A group of men did man things to make it work again, learning and fellowshipping in the process. Good was contributed to the universe.
But you also see the wisdom in my "Next car I buy is probably gonna be a well maintained Lexus ES" plan. It just makes sense.
Try rebuilding a third-gen Firebird with a blown engine at a rate of about a hundred bucks a week, WHILE you're only a year into your car-guy learning curve.
All I got out of that project was memories and a feeling of having been lied to by Hot Rod magazine.
For me it was the car shows on TNN Saturday mornings. I'll never forgive Stacy David.
hes still doing the same thing and basically has not changed at all
pretty neat
I was just going to mention how much my buddy's little brother spent to repair what he thought was a pretty good 2014ish lexus
"I tried to restore a 1970 Chevelle coupe in my driveway"
everyone and their brother wants to restore a car
then they start it and realize how it can nickel and dime you to death extremely fast and how things like paint and bodywork can get wicked expensive
actually nevermind its everything thats expensive
I have literally zero desire to restore a car. I want to buy a restored car for thirty cents on the dollar.
correct option
The resulting satisfaction from a job well done and a car that gets fully sorted (or sorted to one's standards) is nice, and good. At 186k, my 08 Outback is getting many of the big/bigger ticket items redone (by me, almost exclusively) that need redoing by such mileage. And fixing other things that were left or neglected. The market in the $5k range (or even a few thousand more) is not great, so better the devil I know...and have fixed up.
With all the help and experience you’re providing to the young people, you could start a ‘non-profit’ and…
Oh wait. Never mind.
I'll grow my hair a little more, wear a robe, and call it...
JESUS GARAGE
If you started getting customers who pronounce it hay0soos....
Might be able to double up on the non-profit tax benefits, too!
"You have to be rich to own a cheap car."
That reminds me of when I first got into cars 30 years ago, I'd devour Car Craft (or Camaro Craft, if you prefer), Hot Rod, et al. One of them had a section where they'd showcase a car owned by somebody under the age of 25.
The reason this stuck out is because in this issue, it was a '68 Charger with a 440, supposedly owned by a 23-year-old who'd used it for his daily driver in high school. Allegedly, this guy and his dad had pulled it out of some Utah scrapyard for $200 and did all the work themselves.
Yeah right, a B-body Mopar carcass free-and-clear for 200 late-80s dollars?
Double yeah right, a junkyard that would sell you an entire car AT ALL?
So what's missing here?
Well for starters, assuming this wasn't all horseshit, the article was the usual "just a regular guy with a passion for cars" fluff, conveniently leaving out the near-certainty that the guy's dad was the usual third-generation hot rodder who was on a first-name basis with every machine shop owner, mechanic and body-shop guy in the county. And who also had a fully-equipped barn with lifts, shop air and space to work.
So YES, you CAN do a cheap car. As long as you have the tools, connections and will. Which are the hallmarks of a rich man.
You see this in those woodworking videos and TikToks, “my wife wanted a new $4k buffet, I made it with $250 worth of wood!” Yeah, and $10k+ of woodshop tools.
And just what is wrong with that logic? Every project needs at least one new tool.
Many years ago there was a tool shop in the west Loop of Chicago. I was in there for some reason and they had a literal wall of wood chisels from the size of a telephone pole - I exaggerate slightly - on down to smaller than a pencil. It was at that time I realized that a woodworking hobby was likely as much about the tools as it was about the woodworking.
Tool lust is worse than car (or boat) lust.
Sir, rather than buy new tools I am going to pay some guy to rebuild my front forks.
Where do I turn my man card in?
Unless i enjoy it, id rather pay someone
I should write a longer post about this, but I got into cars in college, late. I remember cramming projects into late evenings in the apartment garage, and north of a decade of begging, borrowing, and bribing various friends and acquaintances garages for space to use while I wrenched on shit.
Having said that, finally having a barn that cost about as much as a used Mulsanne to put together is a huge enabler for owning cheap cars.
'Having said that, finally having a barn that cost about as much as a used Mulsanne to put together is a huge enabler for owning cheap cars.'
And cheap motorcycles!
the hot rod 30 under 30 is always fun to see and how the fathers are never mentioned
That, and that in three decades of being into cars, I've almost NEVER read about a first-gen guy who got into cars in college.
As a long time purveyor of basket cases and “easy fix” hot rods, I’ve basically worked things out to the following:
- EVERYTHING needs ~ $3k plus your labor
- If the car is extra rough, double it
- Don’t think that by spending $20-$40k on the initial purchase that you’re getting away with it
- I’m probably the only person on the planet who tries to sell cars at near 100% sorted and ready, prepare for the opposite always
- the Dave Ramsey argument is horseshit without privilege. You need a car to drive while you’re fixing the other, you need a place to fix it, and you need TOOLS which are very much not free. I don’t want to know how much I have invested at this point, only that they have paid for themselves 10x over.
- Could you imagine being burdened for weeks at a time when the shop has your car in limbo/que, waiting on parts, finding the next bad surprise waiting? All while needing to put food on your family’s plate?
- The ONLY way any of this works is to not fix things until they have completely failed and left in a position of stranded. Limp it along until you can’t and then face the inevitable.
- Car payments may be constant but they are easier to make than lost time. You need to figure out what carries more value before digging into a project. As I’ve aged my time working has become worth more than the hours spent trying to save on self wrenching. Unfortunately I’ll never change there.
- Sure even new cars break, but it’s usually systematic in order.
- the “smartest” thing I could’ve ever done car wise was to spend the money upfront for something NEW and nice and just kept it for the past 25yrs. Too bad I was broke as a joke at 17.
You either “enjoy” your $4500 at $4500 until you run it into the ground, or you reinvest to double or triple your time of use and without headache. I say this as I prepare to order the next $800 round of parts for my then only 38k mile ‘nice used car’.
Cycling $4500 cars as they shit the bed isn’t exactly the path to wealth either. Insert whatever number you’d like as example.
Couldn't agree more. Thank you.
PREACH. $5500 used "cheap car" with fairly recent $4000 repair bill prior to my ownership, was just the down payment to keep a high mile ride going. I am 2/3 or so the way to that ~$3k number, with my own labor. That $3k should sort the car for a good while. We're all fighting entropy, and if we're honest, cars are some of the best lesson teachers in that.
I needed to hear this, thanks
Everything needs 3k plus labor is deadly accurate
Baruth, you, as the kiddos say, are an absolute savage for this one. First rule of Shitbox Club is to never total your receipts. You have fearlessly gone where most men would quail, and for that, a tip of the cap to you, good sir.
I have poured thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time into a series of B-Bodies that I have modified into worthlessness. By my account you have at least another 5k to incinerate on this one.
Every B-body, like every child, is valuable in God's sight!
I did a heavy DIY refresh of a '92 Bonneville SSEi around 2016. I think I spent about $4,000 on it all in but I also got the car for free.
Before the COVID times, you could find runner domestic cars fairly easily for under $1,000. That's not really the case anymore unless you want a Northstar. There's still a "Toyota Tax" but it's a lot less than it used to be on things over 20 years old.
I acquired my Grand Prix for free as well. Being a tech, parts is the only thing I've got to worry about. Second on the pre-COVID $1,000 runner price. Lately prices seem to be coming down. Shocked to see Geo Metros going for ludicrous money all smashed out and zero parts availability.
Thanks for doing dumb shit. You ended up with a nice car and hopefully some more stories that you can tell us about how you got it back into shape. Now you need to get some social media accounts for the cats so you can sell a book and do more of these hijinks. I can't afford to do something like this and I would take the newer Lexus but as reader this is fucking great. Also, you got a daily driver out of this.
Hopefully you have an LLC that you can deduct the cost from your income for doing this wonderful project but if you don't monetize the cats. They won't know and maybe you can deduct the car food bills.
“Monetize the cats” LOL!!
He did. We pay it. Lol
The cat stories, his rugged good looks and a bit of tik tok magic and the cat ladies would be all over it.
I think Jack is doing just fine as the new face of Mountain Dew.
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/mountain-mtn-dew-dude-refresh-iconic-slogan-campaign/721084/
Nice fur coat!
HOLY GOD I WANT THAT COAT
Its even ACF Green; perfect for Trick or treating (aka getting a peak in your neighbors homes and chatting up local milfs while getting free candy) in the township!
Wait. I thought Jack was playing banjo in Billy Strings band.
http://www.billyfailingmusic.com/about
YOU DONT NEED AN LLC TO DO THIS. HAVING AN LLC DOESNT MEAN YOU CAN DEduct SHIT!
thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Also, a great TED talk.
I know that but if you could deduct shit wouldn't you better be protected by an LLC. I am thinking you could deduct expenses if you were doing a expose on why you don't want to buy a used car.
Llcs are for liability. Jack could probably deduct some of this shit against his substack income but he is the only human in the usa who has been audited in the last 12 years and apparently he got nailed and is hesitant to be aggressive. And he refuses to hire me!
True and I would hire you!
If you knew how I ran the rest of my life you wouldn't let me clean the carpets in your office hallway!
As someone with an ever expanding hooptie fleet. You're going to love the LS430. Best reasonably priced road trip car IMO. It has the strongest will to live of any of my cars. It's got the stealth wealth approach, comfy leather seats, supremely supple air ride (if UL), will happily sip 87, good hydraulic steering that feels firm and graceful at speed, fantastic climate control with oscillating vents, rock solid reliability for the things that matter. What's not to love for something to take on long trips? Granted not without faults, steering column motors, deferred maintenance, little stuff breaking, and starters in the cylinder valley are the warts of an otherwise brilliant automobile. I hope to keep mine cruising for the next 50 years.
This one is owned by an ACFer and it's the zero-frills model, but that's okay with me as I don't want the air ride and I can probably put a modern stereo in if desired.
LS430s are kings, especially the 04-06s. Still miss mine.
My local Lexus indie charges $180 an hour. Let that sit for a while. The dealer is at least $250 at this point.
My divorce lawyer's rate from several years ago has now intersected with my indie mechanic's rate.
Agreed. I haven't seen double digit labor rates for car repair in a long time, even in KS.
Good write-up. In 2017 I bought my wife a 2011 ES350 with front collision damage for $7000, put a couple thousand into a new radiator, front bumper, hood, and other miscellany, and it served us well for about three years and 50k miles. I loved that car because it was quiet, comfortable, and the cheapest way into ventilated front seats. It went to my sister in Dallas next but must’ve taken a rock to a radiator hose at some point and overheated the engine. My post-collision repair may have neglected to properly replace the plastic underbody shields.
As someone who learned the “good enough” type of auto maintenance, I wouldn’t ever spend so much on repairs. But I do appreciate reading about people who do - it must be satisfying in a way to maintain at a higher level without simply learning to live with countless quirks. How many of the ES300 issues were mission-critical?
Axles, steering parts, rear shocks and brakes.
Everything else was meant to make sure we didn't drop the engine again in 2025.
This mirrors my experience owning one of these, virtually identical 2001 ES300 for about 7 years, 2012-2019 from 90k miles up to 180k. I didn't fix everything at once, but put some money into it over time as needed. And because I am me, I bought a new shift lever and had the wheel recovered. And swapped in a set of the optional HIDs, the halogens were so bad...and sourced and installed the Nakamichi stereo bits. It was a nice car, durable exterior and interior that cleaned up nice, my various passengers were continually surprised it was a 2001 in such nice shape.
It wasn't particularly cheap to run, old cars still need fixing even a fancy Toyota Camry. Any OEM parts were not cheap. And the aftermarket parts are of questionable quality. Owning this car made me question the economics of owning an old car for the long haul when your only choice in repair seems to be cheap aftermarket junk that lasts a year or two, or buy the known quality OEM parts for occasionally heart stopping prices, e.g $400 alternator, $1400 brake booster, the steering wheel? $2300. I did most of the repairs myself. If I was short on time, any stop at the Toyota or Lexus dealer was minimum $1000.
I have trouble reconciling the absolute price competitiveness of Toyota and Lexus with the insane pricing of the parts. Is it some kind of Gilette razor model?
$2200+ for an OEM catalytic convertor for my older Outback. No way. $200-500 aftermarket cats are a minefield. Ponied up $800 for a Magnaflow unit (OEM-like with primaries snaking into a specifically-placed catalyst, O2 pickups, and flange) that I had to pull two weeks later and modify to make it flow properly and get back those missing ponies. Works great now, and it allowed me to find two severed grounding straps that I believe now have cured my year-long CEL ghost misfire code struggle. I LOVE CARS AND SAVING MONEY...RIGHT???
Seems like you are the lucky recipient of many years of deferred maintenance. Apparently, deferred until Jacks ownership. Having played with both the 80 Trans Am and the 90 ZR-1 this week, some things become clear. Everything is better in the Corvette. The extra money Chevy was willing to spend on, and charge for, it, plus a decade of develop are huge. It’s just better in every way. However, better also means much more complex and expensive. I get why guys like these old pre computer cars, like the Trans Am. While I might have the most complex American V8 of the seventies, it being turbocharged and all, but it’s still pretty damn basic to work on. And unlike, many more modern cars, it seems that it just wants to run, even if it’s doing that running poorly. GM HEI and a Q-Jet are about as good as old cars got.
That is the danger of the Lexi. When you get them from a first owner with ~ 100K on the clock, you're getting something an older person with money bought to be a comfortable appliance. They took it to the dealer and did what was recommended.
The second owners tend to take them to the dealer once, find out that the Lexus dealer is charging at rates that remind one of what Lisping Lindsay Graham must have been up to in order to spend $400,000 in one week in Kiev (just how many male prostitutes and how much blow *IS* that? Dude must be injecting rhinoceros horn directly into his shaft)
So the maintenance doesn't get done. And then you have that 150,000 mile Lexus that's getting sold for not cheap, but also not expensive because it has hit the point where it needs the purchase price in work to keep it on the road for another 70-100k.
Same applies to my Tundra. I snagged mine in the sweet spot. Over 100K, but religiously maintained by a former engineer who wrote dates on the differentials, transfer case, and engine cover from when he changed the fluids himself. But he'd never done the transmission fluid. It was at the perfect stage where it needed a little bit of deferred maintenance (brakes, for instance, had never been done) I could use to negotiate but a couple of grand later and she's good as new. Beyond that general sweet spot of mileage and price are the Tundras with aftermarket wheels and lift kits and you know that every bit of the money spent on that truck went into the wheels and tires and the custom vinyl logo for their instagram and not things like making sure the transfer case and differential fluids have been changed.
Below that you're into Tundras that cost at least 8-10 grand more for not much less mileage. They haven't been maintained correctly either, but at least with the lower mileage you are well inside the envelope of safety on the items that need doing.
Leave lady G out of this!
Jack that is first rate mentorship of the young men (women?) helping with the refurbishment of the Lexus and keeping them from being in the Jiffy Lube pit. Hope they can use the experience to further their future careers as pit crew members for a paying race teams. Memo to file: I have been told that the primary source of pit crew members for NASCAR are formers members of Div-1 Football teams ????
sounds about right
you cant be small and run a jack as the japanese nascar team found out in the 90s when they raced there
it was pretty funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkip8PEIIhQ
The guy manning the rear jack for Mercedes at the British GP last weekend looked like he weighed 300lbs.
You slipped that $24.66 plate frame in there like we wouldn’t notice :-)
Worth every penny, LOOK AT IT!
Hey, man, I bought plate frames for my car, too, and not after some considerable thought given to their matching the car! ;) I'll put them on when I put my old alternate-background plates when the registration is up for renewal.