Here’s my story on how I went from a free snowblower that someone was throwing away, and worked my way to a free car (my ex-baby, a Porsche), and more. Best part is, it’s entirely feasible. I go over some tips on how to do it yourself here. Most of these buys would’ve been very bad choices in any other circumstances. If you want to know why these were Assets, not Liabilities, go here Open those up in a new tab for after this, grab some popcorn, and let me break it down for you:
Step 1: Stupid gets a Snowblower
Now, I was a fifteen year old once (shocking, I know), and I hadn’t gotten my permit yet. I knew that a real threat was coming soon: my first car. I didn’t know much of anything about cars, aside from them not being cheap. There certainly wasn’t just a free car lying around for me. I knew that starting sooner rather than later would be best, so, about three months before I got my permit, I made myself a promise. I’d have a car before my learner’s permit, by any means necessary (aside from prostitution, that is).
I wasn’t a very bright kid, let’s be real here. The young mind is very impressionable, though, so it wasn’t super hard to learn this new way of thinking. My dad, for the most part, taught me that entrepreneurs *can* be made, not just born.
So there I was, a child with a promise to fulfill, a reason to get down to business (to defeat the Huns!). One day, riding around town on my bicycle, I had noticed that there was a push-style snowblower sitting out by the trash cans in front of someone’s house. It sure wasn’t pretty, but my tiny little brain couldn’t understand why someone would throw something like that away. So I (being a stupid teen) tied that snowblower to the back of my bike, and pedaled back to my house, new treasure in tow.
The Repair
It didn’t even take me a week to get it running like new. It just had really old gas (I feel you, snowblower. I wouldn’t want that running through me either), a gummed-up carburetor, and some dry-rotted fuel lines. After $1.49 in carb cleaner and $3 in fuel lines, it was up and running. Of course, I was too stupid to do this on my own. I had the power of YouTube on my side, which became my best friend for the few days I was working on the snowblower.
I turned around and posted the blower on Craigslist under “barter” (not because I knew what it meant, but because it sounded cool). By the end of that very same week, I had traded the blower away for a youth-sized guitar and an amp to go with it. I was beside myself. I had gone from kid-riding-around-town-on-a-bike status to business-major-from-Harvard, at least in my inflated ego.
Note:
Before we go any further, take a second to think about that. How hard was it? For the competent mind, that was about a 20 minute job. Could you do that? Absolutely! This isn’t the only way to make some money from home though. If you’re a younger kid, then here’s some Business Ideas For Kids. For teenagers, here’s How To Make Serious Money As A Teenager. For the adults in the room, Santa has something special for you too! I give you 10 Quick Ways To Make Money From Home. Open these up in new tabs for later, and let’s get back to the story!
Step 2: Gringo plays a Guitar
From that first trade, I was hooked. I knew this was how I was gonna achieve my goal. Best of all, it would end up being essentially a *free car*. I ended up making back what little money I spent in parts and tools, bringing costs to $0.
There’s not really much to talk about with the guitar, aside from me having tried to learn guitar in the time I had it. I had gotten to blow some snow with the snowblower (wonder how they came up with the name for that…), and now I had gotten to play the guitar too. Not only had I traded up, but I got use out of both of these items too. I ended up selling the guitar and amp for a pretty penny (in my young eyes). Then I moved on to my next project: a boat.
From here on out, my father was trying to teach me how to look for deals too. He and I would spend about an hour a night on Craigslist looking at what had been posted that day. He showed me how to calculate profit, what to be looking for in wording, everything I’d need.
Step 3: Buffoons on a Boat
My dad had been looking at restoring a boat that we planned on taking on vacation, then selling. When I sold the guitar and amp, he and I partnered in buying the boat that we’d take North. It was an 18’ Sea Ray with a little four-cylinder in the back. It ran great, all it needed was a thorough cleaning. With two sets of hands working on the boat in our spare time, it took no time at all to have her looking nice again. Just took a little bit of elbow grease and some vacuuming. Oh! And Mr. Clean Magic Erasers (no, I’m not kidding. That’s really what we used) to get her shining again.
We took her on vacation. We sold her when we got back, and (pardon the pun) made a boatload of money on it. I took my percentage of the profit, he took his, and we moved on to our next conjoined project. You’ll never guess what it was, since we were *so* original: Another boat.
Step 4: Buffoons on a Boat, cont.
Since we had so much fun with the other boat, we were kinda upset when we sold it. It left a hull (heh. Boat puns.) in our hearts that could only be filled with another boat. So that’s exactly what we did, we got another boat. This one was significantly bigger and nicer, a 22’ Mirage. With the size difference came a massive v8 spinning the prop, too.
This boat was a bit rough, again, needing a lot of cleaning work on it. Another movie-style cleaning montage later, and this boat looked *monstrous*. Just gorgeous behind the truck we used to tow it. I swear, I wish I had the picture, they looked great together.
We took that boat out multiple times to enjoy it, and I even personally got to tube behind it. That boat was amazing, through and through. To top it all off, we got a healthy sum when we sold it, we bought it very far under market. We over tripled our money on that one boat, and I had the dough to get what I had promised myself, my free car.
Step 5: We interrupt this program to bring you some breaking motorcycle frames!
So, I was incredibly happy about getting my first car, because who wasn’t when they got theirs? My only driving experience thus far was with my dad’s lifted v10 4×4 conversion van. It had giant mudders on it, and was aptly nicknamed “The Great White” for it’s white paint job.
Now, I had been looking at Craigslist for cars since it was the site I knew best. While I was looking though, I stumbled into the motorcycles section on “accident”. Looking through these two-wheeled fun machines had been a guilty pleasure of mine, having heard all the stories of the fun my father had with his group on bikes. I knew that I wouldn’t be caught dead on any of these though, my mom wouldn’t let me go riding alone.
Yet something about this ad I had found made me think that maybe, just maybe, she’d let this bike slide. It was a 2013 Yamaha XT250. She always was one to equate newer years to safer, so it being a 2013 was a big plus. Also, it only cost chump change compared to what I had saved up for my free car. I brought it up to my dad (the one who likes bikes) first, to get his approval first. Then, we somehow managed to convince my mother to let me get this bike.
The Meeting
Now, when we got to where it was, we had driven for at least four hours, and it was getting late into the night. We were all tired, so when we looked at it, we weren’t exactly thorough, to say the least. And to top it all off, the only one of us that knew how to ride a bike. He was also the only one who would know what was wrong with a bike. My dad had to ride the bike, *and* diagnose what could be wrong with it, all at once. Needless to say, we didn’t do a very good job. We bought the bike for well under what we thought a 2013 was worth. We thought we did good with it… *until* I started to ride it.
Problems Arise
A couple days later, I had gotten to practice riding it, so I could get a feel for the clutch and all. I had practically grown up on two wheels, riding a bike at 5, and getting my first dirt bike that same week. However, due to a life-threatening crash, we all quit riding when I was around 12. That still being over six years of riding experience, it was ingrained in me to a degree. However, this was on my grandmother’s 1/8th mile gravel driveway, since I wasn’t legally allowed to ride on the street yet. Keeping my balance on such a loose surface was nerve-racking at first, but eventually, my memories and coordination from those six years came back to me, and I was able to get it started and keep going.
While on my maiden voyage, my father noticed that the rear wheel didn’t seem to sit quite right while I was riding. We stripped the bike down (yes, it was good practice for a guy in high school), and discovered that the frame was pulverized in a couple places. We spent a good few days researching and deciding between trying to resell and just swapping it ourselves.
Judging by the amount of stupidity I’ve shown so far, I’m sure you can guess what decision I made: swap the frames. It was coming into the winter months, which meant that I’d have a ton of free time. So, one super expensive frame, and well over three months of work after school, and I had pretty much a new bike. This wasn’t nearly as much based on YouTube, and much more on my dad and common sense. We were just moving carefully, keeping track of what would attach to what, and exerting a hell of a lot of patience.
Seeing what we had gotten into really broke my heart. This was my first deal that looked like a failure. My father helped me through this, with his experience in handling failure. I got over it, pushed through, and made the bike my own.
The Repair
Since I had all the panels off the bike, I thought I’d make it my own and paint the panels myself. It certainly made the bike unique, but more importantly, it made it *mine*. It made it something I personally loved, and loved to ride too. I rode that bike for a long time, an entire year. I ended up selling it pretty recently, probably sold it on the equivalent of step 11 or 12. It just wasn’t fast enough for me. I made a profit on the bike from a monetary standpoint, and I gained some *invaluable* experience. Overall, though, the bike was a loss, just from the sheer amount of time and work that went into it.
Now, I did enjoy that bike too, but let’s do some simple math here. Say I worked on it for two hours a day, a nice and neat number. For three and a half months. A month is roughly 30 days, for another nice number. So three and a half times two times thirty, comes out to seven times thirty, so two hundred and ten hours, as an underestimate. I could’ve spent all that time on practicing social skills… because *wow* I needed them! Either way, it was quite the experience, and led into a good hobby.
Step 6: Finally! Free Car Redeemed!
After my time working my way up towards my goal, I felt I was finally in a position to redeem that free car that I had been shooting for. Now, I had a list of very specific requirements. Ready? *crickets chirp* Yeah, I wasn’t very picky with what I got. All I knew was that I wanted it to be fun. Not fast though, even I knew that mixing me with a fast first car wasn’t a good idea. So something relatively slow, but fun to drive. I ended up contacting an elderly gentleman with a 2001 Chrysler Sebring convertible.
This is the only car I’ll give real numbers for, because of how it turned out. He was asking around $1300 in his ad, and I managed to get the car for only $900. It only had a couple problems, the biggest of which being the hydraulic cylinders for the convertible top were shot. It made me a very happy camper to drive it around, even if I did have to manually force the top open and closed.
I took that car to Homecoming that year, and had a blast doing it. I had finally achieved my goal: I had gotten a free car. Naturally, I was overjoyed having this car, along with my bike. I kept those two for the winter, the following summer, and the autumn after that. Sadly, I was forced to say goodbye to the car the beginning of winter.
The Downside
Now, I was not a car guy in the slightest at this point. I didn’t have any of the automotive knowledge I have now, nor a desire to drive stick, none of this. I knew which pedal was gas, and which was the brake, that was the extent of my knowledge. Not knowing anything about cars, I had no clue that the Chrysler 2.7l v6 was a time bomb. The timing chain on these engines, along with the water pump, were known to go out and bend valves (due to it being an interference engine).
Mine was no exception, as in the early winter months, the car jumped timing. It was wrecked, the motor wasn’t worth rebuilding, nor did I know how. And all I was left with was the shell of a car, taking up driveway space, and a deadline enforced by my parents: Get rid of the car within to weeks, or they do it and keep the money.
So, as sad as it was, I ended up scrapping the car for $200. This was the first and ONLY financial loss I have ever taken on a deal, and it sucked. But, in typical stubborn me fashion, I got back on my feet, and made things happen, knowing I needed another car, and fast.
Step 7: Continuing a string of “interesting” deals (ones that weren’t the best)
Now, I had both the motorcycle *and* the Sebring when I had made this next deal. My dad and I had wanted to go on an ATV trip for a good while now, and I was on the lookout for a machine for me to ride. What I found wasn’t exactly my speed, though. It was a 2005 Honda Rancher, painted an Army Green. I had no idea what I was getting into with this thing. I got it for an okay price (would’ve liked it a little cheaper, but still had room for profit), and we got it home to start seeing what was wrong with it (it wouldn’t seem to idle no matter what).
Finding the Damage
The more we dismantled, the more we didn’t like what we saw. The wiring was a rat’s nest, the mechanics were shoddy at best, and the secondary computer was fried too. Once we saw how bad the mechanics were, we knew that we were getting into another winter-long project. Sure enough, it took the entire winter for us to finish the ATV, including pretty much all new internals, rewiring it, replacing the secondary brain, and a full new paint job (that green didn’t agree with my eyes).
The day we sold it, lo and behold, we had a big family garage sale. Cue my uncle deciding to take a break by sitting on the ATV, scuffing and chipping the paint job. Nice. So mere minutes before the prospective buyers showed up, we were in the backyard with fans and paintbrushes, trying to touch up the damage. We still sold it to that guy, and he was very happy with it. These are just the kinds of problems that can happen while buying and selling. You can’t control everything going on around you, things are bound to happen that throw a wrench in your plan. You have to be able to adapt to the sudden change, and move forward despite the issue.
Regardless of the last-minute panic, it sold as a beautiful machine. I made money on it as well. But at what time cost is the real question. The project took another 3 months of work, a full rebuild, paint, parts, stress.. It wasn’t the best of buys, but I did still come out ahead financially, and that’s what matters in the end. The new owners were very happy with it, and the money I got from selling this went into my next car, after the Sebring thought it was a nice idea to crap out on me.
Step 8: Praying to avoid a repeat of Step 6
The snow was just beginning to fall when my Sebring jumped timing. I knew that I needed something a bit larger, and a lot safer in the low-traction environment. In my mind, that meant SUV. Problem with most SUVs is their engines tend to be big, gas-guzzling V8s. I didn’t want to pay for such displacement, so I was shooting for at least 20mpg.
My dad pointed out that he had found an SUV that was front wheel drive, a six-cylinder, and was relatively cheap. I was all over that. We met the guy the very same day (it was an hour and a half drive, nothing we couldn’t do). Together, we bought the Mazda Tribute in question for about $400 under what he was asking, and drove it home that night.
Not related to the profit or repairs, but that car had a *wicked* powerband from 4 grand to 6. It was a fun car to drive, and the only real problem with it was that the passenger-side door handle didn’t work on the outside. That was a $5 part from a scrapyard and maybe two hours of work, and it worked again. Overall, the few repairs that I had to make were extremely easy, and I had a perfectly good car. It would do whatever I asked of it. Having the extra room was nice, but it did handle like a boat. I knew it was time to flip this and get on to the next car.
Step 9: The beginning of my “Car Guy” transformation
Now, I was kinda getting tired of my previous boat-ish SUV, I felt it was time to get into something sportier. I had my safe period already, now I felt like going fast (Ricky Bobby!). Now, though some connections of mine, I knew of a PT Cruiser that had to go ASAP, and for cheap. I didn’t initially think it was fast, because I didn’t really look at the car before I test drove it, or look under the hood (or at the nameplates on the car), and I didn’t really step on the gas that much. It felt just like it was, an inline four-pot. I thought, “What the heck, it’s not the worst, and it’s pretty low to the ground”, and shelled out the dough to the seller.
Discovery
Driving it home though, that’s when I finally figured out what I had gotten my hands on. I found the button that looked like it turned traction control off, got to a stop sign, and floored it. At first, it was pretty okay, got a tire smoking by 1500RPM, but once it revved up to about 2500, I heard the most heavenly noise that I could have ever heard: a turbo beginning to spool. Yes, I had accidentally bought a TURBO PT Cruiser (better known as a “GT Cruiser”). And I was in no way objecting, I was elated upon this discovery. Later, I found out this car was pushing 230 ponies to the front wheels. This was almost exactly what I was looking for.
Aside from the weird door handles. Had some friends almost rip them off the doors because, well, they’re my friends. That guarantees they’re stupid. It was certainly a fast car, and that turbo spooling is just beautiful sound. I got ear-gasms every time I heard it spool up. And it was a perfect stepping stone between my SUV and a sports car, it had a hatch and four doors, but almost the exact engine from the Neon SRT-4 (The turbo one, not the supercharged one. GOD not the supercharged one.)
Effects of the Car
Putting all that power to the ground was that car’s downfall, as the four-speed auto-stick did *not* do a very good job of it. The ratios felt awkward, and the auto-stick was delayed by a solid second and a half. The car was pristine other than that, though. It was clean, ran well, no mechanical or structural problems, nothing was really wrong with it. I did my fair share of burnouts in that car, before it came time to get a new car. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy this one, I just felt like it was time to move onward and upward.
While it wasn’t very fast in hindsight, it did get me interested in the world of cars. Having a car with a boost snail on it meant I needed to re-learn how to drive, and how to maintain my car. Granted, this was a stock turbo, so the maintenance was extremely low compared to some of the cars coming up. Nevertheless, I began to use my free time to look into cars and their history, and this was where I became a closeted Car Guy.
P.S.
Yes, this is one of the cars in the “Garage Scramble” from 2 Fast 2 Furious. The long and short of it is that there were “car auditions” held to be a part of this scene. Essentially, a huge tuner car meet was held, and the directors walked around to cast their cars in the movie. Credit to Car and Throttle for this picture showing the cruiser among the cars in the garage scramble scene:
Dark red, very right of the frame. It’s certainly a black sheep hidden amongst the sea of 240s, Evos, Eclipses, and Supras.
Step 10: Pretty Preposterous Purchase of a not-so-Pristine Porsche
Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved going fast in that PT. But I was entering a phase where I could appreciate class over sass, so to speak. The Cruiser just wasn’t particularly good-looking, in my opinion. Well, realistically, it didn’t look all that good injust about anybody’s opinion! Despite being fast, I just out-grew liking it being fast and ugly. I thought I’d be okay with the opposite though, so when a retro 944 came on the market for pretty cheap, I was all over that car “like hoes on Santa”.
The Meeting
Got there within an hour (Google Maps said it would take an hour 20 to get there, FYI. I wanted the car *that* bad), and met with the dude at a gas station (slight red flag, but nonetheless, went with it). I looked the car over, and we took it for a test drive, where we found what we thought was a problem: The car was slow as can be. Like, it was molasses slow.
Well, it actually wasn’t that slow, because my father didn’t have the car pinned, he just thought he did. Porsche installed a safety on the pedal to prevent it from accidentally being floored. Once you actually had the pedal to the metal, all 147HP let loose, and it.. well, didn’t go anywhere. This 944 was equipped with a 3-speed automatic (with 3rd being an overdrive). If I had gotten a manual 5-speed, the car would’ve felt faster with the closer gear ratios. This car wasn’t about being fast though, it was about being stylish.
Regardless of performance, this was a *Porsche*. For FREE. How could I pass this up? Aside from the epic bragging rights, the car got me into a whole new crowd: the car show crowd. I took it to a friend of ours who used to race these cars to get a once-over, and even he was shocked when I told him how I got it. For a price of course, he replaced the timing belt, adjusted the serpentine belt, and looked the rest of the car over. Two days after purchasing my Porsche, I had a functioning, driving retro Porsche, and I was in *love*.
Effects of the Car
Man, I was hot stuff before when I had the Sebring. Boy, I was feces in a fire here (which is to say that I was the same, but *fancy*). I was now the very proud owner of a bright-red Porsche, a classic car, something that I knew I could cherish. I drove that car to school every day, took it everywhere with me. The low-displacement four cylinder was good on gas, so I wasn’t really feeling the pressure of fuel costs either, I felt free to show it off anywhere and everywhere. And ooooooh did chicks dig it! They may not have known which Porsche it was, but that emblem and the word “Porsche” written across the back certainly got some looks wherever I went. Not to mention being, y’know, BRIGHT RED.
She was in a bit rough shape, so I didn’t really let anyone inside besides the girls that I was actually going out with. Either way, a lot of TLC went into her, and a *gaggle* of girls came out. Plenty of street rep at school came with it. She stuck out like a diamond in the rough in the parking lot, so I started parking far away from the doors in order to not get door bumped or anything. No matter where I parked though, at school or elsewhere, I always had a crowd of at least three other cars park right around mine.
Deal Analysis
Anyways, back to the deal. I had spent around 300 or so on miscellaneous repairs, and near a grand on new tires all around (not a commonly made size, and only really available in sport compound). She was my baby, and though she wasn’t fast, she *loved* to rev, and sounded amazing. I kept her for a good while, until I decided that sass and class couldn’t beat hauling… butt for me, so I put her up at a decent markup, and started looking for my next car.
Step 11: Remember that one motorcycle from awhile ago? Here’s what became of it
Yeah, remember that XT250 I mentioned back in Step 5? Yeah, I kept it for pretty much the duration of all the deals between it and the Porsche. About mid-way through owning the Porsche, I decided that the XT had done it’s job as a learning bike, and that it was about time to get on something a bit quicker.
The Step Up
My dad had plenty of input on what it should be though, in the form of some requirements. 1) Had to be a thumper (one cylinder), 2) Had to be an enduro or supermoto, and 3) it had to be a newer bike. Although I wasn’t a fan of those requirements, I was able to find a bike that met them. As a bonus, it had significantly more power than the XT. I had found a Honda XR650L, that gave a gain in horsepower, from 16bhp in the XT to about 40bhp in the stock XR.
From such a power increase came a new threat: My bike was faster than my dad’s. He ended up swapping out his XT350 for a DR-Z, a supermoto with higher bhp, at 39. Before modifications, of course. Now, I let my dad do his modifications first, because I wanted to see what kinds of changes appeared in his bike’s power and sound. He put a Dynojet full carb kit into it (which later turned into an FCR flat-slide carb), and a Yoshimura full pipe on. His bike was so much louder than mine that if we raced, I couldn’t hear my own engine.
Not Fast Enough
He had his fun with modding and tuning his bike, so now it was my turn. I got a Danmoto pipe and also got myself a Dynojet kit, but with bigger jets. I put the largest ones I had into my carb, and did all my pipe fitting. It was just a slip on, since the bottleneck was in the muffler itself. *Damn*, was it loud. Like, I test rode it a good twenty or so blocks from my house, and my dad (who was inside cooking) could still hear it when I took off.
Now, as the crow flies, there were houses galore. None of this area was open land, all of it had sound-blocking things in the way. And he could still hear a thumper accelerating. That says a lot for the pipe, and much to my dismay, I knew I had to quiet it down. I was able to fashion a small silencer for the end of the pipe, to disrupt the gases as they left, muffling the sound. It’s still incredibly loud, but now I can somewhat control it when need be.
Step 12: Learning to handle my stick in front of a stranger. Don’t worry, it’s not NSFW
Finding it
And now, onto the current step in my journey, my daily driver. I had the Porsche on the market for maybe a week or two. That’s when I happened upon a car that fit my new desires list: faster, manual, a little bit of stance, and somewhat rare. I called the owner of this beautiful machine, and told him what I had, and proposed a trade. Sure enough, he was interested, and we met at a gas station between our houses, to lower the drive times. We looked at my car first, just so if he wasn’t interested we’d know. We went for a test drive, and he seemed interested. So, we moved on to his car.
Before I continue, I do want to mention that I had *no clue* what I was doing here. I had never driven stick before. The closest to a stick-shift car I’d ever been was sitting in a DeLorean (being in the car show community and driving a vintage Porsche had its perks!). I was very nervous, but also very excited.
The Meeting, Pt. 1
Back to the story. I just kinda watched what he was doing while he was driving, in hopes of gathering some useful information. I couldn’t, sadly. When we got to our turn-around spot to start heading back, I asked him to pull over. Then, I requested to drive back (since he had been able to drive mine, it seemed only fair). He looked a little inquisitive when I told him that I had never driven stick before. He still obliged, coming over to the passenger side.
Sliding into the driver’s seat, I was still unfamiliar with the third pedal that was unlike any car I’d driven before. I kinda messed with it a bit to get a feel for where the friction zone started (as we called it in the motorcycle safety course). I felt comfortable with it in about thirty seconds or so of just slightly moving the car with the clutch.
The Meeting, Pt. 2
Pretending to be calm and confident, I pulled out of the parking lot we had stopped in. We proceeded to go up to the stoplight to u-turn. As the light turned green, I held my breath a little, and… stalled it. Right in the front of the turn lane. The guy winced a little, the cars behind us were honking, it was going as well as you’d expect a first time driving stick would go. Kinda blushing at this point, I restarted the car, and accidentally did a burnout turning the car around. I didn’t want to be in that scenario any longer than I needed to be.
After that incident though, it was somewhat smooth sailing, all the way back. He gave little pointers on driving stick, like to not downshift on deceleration, to just shift into neutral and coast to a stop. Also, to just leave the clutch half-in while leaving a stop sign with some gas, to only let it all the way out once I’m moving. While these aren’t healthy for the car, they definitely helped me control the car better, and got me into the rhythm of driving stick. (And you know I downshift when decelerating nowadays, that sound is too beautiful to pass up!)
The brakes were super old, and the rotors felt like they were warped, as the braking came in pulses when I stepped on the pedal. Past that, the car ran fine. It sounded aggressive, and pulled like a champ. He could tell I was surprised by how it sounded (I had looked this car up a little before coming, and knew what it should’ve sounded like). He told me that it had a full Megan Racing exhaust system, as well as twin Spectre intakes under the hood. Hence why it sounded so mean, and felt a little better than the stock Crossfires seemed to.
Negotiations
I was madly in love with this car, and I had to have it. All the hard work was done already, the exhaust system. I just couldn’t let it show how badly I wanted this piece of art. All I could do now was see if I could work some magic, and get my grubby hands all over this beast of a car. I spent a good ten or so minutes talking with this dude. After a large amount of talking and negotiation, I got him from wanting a grand cash on top of my car, to accepting 250 and the Porsche. This left me ecstatic, to say the least. I gladly accepted, and was happily on my way home, in my new car.
I knew that there were some other modifications done to the car, like tinted windows all around and smoked-out taillights. Until night set in, though, I had no idea that I also had red lights in the front to accent the car. In my state, this is very illegal. I have to be pretty careful as to where I drive at night nowadays, as they come on with my headlights too.
Effects of the Car
While the car wasn’t fast by my current standards, it was very fast for back then. After having just driven the ~140hp Porsche with a 3 speed for awhile, going to ~230hp through a six speed was a breath of fresh air! The car was so, so loud, too. It growled like an 8 in the low revs, and sounded like a v10 while it was playing around in the power band (it just didn’t rev as high). Those got me more cred in school than I had ever imagined.
It’s gotten to the point where I get stopped in the halls. People ask if “[I’m] the owner of that fast and/or loud Chrysler in the lot?” It’s incredible. I’ve gotten asked on multiple occasions to rev it up in the lot when I park. I had to buddy up to the parking lot patrol woman. That was the only way to not have her upset about the noise. It’s like being famous, in my own little way. Here’s a clip of how mean it sounded:
Now, imagine that orgasmic sound, reflected against a large, brick wall. That was how it sounded in the school parking lot. My school was two stories and made exclusively of brick, with angles that were perfect for sound amplification. Revving against a surface like that was almost the equivalent of a tunnel pull, you can feel that sound!
Step 13: What’s next?
The million dollar question, that I know is at least on my mind, is “what comes next?” I’m really happy with how deals have been going, and I’m looking forward to the ones in the future. As far as “what”, though, I’ve got some hopes, but nothing is for certain. Of course, it always depends on what’s on the market.
My genuine hope, if all goes perfectly well for me, is to get into a Subaru Impreza next. After that, a Honda S2000, followed by a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. Then to a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and to an FD Mazda RX-7, to end the tuner car line, a Toyota Supra. Past that, it’d be getting into more exotic cars, maybe a Viper in there somewhere, eventually ending up in Lambo/Ferrari territory. They’ll have to be low-spec cars, like the Gallardo or the 355 F1 Spider. Either way, the value keeps going up with each trade, and that’s really all that I can say.
While these cars aren’t the most popular, there’s still a cult following for tuner cars and imports. With their wild potential for power, and their timeless styling cues, the demand for these cars increases as the supply continues to decrease. The Drift Tax has really taken ahold of the tuning legends of the 80s and 90s, anywhere between doubling and decupling the prices! I’ve found this to be an incredibly lucrative market, as finding ones below market value yields more and more profit every day.
Step 14: Finally embracing my inner car guy! (I swear I’m not a metro-boy)
Wow, things really blew up! From the Crossfire, I sold it and bought a Honda S2000 straight-out (skipped my Impreza stage). That was a really incredible buy! It was fast, had a stock limited slip differential (could slide it around basically), and had a rag top! I was able to buy this car at almost half its market value, as it had a rebuilt title from being stolen a few years beforehand.
I didn’t have any issues with it, the car had no problems itself aside from some rust. Most importantly, I was confident I’d be able to resell the car at a much higher value, despite that title mark. I daily drove that car for a rather long time, because I *loved* it! That car got me through my fair share of dates too, despite the ride being pretty rough. It had super tight aftermarket coil overs, about a $5k set.
Despite that, the car was really comfortable, and it was good on gas too! In turn, that meant it was good on my wallet, much cheaper to drive. The most money I had to spend on that car was the full synthetic oil for an oil change (which I did myself, that car never saw a shop).
Easily, this was one of my favorite cars. If I wasn’t going to keep building value in these cars, I absolutely would’ve turbocharged it and got a widebody kit with some paint. Alas, I got rid of it for my next step.
My next step is too fast for this page!
Don’t worry, you can still read up on it! This next car was just too crazy for this page, in it’s own league! You can keep reading my story here.
