Keeping my car

I just decided to keep my car forever, and yes this is a huge decision for me. 

I have an ‘03 Z4 that I’ve just loved since day 1, back in spring 2018. But I’ve also thought since day 1 that I should sell it some day since it’s just for fun and I can always use some more money. Added to this is the fact that I only paid $2,500 for it and people are selling them for way more than that. My wife likes that it seems like a classy date night car, the kids like having one-on-one time with daddy in the car.

I’ve even had it sold and waiting for it to be picked up until the guy apparently had a REAL conversation with his wife about it. Haha. 

But today, when I got really serious about selling it again, I talked it over with my wife, I weighed out the reasons why I wouldn’t want it (mostly related to Michigan just being crappy for cars like this) and ultimately I had a heart to heart with myself and with Rush’s song Red Barchetta. And so I’m keeping it forever. AND I may finally double-down on it and do the fun things to it that I want, such as wider tires and a vinyl P51 Mustang-style shark’s mouth up front. 

*phew*

I’m glad that’s finally settled. 

Congrats!!! 

The fact that you got it for a great price makes the enjoyment all the better. I hope you drive the wheels off of it!

Hey that's great! I've had a couple "I should sell it" moments with my mr2, what with having two kids and all, but it's just perfect for summer commuting and yeah the kiddos love riding in it. The money won't make or break you right? So keep it! Look at it this way you'll almost certainly never lose money on it. 

Nice!  Now a build thread, starting with the current before pics....

Michigan? Keeping it forever? I assume that means it's put away for part of the year. 

In reply to P3PPY :

IMHO, there's a lot of amazing roaster weather here in MI.  

And just get good snow tires on a spare set of rims- winter is not a problem.

Now i need to get back in the garage to work on my forever roadster.

As owner of a Z4MC I agree that they are a very pleasing car, and for what you have into it, you'd probably regret selling (and could probably not replace it for anything like the money).  Can you license it for only part of the year (not sure what portion of the year is sports car friendly in Michigan - I am lucky enough to be in BC which has a pretty good climate and I license for about 6 months a year as a summer driver).

I tell you what, on these typical gloomy Michigan days I gotta stay off the Cars For Sale section. I see these Volvos like the $500 one in OH or the twin $1,500s and my wunderlust for novelty kicks in more than my nice day nostalgia.

So I'm not sure what to do about driving it in the winter. I've heard plenty of people swear by putting some kind of oil, grease, or wax coating and I suppose I need to be more serious about that and other preventative things like the $600 cooling system refresh. If not the wax/oil, I'll need to park it so many months out of the year and get a second car, but I don't have much money to spend on a secondary and so that typcially means money and time pit.

I've just never had a car that was nice before, and I've never had one where I have EVER put preventative care money into it. I'm downright terrible about even oil changes. It's hard to make that perspective change, especially when it involves multiple hundreds of dollars. A couple years ago it was hard for me to pay someone $250 to do a lower intake manifold gasket on our minivan (I didn't have the time) but now I'm dropping $600 on something that's not even broken yet. Until I got married I'd never spent more than $500 on an entire car! Has anyone else come across these perspective hurdles before?! How did you overcome?

EDIT: I should note that it was $2,500 purchase, then $450 for a new door and $500 for airbag computer refreshes. Last fall I dropped $1k on suspension parts and high perf brakes (though whatever the PO had installed has still been holding up AMAZINGLY well)

I plan to keep my Cougar forever. I just haven't figured out how many times the rocker panels will need replaced over the course of my lifetime. Keeping it in the garage would help, but garage space is at a premium here.

I am only now considering selling my MGA race car - I've only owned it for 50 years, so don't think I am being too precipitate in thinking about parting with it. Finding a buyer that won't trash the car is the other problem though.

Ive got a couple “forever cars”, don’t remember exactly the moment on one but the other wasn’t worth being a forever car till i made it so no one else would want it lol. 

So much for my "forever car." Poop. Unless someone has a great surprise for me, I do believe I'm looking at a blown head gasket. It's never even overheated

In my daydreams I have already transplanted an LS in there. In reality, my wife is due with #3 in ten weeks.

In reply to P3PPY :

mmmm....looks like a tomato slice with melted cheese! tasty!

Dang, and only 5 days into your decision. Head gasket? fixable? or likely ruined bearings?

In reply to Cadman5 :

I only figured it was a head gasket. What bearings go bad and do that?

Crankcase valve? M54 engine? 

I put a head gasket into an E36 and honestly, it wasn't a big deal. Simpler motor and I didn't have kids though... 

I hope you can sort it out

Yeah M54. I'll look into this crankcase valve bit. MAN I'm glad I procrastinated on the $600 of maintenance items. Also, that would have been pretty rough to have sold a dude the car with that going on - no matter what it turns out to be.

I don't think I'd be looking at a head gasket redo anyway. There's an $800 100k M54 at a junkyard nearby, or so says car-part.com

Now I'm wondering what all I should do to it during the heart transplant. It kinda sucks to go thru all that work and end up with the same performance, too- but again, that's my adolescent brain talking.

What does the oil and coolant look like? Hoping for something simple, easy, and cheap!

P3PPY said:

In reply to Cadman5 :

I only figured it was a head gasket. What bearings go bad and do that?

I was just thinking the water in the oil could cause poor lubrication to the mains.

In reply to Cadman5 :

ahhh yes that makes sense.

Thanks, me too! I’ll have to check all those things tomorrow and rent a compression tester. Does anyone know off the top of their head what it should be?

Getting a little milkshake on the oil cap is not cause to jump straight to headgasket or engine swap. You can get that just from condensation mixing with oil splash. If there are no other symptoms then it's very unlikely you have a bad head gasket. Don't fret, diagnose. 

In reply to dculberson (Forum Supporter) :

These are wise words. I've wasted much energy and many hours chasing solutions to problems that didn't exist. 
One step at a time. 
Pressure test the cooling system. Pretty sure you can rent one of those. That should get you to the problem quickly. Also an oil change

Thanks, guys. Will do.

EDIT: I sold the van with a spare (used) radiator in the back seat because I had failed to diagnose a bad hose clamp *smacks forehead* -- I'd better warn my wife about this proclivity of mine so she can hold my feet to the fire about proper troubleshooting

In reply to dculberson (Forum Supporter) :

Wisdom I've got to remember.