Why do people ruin cars?

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine: This is why food is not allowed in my vehicles. "Gee dad, its just a car, why are you so worried?"
Or: "Mom lets us eat in the van". "yes" I reply, "That is why mom's van looks like a trash can". Grrrr!!!

Oh I have strict "no food" rules too. People make fun of me, but then I'm the one thats laughing when a year or so later, they have all these nasty stains and their car smells funky.

I have a no food policy as well and still have a destroyed car. Mud and books and old school reports. A pile of coats that seems permanent.

Scottah wrote: I don't understand. Every. Single. WRX, SRT-4, Focus SVT, Civic, or other enthusiast vehicle on Craigslist is ruined. Why? Why do all these cars get ruined the same way?

Why?? Answer = $$$ and experience

The cars you list are mostly purchased by younger people. They have just enough money to purchase the car but not enough to properly modify it. They (like all of us here) want to modify the car to make it uniquely their own. But, due to lack of money they fall for all of the marketing hype and go for the cheap stuff.

In the Focus world I know several who bought an early Focus while in their teens or 20's and proceeded to "junk" them up. When they reached their 30's with more experience and $$ they got another one and did it right this time.

I will admit that when I was in my 20's the first modification I made to any car I owned was to replace the stock muffler with a "Glasspack". By the time I bought my Focus at age 58, I had a lot of experience and the ability to spend 50% of the cost of the car to make modifications to it.

Nice to see another car police nazi thread....

People do what they want. Simple as that. They paid for it, not you.

In reply to alfadriver:

Well, it sucks when you want to build a certain car, but every example of it has been ruined or trashed. Then, if you find a clean example, the dude wants a mega premium for it. Its frustrating. Yes, they can do what they want, but in a way their actions affect our experience.

The0retical wrote: Of course then I search for FD RX-7s and have trouble finding a complete one with paint that isn't $16K and wonder WTF is wrong with people.

Buy mine. $12k.

I'm strongly considering ruining an LS 400 or Audi A8. Lexocet!

It's dumb kids who think they know. Case in point a friend just convinced his "adopted stepdad" (ex girlfriends gear head dad) to buy them a 1970 nova drag car. It had pumpkin orange paint but that was its only demeaning quality. Within a week the kid spray painted all the factory chrome (bumpers included) black, along with about a dozen other extremely questionable appearance modifications. It now the most hideous car I've seen and he hasn't even painted it the purple he wants!

bastomatic wrote: It's not just young owners. There are plenty of "car guys" out there with questionable taste, usually backed up by questionable talent. One example: a local "hot rodder" had a nice 1952 DeSoto I was interested in. Great original faded paint that showed years of use. I go to check it out and the guy had done a terrible Rustoleum two-tone job to it, complete with runs and orange peel.

This pretty much sums up the "problem". bastomatic liked the car with worn paint and painted steel wheels The owner liked the car with paint that didn't look trashed and factory hub caps. Who's right? The owner, because it's his car.

It's just a matter of taste. Sure, you can bitch about the execution - but a Rustoleum paint job was the hottest thing going on this forum before people discovered Plastidip. And in about two years, Plastidip is going to be the indication of a trashed car. "You would not believe what I had to remove to get down to factory paint!"

We've all been kids. Heck, I've still got my first car. The execution of some of the mods wasn't great. But it was great for me, and I learned a heck of a lot. So who cares if it was "ruined"? It'll just give some future nerd something to do. Probably me.

Desmond wrote: In reply to alfadriver: Well, it sucks when you want to build a certain car, but every example of it has been ruined or trashed. Then, if you find a clean example, the dude wants a mega premium for it. Its frustrating. Yes, they can do what they want, but in a way their actions affect our experience.

Deal with it.

Or are car guys just a whiny bunch?

What I'm reading is " Why didn't people buy that car that I wanted when they were new, keep them in pristine factory condition, and then sell it to me for a song?" You can find good examples of enthusiast cars. But you'll pay for them.

That's the reason I bought the FR-S new. In 10 years, the used ones will be used up.

In reply to Appleseed: Bwahahaha

FWIW, most Subaru wheels are plastidipped rather than spray painted.
Plastidip + flat brim hat + vape kit + mud flaps + Hella dual tones = Scoobaru starter kit.
Disclaimer: I say that as someone who is at this moment wearing a flat brimmed trucker hat...
but I've been wearing such ridiculous hats since before it was cool.

JamesMcD wrote:

The0retical wrote: Of course then I search for FD RX-7s and have trouble finding a complete one with paint that isn't $16K and wonder WTF is wrong with people.

Buy mine. $12k.

I was going to email you when I got back to the US in February to see if you still had it if: A) I'm not moving across the country and B) if I can sell the wife on it. The second part is easier than the first oddly.

I have de-hooptied a few Hondas in my time. Its not too hard. Once I swapped an ugly body kit for stock parts with a kid who wanted to put the body kit on his stock Civic. The circle continued.

I think this is just another example of most people not wanting to deal with a challenge. "This should be easy."

oldtin wrote: I'm strongly considering ruining an LS 400 or Audi A8. Lexocet!

Track mouse supports this.

Funny story about "ruined" cars. I did a search looking for details a particular Studebaker Gasser. My own car came up in the search results list and was tied to a thread on the Studebaker forum. The threat was titled 'Pity about the Engine'. The writer claimed I "ruined" the car with the engine swap. I had/have a 496CI 590HP BBC in it - it runs 10.91 at 122+ mph on 87 octane and runs thru the traps at 4600 rpms. He did acknowledge that we drove it 1295 miles on Drag Week, but in his opinion we had "ruined" the car. While I am not suggesting that your opinion is wrong about the other guys car, I will say 'my car, my money, my preference'.

In reply to wheels777:

I don't disagree with you in the slightest. But I see a passion and a dedication in your work that isn't in the cars I'm talking about. If anything it's the opposite. If you want to do something, at least try to do it well.

In reply to wheels777:
Have you posted pictures of your yellow coupe on a vintage Beetle forum to see what kind of responses appear?

I was contacted a few years back regarding my challenge RX7 with the M50 BMW engine in it. The guy had purchased it and wanted to know why "I ruined a GSL-SE, by taking out the rotary". I proceeded to tell him a litany of reasons including I had the BMW engine and it worked, I like torque, and the BMW engine sounds amazing something no one has ever said regarding a rotary. After listening to my response and then telling me how fast the car would have been with a bridge port he tried to resell me the car for 50% more then I sold it for several years prior.

To each there own I guess...

I still don't think I ruined it

alfadriver wrote:

Desmond wrote: In reply to alfadriver: Well, it sucks when you want to build a certain car, but every example of it has been ruined or trashed. Then, if you find a clean example, the dude wants a mega premium for it. Its frustrating. Yes, they can do what they want, but in a way their actions affect our experience.

Deal with it. Or are car guys just a whiny bunch?

We are such a whiny bunch.

Scottah wrote: In reply to wheels777: I don't disagree with you in the slightest. But I see a passion and a dedication in your work that isn't in the cars I'm talking about. If anything it's the opposite. If you want to do something, at least try to do it well.

So, who gets to judge what ruins a car?

Maybe some here needs to reread David's column about one of his neighnors....

In reply to alfadriver:

Not sure why you're so pissed off/hostile towards me over this thread, but I believe it's because you have missed my point.

There's a huge difference between an engine swap (which doesn't bother me in the slightest) and someone who treats a nice car so poorly. Trashed, cheap mods improperly installed with tons and f deferred maintenance really irks me. Especially when shopping for a car.

I'm really not being the mod police here but I did ask the question of why people treat cars so poorly, not why they modify them. We discussed it, some folks had some good responses. Move on.