Going on from the 'how much have you spent thread', who thinks their mods are 'worth it'?

I'm not flaming anybody for spending money on their car. And we all know magnas are not designed out of the box to be performance vehicles (although are very underated performance wise). But with the money spent on mods, and the price the car was bought at, and the relative performance to other cars, who with hindsight would have chosen another car or gone another route?

Given depreciation, insurance, rego, servicing and so on....I'm wishing I bought that R33 95 m-spec, or 1998 rex when I bought my car in 2003. Both were slightly more expensive than the verada ($2-3k), but less kms.

All up with the mods, less magna depreciation, plus excessive turbo insurance, I think I would be slightly in front with cash with the R33 or rex (big thanks to magna depreciation) and have a mid 13 sec car with a lot more scope for improvement.

But thats the price I pay for liking large cruisers with some grunt and being different.

For me at the moment the answer is a no. But that may change if I can find the next value for money mod that makes a substantial difference.

That depends on the person and their situation. Majority of mine is spent on audio, which i can easily take out of my verada, and put into another car and still have a nice crisp sound. In terms of engine mods etc. I personally think going excessive isn't worth it (personal opinion only) unless you have a fair bit of money to play with. But your standard extractors, zorst etc. is all good.
When it comes down to it, it really depends on the person and what they want :)
But I think Dee said it the best..

you dont buy a car to sell it, you buy it to drive and enjoy it..

thats why if you know your a modding person - you research the cost per kw for diff cars :D (factoring in other pro's / con's as well).

btw, you really could just oftyped this in that other thread :D

To be honest modding isn't worth it, being that i'm only 21 I think it's a fun relitivly inexpensive thing to do at the moment. (Whats a few grand in the big scheme of things)

I guess, being that I got my car cheap the mods I do will help to sell the car in the future which is a positive thing. Not that the car will sell for alot more, but the fact that it won't take long to get rid of it if I needed to.

However, for my next car I'm going to get the sports model or the luxuary model of whatever car I want, such that it's got what I want in a car and won't need to mod it.

my cost would have been WAAAAAAY less if i got a manual in the 1st place, and the conversion was basically forced after a fried ECU, but even still, the car has cost me less than $30G all up and i've had it for about 4-5 years with no faults at all (other than playing around with things myself!)

i'd find it hard to get another car for that price, have no defects, and still look the way i want it. oh, and i plan on keeping the car till it dies, so yes, very much worth it

I'm not a big modding freak, so I haven't spent all that much. The lukey was worth it, but the k&n much less so. The rest is pretty much all audio, which I got 2nd hand or on sale, so money-wise was very much worth it. If I want to, I can take them out and put them into my next car whenever that happens.
If I wanted a car to mod performance-wise, I wouldn't have considered a Magna. I'm happy with the choice I made. I got what I was after. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is a completely personal question. Will a Magna ever be a supercar, no matter the budget? probably not. Will my FWD 3.0L saloon be harder to get down the quarter than a WRX or Skyline? Definitely. But can my mechanic, whose opinion I truly respect, talk me into buying a car closer to the performance ethos rather than mod or rice my Magna? Never.

Personally the smile I get every time I drive it makes every cent I spend worth it.

When i was back to Europe i couldnt get a big car becouse its very expensive inshuranse and fuel! Spacialy if u got v6! But here in OZ its no problem at all.I spend in total about $4.000 wich is not much! Mostly for sound. I cant get any mods yet couse i got the waranty.But later i will by a new car and will keep Magna for fun.Planing to put a lot of stuff in it maybe get a supercharge kit! We will see becouse my wife wont be happy about it lol
And also its always good to see peaple very surprised when they see Magna can look good and drives very fast! And i mean fast.

i completely agree with anon ..


ive been VERY VEEEEEEEEEEERY close to buying an import of a few occasion and selling up for that reasn, but things came up and i couldnt sell every time..

i think if ur gonna spend alot of money on a magna u can only justify spending all that money if u keep it till the day it dies ...

thats another reason why im modding it but not going crazy ... ie ralliart cams as opposed to stage 2's etc ..

performance wise magnas are very underated... but the depreciation of the car aswell as bang for buck dont quite match that of V8's and imports

A guess its up to each person. Personally I see a budget of a couple of $k as sensable and much more than that as something you'll never see your cash again for!

You don't have to look hard to see heaps of cool project cars on uniquesales.com.au (unique part of carsales.com.au) heaps of dudes have receipts for like 50k+ in mods alone and sell the whole car for like $30K in some cases.

I don't see the sense in strapping on twin turbo's or a blower on a FWD magna unless you want one hell of a sleeper. As Anon said basically if you want performance (and cred / resale) you have to unfortunately stick to the more common cars and very few people pay extra for a car with fancy mods, unless its a highly modded GTR putting out 700+hp!

You can pick up a GTR/GTS/REX etc quite cheap, you can also pick up a tidy xr6 turbo for low $20k's (cheaper to insure than my magna :shock: ) add maybe exhaust / chip and have a 260-300kw beast for way less (in the long run - reliability and time is important!) than modding a car with lower specs to begin with.

the only thing that cost money for my car and was worth doing was the King Lows i put in ...oh and the strutbrace i made.....everythin else was just a wank, and if i had a 2nd chance i wouldnt have bothered. Waste of money.

Well im not doing the performance side im doing the looks, No-way would i attempt to do a performance mod unless i was puting in a ralliart or mi-vec motor.

i bought a second gen because i liked the look of it
and i'll mod it because that's the type of person i am
i'm not into performance any more (insurance petrol)

I love my magna. As a first car, I know im very lucky to have such a nice big car, which is really, a pretty powerfull car compared to what alot of first car owners end up with.


I have bought (am paying off) the car off my Dad for $4k. It has alot of K's but its been serviced by the book and has NEVER had issues. Its a great, reliable car.

Having said that, I have spent $0 on mods. However that is due to change this year.

Mods im looking at doing:

Redback Exhaust
Pacemaker extractors
RPW Stage 1 cams
Chip

Once I have those items, I plan to stop. Thats already a few grand.

Will it be worth it? Only time will tell. But I can say now that I plan to drive the Magna till it dies so I figure I may as well get the best out of it before it does die

Is it worth it?
in all honesty........... nup

Am I gonna stop soon?
Probably not.

What can I say?? It's a hobby.

The thing with me is that even if i'd bought a brand new car i'd probably still modify it. Probably not as much as a pre-owned car but still the mod will get done. It's kinda like customising the ride as i wish to (read: afford to).

I don't think it's totally a waste of money to modify your car. If it makes you happy or proud to see your ride the way it is, then that should be all that matters. A car, no matter what make or age, will always be a liability, never an asset. I don't see my car as an investment. It is a toy that takes a lot of time and money to maintain, but it's one that i'm more than willing to entertain.

So in summary, no regrets whatsoever for me. :D

Is it worth it?
in all honesty........... nup

Am I gonna stop soon?
Probably not.

What can I say?? It's a hobby.

I think that pretty much sums it up for me as well.

I think the main reason I question whether my car is worth it is the auto box. I'm sure if I had a 5 speed manual it would be a different story. If I can get a manual in and Ibe happy, the modding will continue. If I can't I'll just funnel my money into some investments and earn something, although with no enjoyment :)

No its not worth it.

But, it brings enjoyment.

I have not done much with my TL - I like it to be plan and stelth.

On the same token, I don't regret going nutts with my old TF, as much as it was a money suck, I had alot of fun making it happen :)

everyone needs a hobby, doin crap to my car is mine.

but IF i had lets say 20K to blow on a performance car, yes a R33 or EVO does perform better....but god they have all been done before.....putting time and effort into a magna makes people realise there other cars out there.

My mu tells me off for doing stuff for the car, i stay on the computer too long, she tells me off for that too. So i think would she rather me being on the internet all day doing Sweet F.A. or outside tinkering with the car, learning new things as i go.

i think most of us are happy with our cars as an ALL ROUND performer.

it gives me something to do, just like any young gun with a falcon or commodore they still have to spend money to get there cars only slightly faster

Is it worth it?
in all honesty........... nup

Am I gonna stop soon?
Probably not.

What can I say?? It's a hobby.

Exactly, I love playing around with it. Though if I had seen how much you can get imported EVO's for now, I may have well had one. But I probably wouldnt have a license and it probably would have been nicked and I would most likely sink every last dollar I earnt into it. While now its only every second dollar...

Still it would be sensible to stop but youre only young once, I would like to do it before I have large responsibilities and I cant.

Currently??
nup not on this car (2nd gen auto 4 wagon) as I don't reeeaaally want to invest in this car as I can't see it going anywhere without a lot of money being spent on it
Next car?
Yep. Hopefully will be in the next 12 months sometime and it will be a V6 TE/F. V6's are the way for me :D

For me at the moment the answer is a no. But that may change if I can find the next value for money mod that makes a substantial difference.Was mine worth it?

No, hence why i sold it and bought my current car.

$550 extractors
$400 cat back
$100 Panel filter

The above mods alone gave me pretty much no real gain. At this point in time i realised it was too much of a waste of money for me.

I wanted cheap power. $1500 gives me an extra 40 - 60rwkw's.. $1000 on the magna gives me a paultry 5kw at the most..

IF i had huge amounts of money to throw away, i would have probably bought an AWD and modded that.

I've lost count, as a lot of the mods was also out of necessity by replacing worn out parts. Overall though I am happy with my (first) car, it grips well, has a balanced audio system, is comfortable and practical, looks nice without attracting the cops, reliable. The only thing I would change if I really had to, is a 5Spd.

In retrospect, I really wish I'd bought a VR/VS Clubby... I'll always love V8's, I'll never feel 100% content driving a 6. It's just the way I am. I love my TJ, don't get me wrong, but when I twist the key I get a big "barrrrrrrt", instead of a deep, low "rumble grumble". There's nothing like a V8.

That said, the looks and interior kick the shizle out of any VR/VS. I've got the only modded Magna in my town (small town, population of 12,500). Havent spent too much on mods yet, but what I have spent has been worth it. Extractors, springs, cat back. All pretty worthwhile mods.

Modding cars... Hmm... where do I start.

1st car - spent little, sold it for pretty much what I bought it for. Wish I knew then what I know now, but I taught me not to do stupid things with cars in the rain. Ouch.

2nd car - spent lots and lots - (2 litre turbo) engine came out several times, mostly due to running stupid, stupid amounts of boost on standard head gaskets. Pulled silly numbers at the front wheels on a dyno with a badly slipping auto (think ralliart flywheel numbers) Numerous spectacular gearbox and CV failures, the most terrifying torque steer (it found gutters and pointed itself at them at great speed). Sold for next to nothing with a hole in one piston (and the ignition lead removed/ignitor plug disconnected). Never again with a turbo car. Too much money spent on so-called mods that actually reduced the power or did **** all. I suppose that is the problem with working on an unknown model.

3rd car - 2001 TJ Magna Exec - sensible mods... Second-hand Magna Sports Exhaust, VRX rims, VRX spoiler, HID headlights, Alpine stereo.

4th car - 2003 TJ AWD - As my sig shows... Following the Factory Performance route - using tried and true components. The idea is to keep factory driveability and reliability (ie. not to scare yourself stupid and hemmorage gearbox).

Cheers
Heath Young

All I can say is when my magna passes a ford, holden, nissian, toyota etc, the look on there face is worth more than a million dollars. For me thats all teh justification I need to modify the car.

Like i said in the other thread i want to keep mine for life. 1st car so well bonded; i love it everytime i drive it. What i spend modding my car my mates spend drinking; its all balance...

Next will be GTO mitsu but i'll get this car into mid 13's one day for less that what alot of cars wouldve costed me; and it so darn under-rated..."wow its smooth", "wow it corners realy well" " wow this goes harder than my commodore, i thought these were slow".... sure ill have the spotlight on other cars in the future but stuck on this one at the moment

All I can say is when my magna passes a ford, holden, nissian, toyota etc, the look on there face is worth more than a million dollars. For me thats all teh justification I need to modify the car.

I wouldnt expect anything less from a guy with an 11 second car.

:bowrofl:

modding a TR = definately not worth it!

Going on from the 'how much have you spent thread', who thinks their mods are 'worth it'?
Realistically, no. It's a poor investment. But we like cars so this is what we do. It's just like drinking or drugs except it has one difference: you spend heaps on it but it goes away after a short period of time, at least with spending a grand on suspension, you enjoy it everytime you step into your car.

no........

No!!!!

who cares what other people say, if you want to mod go ahead, but make sure you have priority right

but remember, no car is really worth modding anyway

Realistically, no. It's a poor investment. But we like cars so this is what we do. It's just like drinking or drugs except it has one difference: you spend heaps on it but it goes away after a short period of time, at least with spending a grand on suspension, you enjoy it everytime you step into your car.
And when you think about the depreciation on drink and drugs :D Try to sell used drinks and drugs :bowrofl:

definatly worth it.. well thats wat i keep telling myself anyway hahaha

and im not goin to add up the amount ive spent on my car, i do that every year at tax time haha.

neways mines quick, its different, i love how it looks, how it drives, how it handles, and its got enough speed.

I only live once so i might as well enjoy myself along the way.

i belive it was worth it.
rather than spend $5500 on grog and smokes and drugs per year and not have anything to show for it. doing this, ive been making friends, learning about cars, having fun, and going places. On friday, thanks mostly to my sterio, i was able to make friends with other like minded people, had a lot of fun and got ideas to continue the build up the car.

I'll definitely keep spending money on the magna, couse drugs suck.

Everything mechanical that I modified with my car was worth it, anyone who's been in it will agree.

Cosmetically...probably not...but I liked it so I did it anyway.

Well once I put my TS up for sale I went through my receipts on how much I had spent on it. $5.5k buying it, and just under $4k on mods.....of that, $385 was for parabolics, rest was 'modifications' that needed to be done. Only thing 'special' was the KYB shocks. I didnt really do many mods to it. I was planning on putting a worked DOHC 6g72 into it, but after weighting up the cost of it, I thought it wasnt really worth it.

Having said that, I paid $13.4k for the MX5, and am about to spend half as much again putting in better cams, extractors, Wolf 3D ecu, lowered compression pistons, shorter+stronger conrods and a Jackson Racing supercharger, I agree with what people say. Everyone needs a hobby, and enjoying driving my car is one of mine. Sure, doing what I am gonna do to the mazda aint gonna increase its value - but im only gonna live once, and I want to have fun whilst doing so. Besides, im only 18 earning as much as my dad, so why not eh? :P

If I could do it all again... I'd find a mint condition 308 HZ/WB tonner, drop an air con inside it, and sell my body on the streets.

Is it worth it!!!!!!! YES. The warm fuzzy feeling i get inside every time i blow away a V8 commodore or falcon is worth it. And if you said no hey barinas come with 4 doors and a tow bar.

As a rough guess my performance mods have cost all up about $2,250 which includes
- GReddy Emanage
- Redback Sports exhaust system (cat back)
- Pacemaker Extractors
- K&N Pod
- DIY Hi Flow TB

The GReddy worked out at about $133 per kilowatt gain a lot of money for nothing much really.

This might come as a bit of a shock to some, but I would not do it again... my last dyno was at 124kw atw for a 3.0L Auto exec... not bad considering I know some magnas of the same stats are around 105-110.

I am still pretty impressed with the amount of get up and go it has, albeit having more top end power than a preferred low end power band, but I have modded other cars for much less cost but more gain. If I was to do up another Magna all I would do would be the ZORST as far as performance goes, the rest would be in the handling, body and interior.

yep def worth it...if u start with the right car, hoping to have close to a 14sec car for $4000 worth of mods, jus how close i get to that tie will tell :D and oh the satifaction of beating ford/holdens cant be measured :badgrin:

Yeah, theres nothing more satasfying then pulling upto some holden yobbo in an old boat with a 60 litre engine, they look at your magna like wtf? hahahaha a Magna....

Lights go green and they are left wondering what went wrong. lol

Lets not go down the Falcadore owner bashing track or this thread will close quicker than you can say "We don't like it being said about us"... cheers

It's not all about "winning Dunnydoors or Faclons", but anyway.
I think it's worth to mod a car, any car to an extend. With few thousands spent one can achieve improved ride quality and safety as well as improved performance and fuel consumption (unless always gunned...)
Should one purchase a vehicle with similar handling, power, age etc (as the modded car now has), it would still generally cost more than what one "invested" in the modded car in total.
Regardless, I'd still love to get a new M3 or M5.... sigh.... Or M6.

Not sure, been thinking do I wanna mod mine much engine wise when I got teh $$$, or just go stereo and a squirt of paint and save for a car that has power IE TJ Ralliart or KJ XI / GTVI... or make the KS a sleeper :)

However personaly the previous owner of mine spent a bit on modding mine, and look at what he got on a trade in around the 3k mark.... and the caryard had 10k on it, so it's worth it to the caryard I spouse...

Just a question, why would you spend money on your car if you didn't think it was worth it. Wouldn't you just save the money? :nuts:

yep def worth it...if u start with the right car, hoping to have close to a 14sec car for $4000 worth of mods, jus how close i get to that tie will tell :D and oh the satifaction of beating ford/holdens cant be measured :badgrin:
Im about to spend $3500 on my car hoping to send it into the low 14 sec barrier. Another $6k will hopefully send it into the high 12 mark :D. Mind you, Im not trying for straight line speed, Im trying to keep my handling abilities - thats where my car excels.......although I would love to put it up against a ralliart...would be interesting to see

Just a question, why would you spend money on your car if you didn't think it was worth it. Wouldn't you just save the money? :nuts:
lol great question

Just a question, why would you spend money on your car if you didn't think it was worth it. Wouldn't you just save the money? :nuts:
I have modded almost all the cars I have had, why would this be any exception lol

I have come to accept that you cant get the power to the wheels easily unless you do some very heavy modding and on my car it would just not be worth it.

if you think about it really. modding is pointless, why do we mod cars anyway?

if you think about it really. modding is pointless, why do we mod cars anyway?
I do it as a hobby and I always like to have something that is different from the norm. Sure you cant race around the streets and break the land speed record without getting stung, so in that respect it is pointless, but out on the track it is good to see the results and having extra power when you need it is handy too. Not that I need to have people comment on my car but when it happens it is also satisfying... One other benefit from my exhaust for example is that people know I am coming before I get there ha ha

I assume you meant performance mods only, aesthetic mods speak for themselves.

if you think about it really. modding is pointless, why do we mod cars anyway?

Same reason people decorate a house... it makes it unique/homely/different or more importantly it makes it YOUR car. It can take 5 or 5000 dollars to make a difference to anything, it just depends how far you want to go with it.

I dont think anyone here is disillusioned (sp?) with their car, they know it wont be the fastest on the road and know it wont be the best looking either. But we do what we do for the 'emotional' value of it. Its the feeling of self achievement with a final product, knowing our own views and ideas are materilized in the form of the car we drive. Its an expression of who we are.

At least thats how i justify the money i've spent on my car, it may be different for others.

as now not so boy racer being 23, but still boy racer as i never will grow up, i love going fast and being able to go fast, the magna is a direct competitor to the holden commodore and ford falcon, as granies drive fords and wanabes like to cruze in commodores, i have no greater satisfaction than smashing a commodore at teh lights, i have no great engine work done, if anything my exhaust is too small and i have to drive like a 2 stroke, however i wont sell this car, i intend to buy a mitis 3000gt or gto (they may even be the same car) so far my car has cost me alot, as i had a whoopsie in melbourne but i love it and wont get rid of it, who cars if you spend 100k on it, its resell will only be 10k, and even if i wanted to sell it, who in there right mind is going to buy a manual hotted up car of a 20 somthing yr old, lets be honest, i wouldnt buy it, i dont expect anyone else too eather.

i understand you lads, i wanted to mod the car i got now, but helpful advice from fellow amc's, has made me put it off for now, it's for the sheer fun of it

i understand you lads, i wanted to mod the car i got now, but helpful advice from fellow amc's, has made me put it off for now, it's for the sheer fun of it
lol yeah, we had a few disagreements at first... I guess you know people mostly only comment from experience (well I hope they do), They wouldn't comment if they didn't care... it sucks to have some of your dreams questioned and criticised but it doesn't mean you have to listen, and that it wont one day happen.. but if no one makes a point people can be a little naive sometimes. People can take or leave whatever advice is given to them, especially on an internet forum.

Hey moddin is fine, as long as it dosent put u in debt. Unless ur hopeless with money matters, everybody knows thats u'll neva get the money back (unless its sum 1950's Chev etc). Even betta, buy a pre-modded car!!! That way no work needed!!! And for ppl who want 2 do the paint, unless u want a unique colour, just find one with a good condition paint job, thats i wat did!