If there’s one thing car enthusiasts want from their vehicles, it’s more. They’ll dump tons of money into power-boosting parts, suspension upgrades, premium tires, engine tuning, and a whole slew of other fun stuff to make their cars faster off the line and quicker through turns. But for this Autopian Asks, I want to know about the other end of the spectrum: How much money have you spent on optional, not-repair-related stuff that doesn’t make your car perform better?
A funny thing about me is that, despite spending oodles of money on buying, storing, and fixing so many cars, I don’t actually like spending money on modifying them. Sure, I’ll happily blow $17,000 on a brand-new Smart, but then I’ll fight myself about spending $500 on a modification. That’s why most of my cars are almost completely stock. I want to put a set of VW GTI wheels on my Jetta SportWagen, but can’t convince myself to spend the money. I even fight myself over window tint, even though I hate driving around in cars that feel like fishbowls in the summer. So, it’s usually a pretty big deal for me when I do spend a lot of money on a modification, especially if it’s purely cosmetic.
Thanks to folks like the Bishop and Thomas Hundal, I’m deeper into BMWs than I have ever been before, and that’s dangerous. Thomas introduced me to a shop called ID4Motion, and all they do is make plug-and-play digital clusters for old BMWs and cars like the Honda S2000. ID4Motion’s instrument clusters were utterly amazing, and really help modernize a BMW E46 or similar.
I’m a huge fan of BMW’s clusters from the 2000s, but I still wanted to see what one of the nifty ID4Motion clusters would look like in my E61 wagon. Then I saw the price. I couldn’t believe people were blowing $1,000 just to have a digital instrument cluster. I’ve had the ID4Motion tab open on my phone for maybe two years now, thinking maybe one day I’ll spend the cash … but I just couldn’t justify it.
ID4Motion recently closed its doors, which made me sad. Thomas then informed me that sellers in China have been slinging their own digital clusters for years, and theirs were more like $300 or $400, not $1,000. So, I bought one.
I still feel weird about spending $400 on a purely cosmetic mod, but I did it. I’m also going to spend another $160 or so to give my E61 an Android Auto system. When I’m done, the E61 will feel at least a decade newer. Yes, I know I said I was going to sell that car, but every time I drive it, I fall in love again, so here we are. You’ll get to read about these things at a later date!
Am I the only one who feels this way? What’s the most you’ve spent on car mods that didn’t do a thing for performance?
Top graphic image: Mercedes Streeter
Probably all the dorking around I did, trying to update the stereo in my 2004 Tundra with the digital amp under the back seat, because I wanted the ability to play MP3s.
First, I transplanted in the stereo from an Scion xB (a direct fit, both physically and wiringly) because you could get a special cable that let you plug an older iPod into the back of it. Spent a lot of time and hassle modding an old iPod, putting in a fresh battery and replacing the tiny little hard drive with a special adapter that you could plug a 32GB CompactFlash card into. This worked okay for a while, but found myself really hating having to deal with iTunes to make any changes whatsoever, especially when I was used to regular MP3 players that you could plug into a PC and they just showed up like simple USB drives. Unfortunately, the stereo would only talk to iPods.
Then I found out that there was a couple of companies that made analog-to-digital converters to adapt normal car stereos to the proprietary digital interface. So, I got all the bits to install a USB-drive-ready stereo from Crutchfield, as well as the stereo itself, the converter, the adapter harnesses, etc., and sat down to figure it all out. Fortunately, the documentation from all the disparate vendors made sense, so I was able to plan everything out on paper before I started wiring everything up. I used wire nuts first, in case I needed to make changes…fortunately, very little needed to be corrected, so I was able to solder everything up. Everything worked for a while…until it didn’t. The A/D converter had a tendency to lock up every few days…had to disconnect the battery to reset it. The manufacturer was no help. Eventually, even disconnecting the battery didn’t fix it, and I had to replace it…the things aren’t cheap. Did this a couple of times before I got fed up and tried the other guys’ A/D converter.
Went through the whole bit of planning out the wiring, assembling, testing, soldering, etc., with the other A/D converter. It’s worked out much better…had it for years now, haven’t had to replace it. It will occasionally lock up, but I just have to turn the ignition off and on to reset it, and it’s good…might happen only a couple or three times a year, instead of every 2-3 weeks. I have 64GB of horrible music on tap without having to mess with anything, unless I want to add something to it.
I shudder to think how much money I’ve sank into this whole mess, given the rather basic end result.
Merceds makes E class cars, not BMW. BMW makes X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, X8..
New here? Us nerds refer to BMW models by their internal chassis codes. E61=5-series wagon from 2003-2010.
What a delightfully nice response!
Pretty much has to be the new stereo system and adapters to look good in my GTO.
I hunted high and low for the OEM Factory Subwoofer and amplifier that you could option into a Tracker from the Geo dealer catalogue. Found both the sub and the amp but was missing the wiring harness ‘plug and play’ adapter. It wasn’t money, instead time, I spent about 8 months going to the junkyards that were an hour or more away and wasting a weekend day whenever a Tracker or Metro would rarely show up and see if the harness hadn’t been butchered to make my own.
When my Jeep got to the point of being way better off-road than on, I bought a daily driver SL2. Best mod I ever made and the one with the highest single price tag. I spent way more modding the Jeep, but not 4k on a single thing like the Saturn.
Long, long ago in High School (68 Graduate) I bought a rusty 1955 Chevy 2dr Belair. Actually the only real rust was the “eyebrows” over each headlight. New fenders were easily purchased from the local Chevy dealer, but came in black and the car was green with a white roof & trunk. Dad hated the mismatch so he agreed to pay for a paint job and I selected a nice dark green from a paint color book at a local body shop. Friends and I stripped all the old green by hand and delivered the car to the shop. Car looked fabulous and a buff-out of the old white paint made it look great. Dad liked it too until he got the bill. Around $2,000 if I recall correctly. Dad blew a gasket and made me pay 1/2 from my part time job (so I did pay half). Turns out the paint was a special Cadillac metallic green that cost a fortune. Looked good even though it was just a basic 6 cylinder with 3 on the tree 🙂
Let’s see…
$1300(ish) for wheels and tires on my ’05 PT GT when I had that. $600 for a Magnaflow exhaust for that car as well. No actual performance upgrade there, but it looked and sounded nice.
$700 for the Racing Beat exhaust for my ’95 Miata M-Edition. $550 for the replacement leather seat covers. $200 for a set of killer “Jespe” pattern Cocomats floor mats.
I liked the Cocomats so much I bought a set (red and black checkerboard) for my new ’24 Forte GT. $349 for a set of 4. $800 for 30% ceramic window tint, which is basically non-optional here in FL.
In 2001 I spent over $1K to add a non-functional cowl-induction hood plus a Gaylords hard tonneau cover for my 1979 El Camino. I still have them installed today!
Neither did anything for the performance. But they sure helped with the appearance.
I put urethane spring bushings on my XJ. HUGE mistake! Do not recommend!
How much did I spend? Too much!
My Fuel Shark is so awesome and amazing! I am so impressed with it! It saves me so much gas and gives my car absolutely zero extra performance.
Oh, also I sprang for that “TruCoat” and it still rusted all to hell ha ha
My E61 just finally had it’s clutch cylinders bleed. That took me 3 days, and was solved with a $1.33 syringe from Michaels. I’m so tired of being under there.
I just realized that I’ve never even done any mods…at all. I’ve mostly had shitboxes and enjoyed them for what they are. I know car stereos are considered mods, but I hardly count them at all since some of mine didn’t even come w/ stereos or were cheap junk stereos. Have always installed mine own, used to have a cheap amp and 2 10″ subs
If you had a car way back in the last century and the answer isn’t audio …
I feel like I am on an island these days when I talk about upgrading audio.
I spent about $2.5k to make my Golf Sportwagen look like a Golf R Estate with a brand new OEM bumper cover and rear exhaust valence (and quad tips). Objectively not a great use of money, but I look back at that car every time I park it, so maybe it was worth it.
And yes, I did performance modifications first!
$300 CAD for a used fiberglass roof for the Geo Tracker. It’s much more lockable, with better windows, and better winter ice-scraping ability than the stock canvas top, and didn’t cost too much!
I bought it about halfway through the drive back to college a couple years back, from some guy in the total backwoods, after dark, in the middle of a snowstorm. I was just driving the Tracker, so luckily the seller was willing to help me install it then and there, after pulling the necessary hardware from his parts rig. After leaving there, the snowstorm got even worse, and the driving got sketchy, but I made it!
$480 for an aftermarket remote start with installation.Wouldn’t do it again as I randomly get “No Key Detected” warning now and who really needs another fob?I probably should have just paid for the OEM but I bought my car during peak Covid and dealer had none in stock to install.
$11,000 on custom paint that my mom chose without consulting me on my buick in 2000. I pre-paid my painter but hadn’t made a final decision on colors yet, my mom went behind my back(I was 17 at the time so basically had no rights) and decided it would be “cute” to paint it root beer brown with an oh so 90s custom cream splatter on the nose complete with a gold pearl coat.
I was less than happy, especially after one of my friends pointed out that it looked like “elephant c**.” Her excuse was that the car had a tan interior so there weren’t a lot of colors that would look good with it, I proved her wrong in 06 when I had it repainted in honda supersonic blue pearl after I had to hang new quarterpanels on it.
I spent about $1500 adding factory nav and backup camera to a brand new Jetta because I wanted to use the harness in the car and the Chinese aftermarket stuff at the time was a bit iffy with windows ce. I think I spent a little under that about a decade earlier on a 7″ lcd and industrial PC VIA Eden based IIRC just because it looked neat and I could say I had a PC in my dash.
I’ve spent maybe $1200 on bumpers for trucks probably $1500 with a winch but then it becomes sort of a performance item.
Most expensive: $500 for custom neoprene seat covers for my trucks. And I’ve done this three times in the last 16 years. Worth every penny, because I have 5 kids, and the trucks have been our camping/hiking/kayaking adventuremobile. Mud, sand, gravel, sap, dirt, snacks, sodas, the occasional bodily fluid. Put in the washer and it’s good to go.
Second most expensive: full coverage floor mats for the reasons above.
Third most: the nerf bars on my prior truck so said kids could climb in and out.
Fouth most: amp and graphic equalizer for my first car, an 84 Camaro. I’m dating myself there, for sure. But hey, it was a great car and I could hear my tunes…
$300 on custom fit seat covers for the Civic, though that price will be dwarfed when I find the seats out of a wrecked carbon trim for the Mazda. And then that will be dwarfed when CorkSport has the bodykit for my car available, though one could make the argument the vented fenders help cool the brakes and the aero helps with downforce. I have no idea what that will cost, but I think $3-5000 is a pretty safe bet. More if it includes a new rear window, wing, and bracing for said wing.
I won’t be tracking the car, so those will be cosmetic upgrades. I don’t feel like dropping $1500 to have a fiberglass hood shipped here, so the plan is to make one myself. Done enough reading and watched enough videos to know I can make that myself for less than $500, so I’m gonna learn.
My S1 Elise Sport 160 was a project, and it cost me about £4,000 to buy (and about £13,000 in parts and servicing over the next nine years).
One of those parts was a colour matched hard top. I can’t remember the exact cost, but it was between 500 and 1000. It made my noisy, leaky car a dry and relatively quiet daily driver.
Also it no longer looked like a soggy green tent had collapsed on it.
I spent about $1200 to have leather seats installed, twice. I feel like a fool now.
I paid a shop a bunch of money to A) fix the ac in my 12 valve Dodge pickup and B) install the “death pin” blocker kit that’s just a fancy washer. The AC was WELL worth the money and even though the death pin hadn’t moved in 180k miles, I’m not going to take the risk on the only thing that’ll kill that motor
$70 on the heated mirrors that were on the top Forester to replace the manual mirrors it had standard. The 98 Foresters are pre-wired for heated mirrors even if it came with manual mirrors. The heated mirrors are also much bigger than than the non-heated, so that’s another benefit.
The mirrors were $30 each, and the switch was $10
Oh my 1999 Camaro Z28 had a tricked out audio system. 2 amps, componet door speakers, a JL 10″ sub in that cubby hole on the left side of the trunk(could still put the ttops back there) Had the pioneer head unit with the dancing dolphins display. Got all that stuff at a discount and installed it myself but it was still like $1000 23 years ago.