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
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.
Spent around $650 on a ‘plug and play’ Kenwood head unit at the recent Saab convention so I could have CarPlay and bluetooth in my 08 Saab convertible. The kit was supposed to enable the steering wheel controls and basically be seamless other than running the cable for the microphone ( did not integrate with the onstar mic).
The instructions seemed pretty straightforward but my Saab indy shop warned me they had never installed one.
Took them about 8 hours to install it but the antenna adaptor was wrong (I had factory nav so there was a different adaptor which they sent me gratis) and the steering wheel controls don’t work.
Turns out other shops had the same issue.
Cost me more to install than the unit itself and I still have to install the antenna adaptor and see if I can get the steering controls to work.
So much for ‘plug and play’ but it sounds much better than the factory unit and i can hear the navigation.
On the other hand someone was paying for xm on the factory unit so I lost that.
$900CAD on style 5 17″ 2-piece BMW wheels…. got a harsher ride, probably slower acceleration with it. but no regrets
I spent about AU$900 (US$600) on a little box for my 2013 Crown Athlete which, with the press of a button on the steering wheel, activates Android Auto/Apple Carplay on the factory touchscreen. A lot of money for Android Auto, sure, but I like how it keeps the interior looking factory whilst completely modernising the car.
Now I think about it, the stereo is just about the only mod I’ve ever done on any of my cars, and even then it’s always just been changing the head unit to get more functionality. I very much prefer to keep everything stock on my cars as far as possible.
Mercedes, I’d be careful buying a cheap Carplay/Android Auto head unit, I’ve heard stories about poor performance, hard-to-read and operate screens and dodgy reliability.
Easily paying for professional installation of the super rare OEM Ford Focus hood stripe I acquired.
B/c yeah, I’m that guy – I’ve always loved everyday cars with a bit of unserious visual flash to indicate “sporty.” Back in the day, it was everywhere and we liked it dagnabit.
I guess the STI gurney flap, oem mud flaps, and toms all red tail lights I put on my BRZ would be my biggest purely cosmetic spend on a car. Probably spent a few hundred on that. I also replaced the stock black lock pulls and ebrake button with oem chrome bits in my old M Roadster, so maybe $50? Otherwise it would probably be stereo stuff, but I’ve never really spent much on any one car… Oh, I did drop about $1k on a hard top for my na miata. I guess that’s a comfort mod, but I could claim performance since I ripped the soft top out at the same time…
Tom’s do an all red tail light for the BRZ/86? Interesting!
I hate the chrome/Lexus look rear lights on my 86.
Not the most, but my first Wrangler YJ had the four cylinder and I added a “2.5L Low Output” decal below the right taillight. Jeep nerds loved it.
$200 roof rack. Special effects pyrotechnician and even though the prepped effects were safe as hell, I got nervous carrying them inside my SUV. Carrying them strapped on the roof was less nerve-wracking. Even if one somehow went off it would only have dented the roof, (though probably startling as hell for other drivers.)
$2500 to reupholster the seats, and add heat & massage, on my 2000 F150 Lariat 4×4
Next expensive was the $1,200 for the hard folding tonneau on top of the $700 spray in bed liner
Next expensive was the $900 touch screen radio, with bluetooth, which would play DVDs, with satellite radio and navigation add ons.
People thought I was roughing it taking naps at job sites, or rest/parking areas.
Easy. When my ’11 328! wagon arrived from Amsterdam, I had a BMW Performance Exhaust and Performance Intake waiting for it. Literally put it all on the evening I picked it back up from the local dealership. $2800 or so for the pair. It makes the car sound ABSOLUTELY glorious – like a fat lady singing Wagner when you get on it. But does it make the car one iota faster? Nope! But it sure sounds faster – and to my mind a car that feels faster is waaay better than one that is actually faster. And the carbon fiber intake looks pretty cool too.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YNynCH9py3jDYT1C6
Plus fat stainless pipes:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GjYMayemR3vphV6h7
The best mod came from the factory – it’s a 328!.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hd2KGtqTs1vN7ASXA
I have pictures from delivery in Munich showing they built it that way, LOL.
Back in the day I spent *stupid* amounts of money on stereos. So glad that cars come with decent audio, though I am literally about to go out in the garage and replace the dead subwoofer in my Disco I before taking it to a car show tomorrow. The weedy little 5IN door speakers in that thing are terrible by themselves. At least it’s one I have had sitting on a shelf for years. Hopefully it even still works…
It might depend on the drivers having foam or cloth surrounds, speaker-wise.
The speakers are new. They are just too small to make anything even vaguely resembling bass, and nothing bigger will fit without more surgery than I was willing to do.
And of course, the new sub wouldn’t fit under the seat where the old one was. Too wide by half an inch. But I think I managed to fix the old one.
I never tracked the full expense of the repair, but repainting and soundproofing the interior of my RN38 Toyota Pickup (Hilux).
Tore the whole thing down, sanded down the black MAACO paint and refinished in Rust-O-Leum Dark Hunter Green on black primer with multiple wet sandings to get a glassy single-stage look. Black highlights and trim, white cab roof over the drip rails. Multiple layers of sound deadening material in the cab to quiet down the rumbling 22R and screaming straight-cut gears. Re-did the black interior to almond to make it feel super airy and open. A Ford Ranger 60/40 split bench seat and a custom fiberglass dash.
Lost it all in the Tubbs Fire. I only had the cab/chassis left with the engine and custom-rebuilt L52 transmission. I ended up just giving it to my local Toyota truck guru because my parents were selling the ranch and moving away.
Probably a set of aftermarket wheels to swap summer / winter tires but in the same ballpark was adding Stealth Hitch and wiring harness for towing a utility / canoe trailer. I could argue those are both performance upgrades in which case it’s probably a stereo and a lot of blacklight interior lighting installed in my first car in the mid-90s.
Assuming touch points as performance enhancement by way of improving feel and excluding stereo upgrades on old cars, I bought a PA system that made animal and other noises for my car in HS. Best $25 I ever spent in the best $500 car. I spent a little more on crosshairs for the hood, fake machine guns (replaced by styrene teeth after a cop did not like the potential pedestrian impalement issue), and some vinyl graphics. Hitches for the Focus ST (stupid center exhaust made this annoying and restricted to 1-1/4) and the GR86 (a proper 2″ and the receiver can be removed separately so it’s completely hidden behind the bumper cover) for bikes and a utility/kayak trailer.
Give or take $400 CDN to retrofit the passenger’s side front with power adjusters. The interior colour I have on my 23 Sierra wasn’t never paired with a power seat. A junkyard seat, bunch of plastic trim pieces from the dealer. Plus a whole lot of time studying wiring diagrams as of the 22’s, the wiring changed on the vehicle side, so the older seat can plug in, but a smoke show would be likely.
We’re currently spending far more than I’d like to admit in replacing the rockers (which were definitely going to have holes by next year) on the Cruze Diesel.
Not performance in the slightest, but does keep the car looking good (and preventing structural corrosion) for hopefully much longer than the original rockers lasted (11 years).
After buying my 911, I made changes focused first on comfort, reliability and safety. Best comfort mod I made, and most expensive mod, was a pair of old Recaro LXes to replace the factory comfort seats. I think they cost a couple of grand in 2020. They’re my favorite seats, and all-day comfortable. They’ve proved themselves on many trips since I installed them.
Hard to say as I spent plenty on cosmetic mods on my S10 and Mustang GT back in the day. Ditto Jeep parts, though arguably bumpers are a performance mod on an off-roader.
Car audio too. Probably had $1500 in a system in my S10 and that extra weight hurt performance.
I have a substantial list of things to buy, but chief among them is $1000 to replace my soft top assembly with a newer one that has a glass rear window and a defroster. Second is $600 for a pair of Panamera projectors and the brackets to mount them inside my fried-egg housings.
WeatherTech mats and a carplaybox for the z28, $200 vs an $1400 plus radio change out.
I spent nearly $300 to buy an OEM dashboard clock from a Honda Today Associe Xi to install in my Honda Today Associe Gi; but only because the first one I got was damaged. I also spent $450 on an OEM car cover which was shipped from Siberia.
I’m currently in the process of rebadging my Prius v as a Daihatsu Mebius. It cost me actual money to get the correct parts imported…
And I still have to decide if I’m committing to replacing the steering wheel airbag module with the matching one, too. The part alone appears to be $500…
I approve 500%, FWIW.
Fascinating! I had no idea this existed.
Me neither…someone in the Discord introduced me to it, and the idea put hooks in my brain.
Frankly, even if it counts as “downbadging” (since the Mebius is a fleet-spec version), I don’t care because “Mebius” is a much better word than “Prius”, which has always sounded too close to “priapism” to me.
(Don’t look that up at work.)
When you go on a Mebius trip, it never ends! LOL.
Land Rovers are impervious to your “performance”. I rebuilt it from the new galvanized chassis all the way up to the canvas top, and NOTHING improved the performance. Not even the Lucas JATO rockets.
Electrical issue 🙂
How dare you! I’ll have you know that the finest speaker wire, wire nuts, and masking tape went into that electrical system. And only a little smoke leaked out.
That is how you know it is getting power 🙂
You did upgrade in quality. No wonder you loose less magic smoke
I spent about $2000 each in my 928, 914, and Boxster for the updated Porsche radio (with touch screen/CarPlay/etc.). And in the Boxster I spend $3500 to replace the IMS bearing with a better one that also has an oiling system. Since the bearing turned out to be fine when removed, I don’t consider that a repair – preventative maintenance, sure. And I could have gone with cheaper solutions, but I wanted one that should keep it from being a problem ever again.
I recently bought another set of Coco Mats to replace the ones I put in the Mercedes after the old ones faded and frayed after 12 years…..
https://cocomats.com/
And when I bought the car I purchased a bluetooth adapter so that I could stream audio without plugging an iPod or phone into the old plug in the glovebox.
https://www.viseeousa.com/products/mercedes-benz-multimedia-interface-mmi-wireless-bluetooth-car-kit-adapter-for-in-car-ipod-integration-add-streaming-bluetooth-for-car-1
And a good outdoor car cover for when I needed to keep her parked outside rather than under a carport or in a garage where she’s supposed to be.
It’s funny that simple floor mats can become such an iconic accessory for very specific cars.
The most money I’ve spent for a thing is pretty mundane: $900 for a set of used Panasport wheels. Whatever, wheels are expensive, we know this.
But there’s a more entertaining one: $100 for a cell phone holder. It’s made specially for ND Miatas to fit in the slot where the cupholder mounts, and I bought it on the assumption that any universal thing would get in the way of something else with such a small interior. (Even still, there’s just a couple millimeters clearance between my phone and the path of the handbrake!)