I'm actually pretty happy with my car right now. I've spent a fair amount on it over the few years I've owned it but I stopped counting. I just started working again after finishing up grad school so it's all been pretty stupid but it's been fun.

I love the car but I'd be far more happy with it if it was quieter. That's honestly my biggest complaint... So I'm probably going to throw more money on it to figure out the exhaust situation.

It never ends. Sigh.

Yeah... wait. Aren't you going for 400 hp?

400? negative

More than I want to
But not enough to make the car as good as I'd like it to be

He's talking about my goals, not yours.

Yea...definitely don’t do that.

Buy a good, clean southern NA/NB and swap over you goodies. There are way too many nice clean cars down here (I’m in the Charlotte area) to bother with fixing a rusty northern car.

Don’t do it. I grew up in Iowa. I know what it’s like to work on rusty cars. I’ll never buy a used car north of the Mason-Dixon Line again.

i bought a '96 with 241000 for $1500. it was a little rough around the edges. last reading on the original odometer was ~315000 - had to change the cluster to an nb to accomodate the lfx engine. since then it's been completely redone. probably added $12000 but still in it for less than $15000. absolutely no regrets (well, maybe that spec clutch debacle). i'm retired, so the concept of a "daily driver" is a little misleading. i don't believe it's been driven in the rain for the last year anyway. iirc the last time in the rain was last year at matg. i don't believe there is a single bolt on that car that's not been touched in the last 13 years. after all the dust clears with my son's cars, i'd like to do a prht with an lfx if i could find a white one. why are they all red?

Nonsense!!! That's downright un-American!!

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I pity my heirs. :D

The 1990 Turbo Miata is hands-down my favorite driver. If I feel like I've had enough go-kart, I'll take the Eldo for a couple of days. That balances things out. 500CID Eldos are surprisingly fun to drive in a different sort of way.

In 12 years of ownership, I've probably got over $30-40k into my Miata. However I've changed setups a few times. I also parted out a few wrecked cars to suppliment my income. Over all, I try to keep my budget to around $5k a year and do 3-6 events a year (including paying for 2-3 Champ Car races). Overall, I'd estimate its about 3-5% of my yearly family income is spend strictly on hobby cars.

I keep my annual car-related expenses to about 5-7% of my annual income. This includes maintenance and modding. Luckily my IS300 and the wife's Fit are both pretty bulletproof so the MSM probably eats up the lions share of that budget as I fix/upgrade things. All 3 of my cars being paid off helps a bit here. I'm probably about $12-13k into the MSM including purchase price over the last 2 years of owning it.

For me the MSM is something to keep my mind entertained and for me to have my own hobby. Turning bolts and fixing things is therapeutic. It's also my "me" time.

HELL YEAH. You're making me want to move back to TX. I can't even find an affordable house with a three car garage around here, much less this kind of spread.

Holy shit. This looks like a 747 hangar!.

Much jealous

If we just dropped $20k on this damn Jeep over the last 18 months, I don't want to know what I've spent over the years on the miata, and it still needs paint.

I try not to look back at what I’ve spent. I’ve had the car for 10 years. I’ve gone through 2 turbo setups and am currently swapping to a k24. On that particular car I know I’ve got to be $60-70k in. I’ve sold some parts to recoup costs, but I bet I’m still in $50k.

This is like Schrodinger's cat
The following two answers are both correct at the same time :
1) Too much
2) Not enough

Interesting topic,

I've thought on it pretty hard as well, as I believe I fall in one of those "I spend way too much money on my Miata" groups. I would say over the last 11 years, over the span of two chassis I am probably in the 15-18k range.

This was much harder to maintain when I was a broke college kid, but now that I have a decent job "selling insurance" for the government ...It makes poor choices much easier. Still, though - it bothers me that I am not really much happier with the car as I put more and more money into it. Thinking back, I would prefer the casual sports package type route (5-6k range), allocating more money for seat time.

The discussion on "a newer" or "upgraded" platform also hits home. Most of my co-workers cruise around in BMW, Porsche, Vetts or > 1.00 Mach, so pulling up in my 2008 Chrysler Pacifica was rough for a while. I considered a 997 or M2.. but I just can't justify spending that much on a car when I know ill just turn around and put more money into upgrading it.

Actually, I've found a happy medium. I bought a rebuilt e36, that someone else spent way too much money on maintaining...put some decent H&R struts/springs, pads and a wheel package on it... and just drive it. It should be good for at least another 50k and I don't feel embarrassed driving it around town or into work. A good combination of sporty, classy and new, all for around 5.5k.

Overall, I think the money to value question is a tough one to answer for everyone. Personally, I find my happiness and range of affordability around 10-15-year-old cars.

- End Life Story -

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https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...53e9e822f5.jpg

No Miata in the stable at the moment, but between buying/trading/building cars the last 12-13 years................I don't like to think about how much larger my 401k would be if I hadn't done things like spending $6500 on suspension and brakes for a track car, only to part it out a year later because I was stick and tired of replacing engines.

Joker, I've found it very easy to not spend money on fun daily drivers If that urge is being supplimented by a project car. /Boat

Just food for thought.

I have two race cars and I keep pretty meticulous records of what I’ve spent on both.

And I will throw my laptop into a speeding freight train before I ever admit to the numbers the spreadsheet shows.

Also, since building the first race car I’ve spent almost nothing on my street cars...so...it all evens out?

Y'all are making me feel much, much better about my miata spending. My spreadsheet shows a hair over $10,000, and I've owned my miata for a decade. Granted, half of that expense is the car itself + a hardtop. No track days, + a "good enough" low boost setup certainly helps the budget.
Part of the problem is that when I started modding, a turbo miata was an incredible value proposition. A whole host of quick cars have depreciated since then, and I'm casting a heavy eye towards the C5 Z06's that I see in the sub $15,000 range.
It's certainly interesting that quite a few folks who reach the pointy end of modding cars end up seeking out a bone stock example at some point.

Agreed. My new-found love of track driving has diverted all money that once went to fun street cars to my track-only build. It's still very much a budget build, but the thought of having to spend money on new brake pads for my street car makes me sad as I want every penny going to the track car haha.

I have absolutely no idea how much money I have spent on cars in the past or current. I don't want to know. It's all about purchases that are "manageable chunks" as my wife says.

I do, however, have a yearly "track budget" that I routinely go over. That money is SUPPOSED to be for track entry fees, consumables between events, any upgrades to the car, and theoretically gas for both the car and towing to and from. Realistically, that money covers track entry fees and some off-season maintenance/consumables, and MAYBE a mod here and there. But I often buy a lot of nickel-and-dime stuff outside of that dedicated account and also can't seem to find room to cover gas from that dedicated account yet. I try to do 6-8 events a year with entry fees alone being $400-500 per event. My monthly budget is $400 a month, so I often come up short...

But, just like with today's Monopoly money rules the government and other large businesses use, the numbers don't always have to add up in the end it seems. At the end of the day it's just a number on a piece of paper. Never mind what color the number is in...