[rajushank84]

There are two sides to vehicle ownership: transportation and hobby.

Let's leave aside the essentials of transportation: depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs, tolls and such. These we spend not out of choice.

But we do spend on vehicle ownership/drivership for pleasure.
So my question is, I am curious. Those of us who consider ourselves enthusiasts / petrolheads / gearheads, or even those of us who would avoid such labels but happen to be on team-bhp:

1. What kind of extras do you spend on your vehicle?
2. How much do you spend average per month/year on extras?
3. How often do you indulge in "vehicular luxury shopping"?

To me, such extra spending can be:

• Comfort improvements
• Performance improvements
• Extra safety improvements
• Convenience improvements
• Style / identity / validation gratification
• Feel / handling improvements

So... I'll go first.

1. I tend to buy at least something every month. Last month it was an air pressure inflator, the month before it was a chain cleaning kit, bike & cover car cover kits.
2. I guess I tend to spend around 1K per month on such extras.

Slightly off-topic: I wonder if stepping into bicycling will further my vehicular shopping habit even further?

Also, wonder if such addictions will eventually come to an end with electric vehicles looking and feeling more and more like appliances, and enthusiasm (as we know it) will die and become like horse-racing, with future generations pointing their enthusiasm towards jetpacks, drones and the like?

Thought this warranted a discussion.

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by rajushank84

[*]What kind of extras do you spend on your vehicle?[*]How much do you spend average per month/year on extras?[*]How often do you indulge in "vehicular luxury shopping"?

The thread is quite relevant I suppose, considering the mammoth after market business that's prevailing and the bombs people spend to spruce up their rides. Since no car is perfect, one is forced to look out for after market solutions- be it lighting, infotainment, tyres, wheels, seats and even a sun roof at times.

For me personally, I try and buy the top variant most times to avoid the hassle of retro fitting things later and the big issue of voiding warranty. Coming to your questions.

The extras I would spend on a vehicle would clearly be on function and improvement of an attribute. I would never spend a lakh for a detailing work as a PPF, but will have no qualms in spending a 60k for a good set of tyres or a lakh for a suspension upgrade and an engine remap. i've seen people spending 10% of the car's ex show room price on detailing which I always failed to understand but would be happy to drive on the inferior OE tyres, more often than not.

I've not kept a tab on the average spend per month. Better never to keep an account of such expenses . The frequency of such shopping depends on time and situation or a need that arises.

[gkveda]

There are two perspectives to this.
1. Spending on the materials and local accessories on a car and maintaining the account to monitor spends
2. Spending on the car for traveling and journey expenditure.

I usually prefer to keep the car stock. So, no expenditure on local accessories. I always had (or have) only Toyota or Hyundai cars and usually go for top or n-1 top variant. I don't go for ppf, detailing etc since I value inner beauty more than external beauty.

So, I have no other expenses on adding accessories or spares to the car. So, other than regular service expenses, 95% of my car related expenditure would go to fuel, toll fares, insurance, pollution, air and tires(when they get old). Other than this, I don't consider lodging and boarding expenses, entry fees, parking fees etc to be part of car expenditure.

[Kosfactor]

None. If I could help it.

My personal vehicle has no stereo because it did not come with one. So I guess you can imagine the extend of this. I did perform some cosmetic mods initially but they were inexpensive and mostly hand me down things.

Afterwards I spend on fuel, scheduled maintenance, breakage repair and other regulatory expenses. In essence, maintain the machine as best as its possible.

There is nothing in it to fiddle with, you get in and just drive, it is just you and the machine going places.

[GTO]

I usually buy the top variant and today's cars are superbly equipped. They literally have everything!! For the Sunny, 530d M-Sport and Superb L&K, I've not visited the accessory shop at all. The only thing I got was a better number-plate. That said, I like to spice up my cars at the 5-year mark just to renew the spark and make them more fun (remap, rims, tyres etc). Modifying a car is cheaper than replacing it and these middle age mods help me retain them for 8 - 10 years.

Voted for "low".

[Axe77]

Voted: Low

With increasing complexity in cars and also cars in general getting better equipped day by day, I don’t feel the need to tinker with the stock offering.

Having said that, I am not entirely averse to doing it. I have made two key mods to my 3GT.

1. An aftermarket M Sports steering wheel with paddle shifters (principally because having paddle shifters is disproportionately important to me in my primary car).

2. Remapped it to a higher BHP about 5 years into my ownership once the original warranty was over.

Both mods were carefully thought through and considered but other than this I really haven’t seen the need to tinker with my drive.

Other than that the only minor additions I’ve made (which I don’t really count as changes to a car) are a coat hanger, iPad tray, air compressor, additional mats to preserve the floor (they sit OVER the usual mats) and a phone mount. To my mind these are basics most people would add to any car.

My Grand i10 A/T is bone stock, as was my Honda city before that (other than a Webasto sunroof which the original owner had installed in the City).

I am responding to this thread exclusively from a “car” perspective. It’s an entirely different story when it comes to bikes - specially adventure bikes. They “need” a lot of mods and accessories to make them fully functional. Mostly safety / protection driven and some which are around luggage carrying.

[Small Bot]

I would go with Low though I could not vote yet.

Except for the i10 (which is a 2011 Magna), all other cars in the family have been only top-end variants. I follow that principle with bikes as well (even my old Activa is a 125cc disc brake variant).

When my i10 was nearing the 10-year mark, I got the tyres upgraded, along with the stereo, the speakers and some rubber beading to provide more insulation and water repulsion. I also added reverse parking sensors, the one without the camera. It cost me a total of around 30k, which I think qualifies for a Low vote.

None of the other vehicles have had any modifications, other than some tyres (the original Ceat and Apollo didn't last long).

I drive around on dusty roads all the time, so I've never taken any car for detailing at all, though I do have the cars cleaned inside and out every weekend.

[TechSavvy]

Since I’m more into used cars and bigger cars cause it’s just a better valued proposition I’ve no complains with the cars I get. Except after a while they age to provide discomfort either tires or suspension so they naturally need to be spruced up and depending on the stock music system, I usually replace those too.
Never saw a need to change the headlights of a car thought.

[vredesbyrd]

Haven't really gone into the deep end but here's what I did. Very low level modifications:

Superb
1. RCD510 replaced by RCD340 for Bluetooth/Carplay/Auto
2. LED foglamps
3. Aftermarket LED tail light assembly
4. Stock D1S Bi-Xenons and H3 Halogen high-beam replaced with LED D1S and H3
5. Steering wheel cover as the leather had started to show a lot of wear and tear

Vento
1. Auto headlight switch
2. LED Pod foglamp bulbs
3. All interior halogens replaced by LEDs

Since I haven't forayed into performance based modifications, I have some plans once the warranty runs out:
1. Stage 1 remap
2. TVS DSG remap (320/400Nm-whichever works)
3. Steering wheel swap from a Tiguan/Jetta for paddle shifters
4. Possible pnp projector headlight replacement for the not-so-sharp stock LED headlights

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by gkveda

There are two perspectives to this.
1. Spending on the materials and local accessories on a car and maintaining the account to monitor spends
2. Spending on the car for traveling and journey expenditure.

Good point. I agree. I spend a lot on 2. I take my car out for weekend drives almost every other weekend on average (in the last month, I ended up doing four consecutive weekend drives, for example). My idea of spending on car is to take the car out and drive away to beautiful locations and on beautiful roads and enjoy the driving.

In fact, my "necessary" driving (e.g. driving for work etc) is zero. I work from home, and use Uber for all my business meetings. Thus, I do not even need a car for essential drives. The only reason I even have cars is because I love driving and almost all my driving is for pleasure. Thus, my entire driving spend can be put into "spending for car pleasure" category rather than for "necessary spend" category.

Originally Posted by GTO

I usually buy the top variant and today's cars are superbly equipped. They literally have everything!!

Voted for "low".

+1 to this. Both my cars were top variant/well kitted for their times, and they had the necessary stuff at that time.

Originally Posted by Axe77

With increasing complexity in cars and also cars in general getting better equipped day by day, I don’t feel the need to tinker with the stock offering.

+1 to this too.

I also voted for Low.

My BMW 320d Sports Line has almost everything I needed, and the only things I bought later are things such as phone mount, BMW OEM dash cam (this was an expensive buy at Rs. 46k that was not worth in in hindsight), BMW mats, BMW USB charger/adapter etc. All of these are simple add-ons.

For my Maruti SX4, over the period of 10 years, again I bought things such as floor mats and phone mounts from time to time. The only other relatively major change I did was I installed an Android Headunit in place of the OEM headunit. I also bought aftermarket TPMS for SX4. But most of this spend was spread over the first 6 years of ownership, and thus the frequency was definitely low.

But overall, my spend on accessories is definitely low. On the other hand, my spend on actually diving the cars and doing weekend road trips is rather high!

[jithin23]

Interesting thread!

Voted for medium as I keep spending some amount on my bike or car every 3-6 months. I don't accessories as such, I add things that are of functional use and to an extent of performance and aesthetic ones. Every time I add something new to my car, it feels like money well spent. I'd say it's better that way as I prefer to spend on something which is useful rather than spending that money in a pub on a weekend.

If you factor in driving or riding pleasure, then the equation changes completely as either my bike or car would be put to use and I don't mind spending on traveling to a new place. Especially with one's own vehicle, the freedom obtained cannot be explained in words. Nowadays even public transport almost costs the same as riding or driving.

I have posted a similar thread a few months ago,
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...rformance.html (What kind of a modifications do you prefer? Functional, aesthetic or performance)

[batladanny]

I generally dislike exterior mods that are characteristic of "ricers"

But I'm all for functional mods (eg. the ones that Jithin23 has done in his Ecosport). I've added a dashcam, a dustbin, window shades and trunk organizer in my Freestyle. A more serious one is adding cruise control + leather steering wheel using the UK spec's wheel. Also plan to add a cycle carrier and roof rack/bag as well

The only exterior mod I would consider is newer rims + headlight upgrade to a projector setup (if possible) at around 4-5 year mark to freshen things up.

[sunikkat]

Well for me first 5 years I did not have any additional expenses than the basic like mats, perfumes, sun film etc.
After completing 5 years, in the last one year, I would have spend 20% of my original car price on mods - remap, Bilstein B6, 17inch alloys and tyres, HID set up, 10 inch android auto, RAZO aluminium pedals etc etc. While at times I feel that for this money I could have easily bought another used hatchback. But on positive side it motivated me to keep my car for another 4 years and save big money on a new car, as nothing short of 330i or vRS can match my ride now

[GaryTSI]

I wasn't able to vote due to being a Newbie but I'll certainly go with 'Low'

I generally dislike aftermarket accessories because most of them look like they're out of Karol Bagh with those awful tacky modifications which at times might put your own or others' lives in danger.

Things such as cheap-looking Headlight units which end up blinding the oncoming traffic, those awful gigantic touchscreen units which run android os from 2012, tacky seat covers, and as a whole, the accessory market feels a bit ruined due to such mods.

But, there is an exception for me from all those mods and those are the OEM+ mods.

A good example being, I own a 2020 Polo GT and it is a bit scarce in terms of features but there are so many people who have then added parts to their Polos from other VW's. Things such as the Vento DRL LED lights instead of the old dual-barrel halogens, Changing the steering wheel to GTI one which is pretty much the same with the addition of Paddle Shifters, Switching the dome lights to the Passat ones, Getting the Flip open reverse camera which is found on earlier high-end VW's and a lot of them upgrading their old infotainment units to the newer rcd340g found in the newer Polos.

These mods are inoffensive, practical, modernize the cars and make you wonder that why weren't these standard from the factory?
I used VW as an example because I am familiar with their structure but I am sure with enough research and expertise, anyone with any make can do such things.

Speaking from my experiences, my family has always tried to keep their cars as stock as possible to retain the warranty but after 3-4 years once the warranty expires, they always go for better, grippier tires, a better infotainment/stereo unit from the manufacturer, stock looking seat covers and other small tidbits to spruce up the car a bit to make it feel slightly new but close to manufacturer spec as possible.

[MayurS]

The mods so far I have done on my Polo TSI are
1. OEM Jetta cabin light with separate map lights
2. OEM VW Flip camera
3. LED License plate lights
4. Auto headlight switch
5. Front bonnet hydraulic strut
Future mods being planned are
GTI 6C steering wheel and Maxidot Cluster