Modifying your cars: How much do you spend & how often?

I wonder if such addictions will eventually come to an end with electric vehicles looking and feeling more and more like appliances.

BHPian rajushank84 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

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:

• 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"?

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.

• 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.
• 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.

Here's what BHPian Bibendum90949 had to say on the matter:

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 cars ex showroom 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.

Here's what BHPian gkveda had to say on the matter:

There are two perspectives to this.

Spending on the materials and local accessories on a car and maintaining the account to monitor spends

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.

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

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".

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