Trying to make a hammer from a screwdriver

[rez333]

I've been looking at some other car forums (passenger car forums), and some people have spent probably $10k on body kits to turn their 4 door, 4 cylinder front wheel drive passenger cars into "what looks like a sports car".

I really get the sense that they're fundamentally unhappy with the car, and really wanted something else. Why else would you spend almost half of the MSRP of the car radically altering its appearance? You don't see anyone taking a Corvette and trying to make it look like an H2 do you?

I am not advocating a stock appearance. But there comes to a point in the transformation of a car's appearance when it's absolutely clear that the owner really wanted a different car to begin with.

What do you guys think?

[CamaroSpike23]

[Nvincent4708]

Originally Posted by CamaroSpike23

[ffrcobra_65]

[rez333]

Those aren't good examples. The "Corvette" is just a truck with the body of a Corvette.

The blinged Camaro still looks like a muscle car, so its character isn't lost.

[SS 376]

Originally Posted by rez333

I've been looking at some other car forums (passenger car forums), and some people have spent probably $10k on body kits to turn their 4 door, 4 cylinder front wheel drive passenger cars into "what looks like a sports car".

I really get the sense that they're fundamentally unhappy with the car, and really wanted something else. Why else would you spend almost half of the MSRP of the car radically altering its appearance? You don't see anyone taking a Corvette and trying to make it look like an H2 do you?

I am not advocating a stock appearance. But there comes to a point in the transformation of a car's appearance when it's absolutely clear that the owner really wanted a different car to begin with.

What do you guys think?

A lot of shops are all too happy to do these ridiculous conversions or whatever you want to call them. They often 'suggest' the customer take out a nice, high-interest personal loan and then make $10,000 or more of work into a tidy payment of $200 a month or whatever. Everyone wins except the poor sap making that loan payment every month for the next 5 years.

[ffrcobra_65]

[WadeWilson]

This Vette wanted to become a Peterbilt.

[THUMPER20X]

That green civic is just as bad as the Gold Camaro. Tasteless. In actual fact the Civic is more redeeming because that was a successful look for those cars, like it or not. All Camaro widebodies in my book are fugly.

[Stingr69]

They got the car as a hand me down from thier parents. They gotta dance with the one they brung. It could be that was the best core they could find at the "We tote the note" car lot.

ANYBODY that spends money modifying thier car is not happy with it as it is.

-Mark.

[Sir Nuke]

and there is another somewhat like the vette....

[BigMatt]

^ That looks like a whole lotta fun!!

[Rogue Leader]

Originally Posted by rez333

I've been looking at some other car forums (passenger car forums), and some people have spent probably $10k on body kits to turn their 4 door, 4 cylinder front wheel drive passenger cars into "what looks like a sports car".

I really get the sense that they're fundamentally unhappy with the car, and really wanted something else. Why else would you spend almost half of the MSRP of the car radically altering its appearance? You don't see anyone taking a Corvette and trying to make it look like an H2 do you?

I am not advocating a stock appearance. But there comes to a point in the transformation of a car's appearance when it's absolutely clear that the owner really wanted a different car to begin with.

What do you guys think?

You can see it quite a bit when you look for those cars on eBay. Why do I say that? Because you see these heavily modified cars that are "just finished" or "only 1,000 miles on everything". They spend a ton of money to fix them up only to be disappointed with it when they are done (and even more disappointed when they take a complete bath on the loss).

In the end you have a car worth barely more than its unmodified counterpart, and tough to sell because not everyone has your same exact taste in mods.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Rogue Leader

You can see it quite a bit when you look for those cars on eBay. Why do I say that? Because you see these heavily modified cars that are "just finished" or "only 1,000 miles on everything". They spend a ton of money to fix them up only to be disappointed with it when they are done (and even more disappointed when they take a complete bath on the loss).

In the end you have a car worth barely more than its unmodified counterpart, and tough to sell because not everyone has your same exact taste in mods.

Cars like these are probably worth less than their stock counterpart. Ones that have the more common mods (basic performance stuff, wheels, simple cosmetic tweaks, etc) can be worth a little more because the person buying would probably do the same sorts of things to the car, and now they don't have to buy them or install them. It would still be worth less than stock used car + new mods, but at least it would help bring the value up a little bit. But with the highly personalized ones, most people would rather just have something stock -especially if the work done is of poor quality and/or the mods are ... less than tasteful.