I am a self proclaimed cheap car lover. Ain't nothing better than dragging home someone else's project that they lost interest in or couldn't sort out.
I get a lot of joy in ending up with a vehicle that I put some effort into, that I'm able to transport myself and my family around in that costs less than the equivalent of a few months of car payments on my buddies near new Sienna.
I keep track of these projects very carefully. I don't track hours, all work is done in off time after the goblins go to bed, but I track costs very closely.
One behavior I've noticed is my inclination to do my best to make the cheap cars stay as cheap as possible. I tend to not look at it and say that it is cheap compared to the end result and I can spend a bit more cash, I look at it in a vacuum and check myself when I want to spend 2x the cost of the car on tires and wheels.
I suppose it's how you view the end product, your time budget, and how much liquid cash is floating around. Another aspect may be if the car is a forever car (not the case with most cheap cars), or if you've always had a vision for what you wanted the end result to be.
I just love being net negative compared to the projected sell price. I'm not great at speaking French, but I can turn a berkeleying wrench like my life depends on it, and that feels like a nice application of my skills.
To be clear, I'm not talking about not spending money on a car in exchange for lack of function. I.e. my most recent acquisition is a 500$ 1.8t A4 B6 quattro wagon who I'm all in at 700$ with heat, ac, working windows, no warning lights, etc. It isn't perfect, but I don't think a lot about that as I'm throwing my kids muddy bike into the back of it. Or getting back from a particularly cruddy mountain bike ride.
I just love a cheap car man!
