Burn Rubber Not Money:

Set yourself up for success with your Neo-Classic Car

by Stephen Giangrosso

I have put thousands and thousands of dollars into a car and nearly all of it was unnecessary. Here is how I got to this point and how you can save yourself.

Photo by @jasonthehackerautomotive

But let’s take a step back. I will briefly explain how I got here: It’s 1:00 AM, pitch black and cold outside and my “new” 20+ year old car is shaking like a leaf all over the road whenever I go over 55 miles an hour. Not the situation that I was hoping for after my fiance and I flew out to Virginia to buy and drive this car home. This 2001 Subaru Impreza may have less than 70,000 miles on it but it is still old and time has been unkind to its old rubber parts, regardless of its mileage.

As I continue driving home Google Maps is saying that it will take approximately 21 hours of non-stop driving before I make it home. However, I know that it will take a couple of additional hours to that estimate to compensate for the car's desire to vibrate. No cruising at 70 mph for us. While I continue through the night I am wondering to myself what could be causing this problem and how much it is going to cost me to remedy it.

Once the car was finally home I made a short list of immediate work that the car would need to be safe and roadworthy. Lots of new suspension bushings, a couple of rear control arms, and a steering rack later the car was back on the road and confidently going above 55 miles per hour. The car now feels good. Not great, but good. And this is where the pitfalls began. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I did not have a plan for my new old car past the process of purchasing it and maintaining it to a high standard. I let myself figure out the rest of this as I went along and it cost me money that would have been better spent elsewhere. My friend calls this the “cheap mod fallacy”. This is the idea that small modifications which typically cost between $20 - $250 are easy for people to justify to themselves and will buy impulsively. However, over time these purchases add up and they are pulling you away from completing larger and more important tasks. You would be surprised how much everything adds up to if you keep track of receipts in a spreadsheet.

Personally, what did me in was my misguided pursuit of perfection. Any trim pieces that had scratches or weathering on them I replaced with brand new OEM parts. I changed the wheels, front bumper, and added side skirts to match the beloved Subaru Impreza 2.5RS. I also added appearance parts to the car that overseas markets received but we did not get. All things that I am happy that I did, but looking back I could have done more to make the car fun to drive instead of these things.

I learned this first hand when I finally began to really work on improving the car. I added modern brakes all around that were much larger and paired them with quality street performance brake pads. I also took out the tired old struts and in their place I put in adjustable long travel suspension that was developed specifically for this chassis. This old Impreza was starting to come alive and it felt like I was beginning to head down the right path.

Driving my car around town today is more enjoyable than ever and it continues to soak up miles with only oil changes and occasional routine maintenance. Both of these are great attributes for a car that I want to continue to drive daily for many years to come. I only wish that I would have gotten the car to this point sooner and with less time and effort spent on trying to look cool. Instead I wish that I had focused on “smiles per mile” from the beginning. And lastly, cheers to spreadsheets and keeping your receipts, it’s the only way that I was able to keep myself honest up to this point.