Cars X Girl

When I got into blogging, I only read personal finance blogs. I also, for quite a while, wrote my own personal finance blog. (Named Dreaming of Ferraris, so I’ve always been a bit different and about the cars!) It’s great and all, but when I decided to go to school for finance it dropped off as something I wanted to focus on so much. It takes up enough of my time, and then I got bit by the mod bug really bad…. If there’s a bigger taboo in the PF world than spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on your hobby, I’m really not sure what it is. (Other than racking up debt or something else hugely dumb.)

But I still read a few of the blogs, though I’m more into the car blogs that I’ve found. I’m happier working with my passion, and I fret over the dollars and cents in my life too much already. I didn’t think people would appreciate me masquerading as a finance blogger while pursuing what is, undoubtedly, an ultra-expensive hobby. So I had an intermediate car blog, and now this one, which I hope to really turn into something.

That’s great… I care…Why?

That little background blurb is fairly important to my main point, because it shows where I got the whole opinion from. If you’re into cars and never talk to anyone who’s not into cars about cars, then you probably won’t get what I’m about to say. Without further ado, my main point:

Car people are greatly misunderstood by non-car people.

I read articles all of the time bashing the amount of money people spend on cars. The car payments. The gas. Maintenance. Insurance. Storage. Whatever you can think of, people bemoan the fact that cars are an expensive part of life for most people. For some of us, though, cars are even more of an expense.

To some, cars are life. Cars are a hobby.

We enjoy modifying our cars. We enjoy racing our cars. We enjoy going places to hang out with other people who enjoy modifying and racing their cars. We drop hundreds of dollars on seemingly insignificant modifications, or spend months searching for THE perfect addition to our interiors to add that tiny bit of pop. Or know someone who has a set of super-rare ultra-cool old school wheels they wouldn’t ever part with.

Cars are more than just transportation.

For me, my cars are direct reflections of myself. They show my hard work, dedication and understanding of performance and purpose. It shows my favorite tuning style, JDM, and takes it to heart. I have my autocross built Miata, which will be transitioned to a track car with more heavy mods. (Turbo is good for track, not so great for autocross, but I’m doing it!!) There’s the S2000, an awesome car that shuts people up, and the Silvia… Our soon to be drifter and stylish girl.

Each car has her own purpose, and is built for that. The Miata is lost on a lot of people… Because the majority of the money is sitting in the suspension, where you can’t see it. Same with the Silvia right now. The S2000, though… The carbon fiber says it all, really.

Not for everyone.

The car life isn’t for everyone, for sure. It takes hard work and dedication, and a LOT of sacrifices. Money in all other areas of my life is cut back and funneled into my car hobby. It works for me because my husband’s on the same page as I am — spending money on our cars is important to us, and thus our priority. We’ll continue to rent a house on base, because it keeps my cars safe and it’s cheap. We’ll make food at home, to save a bit of money.

I easily spend half of what I make every month on my cars, roughly. But I also fund other goals, like travel, an emergency fund and retirement. Just not in as large of quantities, but enough to satisfy me. I’ve decided what’s important to me and allocate funds accordingly.

Closing words.

This post here really kicked this off, to be honest. I’m not saying anyone is wrong for citing sports cars or fancy cars as something they don’t see as worth the expense, to each his own. But what I don’t like are how these people automatically think that if someone does spend on sports cars, it’s because the person’s trying to impress someone.

Sorry, my cars are for me, not to impress you. You’re probably not that important to me, honestly.

I trust opinions of trusted family and friends, and the rest I don’t really care about. I love having people compliment my cars, sure, but the negativity I can live without. My sports cars aren’t about impressing anyone, they’re for my own personal satisfaction and enjoyment. They make my life worth living to me. If it’s not your thing, fine. But don’t judge people because of spending money on something “flashy.”

And that’s where I get my point of car people being misunderstood. We’re not that different, honestly. You just see our “flashy” cars. What you don’t see is the sacrifices that go into it. So, before passing judgement, get the whole picture. A tiny snapshot doesn’t do the entire panoramic view justice.

Quick example of this.

A picture of my dining room. Note the lack of a dining room table. The space is instead used for car parts storage. (Lots of 240SX parts and new door panels for our S2000.) For those very curious, you see the edge of our 120 gallon fish tank.

Mostly 240SX parts, with the S2k's door panels in the larger box.

Meg

In 2007, Meg began learning about cars. Two years later, she had a very modified '97 Miata and a '90 240SX project car, as well as the Rookie of the Year autocross title. Life now completely revolves around cars and she wouldn't have it any other way. CarsxGirl is her way to encourage others to get into racing (it's not horribly expensive!), to document & share her car builds, an outlet to share & improve her automotive photography skills and to show that real car girls do exist!

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