Article: 5 Ways People Ruin their Cars

[G.Irish]

I agree with a lot of points here, but I wouldn't think anything more of it except that apparently a number of people felt a little salty about it (judging from r/cars comments). I wanted to see what MM's take on it is.

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[Jake]

Agreed on all of it, aside from the "modding into the next price bracket" bit. In that case, if you really love the car, who cares what you spend on it? Anyone modifying any car shouldn't expect to get a dime back for what they spend on mods. And in some cases, the mods take that particular car somewhere that a stock "next price bracket" couldn't or wouldn't go. See built track cars or off-roaders for good examples.

I feel like the worst offenders are the unevenly-modded cars combined with the un-modded drivers. I hear so, so many people say "oh yeah I'll come to the track just as soon as I........" and at that point, I tend to stop listening as intently. These are the people who think that without that $2500 built diff or $500 tune, their car will just not do well at an HPDE. Just come out and learn something, jeez. Given that we've had a consistent HPDE student in a stick-shift 1999 Camry LE, any other arguments about "the car isn't ready" are invalid. And the same people who will bitch about the $350 weekend price are the ones who don't bat an eye at the $500 tune. I don't understand that type of prioritization but to each their own.

Yes, there are people who have no huge interest in HPDEs, but those people also strike me as more sensibly minded about their car mods and aren't driving like dickholes on the street. It all tends to correlate.

I think I've been guilty of "modding without purpose" in the past and now I'm more focused on the car's intent. Hence why I'm trying to downsize the wheel/tire combo on the E46 and put Bilstein Touring shocks on it. Yes, it can be quick and a bit loud as a daily, but I don't want it to be too loud or too stiff because its main job is to get me to work, and its secondary job is to get me around on road trips. My truck has an intake, but an exhaust might be a bit much when I'm sitting at 3500 rpm pulling my car up hills on Route 7. And knobbier all-terrain tires would sacrifice highway ride quality (99% of my driving) for snow and off-road ability (that I'd use almost never).

That said, I'm pretty secure in my own automotive choices and interests, I'm happy to inform and educate others if they want to know more about things I do - out of curiosity or an interest in doing something similar themselves - and I also don't reeeeeally care if someone else's interests don't align with mine. I may think you're nuts for commuting in a straight-piped Corvette with Recaros, six-points, no AC and no radio, but hey, you do you. If you're happy with it, then so much the better.

[CaptainHenreh]

Side note: This almost exact same shit happens anywhere there's a modding community. RC cars, PC's, Guns, Minifigs. The same points could apply.

[SlimKlim]

I just skimmed the article earlier, didn't realize it was controversial until I went back to the reddit post and scrolled through the comments. I assume this was the post you were talking about?

I said this last thread and I'm going to say it again, Matt isn't the smartest guy when it comes to car tuning. He isn't wrong that you can ruin a car by doing certain things to it, but where he is wrong is that people ruin cars by not understanding what they do to it. Someone whos buying or tuning a mustang to do 700hp and nothing else isn't making it that way to handle well in the canyons or to win autox events. They do it because they want a highway monster machine, ie, a car that goes fast in a straight line. And I know that Matt knows this and he's written this article just get people like me riled up, he's writing this article just to get clicks.

Now I know this is just Matt's opinion but a lot of people just take his opinion and talk about how right he is while they rattle off in their own echo chamber here on /r/cars. There are other sides to everything he says in this article. Matt talks about not wanting to break things on your own car, but he also can't turn a wrench for the life of him. He isn't someone who understands what its like to work on a car with your own hands, break it, and then fix it yourself. The guy in the fiesta who has done his tranny 3 times may seem like an idiot but that guy actually loves that car. And I doubt matt has every truly loved a car seeing as how he goes through cars like theyre nothing.

His third point is all opinion about how he thinks cars should be done/look and he states it like he is the end all be all automotive god. Just because he doesn't like harnesses on a daily doesn't mean that there aren't people out there who don't feel bothered by the extra time it takes to put it on. People generally do things for a reason and I don't think he can wrap his head around opinions he doesn't agree with. And further on he goes on to talk about stance, which I know everyone on reddit hates, but the thing is about people who actually stance their cars also actually drive them. Theyre not the kind of person to leave a car in a garage and never drive it. And while its beyond some people how they drive a car so low around on the streets, its not that bad, its not that dangerous, and its definitely fun being in a car that gets looks good or bad.

For his next point Matt still doesn't understand that people do things for a reason. Can he really not understand the fun in having a 335 thats as fast if not faster than the m3? Has he never even considered the idea of a sleeper car? And he mentions his mustang that he spent a load of cash on that still doesn't run right, and he assumes because he fucked up a build that means that building any cheap car to be fast is a bad idea. Its just a logical fallacy and its a very one sided argument.

The thing that makes me mad most of all about these articles is than instead of actual automotive journalism Matt is resorting to buzzfeed style titles and list style articles. And he knows that his opinions will be matched on loads of internet forums and places like reddit meaning he gets easy click and easy money because there isn't anything people like to do more than jerk their own ego off. This is a hell of a wall of text but this article is so one sided that its unreasonable. He even replied to my last post and said himself that he isn't a tuner at all, yet here he is again writing yet another article about what people should and shouldn't do when he himself doesn't know anything about modifying cars other than it costs a lot of money for someone else to do it for you.

And Matt I know you'll probably read this like you did my other post and if theres anything I want you to take away from this is that you're better than writing buzzfeed style articles that only exist to rile people up. And I didn't start watching your videos to hear end all be all opinions on cars and whats the right way and wrong way to do things, I want to hear about subjective experiences on things you actually understand, and not things that you pretend to understand.

Sounds like the classic butthurt "YOU DONT KNOW ME" complaint because he either hasn't ever built a car, but dreams of building one in a way Matt wouldn't approve of. OR, he has built some cars, made the mistakes Matt talks about, and is defensive about it.

Personally all of the points in Matt's article make good clean sense to me. This dude's butthurt is really out of left field. He accuses Matt of turning and burning all his cars, but he's owned a C5 vette since new. He defends stance drivers by saying "yeah ok but they actually drive their cars." Yeah, ok, but that doesn't make them good to drive. He says his experience with his Mustang is a one-off deal, but any of us know that doing a serious build like that is going to result in unexpected problems 99% of the time. Modding up into the next price bracket, I didn't think he was saying NOT to do it, just to think your build through BEFORE you throw $50k at a Mustang or whatever the fuck, to make sure that's what you really want vs. a car you could just buy for a Mustang+$50k.

[JPolen01]

I may think you're nuts for commuting in a straight-piped Corvette with Recaros, six-points, no AC and no radio, but hey, you do you. If you're happy with it, then so much the better.

Woah woah. Don't be so mean to Dj.

[Jake]

I may think you're nuts for commuting in a straight-piped Corvette with Recaros, six-points, no AC and no radio, but hey, you do you. If you're happy with it, then so much the better.

Woah woah. Don't be so mean to Dj.

His DD was just the most bonkers example that came to mind :lol: I think it's a lovely car, just couldn't slog it through NoVA traffic every day. Clearly my prissy torqueless wonder of a BMW that requires the oil temperature be at a certain number before revving past 3k rpm is the more reasonable choice.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I may think you're nuts for commuting in a straight-piped Corvette with Recaros, six-points, no AC and no radio, but hey, you do you. If you're happy with it, then so much the better.

Woah woah. Don't be so mean to Dj.

:lol:

I only stopped DDing it because the clutch finally let go, so the SSR conversion is happening. Stock seats/radio/A/C going back in :|

[Apoc]

This article is bullshit.

It doesn't mention plastidip.

[G.Irish]

I just skimmed the article earlier, didn't realize it was controversial until I went back to the reddit post and scrolled through the comments. I assume this was the post you were talking about?

LOL yes! :lol:

I was reading through the comments like 'uh huh...ok...that's reasonable...uh, WOW'. That guy got his panties wadded so tight his legs died. Over the years I've run into a couple of people like that. Spending wayyy too much money on mods then getting offended when people offer reasonable arguments about why that money spent might not be in their best interests.

[rherold9]

This article is bullshit.

It doesn't mention plastidip.

Plastic dip is a mod 8-)

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[ScottyB]

i don't get the backlash. all his points make sense, although there's some obvious hyperbole to illustrate his perspective....of course there's some exceptions to the rules. he's driven a shit-ton of cars on TheSmokingTire, so i feel like he's coming from a pretty informed place with a lot of this.

seems to me the butthurt responses are just the kneejerk response of people getting salty that someone thinks they don't know what they're doing just because they purposefully don't modify all the systems of the car to match the capabilities of the speed.

[rherold9]

why is this even a big deal?

[Mike]

why is this even a big deal?

because people on reddit try to make everything into a big deal.

[Apoc]

did you hear what the ceo did??????

[Mike]

did you hear what the ceo did??????

ohhh mahhhhh gerrrrrrdddddddd it almost made major news outlets! the humanity! an administrator can edit a message board!?

[Senor_Taylor]

did you hear what the ceo did??????

ohhh mahhhhh gerrrrrrdddddddd it almost made major news outlets! the humanity! an administrator can edit a message board!?

But Reddit is the most important thing on the internet. It IS the internet. It's a public space where I should be able to do whatever I want and you can't take that from me! Who cares if it's a business!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[*insertusernamehere*]

.

I feel like the worst offenders are the unevenly-modded cars combined with the un-modded drivers. I hear so, so many people say "oh yeah I'll come to the track just as soon as I........" and at that point, I tend to stop listening as intently. These are the people who think that without that $2500 built diff or $500 tune, their car will just not do well at an HPDE. Just come out and learn something, jeez. Given that we've had a consistent HPDE student in a stick-shift 1999 Camry LE, any other arguments about "the car isn't ready" are invalid. And the same people who will bitch about the $350 weekend price are the ones who don't bat an eye at the $500 tune. I don't understand that type of prioritization but to each their own.

My favorite part is when you tell them the race classes are running stock motors in miatas and civics and you watch them choke on air trying to convince you their Subaru WRX isn't track fast yet.