Yeah in this day and age of green cars and enviro warriors, performance car manufacturing has been considerably reduced. Our cars derive from the 4-banger mass turbo era between 88-96 and there will never be another time quite like it. This era of cars usually weigh less and have less restrictions on emissions and pollution controls which only helps with the modifications you can get away with. There's also a lot of R&D and aftermarket parts available which is plenty to hand it to the late model cars of today. We can open our bonnets and know what we're working on. With newer cars you open the bonnet and say WTF as the motor is hidden under 50 million other parts bolted onto it.
We have the luxury to understand and still work on our cars personally because the information is easily available to us. With newer cars you'll probably be paying the car off for years with interest, pay higher insurance costs and for servicing and repairs. When things go wrong they usually leave you sitting on the side of the road and a large repair bill by the mechanic. When you have a bingle, the newer cars cost so much that they could be written off with only front bar and headlight damage. Personally I think we are getting ripped off with the price of many new cars and their recommended servicing requirements. When you add it all up, they can actually be just as expensive and costly to own in the long run and their mechanical parts don't seem to stand the test of time like the cars of yesteryear.
If you want a nice easy daily driver that's easy on the pocket by all means buy something reliable and don't spend any money on modifying it. Because as soon as you start modifying another car from scratch, you get a hole in your wallet quick smart as the cycle continues. A lot of guys will buy a car, mod it, spend big $$, then sell it. Then they go out and buy another car, mod it, spend big $$ and sell it. That's where the money goes. I reckon if you build something you want to keep up front, it works out much better. It makes it easier if you have another daily driver you dont touch!! lol
