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The history of me owning a car is pretty interesting and plays a very important role in why I am able to modify my car myself, which for the most part, saves a huge amount of cash. These are summarized by year.
1998
This is the year that started it all - my very first car. It was an '89 Ford Escort LX. With this car I could do 0-60 in a lightning fast 14 seconds with its huge 1.9L inline-4. This engine (which was only good for gas mileage) produced a measly 88hp. You can say that this was ridiculous compared to the fact that most cars coming out these days producing over 100hp. Even the Focus, which is about the same size, produces 110-170hp. Although the downfall was no power or speed, there was a major benefit from this car.
I purchased the car for $1,200 and it only had 28,000 miles on the odometer. It was in immaculate condition and ran better than any model identical to it. It ran perfect for the first year. After the odometer hit about 40,000 miles things started to fall apart. I had to repair almost everything because I didn't have the money to pay for labor and my dad was willing to teach me what he knew. I replaced things like the alternator, lights, air conditioner, belts, and even performed the timing as well. Almost every weekend something minor would break.
During the later years of driving it I rear ended someone. My first accident. I was going to school and was looking away and ran into the person going about 5mph. Didn't do anything to their car but really messed mine up. I went under their bumper so it crushed my grill, lights, and bent my hood. After about 3 weeks later my birthday was just around the corner and I still was driving with a damaged car. My dad came home and told me that he had my gift in the bed of his truck Seeing that I really wanted a dirt bike, I ran out to check. As I looked in I found a hood, two light fixtures, and a grill that my dad pulled off of a junked red Escort. So I learned to do body work too. Repainting the car 4 weeks later was the last thing I did to it (a white car with a red hood does get you the attention any car could give).
Even though I have to say this car was a piece of junk, it did teach me how to maintain my car myself. A skill that only can be learned through practice.
2000
Later in this year I finally was able to toss the Escort and purchase my older sisters '94 Grand Prix SE. I loved this car. She was the original owner and babied it. It was always well maintained beyond what a normal car would recommend. With only 82,000 miles on the odometer it was in immaculate condition. I did manage to find animal crackers in the seats from here kids, but that was about all that was wrong with it. I kept it very clean and didn't have to perform any minor repairs. I still have the Escort as an emergencies car. It allows me to work on the Grand Prix over a longer period than one day.
2001
After having the car for a year I decided to add to it. I started to look online for parts for the car and didn't find anything. I did run across a few links to other people's Grand Prix but it didn't tell me where to find performance parts. After about a month of searching I gave up and settled with a K&N drop in filter. That was the only engine modification that I performed to it.
I decided to add things to the inside. I added a cd player, aftermarket speakers, amp, and subs to the car and really started to enjoy modifying it through non-performance parts. I then purchased an alarm and underbody lights. Adding the alarm was a pain and the underbody lights were too. I eventually got the alarm 80% done and the lights on. The problem with the underbody lights was that one didn't work and one was dim. So I returned it (bought it online) and had to wait for new ones to arrive. As I waited for the lights, I stopped modifying the inside of my car.
2002
I finally received the underbody light in the later part of 2002. It was not a great choice to buy from an individual on Ebay. He claimed he was going bankrupt and it took him forever to replace anybody's broken lights. When I got my replacements, one was broken, so I gave up with that idea for now. I then purchased a Wolo Animal Horn. Why? Just for fun. It plays ice-cream truck music, different animal sounds, and sirens from every car alarm. Just an example of some fun is traveling on a crowded street at night and choosing the "bull" setting. When people here a "MOOO" come from a car, there expressions are great. Again this horn was strictly for fun.
2003
This year marked a new beginning for my Grand Prix. I finally decided to look for performance parts based on my engine, not car model, and found many. So I created this website to log all of my add-ons from this point on.