Monstermaker

I'm the first to admit I blew too much $$ on a 17 year old truck and I'm now sitting on a rig that blue books for half what's in it and I'm scared every time I drive it that someone will hit it and total it... This wasn't my smartest-ever move.

j_martin

On the other hand, you have a truck you like, and don't owe any money on it, thus no payments and no collision insurance.

Most of the bucks you have put in it are transferable to a "new" ride if this one gets mashed by something bigger than it.

KATOOM

I completely agree in having a vehicle "you" like, and if that means totally customizing it to whatever your liking is then by all means.....go for it. Sheepishly, I've spent more money on my truck than I care to admit. And I've seen some pretty custom trucks too. But I can honestly say that the last thing going through my mind was "what a waste of money". Rather more along the lines of, "dang this guy has some disposable income" or "he must still live at home".

But as for getting your money back out of it..... Retrieving money spent on a vehicle is highly unlikely. The most you typically can ever expect to get for any aftermarket stuff / modifications done is half the value of whatever those things are. No insurance company will ever say, yeah your vehicle is totaled and calculate all the things you did to it so we can add those costs into your check. Just aint going to happen. If you have $20,000 of goodies on a $5,000 car, you'll get no more than $5,000 from the insurance company if its totaled or stolen. Most of the time they dont even give you that much.

But that said, the only time you can ever hope to get your aftermarket money spent is if you sell it to someone who's willing to pay for all those things. Yeah, I guess the old saying is true that there's a sucker around every corner. Ya just have to be lucky enough to find that guy when you put your truck up for sale.