[elhigh]

Another savings that no one has pointed out is the enormous confidence you get by breathing your zombie econobox back to life yourself. Bolted that new engine in on your own time? Swapped out the 5th gear? Used to be a four-cylinder, now it's something else? After having tackled projects like that, you develop a problem of some kind in your car and somebody asks, "Where do you take it to get it worked on," do you EVER say "the shop?" No! You say, "MY shop." It's the ongoing costs that really make the car expensive to own, and frankly popping the hood on anything less than ten years old makes my eyes cross. But the old 'Yota, nah. Up the hood goes, out come the wrenches, and what little money I have in my pocket stays put. If the thought of rolling up to the mechanic's bay makes you feel suddenly impoverished, knowing you can crack open the engine and fix it yourself - because you've done it already! - is a confident, secure feeling. 1000-mile trip? No problem. Let me just drop this bag of tools in the back and off we go.

To all the shade-tree wrenches out there, I tip my greasy cap to you.