Not sure about my Celica anymore, not sure if its worth working on Options

[Mannyrav]

When I first bought my Celica and came to this site, I was so enthusiastic about working on it. I fell in love with the car and the idea of having it the way I wanted, and I fell in love with the 3sgte engine and the thought of a GT4 conversion.

I forgot who was it that told me, but someone recommended that I sat down and thought about what I really wanted to do with my car. Well I did alot of thinking, and with my budget, by the time I have enough money to get the dream celica I wanted 4 years would've passed by.

I never knew doing an engine and tranny swap would be so expensive.

I know most would probably respond with; its a process that takes patience and time, and you need money for these kind of things, it never comes easy; but I still wanted to work on my car.

By the end of the year I should have atleast 1 grand saved up, and I expected to accomplish something with that money..but it seems that even a bodykit is out of reach with my budget. (I'm a college student with a crappy job at radioshack, with bills up the a@#; not some broke bum).

Yeah I know I'm kinda impatient, but I'd like at the least for my car to be a manual so that I can get more out of my everyday driving experience.

So my question is, with my situation is attempting to hook up my car even worth it? Or should I just buy a crappy manual coupe and work on that (I'm still paying for my celica btw)...I don't know what route to take, and I'm disappointed that I feel discouraged when I grew to love my little st celica

Edit: I was even willing to take a different and alot cheaper route than a gt4 conversion- getting a 4a-ge engine and a manual tranny and a invader bodykit..but I dont know what I'll be looking at there $$ wise

This post has been edited by Mannyrav: Oct 19, 2007 - 12:39 AM

[FortuneCookie]

Dude, I have a ST celica. It's manual, saves gas like a mother freaker, and its pretty damn quick. I always wanted the 3SGTE (like 90% of the people in this forum) but ofcourse, butchet is too high. To my honest opinion, that $8000+ isn't worth it. $2000 more, you can buy a GT-FOUR conversion from somebody. So, now, what I REALLY want out of my celica is to be a DD and save gas while still having the good racing feel to it while I drive it. It's going good. Oh yeah, btw, I'm in a process of doing a 7A*G*E. Only problem with it I'm having is that the 7AFE picks up 0-60mph like 3 seconds faster than the 4AGE. I'm having second thoughts about it.

BUT, honestly dude. If you really want a GT-FOUR for cheap that fits your expense, go for the ST185, 1st gen alltrac. They aren't great looking but they can be and VERY clean and eye catchey. That is the closes thing you can get to a gt-four quickly. There are alot in Cali. It's just up to you to search and have the money ready.

EXAMPLE:
http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/car/449721012.html

This post has been edited by FortuneCookie: Oct 19, 2007 - 4:26 AM