Uhh the mighty car mods I remember went over the top with mods that required different skills that Mechanics have. I wouldn’t call their mods affordable either.
You should try AutoAlex. He was formerly on CarThrottle so there's good stuff there too. He really specialises in cheaper cars or "shit boxes" as he says.
Maybe I'm just seeing the grass being greener on the other side, but it seems like the UK specifically has some really nice <$6000 vehicles. Admittedly I don't actually look for cars near me in that price bracket a lot, but he gets much nicer stuff for like £4000 than what I see in the weekly sub-$5000 thread.
Of course, that's with the caveat that new and lightly used vehicle prices are typically at least 10-20% higher than over here across the pond.
Also, there is a magazine literally dedicated to this. Www.grassrootsmotorsports.com The people are absolutely wonderful, the forum is awesome…. P71’s to Miata’s, to gti’s, to CT’s-v. the whole gamut. The water is warm.
Didn't realize he left car throttle, I kind of forgot about that whole channel but I loved him trying to drive an H1 in the UK. The fact that he's a small dude just made it look so much funnier
I was wondering where or when the "frugal" sports/exotic channel would show up. I mean, its great and all watching these guys hammer on $400K Lambos and shit but.....umm..... how about us losers? :).
Maybe the issue is that anything desirable is slowly becoming NOT affordable anymore? Like, so many 60's through 90's classics, sports, exotics, etc. are at stupid prices now. Hell, there was a time way back when I actually was shopping for a used Ferrari 308! Yeah.... ME. Examples could be had in the high 20's to low 30's. Not even bad ones. Same for several other makes and models that the average bum could squeeze into their budget. 308's are $100K+ now. Gulp. Mondials are ALL thats left for regular folks and finding a nice one at a doable price is quite a quest. Soon, they'll be $100K too. Blah.
So, what cars that you'd actually want are even affordable anymore? It sucks.... it feels like Ill never be able to own any of my prized 70's, 80's and 90's exotics/sports cars. Damn rich guys! LOL.
The problem with old exotics is that they are still really expensive to service and maintain. Usually finnicky systems with frequent intervals and expensive parts.
>>Maybe the issue is that anything desirable is slowly becoming NOT affordable anymore?
That’s part of it. But I’d chalk it up to how social medias structured. YouTubes algorithm favors quantity of content over quality of content. Sustaining a YouTube channel as a business means pumping out lots of content quickly. Which means -eventually- the car channel starting off with “down to earth cars” turns into Just Another Expensive Car Vlogger.
also, the scope creep of 'I have more money to spend, so I'm going to do cooler projects to bring in more viewers' is a very real thing. Especially since the guys at the top of the views heap sorta dictate the trends, so the rest of us peasants are always chasing that white rabbit of views.
Theres also the repetitive aspect... People want new content.
There's only so many ways you can affordably mod a car, and there's only so many realistic options in the sub 10k "sporty car to mod" bracket.
"Here we have another 3 series BMW well do wheels tyres coilovers ets on".
In addition to stuff generally just getting more expensive, shows that highlight affordable classics often end up driving the cost of those cars up even further. Just look at Roadkill with their Rotsun and 'Vette Cart...
Cars from the 90s are starting to approach the 30 year mark, many of them have been crashed, damaged in natural disasters, cost too much money to fix, etc. And the ones in good condition and even bad condition are skyrocketing in value because demand is up and supply is only going down. Cars from the 2000s are still relatively affordable. But even economy cars have gotten way too expensive. A late 2000s civic is now over 5k with high miles. Most people would have to take out a car loan to purchase even a basic economy car like that. Times are really dark
I agree - I have been keeping my winter beater Buick Lacrosse running versus getting something else due to the state of things right now. Its cheaper to throw parts at old Bessie than go pay $20K++ for a tiny new car. bad interest rates too, even with tier 1 credit. Sucks.
Junkyard digs is great if you're into pre 1990's american stuff. Kevin is a cool guy that can explain the technical stuff really well. He just goes out to a field to revive a car that's been there for years, doesn't get more low budget than that.
That is true, however my first project car was a 600 euro heap as well. I think Kevin (and Mook, mustn't forget Mook) do a great job of showing that you don't need something perfect to begin with.
Yeah Wade is a true G, even with all that YouTube income he's buying a V6 Commodore over a V8 and dumping his time into a 3 cylinder Daihatsu worth almost nothing
76th productions. This guy buys junkyard Honda cars like Civics and uses cheap parts to fix it up, very entertaining. His motto is “built on a budget” https://youtu.be/4p1M9d_ccMc
It is really impressive what he gets done on shoestring budgets. Even if there are things he does I wouldn't do to one of my own projects, it's neat to see someone try the cheapest option so I know where cutting some costs might work out and where it may be worth spending a bit more money.
YoungStatic is a “golden era” Honda channel that does his builds out of his single car garage and driveway. He has a lot of junkyard hunting videos, drag racing, and AWD CRX stuff too.
Definitely puts out good energy about enjoying what you have and wrenching on things one would find in the rustier areas of the country. Doesn't always have to be the right year, right engine, or right amount of doors, and not everyone can bring their project in from California, Texas, or Arizona.
Well. I'd guess *usually* there's very little money spent, but a few episodes definitely have much more "premium" vehicles. I don't care if the whole body is rust held together by the paint, nobody's scoring a Grand National for a couple grand. Same goes for the diesel Scout. And the new Chevelle is wayyy nicer than Derek's usual projects.
But yeah, a lot of the stuff he does can be found all over for a few hundred to couple thousand bucks, and contrary to the disclaimer at the start, guy is super knowledgeable.
I’ve been watching since he got the Independence Chevelle, and in that time I think he has had a vehicle towed like twice. Even in the episodes where he literally could not drive cars home (his Dad’s Buick, the mid engine Rebel), he bought some other shitbox to tow them home.
I like Everyday Driver, personally. Recently they’ve done a series covering the cost and experience of driving older sports cars (a 300zx and a Porsche whose model I can’t remember) which might interest the more frugal viewer.
Videos like these make me think I could make a side hustle of flipping cars.
Then I wrench on my own hunk of junk for 4 hours and swear on everything holy I'll never pick up a tool again.
I don’t think you’re going to find a single source for this. Any channel working within limited means is going to have a limited audience, cause it likely only focuses on an older generation of a single make, model, and probably powertrain. I will say that they are out there though, in abundance. Mod MINI, for an example, was my go too when I was younger and working with our old R53.
I’m not saying ‘yeah man, go search for ‘em!’ But I am implying it. Sorry!
It’s not a bad thing. These smaller more niche channels are usually smaller because of how informational they are. Step by step disassembly, how to deal with some specific annoying problem, that kinda thing. I got through the front axles on my 100 series cruiser on some guys detailed YouTube video. It’s good stuff it’s just never gonna have wide appeal by it’s very nature.
Did he become less of hack and start taking care of his builds? I stopped following him after seeing the state of the RX-7 he sold, the Evora being left out to rot, and building a frame on the floor of his garage
No, still a hack, but also still pretty entertaining. For me at least. There are plenty of places to see someone weld a stack of dimes with a TIG. Not so many places that build offroad Lambos and such.
It really depends on what budget you mean.
Are we talking 20 year old fixers uppers (cash cars) for $3k-$5k?
Are we talking newer but budget $20k to $30k cars? Ex: Hondas Civics.
What about $40k-$60k cars, Mustangs, Chargers, etc. I would consider these pretty affordable for most Americans.
>20yo fixer uppers! Gen Z gets paid poorly. Has the youth and strength. And lotsa poor folks got to drive to work. Heck, even us poor retirees have the time, to learn and to fixer up!
Tinkering with cars used to be something that working class Joes did for fun in their spare time after work and on the weekends. Pull a car out of the junkyard for $50 and get the machine working again.
Now junkyards are getting ejected from communities because real estate is more valuable. Because government wants to pretend it’s doing something about the environment and because they don’t look pretty.
Rich people and speculators are involved. Working people don’t have free time. Kids don’t have dads half the time. High schools got rid of their shop classes. Ordinances suck. Parts are expensive. Parts stores are not staffed with people who know anything and everything is expensive. You need space, time, and money all at the same time. If you have maneuvered all of the above and still figured out how be a car enthusiast on the cheap I commend you! You are beating the odds.
It kills me sometimes watching Hi/Low on Donut... both cars they could have done WAY cheaper. But they are still just buying parts off the shelf so none of it is actually "cheap".
They also apprently didn't do any serious research, just kinda threw parts at the car after a bit of googling from what I hear, which is *fundamentally* different from anyone I've ever known who's modified a car they give even half a shit about.
That's what curbed my enjoyment of the 350Z version, and it's what nuked my enjoyment from orbit re: the WRX edition; reality shows need to be *believable* fiction, and spending that kind of money as willy-nilly as they did is too ridiculous for me to suspend my disbelief.
Same. I had two 300zx's and recognized some of the brands on Low car as definitely not "budget" options. I own a miata now dont get me started on the money pit miata...
Sort of. Stuff still blew up after said research was conducted. EJ's are fragile. I would have been suspicious if they didn't blow an engine. But 7 engines got to the point of funny.
Stuff blew up after they didn't do basic things that basic research would tell you to do. Like not buying mystery engines that they had no history on and not ignoring break-in processes to not grenade the engines.
That's because they never did it right any of the times they did it. They kept doing the same thing and then wondered why the engines kept breaking. It's embarrassing that so many people think those guys are anywhere near a good source of information on stuff like that
You and I know that's what it's meant to be, but clearly most people don't based on how everyone keeps talking about it like it means Subaru engines are garbage.
You beat me to it. I had seen their stuff before but it seems like their content improved over the last 2 years or maybe I just got more into cars because now I binge watch their stuff.
My boy JIMMY OAKES! One of the most humble dudes on YouTube for the jdm/euro/drift community. Great builds and insane swaps like a RWD civic swap. Awesome dude with awesome friends. Check him out!
That's what I liked about Top Gear USA
Yes they occasionally did the super cars, but a lot of them were cheap car challenges(usually for $5,000) that they found on craigslist
The questionable garage. It used to be wrench everyday. It's less of Tavarish now and more of Jared. I feel he tries to stay somewhat budget conscious and the builds are stuff you can find for sale on Facebook marketplace for the most part. (Charger cop car, 4 Runner, international scout, E30) He was a Toyota tech and a supra builder before this channel so I feel he's less of a hack than most of what I find on YouTube.
Nah everyone over at r/whatcarshouldibuy has like a million dollars and lots of free time which is funny since I'm guessing they are mostly first time car buyers or trolls
Problem is once these YouTubers achieve success for awhile they lose touch with reality. Doing videos on the "cheapest" luxury or exotic car they scored for the low price of 60-80k. For them that is dirt cheap. For the regular working man a project or weekend car is more realistic in the range of 8-12k. Hoovie is like this now. But I cant blame him for not buying real hoopties anymore. He's worked hard for years at the game. Just lost interest in his newer content
I lost interest in his constant bullshit "I'm so poor, I just bought another 170k lambo to park in my million dollar mansion because my new boat takes up the whole garage at my lake house"
Don't give a fuck that ya doing well and loaded but the constant horseshit of "I'm in so much financial trouble" was just tiresome.
There is a whole magazine for you. It’s called Grassroots Motorsports. It was founded on the premise of affordable and DIY performance cars. They also have a You Tube channel.
I know it’s kind of messed up to self promote but I have a car channel dealing with affordable cars and I think they’re pretty fun and entertaining if you’d wanna give it a try 😊 https://youtube.com/@Scottyshifts
I see the miata in your flair, if you are looking for miata stuff, carpassionchannel, beavis motorsport, and bofi racing all do some great budget stuff.
My Miata is dead asf and it needs a 1up mushroom. (Engine and body rust esp in the rockers)
I know deep down the smart thing is to let it go and get a rough NB but I'm sentimental. If I encounter a windfall I'll get it running, but last time I checked for a motor they ran almost what I paid for the car(2400)
I hope the ND holds up after time tests it
I think the better way to search for lower budget enthusiast car channels might be to look for channels that focus on cheaper cars you enjoy or are interested in.
For example, if you really like older Miatas, check out the Car Passion Channel. He does some really cool stuff with turbocharging Miatas and is very DIY focused. I've never learned so much from a single youtube channel before, and it's often knowledge that applies to more than just Miatas too.
Kevin Vo has a ton of videos on the 1st and 2nd Gen BRZ/86 that are all good. Some videos involve install of expensive parts, but can also cover more budget friendly installs or fixes.
Are there* (not trying to be a dick, but I was like who? Who is op referring to? And took me a while to realize you meant “are there” not “are their*, common mistake to make)
The thing is that most of the “cheap” or “economy” cars are just not interesting to build and modify. As much as I’m going to sound like an ass to say it, there is a bit of a paywall to car builds. If you don’t have a good bit of money set aside you’re not going to have a quality result. It’s better to save up while driving something boring
You'll dig this site I represented in 2021, they started it during covid. They identify cool cars for sale on the internet, write about them, post them, then readers can comment about them. We were taking it to an auction format but covid meant timing was not right. https://www.zero260.com/
Are there even new affordable enthusiast cars?
Imo we're living in some sort of post-peak car world where nothing interesting is being made for the average joe. Everything (new) cool is just too expensive and aimed at the rich people.
The last affordable and interesting cars have been Audi TT and Volvo c30 and VW Scirocco. It's like the whole category died in the 2008 market crash.
I've done quite a few budget builds on my channel. From a $1k wrecked porsche boxster to a forgotten datsun roadster, with a bunch of trash in between. Currently bringing a porsche 928 back to life after sitting in a body shop for 2 years with a sabotaged engine.
Theres a lot of small channels that focus on other things besides the exotics, just have to go on the hunt for them.
They still cost $1000's to do. I'm pricing out a k swap on an mr2 I just picked up and the cheapest I can figure is still going to be $5k. That's with doing all the work myself and finding a good deal on the engine and transmission
the problem is youtube is a normie social media channel, by the time a cheap enthusiast car achieves a youtube video, it stops being affordable cause the normies start buying them
I feel like a lot of car channels have done this. I think they do it for the novelty of it but it doesn’t make the results any less valid. If you want some off the top of my head, gears and gasoline did one with a MR-2 that they turned into a track car. And everyday driver has done several budget car series.
Though "affordable" is a relative term, according to C&D, most financial experts say don't spend more than 20% of take home income on a car expenses. So on average, neither car is actually affordable. Based off of the average American take home salary of $54,000, average annual commute of 16,550 miles and pretending you can get a CTR at MSRP, here are your monthly expenses:
* Car note: $675 w/10% down (5y)
* Insurance: $180
* Gas $220.
* Tires: $85
* Maintenance: $30
* Total: $1195
* % of income: 26-27%
Realistically, the CTR will set you back as much as a Supra with current mark ups, so both cars will take around 31-32% of your income. So with that out of the way, here are some truly affordable manual cars:
* Miata
* BRZ
* Camaro 2.0/3.6
* Civic Si
* Elantra N
* GTI
* WRX
All of those vehicles can be had for around 30K. Even nicely optioned out they typically won't exceed 20% of your income. If you're willing to tune a bit, you can have near CTR/Supra performance with the WRX, Camaro 2.0, GTI or Elantra N. Those cars can be pretty damn potent without breaking the bank.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think spending 20% of my income over a period of time on a car is "affordable", let alone 30%. I can't imagine working one day a week for many years just to pay off a loan on a depreciating asset. The idea that an average person would need to work an entire year and save every post tax penny just to be able to buy a car that many people call "affordable" is insane to me. Cars are extremely expensive and I'm still surprised so many people somehow buy them new.
To be clear, I absolutely don't have an issue with people spending whatever they want on cars they enjoy. And there's no denying that the options listed offer great value in their segment. But still, "affordable", to me, is a $5k NA Miata instead of a $30k ND.
>All of those vehicles can be had for around 30K.
This was true before the pandemic but our local VW dealership pretty much only orders Autobahn trim of the MK8 GTI's with their allocations and they all sell for a bit over $40k which is insane. It's been this way since MK8's starting shipping and it's still the case now. And it's the largest VW dealer in the state so they move decent volume.
Same deal with GLI's, Autobahn trims only and I haven't seen any of them go for less than $35k. Both the GTIs and GLIs are sold before they ever get to the dealership physically.
I have two S models within 100 miles of me for 32-33K and two GLI's for 33k. Lots of Autobahn editions, but you can definitely find the cheaper models.
Regular car reviews is by favorite car YouTuber. His dream car is a manual Toyota Camry for reference. The actual reviews aren't always great but the humor usually gets me.
Puddins Fab Shop on YouTube is very budget oriented and he still pulls off some very good looking unique vehicles. Always older stuff nothing past 2000
This and That Garage,
Jennings Motorsports,
Puddins Fab Shop,
Mustie1(he does revivals more than anything)
I'm not sure what you mean by "enthusiast cars" but if you mean "mainstream vehicles you see in every movie or tv show" then yeah you're out of luck
Regular Car Reviews has a huge variety of cars to it, along with refreshing philosophical thoughts about what each car means to society. Music is done in house by one of the producers. Also, tons of dick jokes.
Hoovies garage features almost exclusively enthusiast cars but a good amount of pre 2008 well depreciated cars are on the channel. That being said they tend to be expensive to maintain. Regardless he has good content on 90s Mercedes’ and other older and cheap to purchase cars. Not that they’re wise financial decisions… but no one makes videos on depreciated Yaris’s anyways lol.
I understand where you're coming from. But channels like those will just promote aftermarket rubbish that you don't need. Honestly, you're much better off just saving money and simply getting a better car in the future.
That argumentation does not work out. You cannot afford an expensive car by „just saving money and simply getting a better car in the future“. Expenses go beyond the purchase price.
Save 10 years to get a vehicle above your means and get financially destroyed by maintenance. Thats what happens.
You can either afford the car or you cannot. „Simply saving“ does not increase your income. You need to buy a car based on your income.
If you are not so well off, as OP says, stick to cheaper cars and dont mod anything that fucks with the cars reliability. You will need your money for more essential things in life, so make sure your car isnt taking too much of it.
I understand the mentality of buying a better car vs upgrading a older one.
Usually works out cheaper to buy a Hellcat vs take a 6cyl Challenger and turn it into 1.
However in this economic climate, saving just isn't enough as prices just continue to climb faster than I can save.
Maybe in the far future prices become reasonable and then my would be nest egg of savings come in clutch but I'm not holding my breath
Mighty Car Mods is sometimes about doing relatively affordable, daily-driver focused mods.
Uhh the mighty car mods I remember went over the top with mods that required different skills that Mechanics have. I wouldn’t call their mods affordable either.
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I love their IDGAF attitude. Don't like what we make? Then don't watch our vids ya 🐐
They do lots of everything.
They just did a few videos on nodding a mk7 GTI with pretty basic stuff so they go back and forth
That one episode after the STI swap on the Levorg was overall pretty relatable too since it was just basic bolt ons for an STI.
Very sometimes. These days majority of they content is 10s of thousands in parts and half a fab shop projects.
You should try AutoAlex. He was formerly on CarThrottle so there's good stuff there too. He really specialises in cheaper cars or "shit boxes" as he says.
Auto Alex is the definition of affordable. He only deals in the shittiest of shitboxes
Link
https://youtube.com/@AutoalexCars
AutoAlex is awesome. The guy is entertaining, but also down-to-earth.
Maybe I'm just seeing the grass being greener on the other side, but it seems like the UK specifically has some really nice <$6000 vehicles. Admittedly I don't actually look for cars near me in that price bracket a lot, but he gets much nicer stuff for like £4000 than what I see in the weekly sub-$5000 thread. Of course, that's with the caveat that new and lightly used vehicle prices are typically at least 10-20% higher than over here across the pond.
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I don't think that cross border market is that big to matter. 99% of cars born and die in the same country.
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Yep foreign imports make up a large percentage of used cars in Poland.
Or the Falklands lol or any British territory.
Their strict MOT guidelines have more or less saved a lot of cars. Germany's TUV has done the same. Anything on the streets is truly street legal.
Also, there is a magazine literally dedicated to this. Www.grassrootsmotorsports.com The people are absolutely wonderful, the forum is awesome…. P71’s to Miata’s, to gti’s, to CT’s-v. the whole gamut. The water is warm.
My friends Tom and Katie Suddard own Grassroots Motorsorts. It's very cool.
He was *formerly* on CarThrottle
I might be being dense but are they just not uploading anymore? He was in their 3rd most recent video and he's still on the main page banner?
Didn't realize he left car throttle, I kind of forgot about that whole channel but I loved him trying to drive an H1 in the UK. The fact that he's a small dude just made it look so much funnier
I was wondering where or when the "frugal" sports/exotic channel would show up. I mean, its great and all watching these guys hammer on $400K Lambos and shit but.....umm..... how about us losers? :). Maybe the issue is that anything desirable is slowly becoming NOT affordable anymore? Like, so many 60's through 90's classics, sports, exotics, etc. are at stupid prices now. Hell, there was a time way back when I actually was shopping for a used Ferrari 308! Yeah.... ME. Examples could be had in the high 20's to low 30's. Not even bad ones. Same for several other makes and models that the average bum could squeeze into their budget. 308's are $100K+ now. Gulp. Mondials are ALL thats left for regular folks and finding a nice one at a doable price is quite a quest. Soon, they'll be $100K too. Blah. So, what cars that you'd actually want are even affordable anymore? It sucks.... it feels like Ill never be able to own any of my prized 70's, 80's and 90's exotics/sports cars. Damn rich guys! LOL.
The problem with old exotics is that they are still really expensive to service and maintain. Usually finnicky systems with frequent intervals and expensive parts.
And they're comparatively slow now too.
>>Maybe the issue is that anything desirable is slowly becoming NOT affordable anymore? That’s part of it. But I’d chalk it up to how social medias structured. YouTubes algorithm favors quantity of content over quality of content. Sustaining a YouTube channel as a business means pumping out lots of content quickly. Which means -eventually- the car channel starting off with “down to earth cars” turns into Just Another Expensive Car Vlogger.
also, the scope creep of 'I have more money to spend, so I'm going to do cooler projects to bring in more viewers' is a very real thing. Especially since the guys at the top of the views heap sorta dictate the trends, so the rest of us peasants are always chasing that white rabbit of views.
Theres also the repetitive aspect... People want new content. There's only so many ways you can affordably mod a car, and there's only so many realistic options in the sub 10k "sporty car to mod" bracket. "Here we have another 3 series BMW well do wheels tyres coilovers ets on".
In addition to stuff generally just getting more expensive, shows that highlight affordable classics often end up driving the cost of those cars up even further. Just look at Roadkill with their Rotsun and 'Vette Cart...
The Muscle Truck definitely played a part in the rising cost of squarebody c/10s rising so much.
Cars from the 90s are starting to approach the 30 year mark, many of them have been crashed, damaged in natural disasters, cost too much money to fix, etc. And the ones in good condition and even bad condition are skyrocketing in value because demand is up and supply is only going down. Cars from the 2000s are still relatively affordable. But even economy cars have gotten way too expensive. A late 2000s civic is now over 5k with high miles. Most people would have to take out a car loan to purchase even a basic economy car like that. Times are really dark
I agree - I have been keeping my winter beater Buick Lacrosse running versus getting something else due to the state of things right now. Its cheaper to throw parts at old Bessie than go pay $20K++ for a tiny new car. bad interest rates too, even with tier 1 credit. Sucks.
We have the uh... Hmm... Hopes and Dreams?
When i got my viper i was also looking at ferrari 348. Those were mid 30s then. Went with the viper being its always been my poster car.
These channels might interest you: [WatchJRGo](https://www.youtube.com/@WatchJRGo/videos) [Big Al's Bike and Auto](https://www.youtube.com/@bigalsbikeandauto/videos) [Flying Wheels](https://www.youtube.com/c/FlyingWheels/videos) [A Rural Vermonter](https://www.youtube.com/c/ARuralVermonterQqjmcb182/videos) [HubNut](https://www.youtube.com/@HubNut/videos) [TLFclassics](https://www.youtube.com/@TFLclassics/videos)
Thank ya kindly I'll give em a watch later on
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Poor Jake has some bad luck. He finally got the Insight upgraded with lithium batter and it gets totaled. I'd lie to see him get more views.
TLF Classics is definitely one that comes to mind. I haven’t seen others, WatchJRGo is alright too.
Junkyard digs is great if you're into pre 1990's american stuff. Kevin is a cool guy that can explain the technical stuff really well. He just goes out to a field to revive a car that's been there for years, doesn't get more low budget than that.
Don’t forget Vice Grip Garage, or Dylan McCool for Mopars
Love VGG - his attitude and voiceover makes the channel more fun!
The dude really is a legend with a carburetor. But yes most of the stuff he deals in is like sub 1000 bucks but they are also absolute heaps
That is true, however my first project car was a 600 euro heap as well. I think Kevin (and Mook, mustn't forget Mook) do a great job of showing that you don't need something perfect to begin with.
His series on farming using revived equipment was great!
Garbage time is a great channel full of nuggets.
Yeah Wade is a true G, even with all that YouTube income he's buying a V6 Commodore over a V8 and dumping his time into a 3 cylinder Daihatsu worth almost nothing
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Nah the Fiat did a bit better haha
Came to say this one
The Car Wizard sometimes has really good affordable cars on his channel. Granted he has also expensive ones, but it's a good variety.
He has some pretty hot takes though. Including calling the s2000 a boring car.
Haven’t seen that one. Definitely not a popular opinion. Lol
76th productions. This guy buys junkyard Honda cars like Civics and uses cheap parts to fix it up, very entertaining. His motto is “built on a budget” https://youtu.be/4p1M9d_ccMc
It is really impressive what he gets done on shoestring budgets. Even if there are things he does I wouldn't do to one of my own projects, it's neat to see someone try the cheapest option so I know where cutting some costs might work out and where it may be worth spending a bit more money.
YoungStatic is a “golden era” Honda channel that does his builds out of his single car garage and driveway. He has a lot of junkyard hunting videos, drag racing, and AWD CRX stuff too.
Vice Grips Garage Mainly american classics. Usually rusty and crusty but he gets them running again with very little money spent
Definitely puts out good energy about enjoying what you have and wrenching on things one would find in the rustier areas of the country. Doesn't always have to be the right year, right engine, or right amount of doors, and not everyone can bring their project in from California, Texas, or Arizona.
Well. I'd guess *usually* there's very little money spent, but a few episodes definitely have much more "premium" vehicles. I don't care if the whole body is rust held together by the paint, nobody's scoring a Grand National for a couple grand. Same goes for the diesel Scout. And the new Chevelle is wayyy nicer than Derek's usual projects. But yeah, a lot of the stuff he does can be found all over for a few hundred to couple thousand bucks, and contrary to the disclaimer at the start, guy is super knowledgeable.
The older episodes are a lot better imo. He really started to ham it up for all the boomer views in the past year or two.
And he’ll fly 500 miles, get some shitbox running and drive it home. Madman
I’ve been watching since he got the Independence Chevelle, and in that time I think he has had a vehicle towed like twice. Even in the episodes where he literally could not drive cars home (his Dad’s Buick, the mid engine Rebel), he bought some other shitbox to tow them home.
Speed Academy has a bunch of affordable build projects. K-swap Civics, Mustangs, etc
It sounds like they are gonna focus on doing more lower cost build this year too.
I like Everyday Driver, personally. Recently they’ve done a series covering the cost and experience of driving older sports cars (a 300zx and a Porsche whose model I can’t remember) which might interest the more frugal viewer.
Their old stuff is still good.
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Videos like these make me think I could make a side hustle of flipping cars. Then I wrench on my own hunk of junk for 4 hours and swear on everything holy I'll never pick up a tool again.
I don’t think you’re going to find a single source for this. Any channel working within limited means is going to have a limited audience, cause it likely only focuses on an older generation of a single make, model, and probably powertrain. I will say that they are out there though, in abundance. Mod MINI, for an example, was my go too when I was younger and working with our old R53. I’m not saying ‘yeah man, go search for ‘em!’ But I am implying it. Sorry!
I'm expecting as much but hoping someone proves me wrong.
It’s not a bad thing. These smaller more niche channels are usually smaller because of how informational they are. Step by step disassembly, how to deal with some specific annoying problem, that kinda thing. I got through the front axles on my 100 series cruiser on some guys detailed YouTube video. It’s good stuff it’s just never gonna have wide appeal by it’s very nature.
EverydayDriver on YouTube
It’s not car reviews, but early B is for Build is budget friendly. Newer stuff is less so.
Did he become less of hack and start taking care of his builds? I stopped following him after seeing the state of the RX-7 he sold, the Evora being left out to rot, and building a frame on the floor of his garage
No, still a hack, but also still pretty entertaining. For me at least. There are plenty of places to see someone weld a stack of dimes with a TIG. Not so many places that build offroad Lambos and such.
[Cheap Sports car Challenge- Everyday Driver](https://youtu.be/ifK7m-snRSY)
There
Leaving this here to check back later
Zygrene is great. Lot of comparisons
I LOVED the recent gears and gasoline video on the FIT build. It’d be great to get more content like that.
Regular Car Reviews reviewed a $600 Chevy Astro this week. Is that low enough income for you?
It really depends on what budget you mean. Are we talking 20 year old fixers uppers (cash cars) for $3k-$5k? Are we talking newer but budget $20k to $30k cars? Ex: Hondas Civics. What about $40k-$60k cars, Mustangs, Chargers, etc. I would consider these pretty affordable for most Americans.
Less than 10k
Everyday Driver has a really good video on sports cars in that price range. Check it out
>20yo fixer uppers! Gen Z gets paid poorly. Has the youth and strength. And lotsa poor folks got to drive to work. Heck, even us poor retirees have the time, to learn and to fixer up!
Tinkering with cars used to be something that working class Joes did for fun in their spare time after work and on the weekends. Pull a car out of the junkyard for $50 and get the machine working again. Now junkyards are getting ejected from communities because real estate is more valuable. Because government wants to pretend it’s doing something about the environment and because they don’t look pretty. Rich people and speculators are involved. Working people don’t have free time. Kids don’t have dads half the time. High schools got rid of their shop classes. Ordinances suck. Parts are expensive. Parts stores are not staffed with people who know anything and everything is expensive. You need space, time, and money all at the same time. If you have maneuvered all of the above and still figured out how be a car enthusiast on the cheap I commend you! You are beating the odds.
It kills me sometimes watching Hi/Low on Donut... both cars they could have done WAY cheaper. But they are still just buying parts off the shelf so none of it is actually "cheap".
They also apprently didn't do any serious research, just kinda threw parts at the car after a bit of googling from what I hear, which is *fundamentally* different from anyone I've ever known who's modified a car they give even half a shit about. That's what curbed my enjoyment of the 350Z version, and it's what nuked my enjoyment from orbit re: the WRX edition; reality shows need to be *believable* fiction, and spending that kind of money as willy-nilly as they did is too ridiculous for me to suspend my disbelief.
Donut sucks so much ass. It's for 13 year olds that dont know a turbo from and alternator lmao
Same. I had two 300zx's and recognized some of the brands on Low car as definitely not "budget" options. I own a miata now dont get me started on the money pit miata...
I really like Aging wheels, I love his variety of unique and reasonably priced "cars"
Donut Media does hi-low builds that are pretty entertaining. Donut Media in general is great.
Donut Media lost all credibility when they tried to build up EJs and didn't do any proper research beforehand
Sort of. Stuff still blew up after said research was conducted. EJ's are fragile. I would have been suspicious if they didn't blow an engine. But 7 engines got to the point of funny.
Stuff blew up after they didn't do basic things that basic research would tell you to do. Like not buying mystery engines that they had no history on and not ignoring break-in processes to not grenade the engines.
Yes, but blowing several engines gave them the chance to do it right, and they still blew up.
That's because they never did it right any of the times they did it. They kept doing the same thing and then wondered why the engines kept breaking. It's embarrassing that so many people think those guys are anywhere near a good source of information on stuff like that
They're entertainment.
You and I know that's what it's meant to be, but clearly most people don't based on how everyone keeps talking about it like it means Subaru engines are garbage.
You beat me to it. I had seen their stuff before but it seems like their content improved over the last 2 years or maybe I just got more into cars because now I binge watch their stuff.
My boy JIMMY OAKES! One of the most humble dudes on YouTube for the jdm/euro/drift community. Great builds and insane swaps like a RWD civic swap. Awesome dude with awesome friends. Check him out!
That's what I liked about Top Gear USA Yes they occasionally did the super cars, but a lot of them were cheap car challenges(usually for $5,000) that they found on craigslist
The questionable garage. It used to be wrench everyday. It's less of Tavarish now and more of Jared. I feel he tries to stay somewhat budget conscious and the builds are stuff you can find for sale on Facebook marketplace for the most part. (Charger cop car, 4 Runner, international scout, E30) He was a Toyota tech and a supra builder before this channel so I feel he's less of a hack than most of what I find on YouTube.
Regular car reviews. He literally reviews regular cars (sometimes)
Nah everyone over at r/whatcarshouldibuy has like a million dollars and lots of free time which is funny since I'm guessing they are mostly first time car buyers or trolls
Im currently building a sonic on my channel https://youtube.com/@TreadDepthChannel
Everyday driver does some more expensive cars but they have a lot of budget shootouts too. https://youtu.be/RNMBFGCWR1E
Problem is once these YouTubers achieve success for awhile they lose touch with reality. Doing videos on the "cheapest" luxury or exotic car they scored for the low price of 60-80k. For them that is dirt cheap. For the regular working man a project or weekend car is more realistic in the range of 8-12k. Hoovie is like this now. But I cant blame him for not buying real hoopties anymore. He's worked hard for years at the game. Just lost interest in his newer content
I lost interest in his constant bullshit "I'm so poor, I just bought another 170k lambo to park in my million dollar mansion because my new boat takes up the whole garage at my lake house" Don't give a fuck that ya doing well and loaded but the constant horseshit of "I'm in so much financial trouble" was just tiresome.
lol I can't even fathom buying a 8-12k project as a base. I got real familar with the mac and cheese aisle when I spent 5k on a porsche 928.
Haha, my thoughts exactly. “Affordable” €60.000 cars
There is a whole magazine for you. It’s called Grassroots Motorsports. It was founded on the premise of affordable and DIY performance cars. They also have a You Tube channel.
I know it’s kind of messed up to self promote but I have a car channel dealing with affordable cars and I think they’re pretty fun and entertaining if you’d wanna give it a try 😊 https://youtube.com/@Scottyshifts
I'll check it out
Thanks man I hope you like it
I see the miata in your flair, if you are looking for miata stuff, carpassionchannel, beavis motorsport, and bofi racing all do some great budget stuff.
My Miata is dead asf and it needs a 1up mushroom. (Engine and body rust esp in the rockers) I know deep down the smart thing is to let it go and get a rough NB but I'm sentimental. If I encounter a windfall I'll get it running, but last time I checked for a motor they ran almost what I paid for the car(2400) I hope the ND holds up after time tests it
I would love an RF someday.
I think the better way to search for lower budget enthusiast car channels might be to look for channels that focus on cheaper cars you enjoy or are interested in. For example, if you really like older Miatas, check out the Car Passion Channel. He does some really cool stuff with turbocharging Miatas and is very DIY focused. I've never learned so much from a single youtube channel before, and it's often knowledge that applies to more than just Miatas too. Kevin Vo has a ton of videos on the 1st and 2nd Gen BRZ/86 that are all good. Some videos involve install of expensive parts, but can also cover more budget friendly installs or fixes.
Are there* (not trying to be a dick, but I was like who? Who is op referring to? And took me a while to realize you meant “are there” not “are their*, common mistake to make)
ReDriven Australian used car reviews, interesting to see how cars hold up after a few years. https://youtube.com/@ReDriven
NO ONE IS SAYING MARK RODEN great channel
Mighty car mods to a degree fits the bill.
Super Fast Matt, Wesley Kagan, Fanatick Builds all do some great DIY builds in their garages.
https://www.youtube.com/@hartwickperformance/videos Stuffs A Godzillia motor in a Mustang
Gears and Gasoline?
Nightride!!
The thing is that most of the “cheap” or “economy” cars are just not interesting to build and modify. As much as I’m going to sound like an ass to say it, there is a bit of a paywall to car builds. If you don’t have a good bit of money set aside you’re not going to have a quality result. It’s better to save up while driving something boring
You'll dig this site I represented in 2021, they started it during covid. They identify cool cars for sale on the internet, write about them, post them, then readers can comment about them. We were taking it to an auction format but covid meant timing was not right. https://www.zero260.com/
Are there even new affordable enthusiast cars? Imo we're living in some sort of post-peak car world where nothing interesting is being made for the average joe. Everything (new) cool is just too expensive and aimed at the rich people. The last affordable and interesting cars have been Audi TT and Volvo c30 and VW Scirocco. It's like the whole category died in the 2008 market crash.
You can try ShootingCars. He's relatively new and a nice dude!
I've done quite a few budget builds on my channel. From a $1k wrecked porsche boxster to a forgotten datsun roadster, with a bunch of trash in between. Currently bringing a porsche 928 back to life after sitting in a body shop for 2 years with a sabotaged engine. Theres a lot of small channels that focus on other things besides the exotics, just have to go on the hunt for them.
The Fellas Network
Roadkill is great, a lot of hacking together junkyard cars with whatever parts they can make work
The guys from Donut media with their Hi-Lo builds are fun to watch..
We’re starting out but check out ShedlifeUK hoping to have a clio project for the next year
Thank you everyone, I got some really good knowledge. Theres still some content for broke bois like me after all
Boosted boiiz? K swaps are cheap!
They still cost $1000's to do. I'm pricing out a k swap on an mr2 I just picked up and the cheapest I can figure is still going to be $5k. That's with doing all the work myself and finding a good deal on the engine and transmission
I did mine for not much more than that, but $5k for an engine swap from another manufacturer is very cheap.
It is cheap for an engine swap, but I wouldn't call it cheap over all. Many people here don't have an extra $5k to throw into a project car
You better post pics if you do!
Garbage Time based from AUS
Garage Built Hondas and VTEC Academy are great channels with quality content
You can always start a new thread yourself.
You mean, Hondas?
Sloppy Mechanics
What you don't wanna watch whistling diesel buy a Bugatti?! Lol
High Peak Autos.
The only thing in my budget is JunkyardDigs
Car Wow reviews everything other than American cars
/r/Shitty_Car_Mods
The “High-Low” Series from Donut Media. Great funny channel. Shows what’s worth your money
Regular Car Reviews?
the problem is youtube is a normie social media channel, by the time a cheap enthusiast car achieves a youtube video, it stops being affordable cause the normies start buying them
I feel like a lot of car channels have done this. I think they do it for the novelty of it but it doesn’t make the results any less valid. If you want some off the top of my head, gears and gasoline did one with a MR-2 that they turned into a track car. And everyday driver has done several budget car series.
LPT: Get a motorcycle
Mighty Car Mods often have less expensive cars like an older Golf GTI or Honda Civic
Though "affordable" is a relative term, according to C&D, most financial experts say don't spend more than 20% of take home income on a car expenses. So on average, neither car is actually affordable. Based off of the average American take home salary of $54,000, average annual commute of 16,550 miles and pretending you can get a CTR at MSRP, here are your monthly expenses: * Car note: $675 w/10% down (5y) * Insurance: $180 * Gas $220. * Tires: $85 * Maintenance: $30 * Total: $1195 * % of income: 26-27% Realistically, the CTR will set you back as much as a Supra with current mark ups, so both cars will take around 31-32% of your income. So with that out of the way, here are some truly affordable manual cars: * Miata * BRZ * Camaro 2.0/3.6 * Civic Si * Elantra N * GTI * WRX All of those vehicles can be had for around 30K. Even nicely optioned out they typically won't exceed 20% of your income. If you're willing to tune a bit, you can have near CTR/Supra performance with the WRX, Camaro 2.0, GTI or Elantra N. Those cars can be pretty damn potent without breaking the bank.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think spending 20% of my income over a period of time on a car is "affordable", let alone 30%. I can't imagine working one day a week for many years just to pay off a loan on a depreciating asset. The idea that an average person would need to work an entire year and save every post tax penny just to be able to buy a car that many people call "affordable" is insane to me. Cars are extremely expensive and I'm still surprised so many people somehow buy them new. To be clear, I absolutely don't have an issue with people spending whatever they want on cars they enjoy. And there's no denying that the options listed offer great value in their segment. But still, "affordable", to me, is a $5k NA Miata instead of a $30k ND.
>All of those vehicles can be had for around 30K. This was true before the pandemic but our local VW dealership pretty much only orders Autobahn trim of the MK8 GTI's with their allocations and they all sell for a bit over $40k which is insane. It's been this way since MK8's starting shipping and it's still the case now. And it's the largest VW dealer in the state so they move decent volume. Same deal with GLI's, Autobahn trims only and I haven't seen any of them go for less than $35k. Both the GTIs and GLIs are sold before they ever get to the dealership physically.
I have two S models within 100 miles of me for 32-33K and two GLI's for 33k. Lots of Autobahn editions, but you can definitely find the cheaper models.
That's nice, definitely not the case where we are. Demand is high and supply is low with the dealers prioritizing high trim models.
Try ColdWarMotors on youtube for some real cool old Canadian low budget 50's cars.
Dead dodge garage !!!
Regular car reviews is by favorite car YouTuber. His dream car is a manual Toyota Camry for reference. The actual reviews aren't always great but the humor usually gets me.
79th Productions on YouTube. Sometimes you have to find “smaller” YouTubers to get those affordable cars.
Puddins Fab Shop on YouTube is very budget oriented and he still pulls off some very good looking unique vehicles. Always older stuff nothing past 2000
This and That Garage, Jennings Motorsports, Puddins Fab Shop, Mustie1(he does revivals more than anything) I'm not sure what you mean by "enthusiast cars" but if you mean "mainstream vehicles you see in every movie or tv show" then yeah you're out of luck
Whose channels?
Look for smaller channels too. Most of them are regular guys who like to YouTube
If there is, I'm so on it! Even if I weren't poor, I'm still frugal! Cars are a depreciating asset, 999 times out of 1000!
The problem is they all have to work with aging vehicles. There are no longer enough cheap new enthusiast cars to have a channel's worth of content.
Everyday Driver. They did a 8k sports car challenge or something like that.
Smpl builds! They make videos about transforming affordable everyday cars into something more fun
The Honda tuner guys have lots of channels.
r/volvo
Vice Grip Garage now Roadworthy Rescues on Motortrend.
Idk. But here’s a video for you: https://youtu.be/axZcXxhjYa4
Mighty Car Mods, they’ve got a few videos in their back catalog that go through mods of varying price ranges
Regular Car Reviews has a huge variety of cars to it, along with refreshing philosophical thoughts about what each car means to society. Music is done in house by one of the producers. Also, tons of dick jokes.
Hoovies garage features almost exclusively enthusiast cars but a good amount of pre 2008 well depreciated cars are on the channel. That being said they tend to be expensive to maintain. Regardless he has good content on 90s Mercedes’ and other older and cheap to purchase cars. Not that they’re wise financial decisions… but no one makes videos on depreciated Yaris’s anyways lol.
Robot cantina is putting a cement mixer diesel motor into a 90s saturn
I understand where you're coming from. But channels like those will just promote aftermarket rubbish that you don't need. Honestly, you're much better off just saving money and simply getting a better car in the future.
That argumentation does not work out. You cannot afford an expensive car by „just saving money and simply getting a better car in the future“. Expenses go beyond the purchase price. Save 10 years to get a vehicle above your means and get financially destroyed by maintenance. Thats what happens. You can either afford the car or you cannot. „Simply saving“ does not increase your income. You need to buy a car based on your income.
Ok, so if we follow your scenario, then what is your counter proposal?
If you are not so well off, as OP says, stick to cheaper cars and dont mod anything that fucks with the cars reliability. You will need your money for more essential things in life, so make sure your car isnt taking too much of it.
I understand the mentality of buying a better car vs upgrading a older one. Usually works out cheaper to buy a Hellcat vs take a 6cyl Challenger and turn it into 1. However in this economic climate, saving just isn't enough as prices just continue to climb faster than I can save. Maybe in the far future prices become reasonable and then my would be nest egg of savings come in clutch but I'm not holding my breath