I have a sickness. More like Car Fever in my Early Retirement. No, not the kind of car fever where I am dying to buy a new car. This is a car fever for the love of cars. Actually I am crazy for anything with wheels as long as it is cool. Vintage bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks, you name it. Hot Rods, Rat Rods, Sleds, Cruisers, LowRiders, Sports Cars, Muscle Cars, Imports and Customs. Even some of the new cars if they aren’t the run of the mill look like everything else. If you aren’t into cars then you probably could care less about anything I have listed here. But if you are into cars then you know exactly what I mean. I am also open to admire all kinds of cars. Unlike some automotive snobs out there. You know who you are.

So why the article about Leisure Freak Tommy’s car fever?

I guess I am just stoked because I just got a list of all the close-by local car shows for this month. One even includes a concert. It is going to be a busy month for me. I don’t usually take part by entering my ride except for a couple earlier in the summer. But I love to attend car shows and they are almost always free. If there is a fee it is usually modest and associated to a charity which is fine with me. My automotive obsession is one of my retirement hobbies. I meet a lot of like minded car lovers every time I attend one of these shows.

There is another point to this post.

Most early retirement articles or blogs you read will mention getting rid of cars. They preach going to a single car to attain early retirement. Even after you retire to save money. I do have to admit something to the early retirement world. I have a couple of non-utilitarian all-purpose cars and guess what? I still retired early. OK, before you start screaming out that Leisure Freak Tommy isn’t just a Freak but he is a full-blown idiot let me explain.

My Automotive Hobby is part of my Early Retirement Budget.

I buy and keep the cars that I enjoy and like forever. These don’t sit around as a museum piece. They are purpose driven. I am also trying to show that retiring early doesn’t have to mean you give up everything you love or are passionate about. It is about trade-offs. It’s about understanding what they are. How and if our actions or wants will negatively or positively impact our early retirement. These were over 10-year-old used cars when I bought them with cash. I never just look for a car and then buy one within a few days.

I actually hate buying used cars because of all that could be wrong and hidden. These things take much more time to get a good car cheap. Since I seem to already have a car when I am on the car-hunt I don’t have to be in any hurry.

Part of my Car Fever fun is always being on the lookout for something special.

At least one of my cars and for some people they might say both of my cars aren’t exactly frugally smart retiree utilitarian all-purpose vehicles. But they represent my hobby and car fever enthusiasm. A Leisure Freak has to have some fun.

My primary daily driver car for the last 21 plus years is a 1981 Toyota SR5 mini-truck that I bought in March 1993. It had 140K miles on it and I paid $1300. My son and I had looked for the right truck for over a year and a half to customize and turn into a hardtop convertible. My son was just about 13 at the time which was our first car project together. We successfully made our economical fishing truck much more fun to drive. I have driven this truck through 6 western states and it now has over 320K miles on the odometer. There has been normal maintenance and some rebuilding through the years.

It’s actually very practical

Besides being my daily driver it doubles as a small hauler. A necessity for a homeowner. So far I have over 21 years of dependable fun. It has been worth every penny I have spent on it.

My son passed away 8 years after we did this custom work together. I will never part with this little pickup. I have many memories of our travels and adventures in it. It was a start to what would be his automotive career as an auto body repair tech and painter.

If I had to go to a single car in retirement, it would be this truck. My wife totally believes me when I say that and is not amused (no air conditioning other than going topless). She jokes that I will probably be buried in it.

Even though the mini-truck scene has long passed, there are so few of them left on the road that it sparks interest. I meet and talk to a lot of people who used to own or knew someone who owned a custom mini truck back in the day. It’s a driver and a decent 5 footer (looks great from 5 feet away).

My Early Retirement Ride

I had looked 2 years for a 1999 Fixed Roof Coupe (FRC) Corvette. They only made about 4400 of them and I had an amount I was only willing to pay. Of which didn’t match what the market was asking. But in March 2009 when the Stock Market’s Dow dropped into the 6000s everyone panicked. Including the owner of what was to become my dream retirement ride. I paid $15k which was a huge discount of thousands of dollars. After all these years I could still easily sell it for what I paid or more. It had 40K miles on the odometer and like most of these FRCs had some work done to make it a race car.

We take this baby and travel across a few States yearly to the (BHCC) Black Hills Corvette Classic. Its LS1 V8 350 horsepower engine and 6 speed manual transmission will deliver over 30 MPG doing 79 MPH all day long. I have cruised with up to 36 MPG over 400 miles across Interstate 80 heading to Utah. It now has 62K miles and we do plan on cruising the Pacific Coast Highway soon with it.

In Closing

Both of these cars are totally worthless in snow so we have our regular cars for that kind of thing. I have budgeted for the yearly cost and without the daily commute adding hard miles to either of these two cars they should be repair-free for a while. I have to admit that it’s a good thing I only have a 3 car garage because I am tempted now and then to buy a classic car. This Car Fever in my Early Retirement is a sickness. But I am not ready for a cure. I am having way too much fun.

It is good to budget for your hobbies before you retire and have the funds set aside to do them. It is all part of planning ahead to what we are retiring to.

Am I a car crazy freak or just an idiot? Let me know what you think and whether you have some cool cars you hang on to or are looking to buy.