David Pitlyuk

I recently bought a Dodge Viper, and I mentioned that I’d be driving it around for free, or maybe even getting paid to drive it. So how am I doing this? Careful planning, and a lot of searching/watching for the right deal.

I know you’ve all heard that buying a car is the worst investment you can make. Go to the dealer, pick up the latest and greatest 2007, and watch it lose thousands of dollars as soon as you drive off the lot. That doesn’t sound like a very intelligent thing to do, right? But many of us do it anyway, we want that new car feeling, we want a warranty, and we want the latest thing on the road. I’m the same way, I do like having the latest and greatest, and have purchased two brand new cars in the past 6 years. I’ve also learned from my mistakes. Since buying my 2nd brand new car, I’ve purchased 5 vehicles (3 cars, a motorcycle, and a dirtbike), but they have all been used. I’ve extremely minimized my overall ownership costs on all of these vehicles, allowing me to invest more money into things that will make me more money.

So the most obvious thing here is to find a vehicle that you can get a really good deal on, but that also generally depreciates less than other vehicles. My circle of good friends are all into cars, and all have fast cars. Since I sold my twin turbo 350Z, I have been lacking a true sports car, so I wanted to something for the summer…but I wanted to minimize my cost of doing so. A Dodge Viper is a great car to do this with. I purchased a first generation Viper, which is considered a collectors car. I think they have pretty much depreciated to the point (or very close) where as long as the miles are fairly low, the price will not go much lower (some are even saying that they are starting to appreciate). I could probably park the car in my garage, put a few thousand miles a year on it, and sell it years later for a similar price that I paid. I essentially did that with my 350Z, except the difference was that I lost thousands of dollars!

How Do You Find A Good Deal?

To find my Dodge Viper, there were several important factors:

1. You have to have a budget, and stick to it. It’s hard to not go a little bit over what you wanted to spend, but you have to make a hard-line decision on what you can/want to spend.
2. You have to have the funds available and ready to purchase the car at any second. Having the funds without taking a loan will help minimize your total cost by a lot since there will be no interest paid. I’ll have a post later on about how a good friend of mine makes side-income buying and selling dirt bikes…you’ll see how offering what I call a “right-now” action will give you a huge upper hand in price negotiating.
3. You have to be able to negotiate pricing. You can’t be afraid to work numbers with somebody.
4. You have to be able to walk away from a deal if it’s not what you want. If the price is slightly too high, you need to be able to get yourself to wait for the next chance.
5. Be patient. Finding a good deal can be tough, but they are out there! Follow the guidelines, and you will eventually get one.

These can pretty much be relevant to negotiating anything you’re going to buy, not just a car.

The Search Begins

There will be some research required on your end. I watched forums, eBay, Autotrader, Craigslist, and more to get an idea of what a good price on the Viper is. I knew the general ranges of what they sell for, and I also got an idea of what some of the aftermarket parts go for. Why did I do that? Well the Viper I purchased for example had an aftermarket hard top and glass windows…these sell for $5,000 brand new. I should be able to sell it for around $1,500-$2,000 fast, and I can knock that off the total price of the car. In this scenario, it made a huge difference, and was a big factor in why I chose the car that I did.

After knowing the range that the car normally sells for, you can then begin your search. You obviously need to be able to get the car below or near the low range in order to maximize your deal. You have to factor in additional costs such as shipping and taxes/registration. Once you find the deal you want, jump on it as quickly as possible. Don’t give the seller the opportunity to have another buyer come in and offer higher. If the buyer doesn’t already require it, ask to pay a deposit (usually $500-$1,000) so he will remove the car from wherever it is being sold. This will stop other potential buyers from contacting and offering higher than what you did.

When I bought my Viper I was looking at one in Georgia and working on negotiating a deal. In the meantime I continued watching my sources, and found a perfect one come up on eBay. I immediately contacted the buyer and made an offer. He met me slightly more than halfway, and I sent a deposit for the car right away. This was all done within 2 hours of the seller posting the car on eBay! I’m 95% sure he would have gotten his buy it now price (and even had offers for higher), but because I utilized my action items, I got the car for $1,100 less than the buy it now price. On top of that, I can also take another $1,500-$2,000 off the bottom line when I sell the hard top and glass windows. Keep all this in mind, when you are working out a deal, continue to keep looking as a better one may be right underneath your nose.

Good luck, and if you have any questions or comments about finding a good deal, post a comment!

Cross it off my dream cars to own list, I have officially bought my first Dodge Viper. After dealing with shipping companies for a week and a half, I finally found a good one to deal with. The car arrived in perfect shape, in just one day from being picked up in upstate NY. It was brought on an open trailer with just my car on it:

The car JUST clears the ramps:

And finally she is officially here:

I absolutely can’t stand the wheels, they make the car look like it came out of the 80’s (even though it’s not that far away). First thing to do was to swap the wheels with my buddies old wheels:

These wheels are from a newer model GTS Viper, they aren’t insane, but they make the car look about 10 years newer. I’d like to get some nice aftermarket ones, and I will be on the lookout for something used. New aftermarket wheels that fit the Viper normally start at about $5,000 with tires and go to about $9,000 for the stuff that I like.

Here’s a shot under the hood, this Viper has a 400hp V10 motor:

Here is my Viper and my roommates Viper parked next to each other in the garage:

I ended up getting a really great deal, and got a spectacular car considering it is 13 years old. It only has 14,729 miles on it! What are you doing about crossing items off your life to-do list?

I’ve never been a huge fan of the looks of a Maserati. I can live with the GranSport, and the MC12 is awesome…but will set you back around $1 million. Especially in the US, a Maserati is a rare car, and it’s time that it really turns heads when you do see one. Welcome the upcoming GranTurismo model. This new 405hp machine actually looks amazing, and will I’m sure follow Maserati’s luxury levels they’ve been known to have.

Here is the old Maserati Coupe that the GranTurismo is pretty much replacing:

The styling is ok, but it’s nothing special, and is really starting to look outdated. I personally wouldn’t want to spend over $100,000 on a sportier car and have it look like that. Check out the new GranTurismo:

I never liked the fish gills on the side like the Quattraporte has, but I think they look nice here. The headlights also really make the front end of the car work.

The rear has to be my favorite part. The way the bumper surrounds the quad-exhaust tips looks amazing.

The interior looks very modernized, and the red with silver accents really sets it off.

These are all press photographs, but surprisingly enough, the in-person pictures of the car make it look even better.

Surprisingly, Maserati’s don’t carry the price tag that you may expect. There were rumors of a $95,000 starting price, but they have since been revoked. With a car that may compete with the Jaguar XKR, I would choose the Maserati GranTurismo hands down. What do you think?

[poll=5]

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve been looking for some sort of sports car for just the summer. The main thing is I wanted to be able to drive it, but minimize my cost as much as possible since I only plan on keeping it through late summer. I will still be writing a post on how this can be done, but in the meantime, check out the 1994 Dodge Viper RT/10 I just bought!

I’ll have more pictures when it arrives as I have to have it shipped from NY state. The car has under 15,000 original miles, and is showroom quality. This will now be a fun summer, and it will be nice to have two Vipers in the garage.

Last Updated 4/29/08

Update 11/8/2007: I will be continually updating this post as I go through more vehicles, so feel free to bookmark and check back from time to time.

Cars have always been a huge source of inspiration for me. In fact, my day job is near a Ferrari/Lamborghini/Maserati dealership, and I find myself visiting at least once every week or two for my own personal inspiration. So for somebody into cars, it’s interesting to take a look at my progression of vehicles so far:

1998-2004: 1994 Nissan Altima GXE

This was my very first car, and my entrance into the world of Nissan. I started doing slight modifications before modifications to imports got big. Simple things like exhaust, audio, etc made the car slightly sportier for its time.

2003-2004: 2003 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE

With 245hp from the factory, the 3.5 SE Altima was a sleeper. Nobody expected that it would be that fast, but it was classified as a sport family sedan. This car was the single thing that was the link to launching one of my companies (ActiveTuning), as I had met my business partner through Altima forums. I ordered it from the factory, and while waiting the 3 months for it to arrive, I was already amassing parts in my bedroom. By the time it was sold, I had completely re-done the car and put it into a few shows. It had full exhaust (intake, headers, race pipe, catback), custom audio setup, painted dash, wheels, suspension, the full works.

2004-2007: 2004 Nissan 350Z

My 350Z was the first time that I had just completely re-done a car and went all out. Over $40,000 was spent in the car (after the price of the car) for modifications. All of the work was done by myself and people helping me, so that was a great satisfaction. The car was pushing over 400hp to the wheels after installing an APS twin turbo. Other major modifications were body kit, many carbon fiber parts, in-car PC, wheels, suspension, fiberglassed audio system, and much more. If you could see it, it had probably been changed.

This was my car at Hot Import Nights 2006, notice the fiberglassed sub box in the trunk.

This was my in-car PC. It was a fully functional PC running Windows XP with GPS.

2005-2006: 1994 Dodge Viper RT/10

This Dodge Viper was purchased solely for the purpose of using it for a business venture called SmashMyViper.com. The car was stock other than wheels, but of course it’s a Viper, and it’s still a beast with a V10 pushing 400hp.

2005-2006: 1994 Toyota Camry

The 94′ Camry seems out of place in the list, but it was purchased for the purpose of a “beater car”. A high-mileage, inexpensive, but reliable car used to keep the miles off of the expensive cars. I drove this for about a year before I had the itch to drive around in a car that was more fun on a daily basis.

2006-2007: 1998 Honda CBR600 F3

Late last summer I started getting into dirt bikes with a friend. This eventually lead into motorcycles, so I picked this up as a starter bike. It had a little over 10,000 miles, never dropped, perfect condition for $3,000…an excellent deal considering I sold it for more than I paid for it.

2006-2007: 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe

The 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe was my daily driver vehicle for almost 2 years. It was essentially Infiniti’s version of the 350Z, but with more luxury. The car is loaded with navigation and 19″ OEM wheels from a newer model G35.

Update: 11/8/2007: I have since updated the wheels on the car and installed 19″ Volk SF Challenges! I plan on keeping the rest of the car stock.

2007-2008: 1994 Dodge Viper RT/10

I purchased the car back in May and wrote about it here.

2008-2008: 1997 Chevrolet C5 Corvette

I picked up the Corvette for my 2008 Summer car. I will plan on selling it starting around July-August. With 345hp stock, but much more added from the various modifications, this car is pretty beast-like…and could closely compare to the Viper in terms of straight-line performance. I was originally planning on purchasing a newer generation C6 body Corvette, but decided to spend half the price on this.

2007-Current: 1999 Honda Accord Coupe EX

Just purchased this car in November as a new beater car.

2007-Current: 2002 Honda CBR600 F4i

Replaced my old CBR600 F3 with this newer body style F4i.

2008-Current: 1997 Dodge Viper GTS

Well, the Corvette did not last long before I realized that I would much rather have a Viper in the garage. I decided to pick up my actual dream car version of the Viper, which is a blue 97 GTS with white stripes. With 450hp, and only 6,300 miles on the odometer when I picked it up, it was ready to go! The only thing I’ve done so far was add a Corsa exhaust and Random Tech high flow cats. It makes it much louder, and should give about 30 more hp to the car.

Have an old vehicle you want to get rid of? Learn how to donate your car or donate your boat to your favorite charity. Car donation services are a great way to give back and receive a tax break and other car donation benefits too.

This past weekend was Hot Import Nights, Washington DC. For those of you who do not know what Hot Import Nights is, it’s a car show, but much much more. The event is indoors, with lights off, hot models, music, vendors, entertainment, cool lighting and more. In the past few years, I’ve always had my car in the show, but I’ve recently sold my show car 350Z, so I was there to gawk at all of the other cars this time around. Going to HIN also gives me a chance to see what the latest trends are in the aftermarket car market, meet with vendors, and network with owners and people that I know. This is all very helpful for my aftermarket parts manufacturing business, ActiveTuning. I did happen to see a few instances of ActiveTuning represented at the show:

Here was a Nissan Altima in the parking lot with our S2 Grille

This was an older Nissan Sentra in a vendor booth. The car was track-ready and had our popular rear strut tower brace as part of their suspension setup.

This is a rare (at least in the US) R32 GT-R Nissan Skyline that is owned by a good friend of mine. The car is very powerful (over 700hp to the rear wheels), with a ton of modifications done to it.

Here is an ActiveTuning decal on the side of the Skyline

It’s always really nice and inspirational seeing my company represented on cars randomly. We have thousands of customers, and there are cars all over the world sporting our products.

The parking lot at the show always has nice cars as well, since there are many car enthusiasts checking it out:

This is my friend Brent’s Lotus Elise. The car handles amazingly right from the dealership. In fact Brent raced it across the country in last years AKA Rally. I met Brent a couple years ago because he has a ridiculous convertible Nissan 350Z (800+ whp and full show car) that was in the show.

Somebody brought their Lamborghini Diablo to the show. I didn’t see any handicap tag, but I don’t think anybody cared just for the chance to see the gorgeous car.

This is a blue/white Dodge Viper that was owned by the guys at Infinite Speed & Performance who had a section in the show with some of their other cars. I know the car has a lot of modifications because I actually saw it on eBay before they bought it. I’ve been on the lookout for the same Viper for a while now, and hope to have one in my garage at some point. If you look closely you will notice another identical Viper behind it.

I had to grab a picture of this bike, it’s the one that I would like to get to replace my Honda CBR600 F3.

There were many other cars in the lot that I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of such as a Porsche Carerra GT, BMW M6, and many many more. Here’s some select pictures of the cars from the show:

A very nice Lexus IS350 which came out not too long ago

An RX-7 in the Mazda booth. This car was at the front entrance of the show last year.

Aston Martin in the Bridgestone tires booth. It’s always awesome seeing expensive cars modified.

Some huge rims! They look much bigger in person.

Ferrari F430 and a highly modified Dodge Viper SRT10

Pretty wild Nissan 350Z with a wide body kit. You can’t see the trunk setup, but it was very extreme.

Smart Cars have barely even been in the US, but that doesn’t stop anybody from modifying it.

A done up new Ford Mustang. I love the bumble bee paint scheme.

A mini that was completely extreme with it’s audio and fiberglass setup. That is the engine compartment! The trunk and interior were just as wild, and no, I don’t know who that guy is.

This is a really slick Nissan 240SX that has been converted to a Japanese S15 Silvia. I’ve always loved this conversion, and hope to have a project 240SX at one point for myself.

A Toyota Supra with one of the models from the show. There were a lot of Supra’s at the show.

An slick looking Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R. There were a good amount of Skyline’s at the show, and this had to be favorite.

The motor from an R33 Nissan Skyline. Notice the two polished turbos! The engine was clean enough to eat off of.

This style of modifying is called V.I.P., and was done quite well.

Here’s me standing in front of a seriously lifted Chevy truck. The thing was a monster.

A well done 1989 Nissan 240SX. The car looks amazing for the year it is.

A highly modified Ferrari F360 Modena Stradale edition. This is my original dream Ferrari, and I plan to have one of these in my garage one day.

This car was one of the best done from a show-perspective. It was a Toyota Celica, but the front half of the car looks just like a Nissan 350Z.

There were three NSX’s at the show, and this was my favorite. I love the hood scoops!

This Audi had a neat concept, they created holes in the hood to mount the turbo’s for maximum air flow.

This is a buddy of mines Nissan 350Z, you may recognize him as the host from a couple of the episodes from SmashMyViper.com.

Not all of the show is cars, they had a main stage with music performers, model contests, and more.

Shell Gasoline had a booth setup where you can race remote control cars that can drift.

Overall the show was a good one. The weather turned out perfect, but there were definitely less cars than last year. They should have had more cars, and I was actually told that they had overbooked the show, so they were turning some cars away. HIN shows are all over the US, if you’re into cars, definitely check it out.

I am a huge car buff, and since before I could drive I had a timeline of cars that I had to have in my lifetime. They were:

1. BMW M3
2. Dodge Viper
3. Ferrari
4. Lamborghini

I have already had Dodge Viper, but I would like to get a GTS at some point…so I keep that on the list. I could have easily had an M3 by now, but my ActiveTuning company specializes in Nissan and Infiniti. This means that by me buying and driving a Nissan or Infiniti, I am promoting my business, and also using the expenses as a write-off for tax purposes…drastically reducing my overall cost in automotive expenses. I am thinking that in the next year or so I will be switching out my Infiniti G35 Coupe with something else…and an M3 is at the top of my list right now.

The version of the M3 (the E92) is set to be released in the US mid-next year, and all we got so far were concept pictures. Autoweek finally got a hold of a few production picture, which gives us a look at exactly how the car will look in real life. The new M3 will now have a V8 with 420hp at 8,300 rpm. There are many other new technologies which make the car very exciting, read more about it in the Autoweek article if you want to know more.

I think the car looks great, and very agressive…which is how an M3 should look. I personally think from an exterior-standpoint, the older E46 looks better (but maybe that will change when I see it in person). Here’s a picture of the current E46 M3:

I think the interior on the new one definitely looks much more refined though. As of right now, I’m leaning more towards getting a used E46. For those of you that want similar E92 looks, but for a better price, consider the 335i coupe. It’s not as aggressive, but does feature twin turbos and an underrated 300hp starting at $40,000.

Update 4/7/2007: A new batch of official pictures has been posted at Autoblog.

I’ve been helping my roommate upgrade the audio system in his Dodge Viper RT/10. We’re installing a Pioneer headunit and Infiniti reference speakers all-around. We’re utilizing the factory amplifiers to work with the new headunit and speakers. The early model Dodge Vipers were all hand-made, so it’s interesting to see everything underneath the panels and appreciate the work that was put into it. I figured you don’t see the insides of a Dodge Viper everyday, so I thought I’d share it with you all:

This is a shot of the interior taken apart

You can see one of the factory amplifiers in the back left corner. These are for the rear speakers, there is another amplifier for the front speakers on the right side of the trunk.

Me working on installing the rear speakers

The rear speakers are installed!

Testing to make sure the headunit powers up and works, it does! We could find an aftermarket wiring harness for a Viper, so we had to test wires from the factory harness and splice them into the Pioneer harness. We also had to make sure that we had a remote turn-on connected to the factory amplifiers in order for them to turn on when the headunit was turned on.

I’ll be making another update once everything is completed, so be on the lookout.

For anybody interested more about the car, it’s a 1993 Dodge Viper RT/10 (one of the first 500 made) with 20,xxx miles. The following major modifications are on the car:

• Viper 791XV alarm system with door poppers
• Bellanger headers
• Bellanger exhaust system
• Bellanger cats
• 3.55 gears
• Smooth tubes
• 19″ CCW 505A wheels (not installed yet)
• Eibach springs

For the past two years that I’ve been living in Northern Virginia, I’ve been hearing about some great indoor go-cart track. If you know me, you know I love cars, and you know I love driving. So finally this past weekend I decided to check it out. The name of the place is called Allsports Grand Prix, and it’s located in Dulles, VA. The place is pretty much all out, you have to wear a race suit, gloves, and helmet to even get on the track. There are two types of carts, the regular one is 6.5hp and the superkart one is 9hp. This doesn’t seem like a lot, but the regular one goes about 38mph on the straight away. In order to even be able to drive the superkart, you have to be able to get 4 25 second or less laps in one race. To put that in perspective, by best time was 26.846:

Now I know you’re going to call me out on excuses, but I was getting bad times because I didn’t really know what the race line was. Plus on one of the hairpin turns, I kept spinning out. One of the officials was sitting at that corner, and when I left, I asked what I was doing wrong to keep spinning out. He said I was using my brakes, go figure! On the entire track, the brakes are not supposed to be used. The technique for the hairpin turn is to go wide, letting off the gas and turning will slow the kart down enough to make the turn. In the middle of the turn as the kart is sideways and pointing straight is when you can give it full gas again. I wish I knew this beforehand, I’m sure my times would have been much better!

The entire experience is really fun, but it’s something you need to do a few times in order to start getting good at it. The problem with that is that it’s really expensive, $24.50 for just 8 minutes of racing for non-members. 8 minutes gets about 16-18 laps depending on how fast you go. Annual membership is $50, and that includes a t-shirt, 8-minute race, and another 8-minute race on your birthday. It also gives you a discounted rate of $17/race whenever you do want to go. So you can tell, this sport can get really expensive, but it’s great fun! Here’s a picture of yours truly getting ready to race:

My daily driver car right now is the Infiniti G35 Coupe. I got the car when I originally had a Nissan 350Z with twin turbo and a 94 Toyota Camry. I wanted to have a nicer car as a daily driver, so I swapped the Camry with the G35:

Infiniti recently released the new G35 Sedan, a much better improvement from the older version. I’ve been anxiously awaiting what the new coupe would look like, and based on concept pictures I knew I would be impressed:

Here are the production pictures:

It definitely doesn’t look as good as the concept, but it does look better than the version that I have…unfortunately not good enough in my opinion to justify replacing mine with it. It’s really not a complete re-design in my opinion, but more like a lot of refinements. Automobile Magazine stated that the interior is a 100% improvement, and the G37 looks much better when parked next to the G35 in person. I guess it’s something I’ll have to see when it’s in the dealerships. But looks aren’t everything…The new G37 now moves into a 3.7 liter motor with a preliminary 330hp, a big upgrade from my 275hp 3.5L. There are many other performance upgrades like VVEL technology, better fuel economy, higher redline, 36% stiffer, larger brakes, and more.

I’m dying to see the car in person. What do you think:

[poll=4]

Update 3/26/07: I found a picture of the G37 Coupe interior for your viewing. As soon as they have a model at my local Infiniti dealership, I’ll be there for some pics.

Now that you've got your new car, have you considered donating your car to a charity? You can also donate your boat and donate a RV too. There are benefits to vehicle donations including tax deductions for you. Learn more by reading car donation FAQ today.