Credit to Boris Lau (2022)
I've never been married nor do I have children, but I do consider my 2 cars as my children. Why? Because they can get expensive as heck to maintain and keep happy. Whereas my colleagues and friends are busy taking their children to swimming/ski/hockey/gymnastics/ballet/drawing lessons, which can all add up with time, I have 'invested' my hard-earned money on these gigantic mechanical devices that don't technically have a soul, nor carry my last name to the next generation. But, they do have a driving soul (as I like to call it).
When people spread rumours that I can't commit in a relationship, they have no clue what they're talking about. This year, I celebrate 15 years of service in my work place, 16 years together with the Genesis Coupe, and 8 years together with the Cayman. That is more than all my relationships combined over the years. The problem is not that I have commitment issues. The problem is I committed my time and energy to the wrong type of person for my mental and spiritual health. My job and my cars have been more reliable to me than all the men I've ever dated in the past.
My Genesis has been with me through the beginning of my career, from my very first job, to my current job. It has seen all my struggles, my depressing days, my happy days, and of course the annoyed era where I have to keep fixing it due to various reasons which I will list below. It has been through when M was around, and when M passed away. It has been there when I first started my nursing career. It has brought home my 2 current cats from when they were kittens to now adults. It continues to live on.
In 2014, I made the decision to modify the Genesis. The ultimate goal was to build a quicker turbo version, but nothing too crazy. If anything, it was only to upgrade the parts that the stock Genesis had, and do a slightly quicker version. So here I went, trying to find all these parts to make it faster. Last one was to do a safe tune. I wasn't ready yet for the custom tune where the engine could potential blow up if I didn't upgrade all the correct parts. I thought modifications would be cool - an Asian chick driving a modded out Genesis Coupe?! BAZINGAAAAAA.
Well, the thing is modifications come with plenty of risks. Risks that I wish I had done more research on, but I was too excited back in the day to care. I was making good money and wanted to celebrate by modding. Little did I know that all these mods would potentially cause life long issues for the car.
As an example, when you modify the suspensions to make it lower, you play with the centre of gravity, but you also put strain on the rest of the stock parts. The car was meant to drive at a certain height that it was built to do. But once you mess with the height and suspension parts, it will strain the rest. The weight of the car plays a role - and that's why some decide to remove seats or whatever else from the car to lighten the load, or replace certain parts with carbon fibre to save on weight. Again, this would screw with the balance of the car.
Initially I started off with springs instead of coilovers, because I was too cheap to invest in those. Springs cost $120 (back in the day), while coilovers were well over $1000 and I can see why - coilovers is a complete set of not just springs but better damping, and adjustable height. When I went with springs, I notice the ride was much more harsh, and the car was not absorbing all those bumps as good as before. When you only settle with springs, it will ruin your shocks over time. Eventually I upgraded to a set of coilovers and it was a lot better. But given our harsh winters, coilovers can also degrade if not taken care of - the salt will eat away at them, making them costly once again to replace. Currently I'm on my second set of coilovers and they have started to rust because of all the wintery salt.
Internally I didn't do too much. I think the most expensive was the exhaust work and the tune. However, given that my tune was set up for a turbo back exhaust (no cats), I ended up putting the cats back in because it was a nightmare driving it around with a loud exhaust. After getting pulled over twice, I decided it was just safer to put the cats back in. Now, without another proper tune, the car wants to go fast but is limited. That now puts a strain on the entire system. My flexpipe had to be replaced twice probably because of the tune.
When you lower the car, you take risks such as damaging the body of the car. For example, the front lip and side skirts. The amount of times I had to fix and repaint the lip because it cracked due to hitting something...probably 3 times?? Let's not forget the time a member from the Genesis community offered to take my lip and side skirts to paint, only to completely disappear from the face of the earth (along with my stock rims and tires) - I'm looking at you Matt Burden.
Let's not forget the time that the car was sort of swaying back and forth. Eventually the entire subframe had to be dropped to find the issue causing the swaying. That one cost an arm and a leg. The following year, the Genesis was involved in a hit and run in the work parking lot. All the damage was submitted through the insurance company to fix. I swear I thought that would be it. After everything was fixed and repainted, Genesis had a good run for a few months. Until...
I hit a mattress on the 401.
Getting old sucks. Let's just say driving at night with window tints, while it's raining, it renders me blind. I was driving westbound just past Westney, when I saw what looked like a puddle up ahead. As I drove closer, I realized ... IT WAS NOT A PUDDLE OF WATER. No, there were 2 mattresses on the freaking highway. I could not change lanes as 1) the right lane was the shoulder/merge lane and 2) there was a car in my blind spot on the left side. Hubby was behind me and has way better vision than me so he changed lanes. But sucker me, I braked hard and ran right into the mattress. BOOM! I felt my car bounce. When I got home, not only did I break one side of my front bumper clips, but my front lip had cracked. LITERALLY THE BUMPER AND FRONT LIP THAT WAS JUST FIXED 7 MONTHS AGO.
I could never get a break since finishing the mods.
This is also why one of my biggest pet peeve is people not securing their loads properly on their cars, ESPECIALLY A DAMN MATTRESS. When I see people secure a mattress on their roof, with a string, yeah that thing is flying off. Just hire a damn moving company to do it. Or better yet, go rent one of those U-Haul vans. A mattress fits into one of those! I would know because I've moved before! I would never secure something as huge as a mattress on the roof of my car. Can you imagine if I drove around in the Cayman with a mattress on the roof? The mattress would be longer than the car. It's ridiculous. People are just retarded.
This past winter, when the snow was bad, I gave Genesis a bit of a break until the snow levels started to melt a bit. One time I drove to work and I had to clear a steep hill. There was still snow on the driveway in the middle portion of the road. Basically the sides were clear because all the tires had ran through them, but the middle was the problem. I had taken this driveway slightly sideways (never head on because low car problems). Things were going well until I heard this loud explosion-like sound. It was like a BOOM POP POP sound. I must've scared the people waiting for the bus nearby. I didn't feel any different with the car.
Later as I parked and inspected, the car was too low that it had scraped the snow in the middle of the driveway, and that had dislodged my rear diffuser, which then cracked my rear bumper. Great. Not only did I have to deal with the front bumper and lip issues, but now THE ASS TOO?
SIGH.
So here we are in 2026, I have asked the shop to adjust my coilovers so I could clear the ground easier from now on. Everything is pretty much just maintenance from now on. No more modding.
Which brings me to the Cayman. I had at one point thought about modding the Cayman. I have seen some really good project cars, and it's just so beautiful. However, I stopped myself because 1) modding a Porsche is a hell of a lot different than modding a Hyundai, 2) it's going to cost a lot more money, 3) do I really want to spend the next decade or 2 dealing with problems that will arise after modding a Porsche?
The only 'mod' I have done are window tints (if that even counts as a mod). And putting a sticker on the spoiler. The Cayman is a great car in stock form. I figured I would want to enjoy the car as is, and that's what I've stuck with all this time. It has served me well (aside from that one random hiccup the season after I took it out of storage for the first time).
The Cayman is already quite low. But it came to the point that the Genesis was lower than the Cayman. Feedback from both family and friends have indicated that they definitely felt the difference. That's when I knew I had to do something about the Genesis' height. It's also impacted me in the long run, where after the spinal surgery, getting into a lowered car has its challenges.
The Cayman's shocks are pretty good, the power is there. Except the noise. It needs to be louder. I really want to hear that flat6 engine scream. However that would involve upgrading the exhaust system and I don't know if I'm quite ready for that. Because I know I'd want a tune as well. And then it just becomes a deadly cycle again.
Cost of maintenance and mods? Honestly, I could've bought another brand new coupe with all the maintenance and fixing damages over the years. I could've just gave up and said, ok I'm saying goodbye to the Genesis because it's old and all the costs are way more than the value of the car now. But it's my first car, it has its sentimental value which makes it even harder to say goodbye. It's also been there for me through the highs and lows, times where not even a guy could console me of my miseries. So why should I give up on the Genesis when it didn't give up on me?!
I know, it sounds stupid because it's just a car. But really, when you pour your mind, soul and money into your project car, it's literally your baby. YOU did that. It's not just a transportation device that takes you from one place to another. You become one with it. For non-car people, it wouldn't make sense. To the car people, it would make lots of sense. I understand that there will come a time when yes, it won't be worth it anymore, that it's time to say goodbye for good. But until then, I will cherish every moment, every drive.
Cayman is there mostly these days as an emergency back up for work, and of course a weekend car for cruises and meets. Without the Cayman, I honestly don't know what I'd do if the Genesis required a long service appointment. I could take the bus, but given so many crazy people these days, I'd feel more safer in my own car.
The Cayman brings lots of joy to those around me, especially colleagues and clients. When they see that bright yellow car in the sun in the parking lot, they always ask for pictures, or for the key (as a joke) to drive away. Everyone competes to park beside it, or stays away from it because they don't want to scratch it. It may be 12 years old this year, but it still looks like a brand new car. I give props to the previous owner for maintaining it so well, and I promise myself that I would do the same.
Maintenance on the Cayman has been quite reasonable. Aside from the major work done to it such as brakes and tires, and perhaps replacing the condenser, the yearly maintenance is actually a lot less than the Genesis surprisingly. I guess because Porsche actually built their cars to last.
Hyundai's paint job is crap. One little bump or scrape and BOOM your paint starts to peel. Porsche paint? Flawless. Ok, maybe aside from when I scraped the side of the Cayman against the garage wall. That wasn't fun. BUT it actually buffed out without issues. It also happened to the Macan when I had it on loan. I had scraped the side against the garage wall and when I inspected it, the paint was still flawless. No scratches, no paint peeling. Seriously, they are monsters. Highly respect Porsche for both their engineering and paint. Now we can see why they cost so much. You pay for what you get.
Hyundai are good daily cars, as long as you don't mod them. Then it becomes a freaking nightmare trying to maintain it. I'm fortunate to own both a Hyundai and a Porsche, as they are very far from the spectrum of each other. But I do appreciate both for what they have to offer. Honestly, this is something that I'm fortunate enough to do on my own, and it may be my once in a life time opportunity to experience this. So I plan to keep this going for as long as I can, given whatever I have.
Appreciate everything that is given to you in life. Take care of it, and God will make sure it takes care of you.
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