I already invested this much in it! Might as well spend more! Or not!
I mentioned sunk cost fallacy in a recent post. I bought our 1994 EZ-GO golf cart (buggy) for $299 back in 2008, about eight years ago. It was in pretty bad shape and it is now a staggering 30 years old, although many of the components have been replaced. I fear I may be falling victim to "sunk cost fallacy" - where you believe that since you spent so much, you might as well spend more to protect your "investment."
And it need not be money, either. People invest time in a project and then refuse to give up, because they have so much time invested. You go to a car dealer and they dick you around for hours (average time, six hours for most sales). They jerk you around on price, trade-in, interest rate, and other terms. You object, but then think, "I've been here four hours already and I have to get home and get to bed and go to work tomorrow! If I back out now, then I have to 'invest' more time at another dealer! Just make it go away!"
And that's how they sell cars - or anything else. Sunk Cost Fallacy.
It is also how people spend an inordinate amount of money on old cars. You spend a few thousand putting a rebuilt engine on a 200K mile car and then the transmission goes bad. You think, "I spent all this money so I might as well spend more on the transmission - then everything will be fixed!" But there are plenty of other things to break and often the mechanic makes errors in repair work which need to be addressed (or are never addressed).
For example, I had a 1995 Ford F150. Beautiful truck, not a speck of rust! But the clearcoat was just starting to show signs where it might peel. The driver's seat was starting to wear, and so on and so forth. The engine was overheating - bad head gasket or what? The transmission had "issues" with a second gear roller clutch. Sure, I could put a rebuilt engine and transmission in it, but that would run about ten grand when it was all said and done, for a truck that books at $4500 on a good day. I sold it on eBay - defects disclosed! - for $4500 and moved on with life.
A friend of mine had a similar 1995 F250 and it was running poorly. Good looking truck, but the engine was making no power. I suspect it was losing compression and needed a rebuild, but the local "mechanic" decided to "rip out all that emissions stuff" and install headers which made it run even worse. It was a nightmare under the hood - cut wires and such and parts missing. You'd have to start all over to sort it all out. He ended up selling it and buying something newer - which he probably should have done before he paid that "mechanic" thousands of dollars to ruin it.
I fear I may have fallen victim to sunk cost fallacy with the buggy. Golf cart batteries (lead-acid) last about five years, sometimes more. Fancy AGM batteries may last longer, but you can pay twice as much for them. Then you have to fuss with distilled water and whatnot and charging sequences and so on (there are discussion groups galore about how to baby your lead-acid batteries). So after five years, our "12 month" Duracell Sam's Club batteries were pretty much toast - they were using water like a thirsty camel. I could buy new ones, or fancy AGM kind, but Lithium-Ion battery pack was not much more - and pretty painless once installed. Charging instructions are: "plug it in" - no fussing or worrying about "boiling the batteries" or whatever.
But of course, with this nice new battery, the rest of the buggy looks pretty shabby. Why not upgrade with a new rear seat? New upholstery? And maybe it is time to put in real 12V wiring and a real fusebox instead of just one 20A fuse for all the accessories? Pretty soon, well, you've spent some money - and time.
And there is a lot to spend on. How about a long roof to overhang the new rear seat? Only $499! Or a fake woodgrain "dashboard" with locking gloveboxes for only $199? Or a brush guard? Diamond plate trim pieces? Off-road lights? The list goes on an on. You can throw thousands of dollars at a "buggy" before you know it. And a newer one can be had for under ten grand - although many top $15,000 or more at the dealer. Some cost more than cars.
So far, after eight years, we have maybe $5000 into this thing (yes, I log every expense in Quickbooks) which comes to about $625 a year or so. And maybe we won't have to spend much in the coming years, although the rear axle and electric motor are 30 years old - how much longer will they last? And the steering is kind of janky - maybe that steering box rebuilt kit is in order! You can spend as much as you want to.
But should we?
In some regards, this is a hobby and hobbies never pass the cost/benefit analysis, at least in terms of dollars. Mark has made thousands of dollars selling his pottery, but we've easily spent tens of thousands of dollars on the studio and equipment and supplies. So it isn't a money-making proposition and one sure way to sour on a hobby is trying to make a profit at it. He gets satisfaction from the hobby, not a profit. Even if he was to make some money at it, his hourly "wage" would be measured in pennies.
With the buggy the same is true. I get satisfaction from working on it, as well as an educational experience regarding the technology. I know a little more about lithium-ion batteries than I did before I started. And it was fun, believe it or not - even if frustrating at times. And we do get a form of transportation out of it, too.
All that being said, I am not sure I want to throw any more money at it, at least in the near future. Time to let the darn thing work for me, instead of vice-versa!
