I’m not a car guy, but I want to be!

The first thing is what kind of car do you think you want? I was never a car guy. I didn't even care about my license. My parents basically bitched me out when I just turned 17 to get my license so I could draw my own ass around and do things for them when they needed it. I totally didn't care. They then bitched me out to go to driving school. About halfway through driving school, somebody passed around an issue of road and track. I randomly looked through it When I saw a full page advertisement, for a lotus. If I remember right, it was a 3/4 view of a lotus esprit Turbo, and it looks like he was sitting next to what I think was a hillside. This thing looked like it came out of an episode of space 1999. It looked like future technology... Like it was built just for It's intended purpose. I even remember the slogan... every sports car is part Lotus, and, unfortunately part something else. I was screwed. I was hooked. This thing took my breath away. I wanted to know more. At that time, devouring information on your favorite marquee was rather difficult, even if it was Lamborghini or Ferrari. I looked for whatever I could. I bought the buyer's guide. I read articles. I learned what the philosophy of the company was, which was amazing and incredible and still is today. The founders motto was, add lightness. I love the idea of simplicity with brilliant design. I like that they were exclusive, not because I wanted to be the only one in town so to speak, but because it meant that people didn't get it and I felt that if they read about the company and drove one, they would figure it out. That actually a few times with me, most notably with a car dealer in Australia who did a bit of a Seinfeld call with me. So let's move past that. You got to figure out what you're interested in with cars. You might want to consider something that is on the simple side. Not counting rust repair and things like that, looking at old British sports cars, generally things are accessible and easy to work on, light. Parts are available and pretty cheap for the most part. Same thing goes with something like a Fiat x19. Slow, but when you're in the thing and driving, you don't care because it feels so great. I've been learning a lot of stuff about cars since then, could I rebuild my own engine? Maybe if I had time and space. I probably could if I did a shitload of reading because I already have an idea of what I'm doing but I would want to triple, no 10 times check myself with everything. Can you change your own control arms? Struts, shocks? Yes you can. It's not that hard It's just intimidating at first when you haven't done it. I say go for it. Try not to make it your daily driver, and learn about whatever you want to get ahead of time. Your budget also matters. Do some looking around, do some reading, do some research, I would suggest starting with top gear from day one, in order... Watch every episode up until the grand tour and keep going. It's fun and informative. you'll see stuff you'll never be able to afford or even probably see in person. But it doesn't matter, because these guys link cars together regardless of price. Of course, I'm going to tell you to get a lotus. If the chassis is good, and affordable, they are very unique, and fun. And the nice thing about older cars is the problems are generally sorted out and you can find out what the issues are. They also don't rust... But of course the chassis has to be perfect or you're screwed. I'm also not a purist. I personally don't have a problem with something like a lotus elite from the '70s with swapped drivetrain. Anyway, I hope I've said something positive that helps you go for it. The only last thing I'm going to say is, regardless of where you live, where you're from, what you do, if you start looking into cars, don't just get stuck with what everybody else is doing around you. I'm not a fan of American cars although I do have a super soft spot for quite a few of them. And their neighbor the ones that other people want for the most part... But where I live everybody wants a Camaro, or some ugly box muscle car from the '60s or '70s. When you look at people in Europe, Australia, New Zealand... They're eclectic. I remember meeting a 27-year-old kid, because of the time I was 30 lol, and I thought he was a kid, who bought a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud because he wanted one. I met a tried and true Canadian farmer with a Lancia scorpion. Just look around, take in the history, and have fun. I lied, there's one more thing that I suggest you do to get into the fine of the whole car world. Look up the video from top Gear about Lancia versus Audi. It's short, it's fun. Don't read up on it, don't look at any captions, just watch the video.