Is “bought not built” just as acceptable as “built not bought?”

This seems to link back to itself, I'm not seeing anything other than the same paragraphe when clicking the link, no more story?

I will always believe that hotroders hold building it yourself to a high degree. I'm in that camp, but I can totally see the appeal of buying that performance immediately. Most important, do what makes you happy. Its your car, not their's.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) :

It's just the question, something I was pondering the other day and wanted to ask the rest of the class.

Man, if you can afford it and/or dont want to spend the time, go for it. 

Im not going to knock someone for working hard on their car to make it better...but Im not going to look down on someone who worked hard at their job (and dont flame me for that comment) and earned enough to buy a fast car from the factory or a known builder. 

In my own humble opinion, anyone with a large wallet can buy a car as fast as the wallet will allow. A talented person can build a fast car without spending as much. As to which is better, it is like beauty, in the eye or mind of the beholder.

OK, 20 years ago, make that 10 years ago, hell 5 years ago I would have said built over bought 10 times out of 10.  But now I'm old enough to be honest with myself. I realize I'm never really going to actually do some of the minor upgrades to some of my cars I think about, let alone actually take on one of the many cool build ideas I have.  I can read, plot, plan, dream, watch YouTube all I want, but I've finally accepted that my skill, patience, endurance, commitment, and most importantly time are all insufficient to do these things.  From here on out I'll be writing checks for most of the work needed on my vehicles, and I'll be buying my performance stock.  So for me, the correct answer is bought is better than built, because built will never happen.  That doesn't mean building isn't the right answer for many,

Whatever floats your boat or fits your lifestyle. If you work a demanding job that doesn't leave time for a project but does make a cool car financially viable, good on you. We're all auto enthusiasts here. No need for gatekeeping.

Bought is fine.  But some people who buy something have entirely the wrong attitude about it.  Your nearly stock fast car that has a couple of cheap mods bolted on by a shop (that you only know are "stage 2" and not anything about the mods) is not a "sick build". 

I feel 'building' a slower car into a faster car has better merit than 'buying' a faster car to a point.

Starting with something slower and making tweaks along the way also makes you (the driver) better at driving the car as things happen in stages, and usually the weak points get addressed in each upgrade (there are still those who just throw more power at every problem tho). You end up having a well rounded car that you have intimate knowledge of the precise amount of brake pedal travel before ABS kicks in / lock-up happens, or the amount of throttle you can get away with without wheel-spin in the wet (assuming traction control is turned off on track / doesn't exist). Building a car usually builds the driver as well. 

Buying something already fast is an option as well since so many cars exist now that have ridiculous potential in factory form that there are few 'weak points' to be sorted out that you can just keep turning laps to get comfortable and finding those same precise moments. 

Do you extract more joy from building they car to your specifics or just driving the car?

I think it is.  I build cars because I enjoy the process and it's often the only way I can get what I want for the money I'm willing to spend however, the last three times I wanted a pickup truck I just wrote a check.  I seriously considered building something but I ultimately decided that I didn't really want to spend my time doing that.

Not everyone has the desire or skills to build something and that OK too.  Why do it if it's not fun?   I've often made my living in one way or another from people who wanted race cars, hot rods or restorations but didn't want to do the work.