[protovack]

Great thread. Especially in this time where GM hating is fashionable, its nice to see all these stories that are all so genuine and mostly resulted in people getting an awesome car they truly enjoy driving. If I worked for GM I would take great pride reading these stories.

Me, pretty simple story. I had a 1978 when I was 20--a big bad bruiser of a car in blue with white racing stripes, with little to no muffling, that set car alarms off driving down the street. I had to sell it to fund community college. Promised myself I'd get another Camaro one day. As soon as I could afford it, I did. I bought my SS1LE because I wanted to go "all in" and was open to trying out the track, which I have done twice since purchase and I had a blast both times. My car is a "3rd car" in addition to my truck and wife's crossover. But since I like to save my truck for actual truck stuff, I just daily drive my SS a lot. I drove it to work and back in the pouring rain today, for example. I keep it garaged, but I do not baby it. I got an extra set of wheels and put all season tires on them. Unless its snowing or icy, I will drive it anywhere.

Like you, OP, I was worried that I'd regret buying a "fun" car as it is a major cost for something I don't really "need". Honestly, sometimes I do question the decision, but never while I'm driving it. My justification is, you only live once, anything could happen to end your life at any time. So you may as well enjoy today and drive a fun car, even if that means giving up some other luxuries. In my case, I waited until I could safely buy the car without really having to give up anything significant. I'd say, if you can buy the car AND maintain your lifestyle and still have enough to save money for a rainy day, do it. And whether that is an SS or not, depends really on what you would like to use it for and how much disposable income you're willing to part with.

If you do end up getting your fun car--drive it. Every second that it sits in your garage doing nothing, you'll be wondering "Hmm, why did I get this...."
The solution to that problem, I've found, is to just drive it more. That way, you are getting your money's worth. And the more you drive it, the more you save mileage from going on your other cars, making their life much longer as well. I've put 4000 miles on my SS in the last 6 months, and not all of that was just driving for joy. It's a short work commute a few times a week, going to the store, a road trip here and there. It adds up. All those miles would've gone on my truck!

Just a side note--i'd assume that as an enthusiast you'd be looking at the SS, however, don't assume you wouldn't get just as much fun out of a V6 or 2.0T. I totally would've been happy with the V6 too. I use only like 30% of the cars power on a regular basis. The only reason I got the SS is because I wanted to track it. Even still, people are tracking V6 and 2.0 1LEs and having a blast. I've found that I likely don't NEED all the power to have fun. I thought I did, because my old Camaro had a V8. But with the modern chassis, really, all three engines are a blast to drive.