A quick run down on how your average DSMer starts out. Buy a running DSM for ~3000 dollars (chances are the previous owner took alot of short cuts to get the car running before he sold the car) If your lucky the car will run and drive at this point you decide its time to start modding it, you throw a giant turbo on the car, up the boost, car feels fast. One morning you try to start the car and it wont start, you run throught hundreds of issues it could be. You finally learn that your capacitors in the ECU leaked but upon once you open the ecu you find out its non eprom (because most are since the previous owners always check this and the ecu usually gets sold before the car does. You send your messed up ecu to ECMlink to have it a non eprom conversion board soldered in and have the capacitor leak repaired during this time you also buy DSMlink. You get everything together car runs great, you find new things like nolift to shift and 2 step, during this process you break your 3 bolt rear since you launch the car all the time now to show your friends how it feels like a rocket ship. For the next few months all those little problems the previous owner covered up are starting to show up because now you are making more power. You try to keep up with the car but you find that you are loosing weight since time and time again you have to choose between eating or boosting.
Then finally it happens..........
You slightly wiser DSM friend told you time and time again replace the timing belt and tensioner but you thought he was just being anal. So you pull the head and notice the damage hasnt been too bad, you purchase another head for 100 dollars and do the timing belt correctly. Car is back up and running but little did you know what was waiting around the corner for you.
penis
The previous owner never told you that one of the injectors used to leak more fuel than it should mixing fuel with oil which over time took its toll on the bearings. Your engine finally siezes one day when you are driving normally. You attest it to just your car acting up and being a DSM. You dig deeper and really do find out your bottom end is toast.
You dont want to look at the car because during this time you have managed to develop a drinking problem and lost your GF because you were spending more time/money on the car then her. You try to piece it together but it just cannot work financially, you just start parting it out little by little you sell your GT42, buschar FMIC, 1000CC injectors, DSMlink. your car is going piece by piece to help run other DSMs. You finally sell your shell for 200 dollars to some punk offa craigslist that lowballed you for weeks and after that its ON to the next one, On to the next, On to the next one.
I think thats a pretty sums up what its like to live in a life of a DSMer, some examples were based on real life experiences, the innocent were protected.