What premium do you usually pay for mods?

[gstyle17009]

I am still on my mission of finding a decent gti.

Was just wondering say a car that has had intake. Full exhaust. Remap. Lowered. These thinga done to it. How much value would it actually add to the car?

Example i have had one seller tell me he has put 6500 into the car so wants 6000 back.

Whereas if he was to sell the car to webuyanycar he would probably get say 3000 for it.

If i were to get them mods done i estimate it would cost me approx 1200.

Thanks

[colesey]

Generally speaking these things add little or no value to a car and may even make it harder to sell, which is why people often strip them out to sell separately. ebay's completed sales section will give you some idea on actual selling prices achieved. 

[E8RNX]

^ Agreed.

When I bought my GTI I looked for weeks and months until I found a fully stock, low mileage one. I didn’t want one with any mods as you don’t know what someone’s done to it. And oh yeah I found that stock ones were worth more.

[neilw]

For a lot of people some of the enjoyment of modding a car come from choosing and doing the mods yourself as its quite a personal thing.

you might pay a bit more for a modded car, but a seller shouldn't simply go well the cars worth x and the mods are worth y so the selling price is x+(y-10%)

[gstyle17009]

Yes some of the sellers are coming out with some strange values for their cars quoting how much each of the mods etc cost them.

One of the mods I hear about is  VWR Volkswagen Racing Upgrade Pack which seems to be the intake, exhaust and the remap. (Run at approx 250bhp)

Though fitted by a VW dealership. Is this one upgrade you guys are familiar with at all?

I know of the usual companys  APR, Revo etc, but thought haven't heard of this one before.

[pudding]

VW Racing is nothing to do with Volkswagen AG, and their parts are not offered at dealerships.  It's an aftermarket company who recently rebranded themselves to 'Racingline'.  Probably because VW AG didn't want people thinking there was an affiliation there!

This 'pack' is a rebranded ITG Maxogen intake, Scorpion or Milltek exhaust and their own remap, which is actually done by people in Eastern Europe, not Racingline.

APR did manage to get into a few dealers in America, but the warrantied remaps are significantly lower BHP than their maps sold through the aftermarket.  I wonder why 

Anyway, if the mods on the cars you are looking at are of a known provenance, and there are no obvious signs of abuse, then substantial savings can be made.   If you were thinking of a Revo map anyway, it doesn't make sense to get a stock car and then add it yourself.   I know there are lots of boy racer 'pops and bangs' type modifiers out there, but at the same time there are also people who like the stock car and just added a decent map and decent suspension.   

Avoid cars with budget mods and you'll be fine.   Everyone likes standard, but some people ask stupid money for original cars.  Just go in with your eyes open and intuition. If something doesn't smell right, move on to the next one.

[gstyle17009]

VW Racing is nothing to do with Volkswagen AG, and their parts are not offered at dealerships.  It's an aftermarket company who recently rebranded themselves to 'Racingline'.  Probably because VW AG didn't want people thinking there was an affiliation there!

This 'pack' is a rebranded ITG Maxogen intake, Scorpion or Milltek exhaust and their own remap, which is actually done by people in Eastern Europe, not Racingline.

APR did manage to get into a few dealers in America, but the warrantied remaps are significantly lower BHP than their maps sold through the aftermarket.  I wonder why 

Anyway, if the mods on the cars you are looking at are of a known provenance, and there are no obvious signs of abuse, then substantial savings can be made.   If you were thinking of a Revo map anyway, it doesn't make sense to get a stock car and then add it yourself.   I know there are lots of boy racer 'pops and bangs' type modifiers out there, but at the same time there are also people who like the stock car and just added a decent map and decent suspension.   

Avoid cars with budget mods and you'll be fine.   Everyone likes standard, but some people ask stupid money for original cars.  Just go in with your eyes open and intuition. If something doesn't smell right, move on to the next one.

Thanks that clarifies alot of things for me. Was just trying to work out why on earth it only makes 250bhp - now i know.

Just didn't realise how much of a headache some private sellers are. Ive had one guy offer to meet in a public carpark and that he only takes cash - not bank transfer, of course mate shall I leave you the keys to my car also?

[AJP]

It’s worth keeping in mind that a totally standard car on sale might not always have been standard. Obviously the principle behind buying a standard car is logical - theoretically the car has had an easier life than one running a bit of extra boost, and it’s been owned by somebody who’s nannied it about. But like was mentioned earlier in the thread, ‘back to standard’ is not a rare thing. I discovered my ‘standard’ GTI had been mapped by Revo at some point in its life, not long after I bought it. Somebody had gone to the trouble of putting the map back to standard, and who knows what else.

Apply the same rules. If there’s a tuned car for sale with crap tyres, rough bodywork and patchy history, it’s no more or less a car to avoid than a standard car in the same poor condition.

Every now and then a car will come up with a spec list that reads like a dream to real enthusiasts. The best mods, done in the best way, with a pile of receipts and all the stamps to back it up. Unfortunately for the seller they’re very unlikely to get back the money they shelled out for the mods. But to a clued-up buyer, it could be a steal.

Personally there’d be no fun in buying a car that’d already had the full treatment. There’s some real enjoyment in taking a car from stock to animal and learning lots as you go.