How do engine mods affect vehicle resale?

[Bodywerks]

I'm looking to sell my 2015 SIM 2SS1LE. It's not stock(mods are in my signature).
Question is, will performance mods negatively affect the resale value, or does it really depend on the buyer? Personally, what my 1LE is now is what the 1LE should have been from the get-go, and reliability has been 100% since doing the engine work. I know if I took it to a dealer it would be looked at as a liability, but I think a performance musclecar enthusiats would drool all over this car. Heck, I still drive it with the AC off, windows down, and radio off, even in the AZ summer heat because I would rather listen to the music coming from the engine than the speakers!
Current high, high KBB on this car is around $29k with 12750 miles and in 100% excellent condition, always garaged, and 85% driven at night.
I'm hoping to be able to get $30k for it. That's an extra $1k for an extra 135hp and extra 75tq that cost me over $6k, excluding labor because I did the work myself.
Thoughts?

[STUNNAH]

Depends on the buyer, the dealer will tell you they could careless about the upgrades even low ball you on price, then tell the next interested customer of all the upgrades and make a ton in profit...I think you would be best off making a private sell to a buyer than can understand and appreciate what you have done to the car...JMO

[lbls1]

Minor mods won't really impact resale value; Significant mods tend to lower the value. The value will be lower because you will not re-coup your investment from the mods on the resale. Many instances I've seen cars with $20,000 and more of modifications done that barely could maintain the retail of a stock version.

Just be careful, and if you intend to sell or flip then be mindful of this and invest wisely.

[CamaroFred]

What does this have to do with value?
85% driven at night

[Royal Tiger]

Originally Posted by CamaroFred

What does this have to do with value?
85% driven at night

Less UV damage?

How you feeling today Fred? Radiation still kicking your butt this morning?

[Dezines]

Mods on performance cars will never have a positive impact on your resale value. All that tells me is you like to drive your car hard and I am going to have problems down the road. Especially to a dealer! First ask yourself, If I walked on to a car dealer lot and didn't know who owned this car prior, would I buy it?

When I see a highly modded car for sale, I am not interested under any circumstance. Even a cold air intake raises a flag. Now there are exceptions. My car for instance, It is a DD that I am building for show not go and currently I have spent less that $200 on mods. I will not get anything extra for the mods on it, but if I sold it myself and marketed it as mature owned I should get around the book value quickly.

The only way you will get any money for your mods is if you truly take care of the vehicle and someone YOU KNOW wants THAT setup and buys it. Otherwise, plan to drive the car until it dies or take a loss.

[CamaroFred]

Originally Posted by Royal Tiger

Less UV damage?

How you feeling today Fred? Radiation still kicking your butt this morning?

Hi RT, thank you for asking. Who ever would have thought that millisecond buzz could suck out so much energy. I slept almost all day yesterday.
Six more weeks coming.

They laid me on my side and aimed at my right ear. It made me think of the Cheryl Crow song, "All I Wanna Do" which contains the line "I like a good beer buzz in the morning" but substitute ear for beer

[jrhagen]

I have more in mods than the car cost originally, by a long way. I doubt I could get as much for my car as a stock car. Performance mods are done for a reason, performance. And the next buyer knows that, be it a dealer or private sale. Good thing I plan on keeping the car forever and just in case, I have all of the stock parts.

[strykerg8gt]

I would think that any internal engine mod would make buyers more leery of the car just because of the complexity involved with doing those sort of mods versus bolt-ons, and the need for them to be done right. Also, knowing how the car was used after said modifications would also play a big role in the buyer's consideration. If I saw that a car had very low miles and some nice internal mods to it, then I'd be more confident that the car wasn't abused and most likely was a weekend cruiser with the occasional heavy right foot mod and that wouldn't bother me.

Now that same car at a dealership I'd stay away from, because odds are they didn't do the work and probably have no idea of what fully was done or how it was done. From my experience, it's always better to be able to talk to the original owner that had or did the mods so I can really get an idea of how everything was done and see for myself how the car has been treated.

[jrhagen]

Originally Posted by strykerg8gt

If I saw that a car had very low miles and some nice internal mods to it, then I'd be more confident that the car wasn't abused and most likely was a weekend cruiser with the occasional heavy right foot mod and that wouldn't bother me.

That is exactly the car I would be concerned with. My car is near as makes no difference 5 years old and I just hit 10,000 miles. I can guarantee it is no weekend cruiser and more than occasional heavy right foot, generally in the 660 to 1320 foot range. However, maintenance has been like clockwork. I know the quality of the work done but how would a buyer know?

[strykerg8gt]

Originally Posted by jrhagen

That is exactly the car I would be concerned with. My car is near as makes no difference 5 years old and I just hit 10,000 miles. I can guarantee it is no weekend cruiser and more than occasional heavy right foot, generally in the 660 to 1320 foot range. However, maintenance has been like clockwork. I know the quality of the work done but how would a buyer know?

Well the buyer can't ever really know how the car was driven. But there are ways to look over a car and find out if it's been taken care of. Everyone has things they look for and I have 3 or 4 different oddball things that I'll check that give me an idea of how the car was treated. Of course nothing is fool proof.

[Reichler]

Originally Posted by Dezines

Mods on performance cars will never have a positive impact on your resale value. All that tells me is you like to drive your car hard and I am going to have problems down the road. Especially to a dealer! First ask yourself, If I walked on to a car dealer lot and didn't know who owned this car prior, would I buy it?

When I see a highly modded car for sale, I am not interested under any circumstance. Even a cold air intake raises a flag. Now there are exceptions. My car for instance, It is a DD that I am building for show not go and currently I have spent less that $200 on mods. I will not get anything extra for the mods on it, but if I sold it myself and marketed it as mature owned I should get around the book value quickly.

The only way you will get any money for your mods is if you truly take care of the vehicle and someone YOU KNOW wants THAT setup and buys it. Otherwise, plan to drive the car until it dies or take a loss.

Nailed it.

I will only ever buy a modded performance car if I know the seller/car and know how it was built, driven and maintained. Even then, I will not pay over what a stock car of that make and model is worth.

If I don't know the car/seller, then it must be stock if I'm buying a used car.

[jrhagen]

Originally Posted by strykerg8gt

Well the buyer can't ever really know how the car was driven. But there are ways to look over a car and find out if it's been taken care of. Everyone has things they look for and I have 3 or 4 different oddball things that I'll check that give me an idea of how the car was treated. Of course nothing is fool proof.

I take my car to the drag strip at least 25 times each year. I dare you to find evidence. My OCD kicks in and I wash the outside, the inside, the engine compartment, the suspension components and the wheel wells. The only clue that the car was driven hard is the equipment on the car.

[strykerg8gt]

Originally Posted by jrhagen

I take my car to the drag strip at least 25 times each year. I dare you to find evidence. My OCD kicks in and I wash the outside, the inside, the engine compartment, the suspension components and the wheel wells. The only clue that the car was driven hard is the equipment on the car.

In reality, how many people are like you and me where we're willing to take all the wheels off to clean the wheel wells, suspension, remove the calipers and brackets to clean them, etc., etc. My point was and still is that while there is no fool proof way to determine how a car has been driven, most people won't go through the necessary steps to detail a car to this extent to hide all evidence. Like I said in my earlier post, not fool proof, but you can get an idea. The OP asked a question and I gave my honest opinion.