Sell car "fully modded"? Or return to stock?

[Sleeper519]

I've been wondering about this recently, for those of you who have heavily modified your cars, when time to sell is the market better for Modded "as is", or to part-out and return to stock. I wouldn't expect to get all of your investment back with either way, just curious what the buyer's market expects and which is more fiscally prudent. Granted, there is time and money involved in removing all the mods, selling parts,etc, kinda PITA, but when I see modded used car for sale it usually says to me *rode hard* and I can see some buyers shying away. What are most people doing?

[GT3 Tim]

I think most return to stock, or close to it.


I think your market is much smaller with a modded car. You need the right buyer to come along and appreciate and want to pay for the mods, even though you won't get your money out of the mods....

I would return it to stock and sell the parts here...your market base will be a lot bigger with a "stock" car.

[Radiation Joe]

Return to stock. No doubt about it.

There is a very limited market for modded cars; extremely limited. Even if someone wants a modded car, they most likely won't want the same mods you put on. You'll get hammered on price. It's worth less modded than stock.

You'll get 33% to 50% of your money back from the mods when sold separately.

[ihyln]

only thing you MIGHT get your money back with are wheels. but again it's subjective, but at least you can use them on another car if the new owner does not like the look.

[PKL]

Stock, and part out the bits

[mdosu]

agreed on all opinions above. The best way to get back most of the money is to sell the car as-is, but it's so hard to find someone who's happy with everything you have on the car, so it's hard for you to ask for a premium for some of the parts. If you're trading the car in to a dealer, he's going to bend you over for the parts, he won't give a shit.

I sold my Evo when I got my M3. What i leaned was:

1. Generally you can get 90% of your money back for wheels
2. You'll be lucky to get 50% of your tires price back
3. suspension and engine "power" parts are the hardest to sell
4. interior/exterior athestics parts are the easiest to sell
5. small items worth less than $40 on the used market, you might as well keep it on the car if it's a PITA to take off. (like your brake pads and lines)
6. maintenance items (unopened oil, special tools, etc) can be sold at about 95%-98% of original price. You might have to sweeten the deal by giving them free oil or something.
7. shipping some items are a PITA!!! make sure it's a rectangular box shaped, any other shapes will cost a lot more with UPS/Fedex.

[Eurotrash8]

Totally agree to bring back to stock....but to a certain degree.

Small things like painted reflectors, matte black grills, etc is not worth my time nor does it make a diff in resale. Anything more agressive like lip, trunk, etc would be worth taking off just for asthetics and piece of mind for the buyer.

I dont touch cars that has been molested.

[ES_TRADER]

or find a private party buyer who thinks the car looks HOT modded...thats what i did with my previous car...was gonna cost me too much time and money to have everything renstalled...so i basically used my mods as an ADDED PLUS to the car...u know mentioning how i paid so much for this and that...adding value to the car, when in reality it doesnt...so when he tried to bargain down the price, i wouldnt budge saying that all these mods were gonna be included in the price...so he took it, feeling like he got a sweet deal.

I tried to sell it to a few dealerships and carmax but they told me they couldnt even sell the car on their front lot because it was modded...people dont like modded cars and such, so it would just go to auction wholesale or something like that....and they wanted to give me 10k less than KBB dealership value...i was WTF....so i said i would reinstall everything back and they told me it wouldnt make a diff now that my chasis/frame has been compromised by all the suspension kits and stuff

just go find a young kid who thinks this kinda shit is cool and he will buy it...there are tons out there! do that first, and IF it doesnt sell, then reinstall everything back and dont mention it was modded...

[ring007]

IF you're trading your car to a dealer, definitely remove the mods as they wont give you any value for them. If going the private sale route, you'll get 20-25% of the mod value if you leave them on the car. Might be worth listing it as is and see what response you get first, just in case someone is looking for your exact car/mods. If you return the car to stock, you'll have a bigger market for resale of the car and you'll get 40-60% for the mods listed here. But you'll have to deal with listing/selling/shipping the parts.

Originally Posted by Radiation Joe

Return to stock. No doubt about it.

There is a very limited market for modded cars; extremely limited. Even if someone wants a modded car, they most likely won't want the same mods you put on. You'll get hammered on price. It's worth less modded than stock.

You'll get 33% to 50% of your money back from the mods when sold separately.

[TurboFan]

Originally Posted by Sleeper519

I've been wondering about this recently, for those of you who have heavily modified your cars, when time to sell is the market better for Modded "as is", or to part-out and return to stock. I wouldn't expect to get all of your investment back with either way, just curious what the buyer's market expects and which is more fiscally prudent. Granted, there is time and money involved in removing all the mods, selling parts,etc, kinda PITA, but when I see modded used car for sale it usually says to me *rode hard* and I can see some buyers shying away. What are most people doing?

Part it out. There's a pretty storng market for used mods in good shape right now. My stuff went quick.

[mdosu]

I had such a hard time selling some of my used suspension parts on my old car I refuse to buy it again for my M3, unless I really utilize it for the track.

[ooowowizstev]

Back to stock!

[Hunter399]

Return to stock