Niro

I'm considering getting a turbo sometime in the next few months maybe...one thing I started wondering about is what does a turbo do to resale value? It seems like the value will drop quicker then na since there's more engine wear...could be wrong about this tho'?

RotorMotor

I think that would depend entirely on who you sold it to....

guitarjunkie28

if you're planning on selling it, why bother upgrading?

Niro

lol ofcourse I'm planning on selling it...3, 4 maybe 5 years down the road? So because I want to sell it in 5 years I shouldn't consider upgrading it now?

So everybody who upgrades will never sell the car...just give it to charity when they decide to get a new car?

guitarjunkie28

in that case, i suggest you don't drive the car more than 1k miles per year.
keep it covered...in the garage, wax it once a month (the only day it sees daylight), rub the paint with a daiper weekly, and gloat in the extra $50 you get when you resell it.

it's YOUR car man...enjoy it.

army_rx8

^hehehe

Psylence

Take all the money you spend on power boosting mods and subtract that value from the blue book price for your car. Thats something like how the equation works.

Niro

You make zero sense...that is the dumbest argument I've ever heard in my life. So in your world resale value doesn't mean anything?

Let me get this straight, you bought your car (or rather, your parents bought you your car) and you NEVER plan on selling it, ever?? You basically don't care what the car will cost, because the day you get rid of it is the day it just stops running and basically just explodes? I know in 5 years I'll probably want a new car (maybe sooner if I don't turbo it!), I love my 8 now, but I'll see something I love more sooner or later, it happens all the time. I'm not gonna baby it or change my driving style because of it, but it's good to know for those of us who don't milk our parents for all the money they've got.

BTW...thanks for your valuable input, I appreciate it. Can someone who actually knows anything answer the question please, I'm really just curious about what a turbo does to a cars resale value (not an unreasonable question, right?).

Psylence

Turbocharging a NA car will put the resale value into the toilet. It screams to the car buying world "Hey! I beat the **** out of this thing!"

It will be worth LESS than a stock car of similar mileage. Take it from the guy who sunk 40K into a 20K Subaru only to sell it for 15K all said and done!

murix

No one who mods a car should ever care about resale value. I think guitarjunkie makes complete sense. If it is that important to you leave it stock. His point is anything and everything you do affects resale value. Every mile you put on, every wear and tear, everything. I have modified every car I have ever owned and no I do not care about resale value. It has never been a factor in my car purchase. In fact, when I sold my Eclipse, I restored it back to stock before I sold it and sold off all the parts individually. That is the only way.

Sigma

Virtually every mod you can do is going to decrease your resale value, a turbocharger most of all. You'd be lucky to get even 3/4 of the 'regular' resale value when you sell it if your car has a turbocharger. You'd be much better off removing it, selling the turbo for maybe 50% what you paid, and just 'forgetting' to ever make any mention of having the car turbo'd. You'll get full resale for the car, plus the cash for selling the turbo kit.

salituro64

I find it hard to believe that if you sell your car, to an enthusiast who would eventually put all the mods on, that they won't pay extra for the car when it's been done already.

Niro

Sooo....that makes asking what a turbo does to a cars value wrong??

I completely disagree, but anyway. A turbo is one mod that puts alot more load on the engine, you're basically paying for something that'll destroy your car quicker (kind of like smoking cigarettes, you paying money to die quicker). I was just curious, that's all...I don't care about what other "normal" mods do...thinking about a turbo made me a lil curious tho'.

Niro

That's kind of what I figured...taking it out before selling it is always a good option. Do they pop that somewhere on a carfax report when you turbo a car? I never actually seen what a carfax report looks like.

Sigma

Oh God no. CarFax only keeps track of stuff that's reported to the State (namely accidents and failed inspections), and the occassional dealer reports some basic information as to when you brought it in for recall work or the like. It's all very generalized stuff. There's no mention of mods or anything like that.

Sapphonica

My GReddy install should be done tomorrow, and I'm quite glad I've done it.

I plan to keep the car for at least a few years, so I don't want to feel frustrated every time I drive it. Let's face it, the 8 is way underpowered for the kind of car it is, so that makes it a deficient product.

Yep, I'll take a hit on the resale value later, but cars are always depreciating assets anyway, so no big deal.

In the meantime, the engine & suspension mods will give me a lot of fun for the $. So, to me the net present value of my 8 'investment' is more attractive than the NPV of an M3, which was the alternative I considered.

Niro

I completely agree...I was just curious how bad the total damage would be.

Obviously any mods take the vehicle value down....since the turbo is such a "damaging' mod I was just wondering how much of a hit I should expect from the value of the car at the end, really no big deal...I guess people just like to find any little possible thing to flame.

It's no secret that a car is not an investment.

guitarjunkie28

dood, i'd give you more for the car with a turbo on it, so to me it doesn't lose ANY value.

but don't ask a stupid question if you don't want a stupid answer. it's impossible to know what your potential buyer 5 or 10 years from now will think about the mod, therefore your "resale depreciation". common sense would tell most people that.

guitarjunkie28

and lemme straighten you out on this one...yes, i bought my car (actually, i built it) with the intention of keeping it until the earth decides to reclaim it. cars aren't an investment to me. i don't just randomly change my mind and decide to buy something else.

i put hundreds of hours into modifying my fd, and i work 70-80 hours a week to pay for that ****. watch who you're calling a kid.

Niro

It's not a stupid question, a car depreciates at a certain rate, I just wanted to know how a turbo affects that rate...no sh*t it's gonna take a bigger hit...if you passed reading comprehension in hs you would of read that in my first post, I just wanted to know in general how turbos affect resale value.

Just to straighten you out, cars aren't an investment for anybody, that's a dumb way to think. You may keep your car until the day you die, but I (and I'm betting most people) will at least start thinking about a new car in 5 years....

I'm SURE you built your own rx8 (investing hundreds of hours into it as you say)...and work 70-80 hours a week at the same time "to pay for that ****".

You started the flame war for no reason, not me. I asked an honest question, and you decide to be retarted...one day you'll get back to your 80 hour a week job and stop searching for ANYTHING to flame on some forums.

guitarjunkie28

when did i mention rx8? i said fd.

quit with the insults. my point was it's absolutely impossible to know how much your car will depreciate over time, and what your mods will do to the value. you don't know what flaming is, so just get off that subject.

you asked a question that you knew couldn't be answered accurately. waste of bandwidth and in the wrong section.

crossbow

Best case example...everyone remember the lime green commercial? Where the guy is in a house that everything is lime green? Then the commercial goes to some gf telling her guy that "nobody is ever going to buy your lime green hatch..."

Then back to the lime green guy going "OMFG!!!!! LIME GREEN HATCH HOTTNESS!!!!!" or something to that effect.

Aka if you sell to a guy who loves mods, you'll probably add slightly to the car value...however, since ethusasists make up about 1% of the overall market, the chance of that happening is extremely slim. More then likely you'll get a standard consumer buying the car...in which case every piece that isn't factor knocks price off the top. Engine mods most of all, because they indicate that they'll probably have to replace the engine (in their eyes).

Niro

Really?

No FD mentioned anywhere...I must be blind or something. I thought we were talking about RX8's. YOu mentioned FD later...but I wasn't talking about FD, I was talking about RX8...that's like you telling me my parents bought me the rx8 and me telling you I built my bike myself...lol.


I asked a general quetion, I didn't ask for an EXACT figure...obviously I don't expect that. Turbo is pretty much the most damaging mod you can do to a car, I just wanted to know if the car will basically be unsellable after the mod or just decrease by 25% or something like that. I already got an answer...

Let me ask you something...why post if you have nothing to contribute? Just this crazy need to say something?

guitarjunkie28

hahahaha...i saw that commercial.

niro...nevermind. keep stuff like that in the lounge or wherever.

staticlag

Hmm, I wonder what Acosta got for their 3 rotor? Jeez with the amount of mods it must be worth less than a 88' civic!