Yep.

Not only do mods hurt the value of the car, you will never reclaim the money spent on them and they deter away possible buyers. I dont care how tasteful they seem in your eyes, most people wont care for your tweaks to the car. Because of those very reasons all the mods I've done to mine are very mild and can easily be returned to stock.

 

NEVER would I do any mods to any corvette I have owned and I would NEVER cosider buying a used or new car with any mode except WAX,POLISH,or TIRE SHINE. JMHO....

 

Depends on which mod you're talking about. The ones still active on the forum or, the ones that have moved on .............................

 

Most of the time buyers assume cars with headers/cam/supercharger/tune type mods have been driven harder/raced than the bone stock ones. Usually they're right.

Many sellers of modded vettes are asking Z06 prices for a base coupe with 15k in mods and expect to get the majority of their $$ back. I don't see why anyone would buy a modded base over a stock Z except bragging rights for a higher rwhp #.

There are lots of modded cars for sale on here and much of the time the asking price is unrealistic yet they act like they're surprised no one on here wants their 600rwhp beast at a 'steal' of a price. I've also noticed many on here post the KBB value when they are listing their car for reference. KBB is not an accurate estimator of your C6's value. They're about 5k high. Edmunds trumarket value is where the cars are selling at, not where they're listed at sitting on the market for 4 months.

 

I think Im going to look at a GS or Z this weekend. If I dont see what I want, may wait till January. If the c7 isnt for me, the mods will happen then. Thx everyone for shedding some light on my delima, Shawn....

 

Off the bat I can think of....

- Buyer wants a convertible
- Buyer wants a targa top
- Buyer wants an automatic trans
- Buyer wants coupe/vert suspension for ride comfort
- Buyer intends to pick up mods where previous owner left off
- Buyer prefers a newer, lower mile car for the price of an early Z06
- Buyer actually LIKES mods already installed (gasp!)
- Buyer intends to use car in a manner that the mods complement (maybe an auto car with gears and a stall for drag racing for example)


There are a lot of corvette owners who like to stare at their stone stock, freshly waxed cars in the driveway for 4 or 5 years and then sell them with 4000 miles on them to....new owners who continue to stare at them another 4 or 5 years and another 4000 miles. If that's your thing, it's your money. More power to ya.

There are also a lot of corvette owners who drive, modify and enjoy their cars in ways other than Zainoing them 72 times. That doesn't necessarily mean there's ANYTHING wrong with those cars.

Enthusiasts tend to take care of their cars, especially relatively expensive cars. These aren't 10 year old Honda Civics with straight exhaust and torched springs on them. Just because a car is modified doesn't mean its been beaten up. Many heavily modded cars are built with parts that are MORE durable and reliable than OE GM stuff.

 

Edmunds is waaaay out of line on Corvette prices. In this area they are at least $4k below what Corvettes are actually going for. KBB may be a little high but are a better indicator indicator.

In fact, prices at auction are similar to Edmunds retail pricing.

 

You actually don't ever see heavily modded cars at the (road course) track. Most are either stock or very lightly modded (I don't count stuff like brake pads, fluids as mods by the way).

Those high quality shiny aftermarket parts actually do break or interfere with other parts, and make those other parts break Car manufacturers spend billions of dollars to ensure all parts work together as intended in every condition. A small racing shop that employs a handful of employees simply cannot match the resources car manufacturers have to ensure reliability.

 

Mods actually add to the value of the car for the owner. Especially if you do the mods yourself. You can't put a price on the feeling of accomplishment and pride of a job well done to your personal taste.

Dollar value means nothing until you're ready to sell. In the meantime do what makes you happy. 'cause life's too short for what if's and maybe's.

 

You might be misconstruing what I'm talking about. I was referring primarily to built engines and aftermarket drivetrain parts.

People like to hang their hat on that "GM spends millions on engineering" thing and it isn't always true. A "small racing shop" that removes the OE gearbox and differential from a C6 and replaces it with a built, heavy duty gearbox and differential has not IN ANY WAY created a car that's LESS reliable than the one GM turned out. All they've done is make it more difficult to break.

GM does not spend their money engineering the perfect car. They spend their money engineering a car that is acceptable to sell to consumers whilst costing the absolute LEAST amount of money per unit to produce.

A favorable cost/benefit analysis is always priority one with an auto manufacturer (or any manufacturer of mass produced consumer items). Engineering reliability only extends as far as "how good do we have to make this so we won't be paying to warranty failures left and right?"

For example.....The LS1-powered F-bodies were sold in '98 to '02 and had 340-350 HP engines in front of what was essentially the 7.5" 10-bolt rear end out of an S10 pickup. They were essentially only strong enough to propel the car off the dealer lot. Stock 6-speed cars blew those rears up left and right with any kind of spirited driving.

So yes, replacing the rear axle in a car like that with an aftermarket 12-bolt/Ford 8.8 whatever WOULD make the car more reliable than it was when it left the GM plant in Ontario.

The somewhat distressing issue with faulty valve guides in the LS7 is yet another example. If you presented me with a bone stock, low-mile Z06 and a Z06 with equal mileage and a high dollar valvetrain swapped in for just a bit more money (all else being essentially equal of course), ya know which one I'd be more likely to buy?

 

Spot on. I did not mod my car for someone else, I did it for me. I knew going in that it could have an effect on resale either + or -. Since my plan was to keep it long term, resale was never an issue. I've had the car for almost 7 years now (purchased new) and it has been modified for three of those.

 

This is a point glossed over a lot in discussions like these.

Many people think the car manufacturers make the highest performance car possible when they release a sports car. Not so, and it's not only in the name of being cheap. This is especially true of the stock ECU tune that comes from the showroom.

While the sports car buyer may want the fastest everything possible, the manufacturer also has to build the car with an eye on (1) affordability, (2) fuel efficiency, (3) reliability, (4) industry safety standards, etc... So, aftermarket modding can make a car much faster if done properly.

That said, improperly done or experimental mods can result in damaging the car and lightening the owner's wallet, and the stock Vette is quite peppy as-is.

There's no real right or wrong here, it's up to each individual owner.

 

We can clearly state that adding a set of quality wheels for example can raise the price a fair bit. That's if you go quality forged wheels that offer lighter wheels than stock, better performance and custom job on the car in question. Same thing with engine mods, suspension mods and such.

 

You are talking about the known issues we had with GM cars in the recent decade. Obviously, when there is a known issue, any fix is better than the failing part. By the way, I would definitely not buy someone else's 'built' engine. Sadly, most built engines fail for a simple issue which is not the issue that they were built for to remedy. Perhaps something is over-torqued. Perhaps the gasket was not put in correctly; the list goes on.. The only way to go for a build engine is getting it from the top shops in this business, but even then I would be wary.

 

 

Right. The failed crap that GM "engineered" into those cars is inferior to the aftermarket stuff that is typically used to replace it. That's exactly what I said.

So by that logic, MOST engine builders don't know what the hell they're doing?

 

All the time modded c6 guys are trying to sell cause they want to "upgrade to a Z", I've never seen an add where the guy wanted to trade his Z for modded base. And heavily modded cars are in no way more reliable than stock oem cars. None of these aftermarket parts are made to last 150k miles no matter how strong the manufacturer claims them to be.

Not all modded cars are beaten up, and not all people who want stock Vettes are waxers. I'm not against modding at all, but the owner needs to understand the consequences when it comes to resale.

 

Yes, that's exactly what I said.

 

These guys may disagree with this statement.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...hat-a-car.html

 

Even Callaway wouldn't claim there supercharged LS3 is more reliable than a factory GS.