nethomas

I am thinking about boosting my C7. I am courious to know what forum members have done with their supercharged cars when they decide to sell or trade in. Does the SC add to or lessen the trade value?

NE Thomas
Mexico, Missouri

Greg00Coupe

WOW I'd like to know this too. I ran into a tuner who tells me give me your car and because we are experimenting with the set up....... lot of discount labor and parts can be yours. Now I know there is a risk but that is not the question at hand.

I tell him I am going to dump the car in a year or 2 then what? He says he has a network of folks who will pay good $$s for a properly modified and balanced car backed by his reputation. Gave me some examples but sure seems too good to be true.

So what has been anyone with a heavily modified cars experience?

OddJob1971

In the past, I have pulled most of the upgrade parts off my cars and sold them separately. Worth more money that way. You won't get your money back if you trade or sell it with all the upgrades on it. Just save all your original hardware like I do and you should be good.

Higgs Boson

On trade, you will not lose value, just won't get anything for the mods. Trade value goes by VIN and auction pricing.

On private resale, you will get a little more for the car but it will be a little harder to find a buyer at all.

robertf97

Theta

Completely agree with everyone above - always retain stock parts, and if keeping the car long-term, order replacements on anything you consume along the way. Easier that way in 5-10 years when you need those parts and they're hard to get.

LT1xL82

There are a LOT of buyers that will not touch a car with significant modifications. Hence, little of the value of the parts will be recovered...if any. You might even get less for the car with the mods than without.

As for trade in, many dealers will not even consider a modified car...or will pay so little it will make you cry. Used car dealers specializing in performance cars may be a different story.

If you have the time, try to sell with the mods. You might get lucky and find a buyer willing to pay good money. If not, as others have said, to get maximum money, remove the mods, sell them, and sell the car in stock condition.

Theta

It also depends on how far down the road you're looking at selling. If I was in the market for a C5Z, I would almost expect it to be sold with mods at this point. Shouldn't be many here after all these years that were kept stock.

If, however, you want to move to the C7Z (which from our PMs I don't think will happen ), then short-term power adders should always be removed to increase resale to a dealer.

Trickier mods like camshafts are usually left in the car, since the price is so high to remove them in the case of the C7. You would just need to be careful to choose a mild/stealth cam to be able to run on the factory calibration (if possible).

At the end of the day, though, the blower kits don't leave too much of a trace behind, especially if you have the original panels. Procharger gives you everything to keep all of your factory parts, and the others would require you to purchase 1-2 parts to get everything back to 100% stock.

Internal engine modifications are far harder to come back from.

NSC5

A big problem you face is the market for a modified car is much smaller. If you can find a buyer looking for what you have done then you will do very well on resale but there are probably 50 used car buyers who won't consider a seriously modified car for every 1 that is looking for one.

An issue that is going to be a bigger deal in the future is when the subsequent buyer gets the nasty surprise that the power train warranty coverage is denied when the "tracks" of a modification are found. I am not familiar with what GM is doing with the ECM of cars to track modification but recent diesel pickups have multiple electronic tattletales including storing peak torque statistics along with the mechanical signs (starburst burn pattern on piston face) that gets checked during major failures during warranty. I imagine dealers are becoming more careful with nearly new low mileage vehicles (that will likely be sold through the dealer) although those older/higher mileage vehicles destined for auction probably get far less scrutiny so keep that in mind if you are thinking of trading in a car in the first few years.

Fun has to take precedence over finances when modifying

Theta

On a trade-in, they probably aren't going to run it through the CVN check process - especially if it's at a non-Chevy dealer. If you sold it to a private buyer, you would need to disclose the potential to not have a warranty which would be a huge killer.

Something makes me think (and this could be complete BS/speculation) that in the first case, after taking the trade, a GM dealer would just run all the required checkpoints and re-program the original CVN checksums and restore the factory warranty before selling it through an authorized dealership.

Last, and least honest, method is to purchase a second ECM to swap back and forth after returning to stock. This is a really sticky issue, though. I won't say my dealer didn't offer that to me though...

NSC5

That is probably done pretty often but I expect that will become more difficult to hide if ease of "hidden modifications" significantly drives up manufacturers' warranty costs. I have a sneaking suspicion that is one reason my current pickup has three major controllers that all involve the powertrain (ECM, separate TCM (transmission control), and a third module named the glow plug controller although it has to be reprogrammed with the individual injector flow rates if any are replaced so it isn't just controlling glow plugs.) I would not be surprised if the BCM (body control module) and others aren't soon all playing a part in making it difficult to replace the ECM without leaving evidence.

It probably won't happen but it would be nice to be able to buy the new vehicle at discount with a short warranty (say 90 days or a year) on the powertrain for those who plan to modify since they will likely lose it anyway.

nethomas

Thanks for all your replies. How about exhaust mods?
NE Thomas
Mexico, Missouri

Theta

While it would never happen, I would love to waive a powertrain warranty in exchange for a better deal.

Theta

The rule of thumb is that downstream issues from a mod are fair game for denials. If you have NPP and add headers, they may try to say that the valves aren't covered.

If you're just going to replace the factory exhaust with an axle-back, that voids nothing.

If you're going to be getting your work done @ Trenary, they're pretty cool to work with mod-wise. After all, they have crazier people like me to worry about there.

Adam_W

I suppose the logical conclusion to all this is that if you have a stock car and want to mod it, it is a better deal to immediately sell your stock car and then purchase a used car that already has the mods you want, such that you're not paying much for the mods, and so that you find yourself on "buyer" side of a transaction involved a modified car and "seller" side of a transaction involving a stock car.

Theta

Not going to find a used modded C7 yet...

C7GrandSport

I sold both my heavily modified C5 and C6 privately to people who appreciated what I had done. Just understand you'll never get your money back, so you'd better enjoy the car while you have it!

3 Z06ZR1

I have always returned the car back to stock then sold the car.

That was on cars I installed the mods. My C7 the mods were installed
by A&A themselves and I already decided if and when I decide to sell this car.
It goes like it is. Runs like stock with lots of extra power!
The blower kit adds so much to a Corvette. Better car with the kit!

6spdg37s

+ 1 on this statement definitely keep the extra parts and revert it back to stop before u trade it in... depending on what shop did the work and if it is all documented some buyers might be interested

JerriVette

Greg

If it's really a good deal then have that tuner slap in the supercharger....

Sell the car privately rather than trade in. If the car is a lease then don't even consider doing it.

Jmo