from my experience, most car dealerships don't know or don't care about how much you've put into your car. All they see is the mileage on it.

I usually take off all my aftermarket stuff before i sell any car. Even selling the parts used, you get more than any dealership would willingly give.

 

all they care about is mileage, the year and the condition.. they dont give a crap about mods or anything..and in fact they might frown on it.

 

dealerships dont care but what it's worth on paper.

If i ever saw a car with mods at a dealership i'd turn tail and run. some portarican guy probobly had it and dropshifted it pretending he was in 3 3ast 3 3urious

 

You'd actually get more money if you were to sell it privately. Although some people may think if you have mods, then you would beat on your car.

 

At our dealership modded cars are put in poor condition and thats all we will give em sence we then have to turn them back to stock, because its hard to sell a moded car on a dealer lot.

 

In Cali they do care about the mods. I know when I appraised vehicles I was always lookin for mods as the smog laws make it tuff. A dealer has to smog a used vehicle before he sells it so depending on the mods it can be a headache.

 

In Cali they do care about the mods. I know when I appraised vehicles I was always lookin for mods as the smog laws make it tuff. A dealer has to smog a used vehicle before he sells it so depending on the mods it can be a headache.

Exactly, and being that your focus has no cats, they can't smog it, which means unless they don't notice that, they will not purchase it.

 

some of the dealers around here sell them as customized cars and jack the price up.

i've seen quite a few focuses that are lowered with an exhaust on used car lots selling for 13-15k

 

At our dealership modded cars are put in poor condition and thats all we will give em sence we then have to turn them back to stock, because its hard to sell a moded car on a dealer lot.

ive been to 3 dealerships who have told me the same thing.. they will give you less because not everyone will want a car with those mods,or mods at all which makes it harder to sell.. strip it,and sell the parts

 

dealerships dont care but what it's worth on paper.

If i ever saw a car with mods at a dealership i'd turn tail and run. some portarican guy probobly had it and dropshifted it pretending he was in 3 3ast 3 3urious

thanks [censored], I'm "portarican".

And by the way it's spelled puerto rican, and it's so great to know you white [censored] don't even know the geography of outlying islands that are actually PART of the US.

 

If i ever saw a car with mods at a dealership i'd turn tail and run. some portarican guy probobly had it and dropshifted it pretending he was in 3 3ast 3 3urious

That was a bit too crass of a remark to make in a public forum, don't ya think?

 

At Carmax, they will take away some money off the top of what they offer you for any mods you have. Example: Say they offer you, $7500. They will take off $150 for the intake, $500 for the header, and $450 for the exhaust. So thats leaving you with $6400. And when the techs get it, any mods on the car, performance, interior, wheels, will all be thrown away and replaced with stock parts.

 

When I traded my corvette in without cats they didnt say a thing. They dont care...they just sell it as is or send it to auction. It may be different with cars that have huge body kits or at smaller dealers

 

Thanks people

We just refinanced our home and we will probably be looking at something with 4 doors.

I do have the stock header in my garage, so if it comes down to it I could have a shop install it but I'd rather not. If it's only like 500 then I'll eat that. I WILL be putting the intake back to stock though since that's pretty easy.

 

I traded my in and had no problem. They gave me the amount I owed on the car.

I had an erubini front kit on it, unpainted. Focus Sport foam filter kit, aftermarket exhaust, dropped shocks, painted interior dash and doors, underdrive pulley, and a few other things. Oh and swaped engine, from when I lost my oil and burned up the original. It looked like crap too... But a week and a half later it was on the front of their used car lot. Painted and all. Looked great and made me almost wish I didn't trade it.

But... I'm glad I did.

 

I traded my in and had no problem. They gave me the amount I owed on the car.

I had an erubini front kit on it, unpainted. Focus Sport foam filter kit, aftermarket exhaust, dropped shocks, painted interior dash and doors, underdrive pulley, and a few other things. Oh and swaped engine, from when I lost my oil and burned up the original. It looked like crap too... But a week and a half later it was on the front of their used car lot. Painted and all. Looked great and made me almost wish I didn't trade it.

But... I'm glad I did.

And they did what with the negative equity??
No dealer is going to turn you down on a trade in. They are just not going to give you what you want for the car.
Mods are definatly a big minus on trade in value. It also depends on the state. No car that is lowered will pass Maryland state inspection legally. When you raise it up in the air if the springs hang then it will not pass.

 

I just traded in my Maxima a few weeks ago. They wanted the stock exhaust and intake back on it. I traded in my Contour on my Focus and it had pipes on it, gutted cat, painted grill. They didnt say anything. Its all in where you go I guess. If they are talking about a lot less money for your trade then I would put it back on.

 

so did you have to put the maxima back to stock before they would take it at all?

 

When I traded my corvette in without cats they didnt say a thing. They dont care...they just sell it as is or send it to auction. It may be different with cars that have huge body kits or at smaller dealers

Two different issues said here. We do care about mods. Some can add real value. If its wholesale, its what can we get quick and get it out of here. If its a retail piece, what does it take to get it front line ready. That can include smog stuff. Although we have sold supercharged F250s and modified Cobras

 

Depends on the dealer and the vehicle, etc. When I went to get my Focus I had a 97 F-150 that I had fixed up as a show truck (see my web site).

The dealer where I first saw the Focus said "No" when I mentioned trade. After I reminded them that I had been buying from them for 30 years they came back with some numbers that meant I was essentially giving them the truck for free.

So I went to another dealer about 10 miles away. First question when trade was mentioned was "Do you have the stock parts?" to which I answered "Yes". Second question was "How much do you think it is worth?". Which I answered (having done my research) by saying "I am will am willing to pay X dollars difference." Sales manager said "OK, Call me back in 3 hoours and I will let you know."

He actually called me first and after some discussion about whether the X dollars included Tax, Title, Tags,etc. we had a deal.

I found out later that the truck was driven to a local Chevy dealer 30 minutes after I turned it in. IT sat on their lot for one day and then disappeared out of the local (100 mile radius) four state area forever. My truck was well known in the local area and I still attend shows and cruise-in in the area. But no one I have talked to has seen my truck since I traded it in.

 

Thanks Hal, that was most informative

 

Obviously the dealer where I bought the car wanted the sale and was willing to do a little more to get it. We speculate that it disappeared into the wilds of West Virginia where inspections are unknown

A somewhat similar situation happened to me in 1981. My wife needed a new car (has to be GM) as her old one was about ready to die. We knew we would not get much for it on trade so we decided to trade in my 79 Ford truck also. We were ordering the new car so we could get the equipment we wanted. Chevy dealer said "No way". Buick and Pontiac dealers gave us some numbers which I did not like. After some discussion they both brought the difference down a little but not enough to suit me. I told both they would have to do better.

The Pontiac dealer came back with another 100 off. The Buick dealer said "If we can have the truck right now instead of waiting two months till the new car comes in, we will give you an extra $500 for the trades." My truck had been sitting for 4 months since I was using the wife's car to carpool to work and riding my motorcycles the rest of the time. It also meant that we would not have a car payment for two months (wife's car was paid for). Of course we grabbed that deal.

 

Well check this out, I go to test drive an SRT-4 today and I ask the guy straight up and tell him I have no cats and he's like "Well I just wouldn't tell them, honestly they won't notice, nobody is going to ask because your car looks stock".

Now this is a salesman, but he seemed cool, never once asked me to sit down and 'talk numbers' probably because I knew more about the car than him.

The dealership I went to is probably one of the biggest automalls on the west coast and it wouldn't surprise me that they would just take the car and not even think twice about checking for cats... I mean how are they supposed to know the Focus even HAS a cat on the header? Heck.. the ST model doesn't....

I suppose the only real answer is the one I find out for myself once the time comes.

 

I thought I'd bump this for follow-up info in case anyone was interested.

Well my Focus was appraised by 3 dealerships, neither of them cared about the mods even when I asked them about how they usually treat them. One guy thought I was asking because I guess he thought that I assumed they brought the value 'up' so he said they don't add value.. which I knew.

The Honda dealership is the only one that actually took my car for a drive, and with no cats and a header I don't see how they gave me the best price but they did.

My guess is that their mechanics have already had a look and probably talked to someone about it, but they can't really go back on the deal with me since they already paid out my loan. I have not gotten a call.

Or maybe they just don't care and are going to send it to auction.... who knows.

Anyway, this really worked out for me because if I were to sell it private party I would have to make sure it passes smog, and that would have meant putting the header back on, and having a stock exhuast with OBD-II cat installed again since I (stupidly) threw the old one away.

In fact... the money I lost by trading the car in is about what I would have had to pay to set the car back to stock since I wasn't going to do it myself.

 

ok here is the general dealer process
1. they slowly bend you over to assume the position
2. relentlessly screw you up the butt
3. you emerge with a sore ass and no cash
4. then they advertise your mods and make a profit off the very things they said were bad