Modifications and car prices
Discussion
I'm considering buying the ProMAX Power Kit from www.promaxmotorsport.com for my S2.
I want to know though how this will impact the value of my car.
I'm guessing I could probably sell it for 7k today if I wanted. It's been looked after very well from new.
Would the value of my car decrease vastly due to the modification or would the difference be negligible?
Thanks in advance.
I want to know though how this will impact the value of my car.
I'm guessing I could probably sell it for 7k today if I wanted. It's been looked after very well from new.
Would the value of my car decrease vastly due to the modification or would the difference be negligible?
Thanks in advance.
Hi,
I can only give an opinion based on a turbo, but the bloke who runs Promax had his reviewed in 911 & PW. It had 420bhp, and over 200,000 miles on the clock. He sold it a few months later for (I believe) about £12k, although I am guessing that he put about £10-15k into the car to get it to that stage.
The thing about the S2 is that you'll never get the BHP per £££'s spent in comparison to a turbo. For instance, an extra 50 bhp from a turbo will cost around £500 (new chips, etc) but to get an extra 50 bhp from an S2 will cost at least £1000.
My own 944 turbo is an '86 model, with 152k on the clock. It needs an engine rebuild at which stage I intend to strip it down to about 900-1000kg, and have the engine uprated to 'only' 300/325 bhp, so that it has a good power:weight ratio. No point in having over 400 BHP if you can't use it!!!!
As general rule of thumb, never upgrade your car with the intention of making a profit, or even breaking even, you'll lose money every time...
I can only give an opinion based on a turbo, but the bloke who runs Promax had his reviewed in 911 & PW. It had 420bhp, and over 200,000 miles on the clock. He sold it a few months later for (I believe) about £12k, although I am guessing that he put about £10-15k into the car to get it to that stage.
The thing about the S2 is that you'll never get the BHP per £££'s spent in comparison to a turbo. For instance, an extra 50 bhp from a turbo will cost around £500 (new chips, etc) but to get an extra 50 bhp from an S2 will cost at least £1000.
My own 944 turbo is an '86 model, with 152k on the clock. It needs an engine rebuild at which stage I intend to strip it down to about 900-1000kg, and have the engine uprated to 'only' 300/325 bhp, so that it has a good power:weight ratio. No point in having over 400 BHP if you can't use it!!!!
As general rule of thumb, never upgrade your car with the intention of making a profit, or even breaking even, you'll lose money every time...
When you look at what is required to re-engineer a Turbo charged car and to upgrade it- rather the twiddle this and fiddle with that until it somehow goes faster ["Detonation Techniques" style 
)- it's no suprise that values of cars plummet unless it's a reknowned and acknowledged tuner. I don't know Pro-Max, may be they're good?
)- it's no suprise that values of cars plummet unless it's a reknowned and acknowledged tuner. I don't know Pro-Max, may be they're good?GarrettMacD,
The kit from Promaxmotorsport costs £370. Fitting it will probably cost me a couple of hundred at most I'm guessing. So for under £600 I am hoping to gain 50bhp roughly. That's reasonable, isn't it?
I'm not after crazy amounts of power. Just feel like a little more power would make the world of difference.
I know the value of the car won't increase in any way. I'm not even expecting to recoup any of that £600. I'm simply wondering if as a direct result of the modifications, will the value of the car depreciate faster than it would if the car was standard.
The reason I'm hoping (maybe wrongly) that the car value won't depreciate too much more than it would if it was unmodified, is that promaxmotorsport are 944 specialists and fairly well known to those in the 944 community.
I will most probably change the suspension at a later date (not sure what to) and possibly upgrade to the brake pads and discs to big reds.
Any thoughts?
The kit from Promaxmotorsport costs £370. Fitting it will probably cost me a couple of hundred at most I'm guessing. So for under £600 I am hoping to gain 50bhp roughly. That's reasonable, isn't it?
I'm not after crazy amounts of power. Just feel like a little more power would make the world of difference.
I know the value of the car won't increase in any way. I'm not even expecting to recoup any of that £600. I'm simply wondering if as a direct result of the modifications, will the value of the car depreciate faster than it would if the car was standard.
The reason I'm hoping (maybe wrongly) that the car value won't depreciate too much more than it would if it was unmodified, is that promaxmotorsport are 944 specialists and fairly well known to those in the 944 community.
I will most probably change the suspension at a later date (not sure what to) and possibly upgrade to the brake pads and discs to big reds.
Any thoughts?
I know Promax, and their products are well researched and well designed. Andrew the owner knows 944s very well having owned one for many years and raced in the Porsche Cup.
His S2 kit is a decat pipe for the exhaust, a chip in the ECU, a K&N panel filter and some new spark plugs. I do not think these would de-value your car and you can fit all of them yourself very easily. If you are concerned come resale time then simply refit the existing parts.
The Promax website claims a power increase of 35bhp with this kit, not 50 as you suggest
His S2 kit is a decat pipe for the exhaust, a chip in the ECU, a K&N panel filter and some new spark plugs. I do not think these would de-value your car and you can fit all of them yourself very easily. If you are concerned come resale time then simply refit the existing parts.
The Promax website claims a power increase of 35bhp with this kit, not 50 as you suggest
Hi Jabriel,
Yes, Promax are considered to be the best in the UK for 944 upgrades, especially since the guy who runs it used to race a 944t, very competitively, until quite recently. So, the fact that he's able to take a 12 year old car & mix it with 993's on track suggests he knows what he's doing.
The second thing is that he seems to be affiliated with Guru Racing in the USA, who are probably the world's #1 for 951 tuning. There is of course a slight (perceived) trade off in reliability, but since many of the parts are technical upgrades which release more power, you are actually improving the car whilst also modifying it.
There is nothing to suggest that these mods make your car into a 'grenade' engine, since they are designed for fast road use anyway. I don't understand why people assume that extra modifications affect the reliability, especially with the chips. 200bhp per litre from a turbo engine is easily possible these days, no-one bats an eyelid when Mitsubishi introduce a 400 bhp Evo (2 litre), so why they assume a 944t with over 250bhp is going to implode is a mystery to me!
If you go ahead then Promax are probably the best in the UK, but when it comes to re-sale this is a double edged sword. The potential buyer will use the mods as either a bargaining tool, or he may see them as being an advantage, i.e. he may have intended to fit them anyway, so you've saved him the hassle, time & money. It really depends on where you advertise the car when you sell it!
Of course, you could always just get the chips, keep the old one's & come sale time swap them back again & then sell the Promax chips separately!
Just my £0.02 worth
Yes, Promax are considered to be the best in the UK for 944 upgrades, especially since the guy who runs it used to race a 944t, very competitively, until quite recently. So, the fact that he's able to take a 12 year old car & mix it with 993's on track suggests he knows what he's doing.
The second thing is that he seems to be affiliated with Guru Racing in the USA, who are probably the world's #1 for 951 tuning. There is of course a slight (perceived) trade off in reliability, but since many of the parts are technical upgrades which release more power, you are actually improving the car whilst also modifying it.
There is nothing to suggest that these mods make your car into a 'grenade' engine, since they are designed for fast road use anyway. I don't understand why people assume that extra modifications affect the reliability, especially with the chips. 200bhp per litre from a turbo engine is easily possible these days, no-one bats an eyelid when Mitsubishi introduce a 400 bhp Evo (2 litre), so why they assume a 944t with over 250bhp is going to implode is a mystery to me!
If you go ahead then Promax are probably the best in the UK, but when it comes to re-sale this is a double edged sword. The potential buyer will use the mods as either a bargaining tool, or he may see them as being an advantage, i.e. he may have intended to fit them anyway, so you've saved him the hassle, time & money. It really depends on where you advertise the car when you sell it!
Of course, you could always just get the chips, keep the old one's & come sale time swap them back again & then sell the Promax chips separately!
Just my £0.02 worth
jabriel said:
So for under £600 I am hoping to gain 50bhp roughly. That's reasonable, isn't it?
Nope not at all, its dreamword im afraid, you are not gunna get a real 260bhp out of an S2 for that ££. (*)
(*)Excepting- of course, someone who has a spare supercharger etc floating around that owes 'em nowt & they have the know how to bung it all on for nothing etc etc.
tony.t said:
I'm sceptical about getting 35bhp from a decat and chip. AMD got 15bhp out of mine which was inline with their intial estimate.
See here Dyno Day for power improvements to 944S2 (& others) I think that if you get above 230bhp your doing well. Seems like for futher improvements you'll have to spend BIG $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ £5,500 for 9M Supercharger seems like the favorite otherwhise it's an engine to bit jobbie...
Has your car got a CAT if not why not just try the CHIP.... Xtra 15bhp for £100............
>> Edited by Bananaman on Saturday 18th December 14:45
In terms of impact on depreciation, good modifications by a reputable specialist can add value to a car's book price but will rarely get you back the money spent. As the original post wasn't about getting money back, I'd have thought that there was no worry about harming the car's value given the reassuring comments about the outfit targeted for carrying out the mods. More so if the original bits are included in a future sale.
tony.t, What mods were carried out on your car to get the extra 15 bhp?
Bananaman, as you said £100 for extra 15bhp is great, but I'm the impatient type so want to do as much as I can as soon as I can...without going crazy!
So anyway, you've helped me make up my mind. I'll go with the mods.
Now I need to decide from the below options:
option 1) Go with ProMaxMotorsport kit.
option 2) Find out what other chips and what other cat bypass pipes are available. (the 2 other items in the promax kit are k&n airfilter and spark plugs. The airfilter isn't a problem and I bought the spark plugs from ProMaxMotorsport earlier month)
If I go with the second option, I'll need to know
a) What other chips are available? Which chips should I consider/not consider based on your experiences?
b)What makes a good cat bypass pipe?(may be a lame question but I don't know a lot about this subject so have to ask.)
c)Can I fit a cat bypass pipe and change the exaust later without any headaches? (i.e. is a cat bypass pipe able to be used with any exaust system I choose at a later date?)
Bananaman, as you said £100 for extra 15bhp is great, but I'm the impatient type so want to do as much as I can as soon as I can...without going crazy!
So anyway, you've helped me make up my mind. I'll go with the mods.
Now I need to decide from the below options:
option 1) Go with ProMaxMotorsport kit.
option 2) Find out what other chips and what other cat bypass pipes are available. (the 2 other items in the promax kit are k&n airfilter and spark plugs. The airfilter isn't a problem and I bought the spark plugs from ProMaxMotorsport earlier month)
If I go with the second option, I'll need to know
a) What other chips are available? Which chips should I consider/not consider based on your experiences?
b)What makes a good cat bypass pipe?(may be a lame question but I don't know a lot about this subject so have to ask.)
c)Can I fit a cat bypass pipe and change the exaust later without any headaches? (i.e. is a cat bypass pipe able to be used with any exaust system I choose at a later date?)
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