Tuning is a waste of money: Tell Me I'm Wrong
Forget trying to 'improve' your car - enjoy it the way it was intended and reap the rewards
Don't get me wrong - modifying cars can be a lot of fun. There's tremendous satisfaction in identifying areas of your car that you think can be improved, making changes and ending up with something that's palpably better, as well as one that's better suited to your individual taste.
Tuning and modding - two sides of same coin
Tuning to the dark side
Tuning is fun. The planning; the forum-hunting; the parts sourcing; forming a relationship with a tuning company; comparing what you've done with other owners. In fact, it's so addictive that you're likely to wake up one day and find you've become a tuning junkie.
Like so many types of addictive behaviour, once you start tuning, you just can't stop. You make one change, and you instantly feel the need to make another. Boosting power is a really invidious one: add a bigger turbo and within a few short straights you've got used to it and persuade yourself you need that even bigger bolt-on.
The Jap car world is heavily tuning focused...
Like any form of addiction, tuning has its dark side...
You spent how much?!
The fact that so few owners are prepared to divulge the total amount of cash they've chucked at their car - or are simply too scared to tot it all up - tells you everything you need to know about the tuning world.
As any addict will tell you, the gear ain't cheap. And once you're in for a penny, you're in for several thousand pounds - quite possibly several multiples of what the car's actually worth. I remember a guy at one of our shows being asked over the PA system how much he'd spent on his 600hp Mitsubishi Evo VIII. The gasps from the crowd were all too audible when he declared it was "over £100,000." He could have bought a brand new Porsche 911 GT3 for that...
...meaning truly original cars are real rarities
But the real kicker is, after you've thrown a fortune at your car, it's worth no more when you come to sell it - in fact, it's almost always worth less than when you started. Why? Because it's someone else's idea of tuning. Unless there's a pretty major brand behind it - say, Brabus or NISMO - secondhand buyers view all mods with deep suspicion.
Here's a revelation that most tuners simply can't accept: tuning doesn't actually improve many cars. Manufacturers spend millions getting their engineering right, and fiddling about with it can ruin everything.
Of course, there are many examples of 'good' mods you could cite - for instance, the Alfa Romeo 147/156 GTA both really benefit from Alfa's Q2 diff, which was never fitted originally; so much so that very few cars these days haven't been treated to one.
How many Makinen owners avoided tuning bug?
But it's so easy to spoil a car utterly. I recall someone asking me what I thought of his 400hp Impreza as I barrelled it around a track, and it was hard to hold back the sheer horror of what I felt. It was cack. The turbo was so extreme that the slightest input of throttle switched it to maximum boost (which of course was something like 2bar to give it 'enough' power), and he'd completely cocked up the suspension.
Originality is everything on the used market. Just look at the Mitsubishi Evo VI Makinen - a lot of owners were tempted to 'improve' it, as it was so easy to tune, but as soon as they'd done it, the cachet of 'OE spec' had evaporated, and it was just another dressed-up tuner car.
Another example: Nissan GB keeps a completely boggo standard Skyline GT-R R34 on its fleet - and when I say boggo, I mean boggo. We drove it for a PH Heroes feature in fact. I remember a Skyline fan looking at it and saying he'd never seen one with twin exhaust pipes. That's because the first thing any Skyline owner did was replace the restrictive OE exhaust with a free-flowing one, liberating loads of extra horses. And yet... the twin-tailpipe thing was clearly a turn-on for this enthusiast.
PH editorial team guilty as any of tuning bug
Even our esteemed editor seems to agree. "I consider my Eunos 'lightly tweaked' and then realise I've done the exhaust system, manifold, suspension, body stiffening, induction ... and painted the wheels bright orange. If I saw that in a classified ad, I'd run a mile and seek out a nice unmodded one. Yet as an owner I love it."
Sorry, but the old phrase 'original is best' really is true here. It's a free world and you can modify your car all you like within the bounds of the law. But keep it OE if you want your wallet to have anything left in it.
Reverse gear
Yes, tuning your car can be extremely satisfying. But the financial sting in the tail at the end of it certainly isn't.
So here's one way to deal with the inevitable pain. Look at tuning as an art form that doesn't really make sense by any normal measure. As long as you can accept the fact that your habit - and it will become an addiction - stands a good chance of bankrupting you, you'll be OK.
Officially approved or reversible mods the way to go
And if you disagree now's the time to tell me I'm wrong!
You know what else is a waste of money that you 'only' get enjoyment from? Everything.
It is a nasty drug. Only cure is to buy the car you would have been able to afford if you didn't spend (waste) the extra on mods, and thus you have no money to tinker
I've modified every car I've owned, apart from the GT3. Well, apart from the brakes
Been there, got the T-shirt and will probably go there again before I give up driving as it is addictive.
I have a dear friend who bought a Triumph spitfire, tuned the original 1500 engine and it blew up, then fitted a 1600cc Mx5 engine.. too slow, so he supercharged it which was fun for a while and now it's being turbocharged. The way he see's it though is it's his hobby, he sees it as money spent on a chasing a hobby rather than money spent "on the car"
Fettling however is something I am in favor of and keeps originality e.g having a car like a Caterham or Elise fully weighted for the driver and the suspension alignment tweaked to suit can transform the vehicle from stock specs to something very special.
Another example is the Mk1 Mx5, the engine from Mazda runs conservative ignition timing which with a 12mm spanner and timing light can be tweaked to make the car feel a lot more punchy and how it should be.
As long as you're willing to keep the OEM bits and return the car back to standard (I'm not American so I won't say stock..) it doesn't need to be a money pit
Tend to find cars are so restrictive nowadays either diesel or petrol turbo that a map can turn them into something quite fruity and nobody complains if you have some grippy pads fitted at resale time. Maps and boxes can easily be removed aswell by an ECU reset or 5 mins of unplugging. Personally I don't rag my cars even if mapped, it's just nice to have that little bit of extra performance when required. Would I buy a mapped car, probably not.
Was tempted 5 years ago to go for a big turbo for my Leon when the turbo let go but in the back of my head was the resale value so an OEM one went back on.
Next car will most likely be a diesel again and I reckon a DTUK will be slapped on it.
I think the value of "tuning" is also related to the quality and recognition of the work being done.
Take the Nissan GT-R for example, where a stage 4 enhanced car will still find a ready market if it comes from a firm like Litchfield. Granted, you are not going to see any financial return, although in the Litchfield situation there is a ready and thriving market to buy the bits you added, if you choose to restore the car to stock and sell it.
Modifying a car to me has always been either altering it's ability in a particular area, or unlocking the potential the car has.
My current 180SX and the two 200SXs that preceded it years ago are fine examples. They left the factory with somewhere between 170 and 200hp 20 years ago and my current 180SX is now somewhere in the region of 300hp. Driveability hasn't really suffered - most of that power potential is available with something very similar to the stock turbo. Everything else is or has been upgraded to suit the increase in power. It's now a very capable sports car whereas my original 200SX which was mostly standard was a somewhat wallowy and lethargic middle of the range GT with oodles of potential waiting to be unlocked.
A waste of money? Given it makes my face hurt every time I drive it from grinning and has cost me a net total of £6200 to get it to that state including the price of the car - I would say no. Admittedly, a lot of the work was done before I bought it and I have just had the map tweaked but none-the-less. I've tried an alternative from the second hand market available at a similar price and it bored me (an E46 M3). I imagine a lot of other people are in the same position which is why they continue to do it.
I do not get the same buzz from driving a completely standard car that I do one that I have played with. There is an extra sense of satisfaction involved that is just not there in a stock purchase imo.
My own WRX has a remap and a Haywood and Scott exhuast, to my mind it drives better needs fewer gear changes and allows me to use all of the rev range. thankfully nothing looks tuned either so come the PX no one will notice but its a bug an I have often thought bigger breaks thus bigger wheels then suspension would be great. Thankfully the next car is going to be a Zafira so no modding there
I do it because the faster better car would be x amount for expensive in the short term and longer one.
Plus its fun , i do agree with stuff that is reversible though or atleast chuck the stock parts in the sale .
I have kept my stock intercooler and airbox for this reason .
as has been said, hobbies cost money, and to others who dont like your hobby it's a waste of money.
shouldn't the argument have been 'tuning is a waste of time' as you can spend the money on a car that goes faster and handles better out the box, although even then it's a hobby so better than watching Eastenders every night.
This has the added benefit that you end up with a racing car and a tow car so you have all the bases covered- a very comfortable and practical car for daily use and a competition car for special Sunday drives, racing, trackdays etc.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff