psyber_0ptix

iTrader: (4)

If you have no will to problem solve or exorcise demons, you really shouldn't ever be thinking about modifying or owning a modified car. If you're willing to take it to a shop all the time to get these custom jobs fixed, and spend a fortune, just spend extra on a nice stock sports car and have the dealer warranty that ****.

z31maniac

To be fair, it did eat up highway miles at a decent clip in comfort and decent-ish mpg.

I could cruise 85-90 returning 25-26mpg all day. But that was about it.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

mine never got over 18. ever

as for comfort: no glove box - fail. storage compartments directly behind seats - fail. having as much interior space as a Miata despite being almost the size of a corvette - fail. shifter required 20lbs of effort just to change gears cause it was so stiff/clunky - fail. and on and on.....

it sounded pretty cool tho
and looked fast lol
until every single one of my friends would blow my doors off in various cars

3rdCarMX5

iTrader: (1)

I always wanted to like the 350z. I like the way it looks and I used to like Nissan. I just can't get past the fact that they really gave away the engineering side of the car. Warmed over engine. Extra weight everywhere but no attention to the change in performance. Impractical without any offset in character. Just a lost cause trying to improve it, you end up playing the "I should have started with a different car" game.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

IMO, the only people who can buy a modified car and sleep soundly at night are people who have extensive experience with that particular chassis already. I can go out and buy the biggest basket-case of a Miata in the world and I know enough about the car to un-**** it regardless of how far gone it is (assuming I'm willing to spend the time/money to do so). I also know enough to know which cars to pick up and which ones to walk away from, and that comes from experience.

If you don't have experience with a chassis, buying a heavily modified version is a huge risk. You run the risk of spend a ton of time and/or money chasing down problems the previous owner caused, even if the PO doesn't know they caused them.

The short answer is that if you're asking an internet forum whether or not you should buy a heavily modified car, the answer is almost certainly "no".

Jumbosrule

^^^ Completely agree.

I'd add to it and say that buying a (highly) modified car makes a lot more sense if it is not your only car and is a weekend/fun/project car.

After a half lifetime of custom builds, I am now firmly in the camp that believes buying somebody else's project is the way to go if you are looking for a project because they dropped in a lot of money that won't come back to them in a sale. Then you can make changes to improve or "unfuck" poor choices made by the PO, but it still takes knowledge, time and money. You have to go into it with that plan though. Expecting somebody else's project to be your daily driver won't work out well.

codrus

I have one rule when it comes to buying modified cars.

1) Don't do it.

That said, if it's going to be your only car, you'll depend on it for driving to work, and you have to finance it, I'll add a couple more:

2) Really, really, really don't do it.
3) See 1

There's a reason why a $10K car with $9K in aftermarket parts on it sells for $8K.

--Ian

18psi

iTrader: (76)

hahaha yup

"I have this car that cost 30k, put 20k into it, and will let it go for 12k, all you gotta do is..........."

The best part is that people are dumb enough to think that it's all the car actually needs. Like yeah, you just turbocharged the car, but having the AC refilled is just too hard

mazpr

iTrader: (1)

In between the I should buy or not, I got very good helpful advise, so for that I thank you.

Following up on this modded car bonanza, I contact the shop for the service records of the vehicle, which of course they refused and politely said to reach out to the owner for approval.

Texted the seller (which I am going to call Chapulin Colorado), and explained to please call the shop to give the green light for the transmission of documents via email. Chapulin Colorado explained he was busy on his new house and could not make the phone call at this time.
We exchanged emails and in between the lines he said he did not feel comfortable disclosing ALL the information, and I reminded him thats a immediate red flag. All in all he said to please give him some time, his house move is taking much of the day and will arrange for Friday to go to the shop, I agreed.

Got off from work, and decided to step foot on this shop which he takes the car since day one back in 2012. (got your pop-corn ready... JA JA ja) I roll through the shop and I see the exact same car the seller has, his new one (not the one for sale), and I was like, wtf, that looks like his car, but isnt he at the house busy...Anyhow, I walk in to the shop to meet the owner, he is very friendly and polite, while he is talking all I could see was a garage full of turbo Infinity, 370Z, looked sick must admit, and there was the owner of the car, the seller, wrenching on one of the vehicles way in the back. There was some backlight from the sun like from the the sun hits directly into the driveway, so I could not see well in between the glare and all the cars, and there he was attempting to hide behind one of the lift towers.
The owner of the shop (lets call him El Gran Pollero), tells me, yeah he is at the shop, in fact thats him and points to where the tower is (behind the tower), and asked me if I wanted to talk to him. I was just laughing, I felt good, and at the same time felt stupid, a weird mixed up vibe, still recovering from it. The seller took off, and walked away, I texted him, and he ignored the messages, asking him to show up, that I was upfront talking to the shop owner. The owner, Chapulin Colorado, drove away, no texting, nice.The shop owner, El Gran Pollero, says thats between you two, and we proceeded to see the service records, the turbo used to belong to him back in 2012, and rebuilt right before installing on the car.

What are the odds? Just like in the movies, you live, you learn, and I must give thanks to everyone here in MT cause I can tell you guys/gals/LGBT/non denominational that you care for the well being and monetary stability of other members and for that many kudos.

Cheers ~~~~

18psi

iTrader: (76)

Glad you dodged that bullet.

mazpr

iTrader: (1)

<br >

Here is the dyno chit. Ran last January, tuning with UpRev.
GTR injectors
Twin GT25s

Downmented

iTrader: (1)

I told you that "Chapulin" was shady

MartinezA92

iTrader: (4)

"Chapulin Colorado" holy **** hahahahaha

AlwaysBroken

Unless you already know how to work on the car in question and you're deeply familiar with the mods he has done and how everything ideally fits together when done correctly, you're going to either have a huge learning curve or you're going to be out a TON of money unfucking it. Possibly both. You don't know what mix of bandaids and stupidity he used to get the car running. You don't know where he cut corners. You don't know what parts are on the verge of exploding or melting the second you do a WOT pull to redline.

If you pay someone else to figure it out, very time something else goes wrong with it, you'll be out a ton of money getting that same mechanic to fix your special snowflake of a car. You might as well just buy a ******* ferrari right now.

This thread reminds me of that guy who showed up on here asking for advice about how to fix a basic issue with his turbo miata that he bought pre-modded with some uncommon ECU. He didn't know anything about the setup beyond a few part names, didn't know how to datalog, read the memory or change anything. It was probably something that would take 10 minutes to fix if he had modded the car himself and was familiar with it, but starting with a previously modded car, it was like solving a sherlock holmes mystery. And this wasn't some 30psi 500hp beast of a car, it was a very mildly modded car with nothing mechanically stressed. It was just some weird grounding or vacuum leak issue, the kind that pop up now and then. But it completely crippled his ability to drive around in the car because he couldn't diagnose it or fix it.

I can't even imagine selling my car to someone else. It is pretty reliable when it's fully assembled, but there are a million tiny issues that can crop up and they don't throw an engine code, so I have to read the 5 extra gauges and the ecu data and deduce what's wrong. I'd have to explain everything to someone, they'd have to be smart enough to absorb it all and then I'd probably still need to write a thick manual explaining everything in case they forgot stuff and the car broke a year later.

mazpr

iTrader: (1)

The car has its chunks, I know people say is a pos, I get that.

I drove the car, the Nismo I drove days earlier felt like a school bus besides this car.
I have driven 128i, 335i, and had the honor to be in the driver's seat of a BMW M5, (edit: almost forgot have also driven NA modded Miata 1.6)
This car felt like a track car, glued to the ground and doing 90 felt like 40. That thing it boost, clamped the diff, and off we go, and I swear it sounded like a GTR. Rip it at 100 mph and then let go off the throttle and it sounded better than a Harley at idle.

But as much as how insane that dose of instant gratification felt, I have to let go. Will be testing tomorrow a 135i, and possibly another one Saturday.

Like a buddy told me, "For trying to lookout for the pennies and dimes, I'll lose track of the dollar bills"