deliberate1

I have been researching the used WRX market, trying to decide whether to buy new or used. I have particularly followed offerings on Ebay. Over the past month there have been 20 or more cars that have been modded in every imaginable way. But what they all have in common is that none has sold, or even come close to the "Buy-it-Now" reserve when available. In fact, it seems that these poor enthusiasts not only get little or none of their investment back for the mods, but that the underlying value of the car may be diminished as well. For example, there is a beautiful '02 sedan with 36,000 well tended miles, and more than $9k in actually listed mods. You can buy this car immediately for $22,200. Subtracting the mods leaves an underlying value of
about $13,000. I would guess that the value of the same car without mods has to be in the high teens. One of the obvious attractions of this car is the ability to transform it into something fierce. But the used market seems to levy a stiff penalty for doing it. Everyone wants to mod their own car, but no one seems to want someone else's used ride. Does that make such a car a particularly good value? But as a guy who does'nt know which side of a wrench to write with, is it stupid for me to buy one of these monsters, from a maintenace point of view?

N/A

Thats always been the way things have worked. You never get back the money you put into a car unless your restoring a old 1930-50's classic car. If you put anything into a car in mods it actually brings down the value of a car cause its no longer stock and any remaining warranty would be affected by those mods which the average person doesn't want to get involved with. You would be better off changing the car back to stock for and selling the parts off seperately.

JustinWRC

no one wants a modified car to much risk involved