Cars and Mods

[Jeremy Vaughan]

People mod their cars for all sorts of different reasons. I think that 
applied value and insured value are two different things entirely. When 
I was spinning wrenches on British cars in the 80's I had a customer 
who brought in a TR6 for us to restore. He put about 10K in the car and 
the joke was he had a car that was only worth half that at best. but If 
he had parked it on blocks for the last 20 years he'd be able to get 10 
for it today.... though that dollar is certainly worth less than it was 
at the time he spent it. ;-)
I've done a few conversions  3b and AAN in C20V and 4K cars and they 
all ended up costing 30K to do. There's lots of time and fabrication 
involved in doing one  so its a reliable, safe, fast great handling  
machine. I don't know who did that conversion but it looks tidy (from 
the pics) though I'd never use the stock AAN intake manifold in 
conversion... it may save you  $1K in  an RS2 intake manifold but it 
increases the cramped conditions in the  engine bay.
Most of the cars I built were for enthusiasts that planned on NEVER 
getting rid of their beloved Quattro. The depreciation value is 
certainly high but there are lots of pluses to think about. For example 
an 83 URQ is a pile. The electrics are a disaster waiting to happen, 
the CIS is a pain to deal with and inefficient, but  if you tear out 
the electrics and replacing everything it makes it a contemporary car 
that suddenly can be driven daily without concern.

The bottom line is car is only worth what someone will pay for it...

YMMV

Jeremy


On Mar 21, 2008, at 7:12 PM, cobram at juno.com wrote:

>  "Ed Kellock" <ekellock at gmail.com> writes:
>> The single factor that knocks it out of consideration for me is the
>> lack of A/C.  It doesn't seem to be a dedicated track car in any
>> other
>> way so to spend 9 grand and still have to "finish" the conversion
>> to
>> get the a/c running is just too much to ask, IMO.
>
> To borrow a line from "The Castle", "he's dream'in".  For 10k bones,
> there are many, many cars on the market that will outperform this thing
> right out of the box, without all the issues that inevitably manifest
> themselves with major modifications like this.  Truth is that most
> modifications are inverse equations when it comes to market value, 
> spend
> $1000 lowering a car, and you've just depreciated it $1500.  One mans'
> beauty queen is another mans' Petunia.
>
> (sorry 'bout the subject, have no idea what it originally was. ;-\)
>
> BCNU,
> http://www.geocities.com/cobramsri/
> Developer: Someone who wants to build a house in the woods.
> Ecologist: Someone who has already built his house in the woods.
> _______________________________________________
> quattro mailing list
> quattro at audifans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
> ---
> Watch this space for ads :)
>