- There comes a point where we
have to bite the bullet eventually
and come to terms with selling a vehicle.
And that can be especially hard
if it's one that you put your
blood, sweat and tears into,
and let's be honest, we can never
keep anything stock, so odds are
if you're looking to sell a vehicle of yours,
it probably has some after-market goodies done to it.
Which unfortunately isn't always the greatest thing
when it comes down to selling a vehicle.
And if you're someone who is just
about to list their modified car for sale
or if you're someone who has already gone
through the absolute struggle, welcome.
I'm Gels from Fitment Industries
and we are here today on this episode
of "The Build Sheet" to go over
some of the true struggles
of selling a modified car and some of the solutions
you can do to help just make the whole process
a little bit easier.
(tools whirring)
(dramatic music)
Now before we go ahead and get right into it,
don't forget to subscribe and if you
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going on right now, fitmentindustries.com,
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go check it out.
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Fitment Industries Garage, check the link
in the description below.
We're doing a bunch of cool stuff over there as well.
Other than that, you know the drill,
wheels, tires, suspensions, fitmentindustries.com.
Let's go ahead and get right into it.
The first struggle you are going to hit
is coming to terms with just letting go.
You know, you've been through a lot together
and sometimes that can be just one
of the hardest things to do.
But you know what?
There are bigger and better things on the horizon
and odds are, if you're looking to sell your car,
you already have something pretty much lined up
and probably a whole parts list ready to go.
And getting rid of the one that you have
is the only thing that is stopping you.
Probably because you don't have any other place
to put another car because your garage is filled up
and your landlord doesn't like you
taking up your reserve spot
with a broken (beep) box.
But you just tell him that it runs
and you just hope that he never notices
that it hasn't moved, what, two years?
Yeah, two years.
But it is something that does hold
us back a little bit and no, it's not
really a bad thing.
It's what people like us do, we hoard things.
Why do I still have a stock exhaust
sitting behind my wall?
I don't know, not sure.
But I may need it someday, you never know.
Making that first step is usually
one of the harder things to do,
but once you get past that, don't worry,
'cause it ain't over yet.
'Cause the next thing that you're going to get
hit with and have to worry about
is how much are you actually going to ask
for your car?
I mean, what is it worth?
Obviously you put quite a bit into it
with after-market parts, parts you had to save up for,
parts you had to wait to come off of back order
and just hope that you check the site
at the right time to get your hands on it
and while it was in stock.
Maybe you hadda get something custom made,
maybe you had to pay someone to install it,
which was another hidden cost, either way,
a lot of that stuff just starts to add up,
as we know, and that is usually a number
you never wanna do the math on.
However the unfortunate sad truth is,
you don't get out what you put in, for most things.
You can stick $5,000 into a car in after-market parts
but unfortunately that doesn't mean
the value of the car goes up $5,000,
and obviously you don't really want to just
give the parts away to the next person,
so you are met with a crossroad
and you have a couple of different choices here.
You can either, a., just part ways and cut your losses,
b., try to mark up the price to account
for all the after-market parts
and watch yourself get absolutely roasted
in the comment section of your post
or c., part it out.
Now, typically a lot of people
do tend to go with option c., and part out what they can.
Typically anything that is not a permanent modification
that can be easily taken out, replaced
with an OEM part if they still have it on hand,
and sell the after-market part used
and taking only a little bit of a cut
of something that would have normally
seen no return on investment,
and I think I just answered my own question
of why I still have my exhaust
and I think the header is sitting in a box
somewhere in the spare bedroom,
the OEM struts are over there in that box.
Trunk is in the spare bedroom as well, yeah.
It's not a bad idea to hang on to your old stuff,
if you have the room for it.
And even better, a plan for it down the road
because in situations like selling a modified car,
you can get quite a bit back of your investment
by offering more of a blank canvas
for the next person who picks up the car.
'Cause they're gonna have their own thing
that they want to do with it as well,
leaving them free to do whatever they want.
However, this is typically a time consuming process
and kind of like another frustrating process,
or it can be.
I mean, you have to uninstall everything
that you already did, swap it back over
to your OEM stuff, and I doubt that you're
gonna have all the original hardware
that came off of it.
And maybe you weren't so nice to your OEM stuff
when you were taking it out because maybe
it was like a little rusted on there
so you had to take a torch to it or a saw
or something like that.
Because you're like, I'm not gonna need this anymore.
But then here you are, needing it.
But also, now you're selling more than one item.
You're selling multiple things.
And I'm sure you know just as well as I do,
that the internet isn't always the funnest place
to go and try to sell something.
Especially car parts.
People just try to get it for as cheap as they can.
And more than likely, as well, you aren't
going to be able to part out everything
that you have done.
That wing that you drilled into your trunk?
Gonna leave some holes, you might as well just leave it.
That wide-body FRS isn't going back to the stock body
without extensive body work.
And I doubt that you're going to want to
re-swap that engine.
That's the game that we play
when we modify our cars.
Our advice, try and part out as much as possible
and revert the car back to stock
as much as possible.
This opens up to more potential buyers
as not everyone is looking for modified cars.
However, if you need to keep some things on,
usually things such as wheels and suspension,
don't deter people too much, as like,
it's nothing too crazy.
As long as it's not like a super expensive wheel
or something that's crazy level.
But the choice truly is up to you
and what you are looking to get out of your car
as far as the cash on your end.
And it really comes down to how much
you want to fight and argue your price tag.
It is possible that you'll come across
someone who is willing to pay for all the modifications.
They see the value of what you've done,
they just want something modified
because they don't wanna have to worry about it,
they just want something cool right away.
However it's more rare than anything
and if you're looking to sell a car
that is heavily modified, be prepared
to hang onto it for quite some time.
But just hang in, maybe you'll get someone
or maybe you'll just end up parting it out.
I don't know.
And probably field some pretty frustrating questions.
Our other suggestion would be to try to part out
what you can, be patient if you want to sell it as-is,
be prepared to take a little bit of a hit
on what you put into it and if by the end of it
it doesn't sell, you can at least say you tried.
But go ahead and let us know some of your horror stories
on trying to sell a car, or specifically
a modified car, down in the comments section below.
And let us know what tactics you used to help.
Don't forget, wheels, tires, suspension,
fitmentindustries.com, we have it all.
I'm Gels from Fitment Industries,
we'll see you later, peace.
(chill music)