Selling a car after a carputer install

bernoulli · 07-07-2005, 11:06 PM

Has anyone sold a car that had a carputer install? Has anyone sold it with the carputer? (I can imagine reactions of potential buyers who have no idea about computers

.) How much did it affect resale value?
If you took it out, were there any holes or cut panels, or did you replace them all with stock parts?

DK888 · 07-08-2005, 12:12 AM

I sure would hope it does increase the value of the car. But, unfortunately like most modifications, it usually doesn't.

alti · 07-08-2005, 01:49 AM

honestly, unless you find someone tech savy to sell it to it would only decrease the value of the car.

garenteed in a week the person will have it not working.

mugu · 07-08-2005, 01:49 AM

Most of the time, people want stock.

Dealer once was going to give us $70 less cause we had a fancy after market head unit. Good thing we had the stock deck laying around.

QnoisX · 07-08-2005, 03:14 AM

Eh, that's exactly the reason I'm installing mine into a classic car that'll be kept in a garage and not a daily driver. I'll probably just drive it on the weekends and to car shows. If I ever sell it, then it won't be to a dealer. Probably another person that really appreciates driving classic cars, but prefers modern convience.... Either way, the car computer won't be the selling point. I doubt it would be in any other car. Unless the car is a real junker and costs less than the computer system....to someone that just wants a carputer.

-zip- · 07-08-2005, 05:11 PM

Why would you want to sell it? Take it out for your next vehicle.

koolaidkitten · 07-08-2005, 05:24 PM

my computers are usually worth more than my vehicles ^_^

numbers · 07-09-2005, 09:43 PM

A buddy of mine asked his coworkers about this one day after work when he was thinking of testing a carpc install in a car he was about to sell. The car was worth about $3000 - $4000 as it was. (decent body for an '89 and a rebuilt engine with less than 2k miles) After hearing the specs, they all apparently agreed that they'd gladly pay an extra $1000 for the carpc. It was an NF7-S with 2500+. 120 gig maxtor hdd. 512 or 1 gig ram (I forget.) GPS. Wifi with custom 7db omni antenna. 7" lilliput installed oem-style. Custom dc-dc psu. He was working at a computer repair store, by the way. So these guys who would pay an extra grand were indeed techies. These guys knew full well that the parts alone would cost closer to $500, yet they agreed on a full $1000 more.

MatrixPC · 07-10-2005, 01:59 AM

You have to becarefull because the buyer can go back and bite you in the a$$ if the computer cause distraction and accident.
You have to disclose the computer in the bill of sale to cover your a$$ if it happen.
Unless the buyer is tech savy otherwise, it will decrease the value. Althought I am tech savy myself, but I don't want to pay more than the car actual value because it have carputer inside cuz I will do it myself. I probably pay a hundred or 2 but no more.

b8bboi · 07-10-2005, 09:48 AM

yeah matrixpc is right.

If your buyer is a non-technical person, he could give a **** about your carputer. He'd even prefer something simpler like a stock radio!

If your buyer is a tech savvy person, he'd want to build the system himself anyway.

In either case, the carputer will actually decrease the value of your car.

fastXR · 07-10-2005, 01:09 PM

I have to agree about it potentially reducing value. When I look for a used car I want it as untouched as possible, unless I know who did the work.

I've bought too many cars that some shadetree has hacked things up. I have to go back in and undo things they hosed.

When you talk about aftermarket HU's those are the worst. I had one car that was owned by a kid and he installed CD player by hacking the factory wiring and used scotch tape to hold everthing together. That's one reason dealers prefer factory radios.

Unless I knew who built and installed a car pc I would consider it a liability.

fromplanetbob · 07-10-2005, 01:15 PM

When I did my install, I wanted to ensure everything could be returned to stock. I would likely leave some of the wiring depending on the time I had to return everything. But I normally drive cars into the ground so resell value isn't really an issue to me.

WebDog · 07-10-2005, 01:42 PM

Im going to be selling my car next month, and i think i am going to take the computer out but im going to leave the screen so that way their is not a big whole in the dash.

Ill mark the car up since i have about $1500 in audio gear in it, if no one is interested ill take that out and auction the car where i got it from...

so it will be pretty interesting to see what happens...

stapan · 07-10-2005, 02:03 PM

theres only two situations I've seen that could increase the resale value. one is if the car is a total POS with a book value of say $750. this car with $2000 of upgrades or carputer would go up to about $1250 of value.

the other situation I've seen is if the car is IASCA or USACI world champion or at least top 20 in the world. in this situation a $15,000 car with say $50,000 in upgrades and countless thousands of hours would go up to about $25,000-$30,000 in resale value. so far no carputer system has made it that far but its definitely possible.

so the bottom line is that in terms of resale value, its a *terrible* investment. you are almost always better off just parting the upgrades out and replacing with junkyard parts before selling the car.

this was a really hard thing for me to accept because I like to upgrade a car but it can be devastating financially. I decided to just get my dream car and make it the ultimate daily driver and keep it forever. its a very rare collectible as well so that means if I want I can return it to stock in 10-20 years and sell it for a boatload of money. its very hard not to lose lots of money on a car in the long run especially with a consumable (ie not collectible) vehicle.

bernoulli · 07-16-2005, 05:30 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by fastXR

I have to agree about it potentially reducing value. When I look for a used car I want it as untouched as possible, unless I know who did the work.

I've bought too many cars that some shadetree has hacked things up. I have to go back in and undo things they hosed.

When you talk about aftermarket HU's those are the worst. I had one car that was owned by a kid and he installed CD player by hacking the factory wiring and used scotch tape to hold everthing together. That's one reason dealers prefer factory radios.

Unless I knew who built and installed a car pc I would consider it a liability.

That sounds a lot like mine....
The metal framework under the parcel shelf was unnecessarily hacked in parts to fit 4 speakers across the back instead of the usual two. The factory head unit wiring was hacked and the ends stuck with tape, and the aftermarked CD player wasn't even screwed in. He had an amplifier in the boot (taken out of car when sold), and the power and ground wires were incredibly thin for a sensible install AND the ground wire ran all the way up the front to a bolt near the head unit

. I could go on, but I won't.

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