Thread: Selling a car with a remap

I went though this just before Easter. I did not mention it, but handed over the (Bluefin) handset along with a box of spares (brake pads, oil filter & left over oil) after I had shown the buyer over the car just before he drove away. I did not mention it during negotiations or inspections. And I had decided to play it by ear on weather I tell them or not.

My thoughts are, generally people don’t look favourably on a modified car. I know I don’t (even thou I modify them myself), it could have been flogged. I only had two people come and look at my car, both presented good offers, the first would have taken it but he took 24hrs to get back with an offer, by this time it was gone. Both commented on how nicely it drove, felt much better than others ect ect.

I probably would not have handed the handset to the first guy. The guy that took it seemed quite clued on and I just felt he would understand – and I was right. He was also asking questions about DIY servicing. The first guy was not mechanically minded and this is the type that is more likely to be dead against a modified car – because they don’t understand and there opinions are based on old cars moded by their mates years past.

Personally I don’t look at retuned cars because it is more likely to be stressed than a standard one, also I would rather retune myself, I then know exactly what has been done. On the other hand the type of owner that gets a remap is the type that may be doing more than the basic scheduled maintenance. IMO remap won't attract a premium.

I would take it off.
Same as above I would tend to stay away from performance mods like that when buying a car.
Get a understanding of the person buying it, either give it to them as an extra or sell it by its self.

Depends,if it was an LR with an Alive or BAS tune I'd look at it as a plus,if it was a generic chip that just poured more fuel in I'd walk away. Pat

I would lean towards taking it off and offering it later as a sweetener if the buyer indicated they would want something like that.

When selling mine, not one person (3 lookers & several callers, all claiming to know all about the D2) had any idea what the chip/intercooler upgrade was or how it worked. So it all came off and sold the car for the same amount as I was asking with it all on. IC kept for another project and everything else went to new homes. To me it was a terrible waste as the gear was virtually new. Buyer ignorance inhibited the sale.

I realised then that despite the D2 being quite common and the wide discussions on AULRO/ internet, the average punter has no idea beyond some agressive tyres and a cool set of spotties and does little if any research before buying, they wont pay for stuff they cant see or understand (especially maintenance) I suppose thats why the persistent sad tales show up about the dud someone just bought, but looked great.

Not meaning to get off topic just thought id share my experience to make sense of why I would go this way.