MODS: How do mods usually effect resale value?

[needajeep]

I understand that for the majority of mods you won't see that money returned when selling/trading in. So far I haven't done anything aside from a phone mount on my JL so I'm really curious if mods sometimes/usually hurt the resale. For example, if I put a lift with 37's, upgraded wheels, steering, etc. would that hurt the value? I don't imagine a soccer Mom who thinks Wranglers are cool would want that.

Before you blast me please understand my specific situation .. actually I"m pretty sure I'll be blasted for this anyway . I bought a JLUD Rubi after spending over a year of the pandemic watching way too many YouTube videos (damn you TrailRecon and TFLOffroad .. the hate comes from how great they make Jeeps/offroading/Overlanding look). TBT I had rented Wranglers in Moab a few times and loved them or so I thought. I really did think that a few long weekends was enough to inform me that I would love a Wrangler. I was wrong, especially considering that I had 4 very sporty cars in a row prior. I do see how having a Wrangler as a second or third car as a toy would be fantastic. If I'd gone into the purchase with that in mind I wouldn't have gotten the Rubi.

So back to my ill-advised purchase. I bought the Wrangler for all the wrong reasons such as cool factor and dreams of offroad adventures only to find out that I should've paid more attention to how everybody said it was not the best on-road driver with questionable build quality etc. and so on. So far I find that is it built very well for what it is. I wouldn't compare it to a Lexus, but it's been great so far. However, now I find myself with a very expensive vehicle that I don't like to drive unless I'm off-road which is also my daily driver. Can't sell it without losing a lot of money (if you factor in that I haven't owned it for a year yet, sales tax paid, the diminished value from a front-end collision on the carfax, and crazy high prices and interest rates right now on almost every car). So I'm prepared to double down on the stupid and upgrade it while I got it. I know that if I hate how it drives now I may hate it more with a lift.

Aside from your thoughts on if MODs hurt or help value, does anyone have suggestions on a lift/suspension upgrade that will firm up the ride and make it handle a bit better on the highway?

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[Spank]

You might be able to get away with mods having value in a private sale, but to a dealership, they have no value at all.

 

[Reinen]

Mods only have potential value in a private sale. Dealers, Carvana, Vroom, etc, all DGAF about your mods. They'll pretend they don't exist. That's not to say you will never get any return on mods, just that it will only happen in a private sale.

For that matter, it's the same with insurance companies. You need to specifically add-on the value of aftermarket mods to your policy, and pay extra for it.

 

[Jim1964]

Stop digging and don’t make the hole bigger.

Mods will not turn a Wrangler into a better highway vehicle. For that scenario it’s just lipstick on a pig.

Mods will turn off more potential buyers than they turn on. Even those of us that like mods won’t want YOUR choices, doing it the way WE want it is the whole point.

It’s pretty hard to get underwater on one of these the way the market is now. Look for an exit and get something that you like.

 

[Some Random Guy]

Can you wrench? If you want to increase offroad performance without wasting money relative to sale value, a small spacer lift and some bigger tires is probably good. Easy to install, easy to take out. Keep the old tires to swap back.
You can probably do the same with some of the entry level lift kits from Metalcloak or ClaytonOffroad.

 

[garykk]

I think the carfax will hurt more than the mods. Hopefully the damage was not your fault and you received compensation for diminished value.

 

[AcesandEights]

Here's how I look at it, mods are for me, not for resale, ever.

I've sold a modified Wrangler and the mods were all well thought out, but thought out for my circumstance. I also worked in an auto related industry and saw the effect of mods.

If the mod isn't exactly what the next person wants then it has NO value. As an example, how many people on this forum would buy a Rancho lift? When looking at a particular sized lift, we can all agree there is a market for a 2.5" lift, or 3.5" or whatever, but who wants the Ranch parts, specifically, over another brand that it adds value (sales value)? If you advertised your Jeep with a lift (whatever number, 2", 2.5", 4") I wouldn't really care, unless it was the lift I wanted at the height I wanted. Worse with tires. Where I wheel, I know what works. So, if you put some 37" tires that I wouldn't buy, well, that's your wasted $2k, because I'd run them as far as the tire shop.

ANY mod you do has the potential to turn a buyer away, more so than bring one in. As a matter of fact, what I found was most people that really know anything at all about mods have what they want in their mind, and they don't care at all about your bullshit ideas. Who would spec a Jeep exactly like you? Find that one person and you're good to go. Everyone else will find what they want, or will try to negotiate the price down because they're going to have to swap your parts out for the parts that work (for them).

When I sold my Wrangler, no one cared that it had limited slips front and rear or a 4" lift or bigger tires. They cared whether it would get them to their cabin in the snow. Well, yeah, but I built it for rocks and deep mud holes. All of my mods were great, but a stock Wrangler with good tires would have gotten 95% of potential buyers where they wanted to go.

I'm not knocking Rancho by the way, just using them as an example. If someone says they are selling a Rancho lift, do people start clamoring for it any more than they would Teraflex, MetalCloak, etc., etc. If your buyer wouldn't, then you've narrowed your pool of buyers.

 

[Chile1]

It depends on the brand of mods you have on your jeep. For instance if you add a Mopar lift, Mopar wheels or any Mopar mod, more times than not, your jeep dealer will factor in these in the resell value - ask me how i know. However if do a frankenbuild with a hodgepodge of aftermarket parts, they probably won’t.

 

[Heimkehr]

I understand that for the majority of mods you won't see that money returned when selling/trading in. So far I haven't done anything aside from a phone mount on my JL so I'm really curious if mods sometimes/usually hurt the resale. For example, if I put a lift with 37's, upgraded wheels, steering, etc. would that hurt the value?

It will depend on the customer, in my experience. What one fellow likes (in terms of upgrades) might not be another man's cup of tea.

Jeeps that appear as stock and as clean as possible go a long way in suggesting that they weren't used hard off-road, if at all. This can provide all-important peace of mind for the buyer. I'd wager that even someone who plans to substantially modify the Wrangler that he's purchasing from you would prefer a vehicle in good repair from which to begin said mods.

You're correct that accessories left in place when selling a vehicle might return .10 on the dollar, if that. What I've done when preparing a vehicle for sale is to remove as many hard parts as I'm able, after which they're cleaned and photographed for sale on eBay or elsewhere. I'm usually able to recover ~.50 on the dollar, which is a good return for my effort.

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I've recently been window shopping for a clean, reasonably unmodified YJ or TJ. The former are functionally unavailable; the latter, a bit less rare but also that much more pricey because the sellers know what they have.

 

[blnewt]

I'd be much more prone to buy a used vehicle that's closest to stock unless I knew the owner and the Jeep's history.

 

[Shibadog]

Stop digging and don’t make the hole bigger.

Mods will not turn a Wrangler into a better highway vehicle. For that scenario it’s just lipstick on a pig.

Mods will turn off more potential buyers than they turn on. Even those of us that like mods won’t want YOUR choices, doing it the way WE want it is the whole point.

It’s pretty hard to get underwater on one of these the way the market is now. Look for an exit and get something that you like.

This, you are not going to improve road manners by modding your Jeep. If you hate it for on road you need to trade it in for something you like. You need to be pretty sure you like a rig before you plunk down $$$$. Adding more $$ will just make you lose more $$ when you finally do trade it. Jeeps have pretty darn good resale, so you should be able to do “ok”. Jeeps are NOT for everyone. People either love ‘em or hate ‘em- not a lot of middle ground. As for the “soccer mom”thing,lots of lifted big tired Jeeps are sold to them (at least around here) and most of them wind up traded in before too long ‘cause they don’t like the ride, etc,

 

[needajeep]

Here's how I look at it, mods are for me, not for resale, ever.

I've sold a modified Wrangler and the mods were all well thought out, but thought out for my circumstance. I also worked in an auto related industry and saw the effect of mods.

If the mod isn't exactly what the next person wants then it has NO value. As an example, how many people on this forum would buy a Rancho lift? When looking at a particular sized lift, we can all agree there is a market for a 2.5" lift, or 3.5" or whatever, but who wants the Ranch parts, specifically, over another brand that it adds value (sales value)? If you advertised your Jeep with a lift (whatever number, 2", 2.5", 4") I wouldn't really care, unless it was the lift I wanted at the height I wanted. Worse with tires. Where I wheel, I know what works. So, if you put some 37" tires that I wouldn't buy, well, that's your wasted $2k, because I'd run them as far as the tire shop.

ANY mod you do has the potential to turn a buyer away, more so than bring one in. As a matter of fact, what I found was most people that really know anything at all about mods have what they want in their mind, and they don't care at all about your bullshit ideas. Who would spec a Jeep exactly like you? Find that one person and you're good to go. Everyone else will find what they want, or will try to negotiate the price down because they're going to have to swap your parts out for the parts that work (for them).

When I sold my Wrangler, no one cared that it had limited slips front and rear or a 4" lift or bigger tires. They cared whether it would get them to their cabin in the snow. Well, yeah, but I built it for rocks and deep mud holes. All of my mods were great, but a stock Wrangler with good tires would have gotten 95% of potential buyers where they wanted to go.

I'm not knocking Rancho by the way, just using them as an example. If someone says they are selling a Rancho lift, do people start clamoring for it any more than they would Teraflex, MetalCloak, etc., etc. If your buyer wouldn't, then you've narrowed your pool of buyers.

Thanks for the thoughtful replay. Makes 100% sense.

 

[needajeep]

This, you are not going to improve road manners by modding your Jeep. If you hate it for o road you need to trade it in for something you like. You need to be pretty sure you like a rig before you plunk down $$$$. Adding more $$ will just make you lose more $$ when you finally do trade it. Jeeps have pretty darn good resale, so you should be able to do “ok”. Jeeps are NOT for everyone. People either love ‘em or hate ‘em- not a lot of middle ground. As for the “soccer mom”thing,lots of lifted big tired Jeeps are sold to them (at least around here) and most of them wind up traded in before too long ‘cause they don’t like the ride, etc,

Must be a lot of good deals on lightly used mall crawlers by you then. Nice.

 

[Industrialwrench]

If done tastefully and with a high quality, mods can increase the value of your vehicle. I’d say save the money and buy a street bike. For the cost of suspension and tires you could dust a Lamborghini.

 

[offcamber]

Like others have said. Dealers don't care about mods. They won't give you anything for them if you trade the Jeep in. Depending on what mods you have, some might sell the jeep and try to get more for it because of the mods. Most however, if the Jeep is lifted or more heavily modifed, a lot of them will just send the Jeep to auction. When I traded my JK for my JL, my dealer told me that I could take anything off my trade-in I wanted prior to bringing it in. I took it to my buddies offroad shop and told folks in my club that I would take offers on anything on my Jeep but if it was something necessary, like shocks, bumper, etc, they had to provide replacement parts to replace whatever they were taking. I took my JK in with someone's old shocks on it, their old factory driveshafts, stock bumpers, etc... dealer didnt care.

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