Do our tundras hold their value even with mods?

Been a while since I've actually made a post on here. Mostly because it's also been a while that I've done anything to my tundra, until recently. Just put on a pair of alpha Rex headlights and morimoto fog lights on my tundra. I'll attach a picture or two to this post for your viewing pleasure.

The actual post:

Been curious about this for a while, as far as I know the general consensus is that the more you change or modify a vehicle after you buy it, the more value it loses.

This is assuming that dealerships or appraisal systems in general prefer vehicles to be more stock I guess.

Thoughts?

 

Most always, no, the mods do not increase value. You my be able to sell private party for a little extra if the other party really wants those mods, but dealers don't take into consideration your mods. They may sell a modded car for more money which means for money for them, but not you. Best bet is to save stock parts, swap them back when selling or trading and then sell the aftermarket parts on the forums or Facebook.

 

In my experience, it depends on the level of mods and the focus audience, so to speak.

For example, I'll be modding mine soon; all I plan on doing is like a 2" lift, TRD Pro rims with slightly bigger tires, etc. When I've done similar things in the past, long as I don't get carried away *and* I provide full history of anything done to the vehicle (from mods to regular maintenance), I've had no issue selling it. With that said, the more modding, while it may increase the worth of the vehicle, it usually vastly decreases the focus audience. E.g., most people who want a Tundra do not want an 8" lifted Tundra.

 

It's a double edged sword when working with a dealership. They will normally say that your mods don't add any value when they provide you an offer for it, but once they market the vehicle for sale they tend to highlight some mods and use that as a selling feature to a potential buyer and means more profit for them. I'd love to ask them if there is no added value then why do they ask $10K more when they add afternarket rims/tires and a cheapo leveling kit.

 

My thoughts, customized vehicles kick ass and life is too GD short to worry excessively about affecting resale value. So, yeah happiness comes at a cost, and finding balance is key. There is no one size fits all.

 

Most people want to buy stock truck. If you mod it don't count on getting anything back on investment and prepare to turn off most buyers.

 

I think all of the points above are good ones, but I'll add a couple of thoughts. And pump some reality in;

You will have a wider number of people who want to buy your clean truck if its closer to stock.

If you've put on those aftermarket off-road mods and actually use your truck extensively off road, the truck will show wear and rock/brush rashes. That will decrease value to the great majority of buyers.

If you build a truck with radical lift, cheap components, odd embellishments, huge bumpers, cut fenders, weird wheels with M/S tires, you have reduced your market to a small fraction of young buyers or off-road enthusiasts offering less money. Even if it is a mall crawler.

Most buyers want a stock truck to start. They want to mod it themselves, or don't want to mess with aftermarket stuff or off-road wear. That's why dealers want stock trucks and will pay more for them. That's the reality and one of the reasons that off-road mods are an expensive luxury, you'll likely not get your investment back.

I've gone into the mods on our 2021 4Runner with the mindset that I will return it back to nearly stock when I go to sell it, or I will sell it with the mods and will lose money on the mods. King 2.5 extended, reservoir adjustable, 285/70 K02s, SPC UCAs, and just received my C4 Fab winch bumper, WARN winch, RSG sliders. I'll keep my stock parts and I may keep this 4Runner forever, but I don't expect to recoup my investment.

I'm about to do my 2018 Tundra with a lower cost setup, Bilstein 6112 and rears, SPC UCAs, and an ICON leaf addition (just waiting two months so far for the dang Bilsteins), going 17s with approximately 34" Toyo Open Country III (for snow and highway). Keeping my stock parts, and wheels in my shop for later.

I don't expect to recoup much if any of my money unless I find someone who knows what they want and recognize good parts and a proper install by a very good off-road fabricator. Keeping the receipts, and having work done by a well recognized shop will help with resale, but having a shop do it costs money.

Don't trade it in, try to sell it yourself first, then you can explain all the goodies and why you added them. BTW; Window tinting, that TRD shift knob, aftermarket LED headlights, and a lot of the appearance mods will be written off. As will many styles of wheels, custom wiring, custom exhaust.

Keep your truck clean and tasteful looking for max value.

Finally, when I go out to buy a used suv or truck, I want totally stock, driven by an old guy in his 70s who only uses it to drive to Home Depot or his cabin once a month, and has it serviced by the dealer every 3000 miles. I don't want a lifted truck owned by a young guy who mods his own truck and likes to drive his truck like a desert racer.

Nothing against people who mod their own trucks, but some owners are not very good mechanics.

 

I have actually had the exact opposite of this. Granted all my trucks only have a simple 3" lift wheels and tires. Whenever I sell them, the buyer always says they are buying it cause they love the way it looks and they don't have to do the work themselves to lift it etc.. There is a reason why dealers do dealership lift, wheels, tires etc. its because people love the slight uniqueness to the look and it sells cause its intimidating to people to do the work themselves. I would say someone would buy a slightly modded truck before a stock one 9 out of 10 times. Now when you get into a heavily modded vehicle I think people get overly intimidated and move past it. I think its not going to bring a TON of extra profit on the sale but make your truck more attractive to a buyer to just want to buy it in general. Just my opinion on this.

 

This is true, I mean. What's really the difference between a factory modded tundra and a tundra modded by a customer who traded it in? Besides the Toyota name slapped on all the parts.
In some cases, the mod's done by a customer or way more premium than the factory ones.

 

Yeah and by the looks of this forum selling aftermarket parts is not that hard.

 

Well, those kinds of modded trucks are obviously going to be for a very select group of customers, being that the mods are left on the truck.

But what about a moderately modded truck? Maybe just a 3-in lift with a nice looking aftermarket wheel and changing up the badging?

 

I see this happen a lot, or used to when thunders were actually on the lots lol. Lol. I pass a pretty big Toyota dealership every day to and from work, and every now and then I would see a tundra with crazy decals on the side and what must have been in 8-in lift and different grill and everything. I'm sure they were asking way more than they paid for it

 

Leave some happiness for the rest of us jeez

 

One example of someone trading or selling their modded truck to the dealer
https://www.tundras.com/threads/holy-crap-which-one-of-you-let-this-go.103162/

 

I'm one of the buyers in the smaller window that would jump on a Tundra that was lifted more than 3" with lights and gear on it.

My dream truck, if I was in the market for it, would be something 10-12" on 38-40s with swapped gears and supercharged.

 

Plan to lose money on any mod. Mods are for YOU, not the next owner. The next potential owner may hate the mod, and they’ll have to consider undoing the mod themselves, so they’ll kick the tires and lowball you.

That said, life is short. I have my original exhaust hanging in the garage. In my closet, the entire non-JBL entune system I gutted, with speakers. All of the factory bulbs I replaced with LEDs.

Am I really going to reinstall all of that when I eventually trade or sell the truck? I just don’t know. Who wouldn’t want wireless CarPlay and better sound?

(hint- they are here, some are reading this post and thinking “hell, I’d just rip that out…” and that’s ok)

If you want to wildly mod the truck, just don’t worry about future resale. I’m not going through pulling the HU I installed, or the speakers and amp. I’m not ripping the heated Katzkins off the seats. The BA muffler will probably just go with the truck. But, I have no illusions that I’ll actually make any money on it.

If resale in the future is of paramount importance to you, make your mods invisible or easily reversible and don’t count on them increasing the value or marketability of the truck at all.

 

Look, man, these things tank in value fast. Even quicker if you mod it. Since I like you and I hate to see a fellow Tundra owner in distress, I'll give you $1,500 and take your truck off your hands. This is a good deal, the dealer will try to sucker you in at $750, maybe up to $800. I'm doing you a favor here!



I might be drunk replying again thinking this is funny. But in reality, especially in today's market, you'll be fine. There's less value loss in a Tundra than most any other non-Toyota vehicle out there to the best of my knowledge. Besides, you mod it because you want to and like to personalize your ride or make it work how you need it to - not for resale. You got a nice ride, enjoy it! My $0.02.

 

Ask yourself if you would want to buy a truck with all sorts of modifications to the undercarriage. Even though I mod my truck, I'd never buy a modded truck if it wasn't out of necessity.

That's why I made sure to get a TRD Pro. I originally wanted a Platinum for the vented seats, and was going to toss the Fox shocks on after, but I've had issues with having trucks lifted in the past, and understood the resale value wouldn't do so well if I started getting crazy.