Would you buy a tuned car?

[fast306stang]

Local dealer has a 2019 PP2 with resonator delete and long tube headers, so I'd assume it's tuned as well. Short throw shifter installed. Back tires are brand new and mismatched from the fronts so I'm assuming the car was ran hard...like all Mustangs are. I'm pretty sure the upper intake is aluminum...the engine cover was off. I don't think it was that silver plastic.

Not seriously interested in the car but it has me thinking. Not knowing who tuned it or how long the parts have been on the car, etc makes me leary...but then again, it's a bunch of money that I wouldn't have to spend to upgrade the car.

Thoughts? Car has 33k miles. 4 owners, the first one put 2100 miles on it and the last one bought the car in Jan of this year and already traded it.

Pre-Owned 2019 Ford Mustang GT 2 Door Coupe in Warner Robins #TK5138011 | Five Star Ford Warner Robins (fivestarfordga.com)

Sponsored

 

[Qcman17]

Not me too many horror stories on this forum of cars bought used with tunes and even worse hack job hardware changes.

 

[MrMike]

Four owners? wow.

To answer the question, only if it was a FP Power Pack.

 

[fast306stang]

Not me too many horror stories on this forum of cars bought used with tunes and even worse hack job hardware changes.

That's what I'm thinking. My Mach was tuned, I didn't know it. Knowing what I know now, I'm not sure if I would or wouldn't do it again. At least with the PP2, I'd know it going in. I learned a lot this last go-around and realize I was a bit naive.

 

[wingnutt]

Abso-frickin-lutely!

Matter of fact, most of the cars I have owned were pre-tuned, and I put well over 100k on each one of them…

my Gen1 Lightning had a switch chip in it
my 7.3 diesel came with six tunes
my Talon TSi came with EVO injectors and an AFC
my VR4 had none for about 24 hours
the C5 vette had a cold air and that was it

…and my current 350R came with 4 Lund tunes, about to turn 60k

I guess it boils down to the time, tools, risk and want to deal with it, if something ugly rears it’s head

 

[robvas]

Edit: Those pictures of the car don't show the paint in great shape. That's the first thing I'd look at. It's dirty in the decklid shot, it's weird how the light reflects off the fenders, plus the shots are so saturated you can't see the red very well.

I'd have it inspected. How do the fluids look. How's the compression. Does the car look like it was taken care of. Is there 3 sets of tires worth of rubber inside the fenders? Does it have cracked rusty rotors with almost no brake pads? Get a datalog for a WOT pull and a regular drive.

Not really worried about it being tuned if there's paperwork and the tuner included. Especially if it was a reputable shop and not some backwoods or rando FB tuner. Almost all of us have cars that are tuned.

Previous owner probably only drove it 1200 miles because they couldn't stand the headers + no resonator setup. I know plenty of people who wanted 'a Mustang', bought one that was a little too modified (or the wrong mods), and didn't enjoy the car like they thought they would. Didn't drive it much and sold it within a year. Usually when you buy your 3rd or 4th one, you know what you don't want, and you finally get what you do want.

 

[sk47]

Hello; I have a question about tunes. So far i have avoided cars with advertised or known tunes. A different thread recently by a member points out a problem. He bought a used Mustang not knowing it had a tune. He reports problems. My question is how do you check for an aftermarket tune?

 

[Cwood8656]

No way.

 

[Angrey]

Only if it were basically a donor car (that I knew I was going to scrap most of the OEM stuff and upgrade anyway) or at a decent discount.

Tuned car = rode hard and put away wet.

You want to buy the car with one owner and it was a gift for his middle aged wife that she never drove so he's just trying to get rid of it with less than 10k miles on it. That's the car you want.

 

[SBR70.3]

I'd be more worried about the 4 owners in 33k miles. That car likely has issues that nobody wants to fix.


I'd venture to say 90% of the people on this forum have modified their car. The mods are not the issue. I run mismatched tires too, doesn't mean my car is not meticulously cared for. I'd look at ALL of the fluids, belts, get the car on a lift and look at bushings, look for cracks, leaks, etc. Proper maintenance is a lot more important than mods.

 

[robvas]

I'd be more worried about the 4 owners in 33k miles. That car likely has issues that nobody wants to fix.

It could also be a bunch of little things you could fix yourself if you know how to turn a wrench and have experience with these cars.

A while back I bought a car sight unseen, it had a bunch of little issues that were easy to fix.

leaking rear diff
front brakes were shot
driveline vibration from mis-adjusted pinion angle
radiator hose rubbing on a pulley
broken engine mount
idled like shit because a large vacuum hose wasn't connected

You want to identify and estimate the repair costs before you buy something like that, though.

 

[sms2022]

I’d buy that car for that price in a heartbeat as long as I could take it on a lengthy test drive and get a quick datalog. And of course if the tuning device came with it or it was on stock tune.

 

[Balr14]

I've bought cars that had mods and tunes. They are a pain in the ass when you want to have service done or make a change. Especially tunes... don't know what's in current tune, don't have hardware or software used. Even if you know the brand of everything used, it may not be brands your local shop will work on. The last tuned car I had cost me $1200 to get tuning hardware and software and $800 for a better tune.

 

[fast306stang]

Edit: Those pictures of the car don't show the paint in great shape. That's the first thing I'd look at. It's dirty in the decklid shot, it's weird how the light reflects off the fenders, plus the shots are so saturated you can't see the red very well.

I'd have it inspected. How do the fluids look. How's the compression. Does the car look like it was taken care of. Is there 3 sets of tires worth of rubber inside the fenders? Does it have cracked rusty rotors with almost no brake pads? Get a datalog for a WOT pull and a regular drive.

Not really worried about it being tuned if there's paperwork and the tuner included. Especially if it was a reputable shop and not some backwoods or rando FB tuner. Almost all of us have cars that are tuned.

Previous owner probably only drove it 1200 miles because they couldn't stand the headers + no resonator setup. I know plenty of people who wanted 'a Mustang', bought one that was a little too modified (or the wrong mods), and didn't enjoy the car like they thought they would. Didn't drive it much and sold it within a year. Usually when you buy your 3rd or 4th one, you know what you don't want, and you finally get what you do want.

The car actually shows very well in person, there's a little nick on the driver's door and a small scrape on the left side of the license plate on the body line of the bumper cover. It doesn't show in the pics so I think someone at the dealership must have done it. It has the 2 typical chips where the original rear spoiler was.

You make a lot of good points!

 

[K4fxd]

Does it have cats?

If not I'd point out it is not legal to sell without and see if they would drop 5 or 6 K off the price. If so I'd buy it if it passed my inspection and road test.

Sponsored