Financed + Mods.
 

Hello,

Out of curiousity and "minor dilemmas" regarding this situation.

I'd like to know the amount of people who are financing their FR-S/BRZ/Whatever vehicle you own. And are doing anything from minor modifications (JDM sidemarks, sharkfin antenna, etc.) to extensive modifications (full header-back exhaust, FI, etc.).

kthxbye!

You can still finance and mod. Its technically your car when you finance, lease, no, but you can mod that too as long as its stock if you choose to return it. But nearly anything can be returned to stock unless cutting is involved... rocket bunny *cough*

I am financing and I mod

I finance through my bank, not Toyota, I have an Invidia front pipe, Greddy cat back, AEM intake, changed out the radiator hoses, and done a bunch of minor stuff, blacked out headlights, plasti-dipped badges, Cusco strut tower brace. The finance company doesn't care its Toyota when you take the car in for service that will bite you.

I'm financing and slowly going to be doing mod.

finance = you own the car = do what you want to it(if worries about voiding warranty, ask your dealer) and leasing = renting = you can mod with limits and will need to return to stock upon return/end of lease

I am financing. Just got the car two weeks ago. Have clear corners coming, wheels, coilovers, exhaust. Just the basics. No forced induction or anything for a while though.

Financing and modifing my car as well..... reallyyy slowlyyyy

Finance and mod, I own the car and the debt :P

I own my FR-S; minor modifications only.


humfrz

I own my FRS... doing minor mods only as well.

Financing and my car..... Is not stock yeah

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I think I'm the only FRS owner who is keeping their car stock. :D

I think the op is trying to get at why are you spending money on a car you do not own. Yes if you finance the bank owns your car until you pay off the loan.

I finance and since i cant run summer tires in winter i bought wheels and tires. Im also taking it to the track this year. Becausevi financd i wss also able to contribute money to long term investment. Sure it may be safer to buy cash but you know that popular phrase, yolo. Just be careful with your debts. If i lost my job today i have enouh to pay off my car.

Financed + minor mods.

Allow me to infect you with an entry level mod ..... CAUTION ..... the "hard mods" may follow ....


http://subaruonlineparts.com/subaru-...er-p-1337.html


humfrz

Financing + mods (full exhaust and cosmetic)

I laugh when people say if you finance it, then you own it. LOL. Miss a payment and see who owns that thing.

This

That is true. While under Banks regulations, you are not allowed to mod or make any changes to your car, you have to strictly keep it as Manufacturer suggested.

For Example, if somebody finance a 500k Lambo while being a CEO. Next year he filed Bankruptcy, but before that he pulled the engine in the Lambo and modified it with a 4g63 (Aka the Eclipse 4 banger) and sell that engine for some cash. Is it legal ? NO....

You can only mod it when the title is in your hand, but most of the time the bank doesn't care, because if you messed up your car payments and have it repossessed, you got a Huge hit in credit history that would ruin your life for another 5 years....LOL.

Most of the time people Mod it, and 90% of times people finance it, because non of them do Crack for Cash

You do own it, but the property is treated as collateral. And because of this, the lienholder has the ability to collect your property if the debtor doesn't meet the obligations set in the loan contract.

If you lost your job, that money that you have liquid will likely help you live normalish until you find a new job. If you paid off your car and had no nest egg, and then lost your job, you might be selling your car to cover your rent or mortgage until you find a new job.

That does open the can of worms about buying a new car when you are living that close what you can "afford", though. No shame in it, though. We've all taken small risks like that in the past. I got my job as an engineer right after finishing under grad. My parents said I had to give my car back since I didn't go to grad school like they wanted (1st world problems, eh?). So, I had a good job, needed some wheels. I ordered a MKV GTI as my first new car... took delivery in Feb. In Mar, my fiance and I found the perfect house. In June we were getting married. So, all of a sudden, I have about $15k saved up, a $470/mo 4 yr loan on a new car, an upcoming wedding, and a house we wanted to buy. We risked it an bought the house with practically nothing down (housing bubble!). Kept our wedding costs in check, and kept our nestegg. A year later, the GTI was paid off, the wedding was easily covered by what we saved, and we were doing fine on the house. By living below our means since then, and buying a right sized house, my spreadsheets show that I'll have the house paid off in under 2 years (almost 20 years quicker than the original mortgage we took out), we have 2 paid off cars, and we didn't have to buy a bigger house when we had our daughter. Basically, I spent a lot of time calculating and understanding expenses and our job security before jumping into that new car, new house, wedding all within 6 months with very little cash on hand. Had I decided to pay the GTI in cash, there is no way I could have bought the house and I would have had no emergency fund. It was definitely a risk to do all of that at once and I did pay more interest than I would have if I just did cash. But, it was a reasonable risk.

In retrospect, I should have just bought my '01 2.5RS from my parents when they said they wanted the car back. That GTI was a disaster and I miss the plucky little GC6.

When I finally do get my FR-S, it will be wheels/tires only and maybe something like a Cusco steering wheel. Being my daily, I will need a set of tires for winter and then a set for the rest of the year. No justification for the steering wheel, but no care.

To some degree this is what was intended, but in terms of owning a financed vehicle, I think the quoted below is on point. Because if the above statement falls into everything you finance ie: a home. Then why spend money refurnishing a house you don't own?

Anyways, I primarily wanted to know how many individuals are digging the whole of the dept bigger (if that analogy makes any sense) and if it's truly worth it.

Also I meant finance not lease, though technically the same. Just that leasing is more along the lines of "renting". As financing it, you have the option to pay it off, if and when possible (as long as its within the loan terms).

I finance the car and mod slightly, so far only TRD components so no biggie. I intend to keep the car, but I chose to finance since the interest rate was so low. Why pay it all up front...

Financed + mods here. I also have $$$ just incase things go down.

RCE tarmac 2, whiteline bushings, kn filter , motul 300 gear oil change (not really a mod but not really necessary at 10k. )
P&l header, tsw nurbs coming soon with Michelin pss....

And plenty of other crap planned.

Seriously...well I guess it is like missing a credit card payment, it will affect your credit score.

Is it better to just pay cash if possible
:iono:

I financed and plan on paying off at 13 months in. I have modded the crap out of mine. Full exhaust plus uel header, intake, tune, wheels and tires, tint, STI body kit etc. Turbo, supercharger or V8 conversion using the Whippled 5.3 LS in my shop is next.

Financed and modded, the loan interest is lower than the returns the money currently averages. Let alone the benefit in keeping the money liquid and usable if necessary.

I can understand modding if you are financing, what I don't get is why so many people mod when they still have an existing warranty. I see so many people on here with mechanical issues only to be turned down by the dealer since they have aftermarket parts. Plus, I feel like a new car should be enjoyed for a while before adding a bunch of parts to it. It seems like around here, people start throwing on mods the day after buying the car.

Different stroke for different folks I guess.

I'm doing the same but it's getting tougher to do so. ( tempted to install $400 exhaust from Amazon)

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Financed and rocket bunny drift car :D

If it gets to the point where they are going to repo the car you probably have bigger issues than just worry about the bank getting upset that the car has been modified Just sayin!


:cheers:

You can't really compare ownership of an automobile (personal property) with ownership of a house (real property). The law underlying title to personal property and real property are different and in some cases are contradictory. In the US, it also varies by state. Just stick to personal property.

When you buy a car, you do own it, whether you finance it or not. When you finance it, you pledge the car as collateral under a security agreement, and the bank records a lien against it with your state government (usually the Secretary of State's office). What that means is that although you own the vehicle, the bank has the right to seize your property and sell it on your behalf to satisfy the loan if you default.

If you read your loan documents, you will likely notice that the loan agreement not only says that you own the vehicle but also requires you to promise the lender that you own it. Mine says this:

3. OWNERSHIP OF THE PROPERTY - You promise that you own the Property or, if this Loan is to buy the Property, you promise you will use the Loan proceeds for that purpose. You promise that no one else has any interest in or claim against the Property that you have not already told us about.

Since you own it, you can certainly modify it UNLESS your financing contract says you that you agree not to do so. Mine says this:

5. USE OF PROPERTY - Until the Loan has been paid off, you promise you will: (1) Use the Property carefully and keep it in good repair. (2) Obtain our written permission before making major changes to the Property or changing the address where the Property is kept.

Unfortunately they don't specify what constitutes "major changes," but I think common sense would prevail. If it's something that could be undone fairly easily, like swapping out the header or exhaust, I wouldn't expect it to be considered a major change. Trying to turn this car into a convertible would. You could always ask the loan officer who sold you the loan if you weren't sure. If you're a good customer with good credit who always pays on time, those guys want you to be happy so that you'll come back and borrow more money later.

And even if you don't ask and just do it anyway, how would they find out about it, and what could they do about it if they did? As long as you make your payments, it won't matter. If you default, they'll repossess it and try to sell it to pay off your loan. They may not even bother trying to get any extra money for the value of the mods, so you might lose the value you put into them. On the other hand, if you do something stupid to your car (like a botched conversion to a convertible) that hurts the value so that they can't get enough for it to satisfy your loan, you would probably end up paying the difference.

The only thing that worries me about mods is insurance claims. I've been ****ed around by adjusters in the past, and I wouldn't put it past one of them to try to deny the value of the mods if my car were totaled. I would hate to put $20K in mods into a car like this, have some idiot run a red light and have the adjuster total it and offer me just the book value of the stock car. That's the point at which I would call a certain vicious lawyer I know, but I'm not confident even he could help. I would probably just end up buying the car back from the insurance company for salvage value and part it out. It would still be a pain in the ass, though.

On the other hand, if your mods were to severely damage the value of the vehicle in a way that insurance wouldn't pay out, like causing the engine to explode, you might find yourself without a car but still with a payment on whatever's left on your loan.

That's not true. That piece of paper called a title is not the same thing as ownership of the vehicle, and in some states you get the paper title even though the car isn't paid off. When you buy the car, title (the legal concept of ownership) passes to you. Whether you get a piece of paper saying you own it depends on where you are.

In some US states, you get the paper title, but it has the name of the lienholder clearly printed on it so that anybody you tried to sell it to would know there was a lien, and that the lienholder could potentially come take it from them if you didn't pay off the loan. Once you pay off the loan, you go to the DMV to get a new paper title with the lien cleared.

In some states, the lender gets and holds the paper title and releases it to you when you have satisfied the loan.

In most states the government doesn't trust you or the lender, so the government keeps the paper title until either you pay off the loan or the lender repossesses the car and sells it to someone else.

In all these cases, however, you still possess legal title to the vehicle. That piece of paper is only evidence of ownership, not the ownership interest itself. As I quoted above from my own loan documents, most loans actually even spell it out that you own the property.

And if you own the property, you can modify it unless your loan agreement says you have agreed not to do so.

I think the home is a great comparison.

We pretty much work to pay off things like our vehicles which get us to our jobs which earn us an income which will eventually be enough for a home. Just because it's being financed doesn't mean you don't customize things for enjoyment.

Live a little!

I don't get why this would even be an issue? You can finance a car and drive it off a cliff the next day if you feel like it.

The bank does't care about your car, they just want your money. They will get your money regardless of what you do to the car.

So does this mean I have to wait out the 5 year warranty before adding my Greddy exhaust...

:cry:

I owe about 15K on my BRZ, I put about 9K down on it 2 months ago and already am on coils, wheels and have exhaust.

I'm 22 and I live on my own, parents moved out to Atlantic City for a job and I stayed put since I work in steel mill and the money is too good too pass up for being my age. So if I lose my job I lose my house and my credit history is destroyed. If i can keep my job I can easily cover cost of living alone and owning the BRZ. Therefore my foreman's butt cheek always has some residual lipstick from me kissing it.:bonk:

Absolutely not. As long as your mods don't "cause" any failures related to a warranty claim, you're good

This is great news, thanks!
:thumbsup:

A disclaimer: I don't have any actual references to support that statement, I'm just regurgitating what I commonly hear and have deduced from logical reasoning and past experiences ;)