[ej257]

i am in week 3 of a 39 month lease. At this point i cannot honestly say whether or not i want to buy out the car. i dont know what my finanial status will be like in 3 years, and i dont know what cars will be available at that time. to add on to my decision i get bored of things, fast. i dont want to put a ton of money into a car im going to get rid of in a few years. but at the same time i want to enjoy what i have now. i hate putting things off, like if i didnt mod i might regret it. the longer i wait to decide the less time i have to enjoy the car.

is it worth it to mod a leased car? would you? how far would you go?

if i did anything it would be: chip, exhaust, painted lowers, coilovers...

what does everyone think???

i wish i had an endless supply of money to blow on this car....the mod bug has bitten, do i give in and let the sickness devour me, or do i do the rational, logical thing??

thanks all...

G0D

go for it d00d. or u could always buy another ECU and sell it after your lease is up

Andrew A4

...at least make some of my money back that i had invested into it. Thats what i did to my Tacoma before it. Bought it for $19,600, put exhaust, wheels, bigger tires, system, 55k miles, and sold it three years later for $16,000. =) If i wanted to buy it out, the residual was $10,300. So by selling it on my own, i got back $5,700. And if i had given it back...i wouldnt of had a penny of that chunk of cash!

KROK DUNDEE

What's so good aboout these sunglass holders that makes you lot brag about them, do you have a photo?

figcar

Have you asked yourself what you want to accomplish by modifying your car? Are you just bored...that doesn't sound like a very good reason to spend a lot of money on your car...that sounds like you should consider modifying yourself. Do you want to go real fast? If so, where? On the street? Your car is more than fast enough the way it is to kill some innocent bystander. On the track? Now you're making sense...but before you start spending a lot of money, find out how fast your car (and you) already are. Most really good drivers don't start modifying their cars until they can't drive the car they have any faster. Maybe you should check out a high performance drivers school. Have you ever driven a car with race or near race suspension on the street...day after day? It gets real boring real fast...and it wears out lots of other parts real quickly...so you'll be spending more money than you originally calculated. Chipping your car is a great way to shorten the engine's life...and the transmission, and the brakes...horsepower is heat and heat wears out engines. Simple fact. It also wears out lots of other things near the engine, plastic, rubber, etc. Then consider this. When you lease a car, you do not own it, you are renting it from the actual owner, the financial company leasing you the car. Modifying your car violates your contract (as in, you made an agreement...a matter of your word) and you could be held liable for legal damages to the car at any time they discover you violated the lease agreement by making those modifications. How would you feel if you loaned somebody your car, and when it came back, it had been screwed with?
The good news is, you've got a wonderful, quick, great looking car just the way it is. It is also very very well engineered by people who stand behind the car in a way none of the mod builders will. If something blows up or fails or wears out another part, the mod builder will turn their back on you...Audi, in the meantime is giving you a four year 50000 mile guarantee on their work, and they are also paying for all the maintainence. So think about it...and
enjoy your great new car.
John
2001 A4 1.8 fronttrak w/ tiptronic, sport package, celebration package.
Previous cars include: Ferrari 308, Porsche RS America, Porsche 993, Maserati Biturbo E coupe, Alfa 164, Milano, Spider, Alfetta, GTV, Giulietta Veloce (race car), Giulia Sprint GT (race car), '98 A4 1.8Q w/ 5 speed, plus some American V8s.

G0D

i just did it to make my car just that much different. i never use the "og god!" bar on the driver's side. i had pictures, but i cleaned my HD and they are gone now. i'll take some eventually and email you them if you want, or you can do a search for 'sunglass holder beetle'

G0D

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Just Gizmo

When I leased mine, I asked about modifications and their response was:

"If you bring it back better than when we gave it to you, then we have no problem"

Problem is, what's their perception of better? Now that I think about it, they were telling me to "chip" it if I ever wanted more power.

It really depends on the dealership. (This was at Clair)

My advise would be, wait until you're sure you want to buy out the car, then mod. Otherwise you'll have to sell off your used parts when you give the car back. Big hassle IMHO.

99.5 2.8QTipS

HDClown

There are mods that are easily reversable:

1) debadge, to reverse, just buy double sided tape and stick your old badges on, or buy new badges with tape for about $25 total from Clairparts

2) chip, reversable by getting a 2nd ECU, but this costs you $400 (chip) + $600 ECU.

3) Sunglass holder, to reverse, put your oh **** handle back on

4) different grill, these are just snap in items, easy to revers

5) cat back exhaust, save the old exhaust, put it back on

6) new rims/tires, i think you can figure out how to reverse that

7) tint, dealer won't give a damn if you tint it anyway, as long as it's not peeling and a hack job, and tint peels off.

MANY things are reversable, they just cost cash to reverse.

Look at it this way, 39 month is a long time to be in a car. Some things are worth doing (like a few of the above), and some probably aren't (like throwing in a K04 turbo package), unless you know for sure you want to keep the car.... And, you'll probably be able to sell it privately fairly easily, especially with mods on it. (I personally think there will be a good # of people looking for 2001/2001.5 A4's), and lastly, if you decide you want another Audi in 3 years, or even earlier, the dealer will overlook certain things to keep you in an Audi for more years. They want your cash afterall.

KROK DUNDEE

looks like a great mod and USEFULL too, Thanks