stydie

Hey, everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I'm hoping you guys (and gals?) can help me figure out the best way to part with my beloved Claudia (my 2013 S4).

I guess I'll get straight to it... I have a 2013 6MT S4 with 12K miles in absolutely flawless condition (still smells new). I am in love with the car but I live in downtown Seattle and just don't drive her except for a trip to the islands or Portland every now and then. I'm thinking I should find a new owner who will really appreciate such a fine piece of machinery.

My question is - do I sell her privately or do a dealer trade-in?

Here's the catch - she's not stock. I had Achtuning (Seattle performance shop) do the following performance upgrades:
1) AWE intake
2) AWE full cat-back performance exhaust (resonated)
3) APR full stage-2 chip and pulley upgrade

And the following cosmetic upgrades:
1) 19" Ti wheels (silver)
2) ECS Tuning mesh (RS4-style) grille (picture follows)

I'd rather just take the car back to the dealer and trade her in but they don't like doing that with modified cars and it would cost me a mint to pull all these beautiful parts *off* the car. I know I won't get full value for the parts and I don't expect to - but I have to believe there's an Audi enthusiast out there who will appreciate such a finely-tuned B8.5. And yes, I do have the stock parts (except the exhaust, but I'm tracking one down now)

So what do you guys think? Should I try to sell her through classifieds / Auto Trader with all the modifications? Or do I pull the parts off, sell them separately and do a dealer trade-in? I am trying to minimize the amount of effort I have to put into this sale . Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter!

Thanks so much,
Chris

DrGP

What alternative car are you trading for? You will get a better price selling it privately. But If you are buying another new car, the dealer will also fiqure on making money on your trade in and that can improve your new car deal. Do they have CarMax dealers in your area? If so, make an appointment and see what they will give you to buy your car . Use this as a bargaining chip against the dealer. If dealer wont match, sell it to Car Max if you cant find a private buyer. Just remember, here in Pa, you only pay the sales tax on the difference between the trade in price and the new car price. If you sell elsewhere you will pay sales tax on the entire selling price of the car. I you are just trying to sell your car back to the dealer, I doub't they will give you much more than wholesale price Condolences. Sorry for your loss.

RedlumF

If I were in your shoes, I'd do as much as I can to get the car back to stock because that would appeal to more potential buyers. I've been fortunate to have sold my cars to good homes, and I think my cars being stock helped.

In any case, I'd go with the CarMax route, as DrGP suggested, as your fail safe.

By the way, could you post more photos of your S4 and the silver Ti wheels? Thanks.

DrGP

Many may shy away from a modded car especially with a tune. The perception is that
the car was driven hard and put away wet.

RickFLS4

Agree with others - unless you get extremely lucky and find a private party buyer that wants the mods they will lower the value of the car, not increase it. The car can't be certified with mods either so it lowers the trade in value to an Audi dealer as you noted.

Threads like this pop up every once in a while where someone wants to sell a modified car without turning it back to stock and recovering some of the mod investment by selling to the buyer looking for a modified car. Honestly, I'd probably keep it and enjoy it whenever you can. If you really want to get rid of it, I think you'll have to accept a loss of money and time and just try to minimize it by returning to stock and selling whatever parts you can.

tna3

My recommendation, if you are not in a rush to sell, post it in your local classifieds and ebay for a fair price as it is. If you can't sell it in 8 weeks, then slowly work back to stock configuration. I don't think even CarMax would want one with a modified supercharger. To them its just liability, they won't care how good quality APR is. On a side note Audi dealers love stock, low mileage Audi's with clean carfax and recorded service records. They sell CPO vehicles quicker than new ones (at least in my area).

stydie

Hm ok - I think I'm going to list it with the mods on the classifieds and as you guys mentioned, slowly unwind it back to stock. Such a shame that I have to take all the really nice parts off but I guess there's nothing I can do about it. Lesson learned for next time!

strat10

Your lucky your doing it voluntary. PoPo in Kalifornia made me do it!

stydie

Hey so I decided to strip the car down to stock, which means I have some *very* lightly used performance parts that will be hitting the market soon. I wanted to give you guys first crack at them.

I'm going to be selling the:
1) AWE full resonated exhaust (w/downpipes)
2) AWE cold air intake
3) APR Stage-2 pulley and belt

I have no idea what to charge for any of these but I reckon I would love to get $1500 for the exhaust and a hundred or so each for the intake and pulley. Does that sound reasonable?

BokiNYC

^I'm interested in your pulley and intake for the said price - but a quick question, does the intake fit B8 S4? Or if it's not a direct fit could it be made to fit it? Thanks.