When Good Isn't Good Enough - Pros and Cons of Tuning

By Paul Stabin

Paul Stabin

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1,379 views Nov 15, 2009

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You wake up and it looks to be a great day, the sun is shining and you are looking forward to taking your wheels out for a spin. Then your smile fades as you remember that it leans too much in the corners, dives when you brake, stops a hair longer than youd like, and to top it all off, it just doesn't feel as fast as when you first drove it.

Plus, it looks like every other one that rolled off the line.

What to do? You could take a hit and sell or trade it. But you like it, just not enough. And then it hits you why not make it better? Isn't there a whole industry based around that idea?

The smile returns. Now, the only question now is what to do first. There is that pesky money thing, which is why your car is a compromised object in the first place. Not bad mind you, just not all it could be.

Lets see now, what about that warranty? That might be a good thing not to void.

Certainly some things will be okay and some things wont. New Recaro seats or a custom paint job seems safe. So do more aggressive tires, lighter wheels, and a thicker sway bar.

But some things seem risky. Certainly messing with the engine programming or chipping it could be a deal breaker. Probably a better exhaust or coil-over springs may slip by, but dropping a turbocharger in or replacing key engine parts could be dicey even if they vastly improve the car.

Plus there is that bang for the buck thing. So lets prioritize.

Part of deciding what to do first is to look at the strengths and weaknesses of your car, as well as what floats your carburetor. If you are all about the handling, then upgrading your rubber, and adding lightweight wheels to reduce un-sprung weight, along with the aforementioned sway bars will tighten things up nicely if that is what you want.  The coilovers may set you back a couple of grand, and you can easily drop that much again on wheels and tires, but sway bars are not that pricey and will flatten out those corners considerably. Plus you still have a warranty.

You think the handling is okay but you want more get up and go? A free flow exhaust and a cold air intake can both be had for well under a grand total and may even bump your mileage as well as add a few horses. By the way, speaking of power, an instant fix is to throw some higher octane fuel in the tank. And make sure everything is in top working order you may already have performance you are not getting. Even a new car has to break in, and an older one may be well off of factory specs.

Notice I am not advising chipping or re-curving the distributor, or replacing the stock engine parts.  There is an exception. If a manufacturer has factory tunes, go for it! Not only is it engineered correctly for your car, but your warranty is safe. Scion offers a factory turbo kit for example. Toyotas TRD division produced the air filter I put on my MR2 Spyder. Why they didn't offer anything else for this gem besides an intake is nuts.

And so you have the aftermarket companies stepping up to fill the gaps.

Most aftermarket parts manufacturers have their own warranties, but if their defective part harmed anything else you are out of luck. Likewise, some items will not be covered by your insurance if they are aftermarket.

That gazillion dollar custom audio system someone just ripped from your dashboard and trunk? Your insurance agent will sympathize but will not forward your claim. On the other hand, the megabuck Mark Levinson system option that came with your Lexus? Its covered. As is the ceramic brake upgrade on your Boxster S.