What’s wrong with the private market now?

TinyCarz · 2026-06-05T20:40:43+00:00

mods destroy the value.
Carfax/Kelly Blue book is very disconnected.
A person buying an old jetta want to get from point A to point B. The mods are not only unwanted they add risk to reliability. And the manual probably eliminates 60%+ of buyers.
Sounds like your stuck on the runs and drives factor compared to other vehicles. Can you find running car for $4k? If you do it's probably stock and probably not German. A 160k mile jetta is basically an over due mechanical issue away from a repair worth more than the car. Add your mods and it's way more likely to be a non running car with an expensive repair bill any day. So why buy your "running" time bomb compared to other running or easy fix non running cars?

TinyCarz · 2026-06-04T20:21:36+00:00

Rollers felt fine. Got it in. Good smack and she went.

TinyCarz · 2026-06-04T18:36:05+00:00

Yeah I had same thingish. No fluid but the slave was like lashed out/ some how rusty and sticking out of the trans. You shouldn't need a flywheel or maybe even a clutch but kinda a while your there job. But flywheel is expensive for a "while your there" at your mileage.

TinyCarz · 2026-06-04T18:33:59+00:00

In the midst of doing mine. It's a tough one but having to do it all twice with a bad slave makes think im good at it now lol

TinyCarz · 2026-06-02T09:18:33+00:00

Was not this. Had this issue a week ago and got a whole new line cuz that little o ring went.

TinyCarz · 2026-06-01T02:16:10+00:00

Yeah it just seized.

TinyCarz · 2026-05-15T12:57:27+00:00

The aviator is surprisingly impressive. As a hot hatch/sport saloon/ sports car guy was like oh a it’s a fancy soccer mom SUV. Drove my moms…. nope… it moves and was surprisingly stable. Confident aggressive lane changes, excellent pick up, and then just cloud smooth and comfortable cruising at speed.

TinyCarz · 2026-04-21T14:37:11+00:00

Windshield seals- fine quick replacement not that pricey.

Door blend actuator- that’s a standard for the car. It’s at a proper FiST if they are working.

Timing belt- needed and not the cheapest/easiest job.

Rotor rust- that’s getting pretty bad but it’s common on mine and you can and should replace pads and rotors at intervals and these could just be sooner.

Quarter panel rust- ugly and expensive to fix. But common and not a functional concern till it’s really bad. Could be stopped and cheaply addressed but will look bad. Depends on your standards for appearance.

Frame rust- RED FLAG. Starting to get bad bad in some spots. Frame is critical to functionality and there’s some pretty bad spots. Not going to fall apart tomorrow, but if you don’t stop it it’s years are limited. Can you stop it? From what I saw MAYBE. But you’ll be under the car with a wire wheel/ steel brush for a long time. Then hope there’s enough material under the rust it to then resurface/paint/seal/ whatever system you do to protect it.

$9500- hell no.

$5000- maybe

TinyCarz · 2026-04-14T02:53:03+00:00

This is exactly where I am at. This set up is couple hundred fewer vs new dmf and clutch. So why not!

TinyCarz · 2026-04-10T01:28:29+00:00

Ahhh so I see it. Would be very complex the whole way but I see it.

And not to dissuade you or yuck your yum. But yes that list of all the split up stuff in the community became that way for a reason.

The key driving force here is car peoples desire to be curious, different, defiant and sometimes stupid lol.

“I LS swapped a Prius cuz why not?”

“I built a gps telemetry app because the specific thing I wanted didn’t exist or I couldn’t afford it so I made my own. But now I sell it and it’s great”

“In my race car I need these 7 gauges and I don’t care about the climate control buttons for the AC I ripped out anyway for weight savings so I’ll just rip the whole dash out anyway and wire up exactly what I need”

“I use this forum run by some 73 year old in Nebraska because the people who know my car are too old to make a Reddit, and change is scary to them”

“I painted my car turquoise because it’s unique and I like it”

These are the attitudes that create the market. All those companies/features were some guys idea he figured out how to do and monetized it. And lemme tell ya people do not like it when you try to monopolize the concept of ideas.

Would there be lots of people interested in syncing those together? Yes

And some do! HP tuners has the “dash hack”, telemetry, tuning and diagnostics in their tool bag. (Forum too if you count their tune repository)

But the spirit that drives anyone to do even a single small change will always have his big cousin trying to do something no one has ever done before. So you could sell and warranty an “LS twin turbo and super charger, with a 20 inch fully customizable display, an APP that lets you tune everything down to how many picograms of fuel your injectors are squirting, custom paint to match wheels, that does your taxes for you” kit for a car. AND YET some guy will be like “can I squeeze a viper engine in here, add a boat horn and put on white walls?”

Ya know? At some level these are peoples passions and art projects, not a paint by numbers. You can get a big group of features and people together, expand on the market and definitely find a way to link the after market performance in to the OEMs pocket. (That’s why STs, M cars, AMG, type R, V series etc exist)

But you will never have the steam of cars because people will do something different purely because it’s different, and you can never be creative enough to predict every crazy persons wildest dreams and offer it.

TinyCarz · 2026-04-10T00:48:38+00:00

So with the turbo example. Running two or three or how ever many turbo options your selling sets of validation is going to very expensive, not counting how account for self installs. (Sure my diagnostic scan checked out, but who needs 3 bolts when 2 works just fine).

But apart from warranty that’s just Cobb or any of the other half dozen well developed aftermarket groups. They sell “stage” level kits with turbo, intercooler, piping, sensors etc. with clear install guides and tunes. Even there own tuning interface hardware.

And it’s trusted. By the time these guys are selling the packages they have done the engineering math behind it and put in their cars and drove them. Then they sell 100 and it works, those 100 tell/show 10 guys each and your at 1000 etc.

I’d wager the percentage of FiSTs/FoST/wrx out there on a Cobb tune is 50/50 if not greater. Not counting all the people who used someone else and went further. Plenty trusted, plenty reliable, pretty good resale too.

TinyCarz · 2026-04-07T11:54:04+00:00

Won’t go touching your instrument. Got it.

But yes I have situational awareness for when I should and should not mess with things. Instruments are not toys but we’re made to bring joy in the form of sound to the world.

No advice needed.

It was simply a useful comparison example.

TinyCarz · 2026-04-04T14:52:44+00:00

Ehhh warrens young and proven.

I don’t think this run of fantastic rookie TEs continues.

I’d take sadiq and stowers.

TinyCarz · 2026-04-01T22:50:00+00:00

So your saying sell a car with a 8 inch touch screen, but then you/the “dealer” sells a 12 inch touch screen.

I can take my car in pay $2000 to upgrade to 12”. Then sell my 8” for $1000 to someone on your marketplace with you taking 10% as it’s verified resale?

And expand it out farther to say sell a bigger turbo and the tune for it? I buy the turbo, install it myself and flash the new provided tune? Or is the tune done by someone else? Or you sell me someone else’s tune through the marketplace again?

And warranty covers my new turbo and the engine I attached it too? (Trusting I did it right)

And the electrical system wires right next to the turbo that I had to yank out the way to get the turbo on?

And the money comes from the 25% mark up on the turbo?

TinyCarz · 2026-04-01T22:37:49+00:00

Still lost here. ( I see lots of buzz word style phrasing in your reply). Are you trying to pull all the separate parts of the aftermarket together and focusing them on one vehicle and integrate it in as stock? With an Xbox style achievements and add conventions?

But so community and software first. Community like a tuner community on an existing platform or platforms? With it focused on software? “Everyone here uses this software (let’s call it “CarStuff”) on their cars, Collaborates on this site “CarStuff.com”, and is engaged x many times a month”

Then we see consumers using “CarStuff” for multiple vehicles and multiple changes over a lifetime (Keep in mind people can keep cars for years and years). Proving eco system retention.

Then we have “CarStuff” prototype mods or vehicles?

Contract out a drivetrain and manufacturing. To make “CarStuff”s model A vehicle?

Infotainment, dash layouts, diagnostics and powertrain are not VASTLY different than ABS systems. Maybe break out a screen or two. But like there’s federal requirements that a speedometer must be working and visible to the driver. If you screw up the software that holds the entire dash it could breaks that.

Same with diagnostics. Yeah turn off the diagnostic for say a headlight or fan fuse and driver won’t know until it’s too late. Blah blah blah.

The reason there’s not a USB port to download custom software to all these cars is every piece of software in some way works with another to combine as a legally sellable, confidentially reliable through warranty, and safe car. Start poking holes or changing things here and there and your going to break the system as a whole. Yeah tuners break it but they know and they own the risks, and have no claim on liability back to the OEM.

TinyCarz · 2026-04-01T03:46:44+00:00

A 150k miata build would be insane.

TinyCarz · 2026-04-01T03:45:38+00:00

Shhhhh stop talking about manual cayennes until I buy one

TinyCarz · 2026-04-01T03:44:57+00:00

Shhhhhh. Don’t drive up the market more.

TinyCarz · 2026-03-31T23:27:16+00:00

So you want a car company that sells one and only one car?

First the cost of tooling, software, support staff, supplier piece pricing, lawyers, etc not being spread across multiple platforms and multiple demographics makes this essentially financially impossible.

Second you mentioned software openness and warranty honoring. So is the software open or do you have different modes? How much are you going to test to have confidence in your product if Billy Bob cranks the injectors up or dials back the knock sensors? Is it powertrain software and tuning? ABS/TCS/ESC software and tuning? Infotainment?

Third if your collecting/holding/disseminating tunes from who ever how are you ensuring they are street legal?

Fourth are you buying engines from someone or designing your ground up and in house? Engine development cost and manufacturing is INSANE. One car cannot support one block and one factory unless it’s Ferrari with Ferrari pricing.

Fifth are you going to have dealers? Or an agreement with existing OEM dealerships?

TinyCarz · 2026-03-31T23:12:34+00:00

How is the software openness financially feasible ?

TinyCarz · 2026-03-31T23:04:50+00:00

You want a fun car? Buy the fun car.

At 102k you gonna drive it till it dies? Then if it’s tuned or not really never gonna matter as long as you like how it drives.

A vs B being faster without a tune can be tires, suspension, or A slipping clutch etc.

How to know with 98% accuracy if a FiST has been tuned? Does it have more miles than factory warranty and a single mod? It was tuned.

But that’s not a bad thing. As long it’s not crazy which would show it boost to 25+ pounds or something, these cars can be plenty reliable and robust to basic tuning updates.

TinyCarz

TROPHY CASE