Are lowered cars to be avoided?

As a rule your assumptions are fairly near the mark.

IME of 24 years in the trade, it is pretty usual for anybody that modifies their car to want more performance from it. Even if it is a pretty fast car to start with. Thjis also usually indicates an 'excessive' driving style.

Apart from that though, I have seen so many problems caused by badly done modifications. For a start if you see lowered suspension, how was it done? - It is common to see somebody has simply hacked a bit off the springs. I recently saw a Civic Type R that had all four stuts falling off it in a dangerous way, and these had been fitted by a so called race specialist!

K&N filters can be a good thing, some are simply a direct replacement for the original, and can help improve performance or economy (although the difference might be negligible). Performance filters, often called 'induction kits' can affect the way a car drives, they are inlikely to actually improve performace though, they simply change the power band. This is more accidental than by design though, as they normally replace the induction system fitted by the manufacturer, with a shorter and less complex one of their own. These can cause more issues though, as they upset the tuning of the entire gas flow system, the extra pipes and bits are there for a reason. It is usually necessary to remap the ECU, or fit a reprogrammed ECU if yours can't be remapped.

Finally, yes, they are likely to affect your insurance, any modification should be advised to your insurer - even a change of wheel design. They may not be bothered, but if you tell them you're covered.

If you're not looking to upgrate a motor, I would advise staying away from any that have been modified, unless you can be sure of the quality of the work.

Yes, lowered cars have problems with speed bumps, but K&N filters usually fit on top of the engine, so there are no speed bump problems with those :->

Your wonderings about the nature of the driver are spot on - someone who has lowered the car and fitted performance mods to it has done so for a reason - performance, either percieved or actual. These kind of people are minded to thrash the nards off their cars, so adjust the bid accordingly. I know - I am one :-D

Cheers,

Depends what you mean by 'lowered'. A lowered version of a std car, often included as part of a sports package, is perfectly OK IMO. OTOH I would treat a DIY job with a great deal of caution, unless it was done using proprietary parts. My 5 series BMW is an example of what I mean. M-Tech lower and stiffer suspension was retro-fitted by a BMW dealer.

Do lowered cars

They can do, but IME, they have no problem with ordinary speed bumps. What you may consider a problem is the harder ride. Many will say they make a car uncomfortable, and wouldn't even consider owning such a car. What it comes down to is personal preferences. Personally I prefer cars with stiff suspension. IMO they give more 'feel' for the road surface, and what the wheels are doing.

What about cars with these K&F? air

Technically, fitting a K&F filter is a modification, but most insurance Co's would not regard it as such. My son fitted a so called performance exhaust to his GTE Nova once. He informed his insurance. They noted it, but it made no difference to his premium.

As far as how a car has been driven, I would be more concerned about buying a std car like an Escort, owned by a young driver. 'Boy racer' is the first thing that comes to mind. . IMO having lowered suspension, and aftermarket air filters etc, is not a very good guide, in itself, of how a car has been treated. Mike.

Lowered cars can be absolutely s**te - even dangerous if they're not done properly which accounts for most Kevved hatchbacks. Likewise for K&N filters. I've actually made cars run FASTER by replacing half arsed fitted performance filters with the standard item.

Your insurance WILL go up and you can guarantee its been thrashed in every gear up to third.

Not always,

there are a lot of people who just want to make their ride look good, and are not bothered about performance or thrashing it up and down the highstreet looking for Chavettes. But a word of warning if you are looking at a 'modded car' is declare EVERYTHING to the insurer.

I added pedal extensions to my car, they are just metal covers that fit over the accelerator, brake and clutch pedals, and make them look better, and they also added a lot of grip to my old worn ruber pedals. When I advised the insurer of this (Churchill) the told me my policy was now void as they classed this as a performance enhancement, ie the pedal covers aid heel and toeing and are therefore a performance enhancement.

Well after falling off my chair laughing, I took them off.

Just watch out.

/Mad

Yeah..they drop them 40mm, completely f*ck up the suspension geometry then wonder why the car tries to rip the steering wheel out their hands every time they hit a bump.

THey're actually ILLEGAL for road use...but you knew that.

What law or regulation makes them illegal then?

Construction and Use regs.

I didn't know that, the MOT regs that I have seen, state that as long as they provide grip either with rubber inserts or ribbed metal, then they are legal. But I would be interested if you can point me to any info saying otherwise. I want to keep the car legal and safe.

thanks,

/Heds

Also sprach "Hedley Phillips" :-

Whether or not Conor's right, the MOT is not a guide to the law.

Lowering jobs can be done either well, or badly. You can spend a lot of money on good dampers and springs, or even coil overs. However, the vast majority of people keep the standard dampers, and whack on a set of cheapo lowering springs. And often drop the car too much. And don't bother getting the geometry fettled afterwards. If it's been done well. with proof, and you

K&Ns are pretty much a waste of time. If I were you, I'd buy a standard car. With some cars it takes a lot of looking around to find a standard car, but you don't get buggered on the insurance, and you have a bit better chance of the thing not being caned from cold every day by some baseball cap wanker.

Heh I'm borderling unusual in this respect, but unusual anyway. We've modified Kermit with certain objectives in mind. The replacement lights, 'cos my (old) commute involved dark country lanes and I wanted better headlights. The smaller, wider wheels, 'cos I wanted a smoother ride with comparable grip under most circumstances. Then I discovered I could use XR2i rims with a slightly wider offset to improve stability, so on and so forth. Bluefin'd the ECU to improve effective torque, replacement panel filter to save chucking the paper ones out...

Now I can drive the Ka at the same pace over the commute and use less fuel, 'cos I'm able to stay in a higher gear up gradients and I don't need to slow down quite as much for the twisty material...

Spring hackers! Bloody stupid, dangerous thing to do. Gran Turismo race specialists, then! :)

And the I-wish-it-were-amazing-but-I've-been-saying-it-all-along thing is that the cheap "induction filters" simply produce more noise and reduce power, as proven by various rolling road days...

That's a very important point. Cheap modifications produce cheap results. Expensive modifications, carefully thought out, can produce good results, and it's usually significantly cheaper than doing it yourself.

Some "show cars," or semi-show cars, may look great but require constant expenditure to keep the stuff looking good. Some loopy curvy bodykits crack, huge big rims and rubber band tyres shake your fillings out, and if you enjoy driving they're usually less fun than standard. You get stared at, but what show car owner drivers sometimes forget is that only half are thinking, "aw cool!" - the other half are thinking "more money than sense" or similar...

DYOR. I can't be arsed to wade through it all but suffice to say that every one I've ever seen has had the disclaimer "Not legal for road use" on.

As others have said, it depends on the quality of the lowering. "Lowering kits" almost always consist of shorter, stiffer springs. You'll usually lower the ride height by putting these on (if the original springs have done a lot of miles, they may well be sagging anyway, so it might not make much difference).

The weakness of this lowering kit is that whilst it does lower and stiffen the suspension, the dampers are mis-matched with the springs, so the ride composure is less than optimal. You should also get the suspension geometry checked.

"Suspension kits" usually combine springs with dampers. The best use matching dampers, and on some cars (okay okay on the Ford Ka) the best kit makes almost no difference to the ride quality most of the time.* Some kits just use different dampers, but most are better than standard.

Coilovers, very expensive, easy to bugger up, liked by show car people because you can "slam" the car down to the ground. Great if you're serious about driving too, you can fine tune the suspension to suit your driving and the car.

For the air filter, well these cone type arrangements are all about noise and dressing up the engine bay. Most reduce power. Personally, I only ever open the engine bay to illustrate a point (like, "here's the power steering header tank") or to check fluid levels, so I'm not bothered about the engine bay looking nice (red strut brace, green Ka, go figure!). Replacement panel filters are environmentally sound and in some cars, reduce noise too :) so that's often a good thing.

As for how hard it's been driven, it's a fair assumption that if a car has been modded, 100% of its performance has been used. But it's not always the case. Those modded cars for looks, heh, they've probably never been over 60 mph! It's the ones that look different from the ordinary modded examples that you need to be careful for, as seen on drag strips and the like .

However, if somebody has spent quite a bit of money on the vehicle, there's a good chance that he or she will also spend a lot on maintaining. Sure, there are wallies in the Ka Klub that spend £100 on a new gearknob and handbrake cover rather than replacing the O2 sensor, but find a good modded car and an owner who appreciates it, you'll often find a huge wad of paid bills and the like (and usually a p****d off partner 'cos the car represents their new house / shoes / frock / computer / whatever).

Fine one of these and you could be on to a winner!

For insurance, talk to your company or broker...

Yes, you've probably thought about it more than the average Max Power kid though :-)

They are modifications worth doing IMHO.

Personally I think suspension is the last thing to spend your money on, it's so easy to get it badly wrong, and very hard to make it better than what's on there.

Yup.

Indeed. I have never had any objection to people wanting to modify their cars, except for two points: Don't come to me at the dealer if it doesn't run right after, and do the job properly if you insist on doing it at all.

Indeed.

To be fair, that's not going to be difficult, then!

Aye. I'm a tight bugger, I thought long and hard about the Bluefin device. It was the money back guarantee that did it...

Yes. This is one reason why I wasn't going to put anything on the Ka other than Ford's in house stuff...

That's true, not much a compliment there was it ;-)

Sounds good to me.

Yes, that's always worth sticking too. On cars where there's a common demand to upgrade I really don't know why the manufacturers don't get involved more. They can at least use the selling point that it's all been tested by them. Subaru are about the only other manufacturer I can think of that officially do this.

Lowering the front suspension will alter the camber angle slightly and usually causes more wear on the inside edge of the tyre. Also the fact that you are already doubting the history of how this car has been used and possibly abused should shiuld give you a good enough reason to steer clear of it.

Exactly.