I am looking to put a supercharger during the next 4-6 weeks and I have a few questions that I want to pose to the group (feel free to reply to any or all):

Value - Does adding a supercharger help with the value of the car over time, or does it actually hurt it? In other words, will dealers or buyers give you a better dollar value for the car with the blower?

Gas Mileage - Obviously adding a blower could have a negative effect on gas mileage because the tendancy is there go Wide open on the throttle. What about under normal driving compared with the stock motor?

Insurance - Do you report the supercharger to your insurance company, and if so does it increase the bill significantly?

Thanks guys!
Mark M.

 

Value - I wouldn't expect higher value after adding a supercharger. A dealer will probably give you the same amount as stock, claiming that the supercharger will make the car harder to sell since it has been modified and perhaps "abused". You might get higher from a private buyer, if it is what he is looking for, but may take longer to sell since most buyers will be afraid of the reliability of a "highly" modified car.

Gas Mileage - Normal driving, I lost about 2 mpg. However, lighter drive shaft and AL flywheel helped get some of that back. I can still get 27mpg at 55mph so that's good enough for me.

Insurance - I didn't report it. My last truck that was totalled by a drunk driver, my insurance covered about 1/3 of the aftermarket parts and I hadn't reported any of them. Every insurance company is different, some just deny every claim at first.

 

The value of the car will never neccessarily adversly affect the value of your vehicle. You'll get a tiny bit of your money back now, but not much if you had to flip the car. It doesn't do a whole hell of alot to increase or decrease it really.

Gas mileage, depending on tuner could stay about the same to SLIGHTLY less part throttle. Wide open throttle is a different situation, but once you've had your few good months of hammering around, the fuel mileage will increase once you find your comfortable daily driving zone.

Insurance... I've had people just keep the receipt for the service and parts, and never report it to their company. Apparently there are companies out there that don't need it on an inventory list, so to speak, but just need to see that it was on there with a receipt showing what it costs, when the adjuster comes out.

Ask your insurance company about it before you do it, and they should be able to tell you the dollar for dollar differences and the best way to go about it.

Have a fun trip, and we'll see you when you get back?

Chris Rose
Tillman Speed Inc.
www.TillmanSpeed.com

 

Double post

 

Normal driving with a centri should be better if not the same depending on the tune and setup being as they don't make boost until about 4k rpm's. My mpg significantly increased since the supercharger. I have seen on average with my car 25 to 30+ mpg on the highway. City I have seen at the least 16mpg while in boost and at the most I have seen 19mpg crusin city . I was on my way home from San Diego going down hill with cruse control set at about 80mph with the rpm's at about 2.5k and my car hit 41 mpg I wish I had a camera because when I saw it hit 41mpg because I was shocked!!!!!!!!! I mean, 41 mpg on a 400+rwhp mustang=

 

Hey Chris- Please explain this rule of automobile value.

 

I think he's been a few

 

I might have to add that statement to my signature

 

nice one
Originally Posted by TillmanSpeed
The value of the car will never neccessarily adversly affect the value of your vehicle

 

I suspect a roots/twin-screw blower may hurt fuel economy as boost comes on easily and instantly when you hit the gas pedal. A centrifugal blower, as sonicboost mentioned, builds boost as rpm's increase, so drive normal and your fuel economy shouldn't change much, if any. Centrifugals are essentially a belt-driven turbocharger, and as such, get decent mileage if you stay out of the boost, but make big power when you rev them high.

I have a standard Vortech S-trim (centrfugal) blower that only makes 5.8 psi boost when the stall converter flashes (4,800 rpm's), but it builds up to a max of 10.5 psi boost at 6,400 rpm's (redline). I have 4.10 gears & a big stall converter, so my fuel economy is nothing to write home about, but at 60 mph on cruise control, I get 24 mpg consistently which is what the factory window sticker said it should have done 100% stock. I love mashing the loud pedal around town way too much, so I'm lucky to hit 13 mpg in the city. When I behave and drive legally, I can get 16-17 in town. Again, much like the factory window sticker says a 100% stock GT automatic should get.

As for value added or lost with mods like a supercharger? I think what Chris at Tillman was trying to say is that money spent on mods won't really affect the value of the car much. You'd have to find a buyer that really wants a car modded like yours to get any of your mod-investment back when you sell your car.

 

Sounds a little like the president of the united states...

 

I would really emphasize talking to your insurance company about that one. Cuz they could really shaft you in the event of an accident. It's not so much that you have to worry about other drivers, cuz if another driver smashes the front of your car and destroys your supercharger, he's paying for it. However, if you lose control and hit a telephone pole and your ins company doesnt pay out for it, you're left with the bill for the added parts.

I talked to my ins company and they said you would need additional coverage. Say an extra 50-100 bucks per year to cover every 5k additional work done to the car. So maybe 200 bucks a year if I had my engine forged with a SC. It's not a bad price to pay to be insured for it. So that means if I total my car, they give me the value of my car + the assesment of added parts/engine work I had done. You still need the receipts to prove how much you paid for em.

Be VERY warey of a customer rep that tells you that you just need to present the receipts in the event of an accident and not need additional coverage. Ins companies aren't THAT nice


PS - I think the fact that Ford has made hundreds of thousands of S197s will do more to hurt your value than any mod work you do on it

 

Hahaha. What I meant by that was: on the newer S197's specifically. They're not to the point yet where a supercharger means the vehicle was abused by a 17 year old kid. They're still "generally" still out of the price range for someone like that.

However, that's a pretty broad generalization.

And yes, trading into the dealer they're going to want to give you less. Private sale you should still be able to get what you would get if the vehicle were n/a, or more.

We're not talking about an early 90's fox body with a vortech S trim and 145,000 miles here that was owned by a high school kid, and has barely any rear tires left. It's a different demographic.

Sorry if that offends anyone, it wasn't meant to.

And I did not have a sexual relationship with that woman! And we're trying to find the evil-doers in Iraq, and the weapons of mass destruction do exist!!!

 

And that's the other part of it. If you find the buyer that want's what you're vehicle has, you can show them the install was good, it was tuned properly, you're not going to get less for the vehicle.

And if you do... shame on you. Shouldn't have let them beat you down!

 

When I totaled my '05 GT last December, I had it towed over to ST Motors and had them pull out the Whipple and transplant it to my new baby. Fortunately the bulk of the damage was to the side of the car and the blower was unharmed. Otherwise I woulda been "screwed".

Yes, you should probably get additional coverage for peace of mind.

 

LOL, "screwed"...I got that

 

so did I, haha

 

Thanks for the replies. So as I understand it:

1. It won't help the value of the car
2. It will probably make your gas mileage worse
3. It will cost you more in insurance

Darn! Oh well, I'm getting one anyway

 

Don't deny yourself the supercharger.

 

Don't forget:
1. It will make my car faster than 99.99% of every car on the road.