Thought I'd post up some pics of my little car and the stuff I've learnt modifying it, as it hasn't been straight forward even for these seemingly minor bits and pieces.
This is what it looked like when we bought it brand new from the dealer, it had a set of 20 inch wheels with cheap and nasty tyres, an under seat sub with in built 2 x 50w amp powering the front speakers, a set of Focal components, (for the front) aftermarket heated seats and tinted windows all round. These were all things we chose to do to the brand new car, but they were fitted with the help of the dealer before we picked it up.
The first couple of lessons I learnt straight away were:
1: Buy the best spec you can afford! The next model up had a better stereo, better wheels, heated seats and privacy glass, so it was barely any cheaper getting this car and doing all those things to it. The actual reason we did it this way was because this car in mid spec 2.0 front wheel drive seemed to handle so much better than the 2.5 litre AWD premium spec model. (NZ market) I later learnt that this was likely due to the AWD models running 10mm higher suspension than the FWD models, so we could've probably sorted that eventually. (although modifying the suspension in these vehicles is also quite a headache as I later learnt)
2: Fitting bigger wheels to these cars results in a massive increase in road noise. The standard car on 17's is not too bad, but once you put 20's on with cheap tyres, they are massively loud. Especially on our 'course chip' road surfaces.
I will leave this post at that for now but I will post more about the following stuff (and lessons learnt) I've since completed on the vehicle:
This is what it looked like when we bought it brand new from the dealer, it had a set of 20 inch wheels with cheap and nasty tyres, an under seat sub with in built 2 x 50w amp powering the front speakers, a set of Focal components, (for the front) aftermarket heated seats and tinted windows all round. These were all things we chose to do to the brand new car, but they were fitted with the help of the dealer before we picked it up.
The first couple of lessons I learnt straight away were:
1: Buy the best spec you can afford! The next model up had a better stereo, better wheels, heated seats and privacy glass, so it was barely any cheaper getting this car and doing all those things to it. The actual reason we did it this way was because this car in mid spec 2.0 front wheel drive seemed to handle so much better than the 2.5 litre AWD premium spec model. (NZ market) I later learnt that this was likely due to the AWD models running 10mm higher suspension than the FWD models, so we could've probably sorted that eventually. (although modifying the suspension in these vehicles is also quite a headache as I later learnt)
2: Fitting bigger wheels to these cars results in a massive increase in road noise. The standard car on 17's is not too bad, but once you put 20's on with cheap tyres, they are massively loud. Especially on our 'course chip' road surfaces.
I will leave this post at that for now but I will post more about the following stuff (and lessons learnt) I've since completed on the vehicle:
- Sound deadening
- Sound Processor & Amp + new rear speakers
- Cork Sport Intake
- Racing Beat Exhaust
- Lowered Suspension (A real hassle that one!)