I was planning to lease the Evo after I test drove it this weekend (I fell in love with the car immediately) and was wondering if I could tune the car either by a professional tuner or Cobb AP. I would just revert it back to stock before I turn in the car right? Also, please don't tell me to just buy the vehicle. It's a long story as to why I'm leasing and doesn't really help

Edit: By the way, I do not plan to keep the car when the lease is over.

 

sure you can, you can do anything you want to the car as long as its stock when it goes back

 

I say if you are able to revert back to the stock map it wouldnt really matter.

 

But I've heard they have the ability to check whether the car has been tuned in the past or not.

 

I have never heard of anyone saying that with an X, as long as it was reflashed back to stock correctly.

One guy just used the AP to reflash back the stock map, not "unmarry" like it wasn't there. That means when they hooked anything up to the OBD, they were locked out..

I say you would be fine.

 

Do you plan on purchasing the car at end of lease? I dont get why people want to mod a "rented" car. Kind of like asking a stripper for a date.

 

Since your thinking of leasing I just wanted to throw out that penfed has a payment saver loan. Just saw this recently. It seems like a lease in that your monthly payment is lower but you have a "balloon" payment at the end, kind of like the residual of a lease. The main difference is that you are financing the car so you can do whatever you want with it (miles, mods, sell/trade ect...)

 

so because you have a "rented" car, you can't have fun with it for the 3-4 years you have it? That's a lot of time to get it into a fun car and back to stock.

I'm all for financing myself, but if you have it then why not have fun with it.

 

You better read the find print on the lease agreement. If you flash the ECU and then return it to stock, the dealership will know you re-flashed the ECU.

 

They will have zero reason to look into it if nothing major happens. Simple as that.

OP tune it all you want, just revert it back to stock if you need to bring it in to get work done.

 

I lease cars a lot. On the return they dont go over it with a microscope... They walk around, say 'ok looks good', start it and run it say 'ok sounds good' and then take it back.

That said, I personally *never* mod my leased cars. I dont like the potential risk and, for me, I only lease cars that I plan to always keep new. Part of the value of the "always new" for me is the eternal warranty/peace of mind. Thats why we lease a brand new car every 3 years for my wife.

Once you mod it you change the equation a bit.

I think the Cobb is pretty safe and easy. Hardware mods, to me, are kind of crazy because of the effort to put them on, store the old parts then revert back and sell after a few years. Anything beyond maybe intake and exhaust and that becomes a giant pain in the *** (IMO) for a car that is, by definition, temporary.

 

Leasing a car you plan to buy is more or less just splitting up your payments. A lot of people are needlessly afraid of them. Basically I pay 60% now, then the other 40% later. It costs me like $150 less per month.

 

I don't know how hard the dealer is gonna inspect the car and like said previously I doubt they would check for a tune but just so everyone is aware(I DON'T know if it's true or not) but I talked to both of my local dealers and they both claim that they can see if you were tuned and revert it back to stock even with the ap. Again I don't if they were just trying to scare me away of tuning the car but yea!

 

I went this route and no issues at all from my dealership.

 

"IF" you decide to modify it in a way that your unbolting stuff, say like intake, UICP. Be sure you put markings back exactly as they were. If you notice all bolts are marked with a matching position right next to it. If it is off they will know since most don't know why the bolts are marked. If you think this bs, go look at something you have yet to mess with and you will see. Exhaust bolts included.