Hey Ya'll!, I am through wanting to sell my 360, so thats good. I have an F1 car and will soon need a new clutch. Its aournd 7K where I am in VT. Maybe it makes sense to pay the difference and put in a gated manual instead. The shop I work with has done a few. Anyone done this here and how was your experience with the car post work? From a value perspective, the gated manuals have commanded a significant premium these days. Maybe this is good investment? The rest of my car is a 96 point machine, super clean at 26K miles! Thanks! JL
If you are looking to do it as an investment, you will likely be disappointed. For the most part converted cars sell for more than F1 cars, however the value difference is generally about the cost of a kit. The people that want a perfect, flawless, investment grade car generally don't want a converted one. Conversions have been around long enough where the bubble for them has long since popped. If you are going to do one, do it for the right reasons, like preferring the feel of a manual. Not everyone prefers that, and that's OK.
I just finished a gated manual conversion on my 2003 360. I can’t speak for resale value, however, it has immensely improved the driving experience. I’ve never driven a factory manual 360, however this is what I imagine it would be like. I have no complaints with the way the conversion turned out. I did all the work myself, but it still cost about $15,000 and nearly 30 hours of my time. I have no idea what shops are charging to get this done, but I imagine it’s not cheap. Not sure I’ll recoup the cost at resale, but I really enjoyed the project and the improvement in driving enjoyment makes it worth every penny and then some.
Thanks for sharing. I did drive both an F1 and Gated car when I was shopping for a 360. They were both great, so I chose THE cleanest car I could find, and it was the F1. The F1 experience is cool as I feel like M. Schumcher. The gated is cool as the snick snick is amazing. Good point on the roi. I was thinking if I have to spend 7K for an F1, and a conversion is 15K, for the delta may justify it. Sounds like from an invetsment grade perspective, a conversion doesnt command the same premium as a factory gater.
If you were keeping the car, then do it, but if you are selling it, then there is no point IMO. I did my conversion myself on my CS and I still have about $20,000 into it.
If you want a car for yourself and enjoy manual cars, manual is much more fun and worth doing. But for resale, I don't think it's worth to do it for a profit, specially if you pay professionals to perform the conversion. Unless you are looking for a job and want to do the conversion yourself or you get some very cheap labor from friendly mechanic, as the converted car will be worth more than the cost of the conversion parts alone. And you will make a few bucks for the hassle which may or may not be worth your time. So you can make some money on it, but it all depends on how you value your time.
Just out of curiosity, what are shops charging to do conversions on 360s and 430s these days? Has anyone gotten a quote or gotten it done recently?
where did you get those numbers? They seem really low. I did mine myself, parts were around $15,000. I would think a shop would get twice that when you include labor.
Just finished my Cambio Manuale conversion on my 99 and like @Djack005 it has immensely improved the driving experience. It's awesome. Also did all the work myself, and it cost about the same ~$15,000, except more like 100+ hours of time because I did 50 other jobs while I was in there.
