Adjust daily drivers

Let your car become an extension of your personality and reflect your style is the focus of car modification. There are many different ways to adjust your car. But what if you are adjusting your daily drivers? Can you own a well-tuned, great-looking vehicle and still use it for your daily commute? The short answer is "yes". However, you will have to be different from those who tune in a car that does not drive every day.

Your Considerations

Tuning a car is a tradeoff. Vehicles come from the factory with a midrange setup, designed for the average consumer and the average commute. This setup gives the vehicle moderate power, while still attempting to provide fuel economy and ride comfort. Tuning is a process of sacrifice; each item that you change will result in a different ride and a different comfort level. Here are a few of the areas that are most frequently changed by tuners, as well as what they do to your ride:

Oversized Wheels – Adding a set of huge wheels to your ride will help it fit in with your crowd of friends and stand out against the herd of average vehicles on the road. However, these wheels can alter your ride in many other ways. First, oversized wheels will detract from your ride comfort. Second, if you go beyond about 3% of the original setup will put strain on your transmission, which can result in early transmission damage. It also wreaks havoc on your odometer accuracy, as well as your speedometer. For the best benefits, use a larger wheel with a lower profile tire to keep the overall setup the same.

Suspension Tuning – Tuning your suspension is all about gaining better handling through curves. However, the stiff suspension that results is often not what the tuner expected. The ride comfort of your vehicle is dramatically reduced, though handling is increased substantially.

Engine Tuning – The vast range of engine enhancements give your car more power. The trade-off is, of course, that more power means more fuel consumption. In a daily driver, this can be a dramatic difference, especially if you have a “lead foot.” Each aspect of engine tuning will further reduce your fuel economy, as your quest for more speed continues.

As you can see from these aspects, adjusting the daily driver is a series of compromises. You can get the look and performance you want, but this requires sacrifice. However, moderate modification will bring you many of the benefits you want and reduce the disadvantages.