Not your kid's 'tuner' car

Squinting through aviator sunglasses, Jim Sama inches through traffic. The 50-something businessman, who runs a mobile dent-removal firm in Arlington, Mass., is driving his company truck. But he's not on the job today - and this is no ordinary truck.

A gleaming green, the 2000 Dodge Dakota crew cab sits on 22-inch rims, puts out exhaust through a huge Flowmaster system, and breathes deeply through K&N air intakes. It has a Louis Vuitton headliner and 5,000-watt audio system. "So many things," Mr. Sama says. "I'm probably done."

And $35,000 poorer - just for the add-ons.

Sama has come to New England Dragway in New Hampshire to flaunt his pickup at a "tuner" show. Some vehicles arrive so radically tweaked that their original assemblers would barely know them. The participants are changing, too. In a world still dominated by youths with Japanese sport-compact cars and a love for bolt-on modifications, Sama and other "boomer tuners" are leading a mainstream charge into vehicle enhancement.

A handful of automakers - even dealers acting independently - are trying to cash in on the growing $31 billion specialty automotive industry. As an investment, car-modification is a bust, financial experts warn. But making money isn't the point for enthusiasts.

"This truck's with me for life," says Chris Redmond, another Dodge owner at the Epping, N.H., show. Mr. Redmond, like many modifiers, began with appearance enhancers. In the six years since he bought his truck - now painted with a Tazmanian Devil motif - he has added more than $15,000 in body and suspension work.

Mr. Redmond belongs to a national club through which he says he has met members age 18 to 64.

"There's a broadening interest in car personalization and customization," says Peter MacGillivray, a vice president at SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, in Diamond Bar, Calif. "People look at vehicles as reflections of themselves. And after they buy it they want to take it one step further."

The truck and auto accessory market yields about $17 billion in retail sales, says Mr. MacGillivray, half of the industry's total volume. (The rest consists of niche products including restoration parts and racing and off-road gear.) Sales at the manufacturer level have grown nearly 90 percent in the past decade, according to SEMA.

Styling products - including body kits, ground effects (for aerodynamics), and grille inserts - represent the fastest-growing segment, he says. Car owners who become more involved in modifying typically move next to mobile electronics and then to performance parts, such as cold-air intakes and "cat-back" (behind the catalytic converter) exhaust systems. Even cars straight from dealers' lots are having factory components replaced.

A handful of automakers have already responded, forging alliances with some of the nearly 6,000 US specialty-parts firms. These carmakers are marketing their compatibility with outside-branded components or, under contractual agreements, "re-badging" specialty parts with their own brand names.

Some dealers, acting independently, and hungry for new revenue streams, have even begun offering buyers pre-installed parts traditionally found only through "after market" retailers.

The trend plays into a broad consumer yearning for customization, and could in part be a push-back against a sameness in automotive design only recently seeing signs of reversal. It also suggests a move to older consumers.

For example: Three years ago Honda - a youth-tuner favorite - represented about 90 percent of sales for Advanced Engine Management (AEM), according to Greg Neuwirth, president of the Hawthorne, Calif., company. Now it's closer to 50 percent.

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