Tuner

An enlarged hot wheels car made from the plastic from melted down barbie dolls with a motor the size of a soda bottle. Usually people who buy these 95 hp stock pieces of garbage they found outside walmart with for sale window painted onto them, tend to put a turbo on them bigger than the actual motor. You can usually spot one of these "tuners" by either noticing their flamboyant flourescent paint jobs, which for a street racing vehicle is somehow hard to spot by police, or the massive 12" subwoofers bumping music as loud as possible as if anybody wants to hear it also, that is if you cant see the rudder flap of a 747 they bolted to the trunk to increase the "downforce" for their front wheel drive cars, which makes sense because an origami car made from phonebook paper weighs more than these things. most of the time you can hear these cars starting from over a mile away when the folgers can attached to their exhaust starts spewing probably the most obnoxious sound of a pack of illegal mexicans with their leafblowers at full blast. You may even find a fire extinguisher bolted to the car in plain view because lord only knows when all that "horsepower" will get under control. They weigh a whole 50 pounds and are capable of hitting rpm's of 10 grand because of the 4 ridiculously small pistons . be sure if you plan to build one of these vehicles to avoid all the bugs that you may hit while driving because they can easily total your vehicle. Any japanese economy car built for those in a financial situation where they cannot afford a quality vehicle or the gas to power a quality vehicle, with more money put into the vehicle than the car itself is actually worth
Child 1: Hey look at that oversized hot wheel!!

Owner of vehicle: Dude that's my tuner wtf!!
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Any japanese economy car built for those in a finacial situation where they cannot affor a quality vehicle or the gas to power a quality vehicle, with more money pt into the vehicle than the car itself is actually worth
by Any Man With Half a Brain March 12, 2009
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Tuner

synonymous with Idiot. Nowadays most car places which call themselves Tuners (and not raceshops) are usually run by idiots who don't know anything about car performance and setup.

That's why nowadays the word "Tuner" is used instead of "Idiot" a lot
by J June 02, 2004
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tuner

A person who tunes ANY type of vehicle.
(Can be anything from a Honda s200 to a 1970 Dodge Charger) This breed of human lives, eats, and dreams cars. This person does performance mods BEFORE apperance mods, unlike the ricer.
Ricer: Your're such a ricer!
Tuner: You wanna drag race to see who is the real ricer?
Ricer: Okay

Not only does the tuner leave the ricer in the dust, but at the finish line, he's doing doughnuts ad burnouts.
by Inspector Gadget September 10, 2004
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tuner

COMPLETE opposite of ricer. The tuner is all go no show. What is UNDER the body of the car is far more important than how the car looks. For example the tuner will actually have no stickers on his car from where he got his parts, while the ricer will have stickers all over his car from parts he doesn't have.
There has been a battle on the streets for years between tuners and ricers.
by louie7 September 02, 2006
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tuner

A person that overcomes the factory limitations of their vehcile to gain more power, lower times at races, and/or better handling.

When emmissions standards were introduced, many tuners gave up, but others learned about HC, CO, NOx, CO2 and were able to improve those numbers.

When electronic controls were introduced, many other tuners gave up. but others learned the way they worked, and were able to make performance gains in their cars.

What stands in the way of tuners now, is quite frequently, illogical laws that ban tuning outright, despite the fact that a well tuned engine can have lower HC, CO, NOx, CO2 and fuel consumption than one in factory specification. The same goes for swaps, even though the emmissions of a S15 SR20DET are less than a 1989 KA24E, many areas have laws that declare the Silvia Conversion illegal anyway. If you think that Japanese cars are the only ones affected, think again. Many Chevy guys have fitted LS1/LS6 and LT1/LT4 engines to older cars, bringing lower emmissions and fuel consumption in the process. European imports are also affected, as a popular swap is to take a 1.8 turbocharged engine from a VW MKIV chassis, and fit it to a MKII Golf or GTI. Still, many areas have laws written by people who don't know any automotive physics.
Any car with altered factory parts, fabricated parts, or specialty aftermarket parts is considered a tuner car.

Any driver who builds or installs those parts is a tuner. Tuners also adjust things like the mixture screws on a carb, or the programming of EFI.
by Artificialist October 28, 2005
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tuner

A car, usually imported, that has been modified to increase both appearance and performance.

Not the same as a ricer.
The tuner drove by us with insane speed.
by Fakeman Fakey May 09, 2004
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tuner

{noun}

Any car, like a domestic car (Dodge Neon) or an import (Nissan Skyline), that has aftermarket parts (Brembo, Eibach, you get the picture) installed on it. Most commonly mistaken for a ricer.

(Mind you, muscle fans insult tuner owners mainly because they think tuners are ricers. However, this claim is not true. Remember, there are sleepers.)
I've hated muscle fans ever since one of them called my Eclipse (which is a tuner) a ricer.
by I dunno lol. November 03, 2011
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