I personally don't think so but I think they're honestly more of a style mod than anything else. I've seen cars with super restrictive factory air boxes gain decent HP from one and I've also seen cars destroyed by the cold air intake sucking water into the engine and locking it up. So it really depends on what your doing with the car. Do you want to mod it to make it sporty or is this your daily because it's honestly not worth the hastle unless your going to do serious mods to your car and are working on building it into more of a track or drag car. 

Without a tune, yes. With supporting mods and a tune, you'll get gains. 

It is bad if one does it in one’s backyard without proper tuning/reprogramming. If we do it with the help of a pro tuner and enhanced parts to support the modification, it is not bad.

I was looking into them too. A lot of folks swear by them but what Scotty says makes sense to me. You get that throaty noise but from what I've determined, the money spent on that could be used elsewhere toward a better hp gain. Same with a throttle body spacer. If I did get a cai, and I'm still considering it, I think I'd get one that was enclosed. The open cone under the hood seems like it would be pulling hot air.

My shop installs these intakes all the time. Here are a couple of pointers when it comes to these kits:

• They make kits that are open element (filter is exposed) and sealed element (filter is in a box and not exposed). Open element filters are pretty much useless as they always wind up sucking in hot air, especially at idle. If you research cold air intakes and see people talking about having elevated "IAT's", this is what they are talking about. IAT = Intake Ambient Air Temperature. The hotter it is, the less power you are making.

• Some intakes maintain the factory sized MAF sensor (Mass Air Flow Sensor). This means that there is the same amount of air passing through the intake tube as the stock unit, or very close. If you want to really see an increase in power, you need to increase the MAF size. There are lots that do this, but they all require tuning the computer for the new air intake. I can not stress to you enough the importance of getting your cold air dialed in right. Please do not use a general tune that comes on some handheld programmer. It needs to be dyno tuned to make sure the engine is happy with the setup.

• As stated above, to make a kit worth it, you need to get one that requires a tune. Dyno tunes are not cheap and intakes do not give you much gain, so most guys will have headers/cams/some other mod done at the same time to make the price of the tune worth it. Whatever you do, please do not go down to AutoZone or Pep Boys and buy a Spectre do it yourself kit. You will waste time and money.

• Some kits have oiled filters, some have dry. Both filters can be cleaned but oiled filters require re-applying oil to the filter. This is where most people go wrong. Too much oil and it will get on your MAF sensor and foul it out. Not enough and you don't get proper filtration. The appropriate amount to use on most conical filters is 38 grams. I recommend using a dry filter. They do not flow as well and will cost you a few horsepower compared to the same filter in oiled form, but you can blow it clean with canned air and never worry about messing up your MAF.

• Don't expect major gains. A lot of manufacturers these days use a cold air setup from the factory. Make sure you aren't just throwing money away. Most guys we install kits for are more after the under hood "bling" or louder intake noise than true power gains.

• Think of the intake as your car's way of inhaling. It doesn't do too much good to inhale a lot of air unless you can also exhale it rapidly. To do this, you'll want to upgrade your exhaust to a better flowing system. 

Just some things to think about. Make sure you don't mind dropping $300+ for a good kit before making the leap.

Hey I am going to just make a point about  about cold air vs more air.

 cold air intake does not make a difference.. and happy to be corrected and discuss.

Here why - look where your throttle body and manifold is located normal... right above the engine ... a very very hot spot.

I am going give my view on this

Temperatures is say 25 degree going into your intake.  Say the cold air intake can drop it to 20 degree.

By the time the air has hit throttle body and manifold does that 5 degree make a real difference ?

Second topic more air - I believe this makes a difference as long as you can control the air flow to be a smooth as possible and not create vortex  .. I see people put connectors that are corrugated tubes or with 3 bend instead of one. All this does is  correct vortex. Look how water flows down pipes to prove the physics smooth air flow.

Therefore the claimed hp gain from cold air intake is not from cold air but from more area surface the air can be sucked in.

Love to here people thoughts ..

Dont get me wrong cold air intake look great:)

There are a couple of other considerations that nobody seems to talk about, so here's my 2 cents worth.

If you make this type of modification to a vehicle that is still under warranty, the warranty IS MADE VOID. And it not just for the stuff you modified, it affects the drivetrain and usually the entire vehicle. So kiss your warranty goodbye ...

If you read the fine print of vehicle insurance policies, guess what ?? The policy can be considered void/cancelled if you make such modifications to the vehicle without notifying the insurance carrier or agent. So kiss you insurance goodbye ...

It's not worth it to spend big bucks just to screw things up ...