SC- 1st Gen (1992-2000)

I think I found a winner

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Old 06-03-04, 09:00 PM
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ONe21
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Default I think I found a winner

My wife and I have been looking for cars for a while. We haven't had much luck. She was originally looking for a mid 90's accord or an integra. She has always loved the SC300s but as you all know they are pretty hard to find, and when you do find them people want an arm and a leg for them. Well... we happend to look in an old newspaper and we found a '92 SC300 with 118k miles for $5100! We called and it's still for sale and the guy says that it's in excellent condition. He is the second owner and he said that it's always been garaged and the maintenance has always been done at the Lexus dealership; he also has all the maintenance records.

Anyway, just letting you guys know that I had a good find. We are pretty sure it's a go, but I'll update you guys when we go to look at it tomorrow. Well, hopefully I'll be talking more with you guys. Thanks for listening, hehe.
Old 06-03-04, 09:07 PM
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Hey, welcome to the club.

Several of my close friends have recently purchased SC300 5 speeds as well...Each of them picked up a clean SC for relatively cheap for its shape and condition...For some reason, everyone is letting them go for cheap..It wasn't the same story 2 years ago when I was looking for mine..It was a tough and expensive find...Anyways, good luck with everything...It sounds like a wonderful deal to me..
Old 06-04-04, 09:26 AM
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adidosc
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i got mine for relatively cheap as well... had a few minor problems but its to be expected from a 93.

welcome to CL!
Old 06-04-04, 10:20 AM
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Thomas C
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Sounds like a great deal to me. 118k miles are low for a 92! Better ****** it before someone else sneaks up on you and buys it from right under your nose.
Old 06-04-04, 10:47 AM
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mikeloc24
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Originally posted by One HoT SC400
Hey, welcome to the club.

Several of my close friends have recently purchased SC300 5 speeds as well...Each of them picked up a clean SC for relatively cheap for its shape and condition...For some reason, everyone is letting them go for cheap..It wasn't the same story 2 years ago when I was looking for mine..It was a tough and expensive find...Anyways, good luck with everything...It sounds like a wonderful deal to me..
You ain't never lied Dennis, when I got my SC a few years ago I never saw any for less than $7k, and those were just okay looking ones. I wanted one that was pristine so I found one for $9500 with 126k and snatched it up. Now people are finding them in the $5k range!!!!! Oh well, that's the game...welcome to the club my man!
Old 06-05-04, 05:55 PM
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ONe21
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We went and looked at it today and my wife is totally pleased... which is rare. It wasn't quite immaculate, but it was mechanically as good as they come. The only imperfections are cosmetic. The leather on the driver side kidney support is a dark color from people sliding in and out of the car, one of the ac vents has a crack in it, and the console looks a little worn, but then again it just looked kind of dirty. The guy had the car repainted and the paint had some "orange peel" in it, but it wasn't really that bad. My wife loves it though, so He dropped the price to 5k and said he didn't want to go any lower because he knows he could get 5 out of it.
Old 06-05-04, 06:22 PM
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TLW
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Originally posted by ONe21
We went and looked at it today and my wife is totally pleased... which is rare. It wasn't quite immaculate, but it was mechanically as good as they come. The only imperfections are cosmetic. The leather on the driver side kidney support is a dark color from people sliding in and out of the car, one of the ac vents has a crack in it, and the console looks a little worn, but then again it just looked kind of dirty. The guy had the car repainted and the paint had some "orange peel" in it, but it wasn't really that bad. My wife loves it though, so He dropped the price to 5k and said he didn't want to go any lower because he knows he could get 5 out of it.

nice

put the $100 towards detailing the car

good luck

Last edited by T.L.W.; 06-05-04 at 06:22 PM.
Old 06-05-04, 07:52 PM
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SupraCoup3
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or spend the $100 investing in car detailing stuff

Get yourself a claybar, some nice wax (people seem to swear by zaino... claybar + meguiar's gold class works fine for me)

and detail your car yourself. You'll save money in the long run, and the mystery of getting that showroom shine disapears.

Congrats

JT
Old 06-05-04, 11:38 PM
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vboy418
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congrats! welcome to cL...
Old 06-07-04, 06:21 AM
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ONe21
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Well we picked up the car yesterday and I got to drive it and MAN does it drive good. The condition of the car is really better than I previously thought. I think it is because it's just a little dirty, like I said before.

There are a couple of things I have questions about though.
1) The gauge needle's lights are burned out, where should I go for that?
2) The owner said that we should probably get it aligned every 5k miles, because otherwise we'll wear tires out really fast. What causes this? Is this normal?

I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future. Oh, and my wife wants it stock... she doesn't even want me to put rims on it
Old 06-07-04, 10:13 AM
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jeremyp111
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Originally posted by ONe21
Well we picked up the car yesterday and I got to drive it and MAN does it drive good. The condition of the car is really better than I previously thought. I think it is because it's just a little dirty, like I said before.

There are a couple of things I have questions about though.
1) The gauge needle's lights are burned out, where should I go for that?
2) The owner said that we should probably get it aligned every 5k miles, because otherwise we'll wear tires out really fast. What causes this? Is this normal?

I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future. Oh, and my wife wants it stock... she doesn't even want me to put rims on it
ONe21,

First off, welcome to the club! The gauge needles are a very common problem with the SC's. Check out lextech.org, he's a sponsor here at CL and also one of the moderators. He can fix the needles and do some really cool stuff with the lighting. As for the other problem. This usually means that the lower control arm bushings in the front end are worn and need replacement. It makes it very hard, if not impossible for the car to maintain proper alignment. The problem is that you can't replace just the bushings. You have to buy the whole control arm from Lexus and it's very expensive. Your other option is to get some Daizen poly bushings, but they give a harsher ride and they will eventually squeak. You can also get a set of OEM quality bushings from Andrew Vlamos. He's in Australia and has come up with an OEM quality replacement bushing that will fit perfect and give the car a 'brand new' feel to it. Do a search for his contact info (sorry, I don't have it). There might even be a third option too. Someone here has bought a set of replacement bushings that were supposed to be for a 97up SC and is trying to see if it will work for older SCs as well. Still waiting for the final outcome. Here's a link to the thread.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...hreadid=122014

Good luck with the SC and post a pic of it. We like pics.

Jeremy

Last edited by jeremyp111; 06-07-04 at 10:17 AM.
Old 06-07-04, 11:31 AM
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ONe21
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Originally posted by jeremyp111
ONe21,

First off, welcome to the club! The gauge needles are a very common problem with the SC's. Check out lextech.org, he's a sponsor here at CL and also one of the moderators. He can fix the needles and do some really cool stuff with the lighting. As for the other problem. This usually means that the lower control arm bushings in the front end are worn and need replacement. It makes it very hard, if not impossible for the car to maintain proper alignment. The problem is that you can't replace just the bushings. You have to buy the whole control arm from Lexus and it's very expensive. Your other option is to get some Daizen poly bushings, but they give a harsher ride and they will eventually squeak. You can also get a set of OEM quality bushings from Andrew Vlamos. He's in Australia and has come up with an OEM quality replacement bushing that will fit perfect and give the car a 'brand new' feel to it. Do a search for his contact info (sorry, I don't have it). There might even be a third option too. Someone here has bought a set of replacement bushings that were supposed to be for a 97up SC and is trying to see if it will work for older SCs as well. Still waiting for the final outcome. Here's a link to the thread.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...hreadid=122014

Good luck with the SC and post a pic of it. We like pics.

Jeremy
Man, thanks a bunch. I'll check out lextech.com about the needles. I am not sure that I quite understand the bushing though. You said that you can't just replace the bushings, but then you said that I had an option to buy one of several bushings to replace the worn bushing (and from what I understand) to avoid having to replace the entire control arm assembly.

I don't have a digital camera, but I know some people that do. Maybe I'll be able to snap some shots with one of theirs.

Here is a link to the rims I would like to put on the car, if money and my wife permit.http://www.wheelmax.com/Wheels/AZA/AZA.htm
it's the top ones and I would get the staggered sizes.
Old 06-07-04, 11:41 AM
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jeremyp111
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Sorry for not being super clear on the bushings issue. What I meant to say is that you can't get them from Lexus. The poly bushes will give a harsher ride and need to be greased every so often to stop the squeaking (this is really annoying). Andrew Vlamos's bushes are awesome but they come from Australia. And for the other option, it's still being looked into right now so we'll find out shortly.

The wheels look great by the way. Nice choice. Wheelmax is a good place to buy wheels.
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