Good price for an sc300 5spd?
08-21-13, 05:40 PM
#46
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97 5spd 149k miles been in 1 wreck but clean title small quarterpanel damage, interior should be intact, oxidation on hood. guy asking for 5500 or 5700 with exhaust because of o2 sensor which is creating a CEL. Don't have a pic. Is that reasonable price? I believe it's an original 97 5spd. Clutch replaced 6-7k miles ago.
08-21-13, 05:53 PM
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I'd try to offer more like $4.5 - 5k. The fact that it's a 97' factory 5-speed ups the rarity but the mileage, wreck and quarter panel damage I think would turn me away at that price.
08-21-13, 06:27 PM
#48
97 5 speeds are indeed rare. 149k isn't bad-- just broken in, really. IF the quarter panel damage is the only thing and there is ZERO frame damage then it won't be inexpensive to repair but wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me given that 120 were made and less are still in existence. The small mechanical issues (O2 sensors are very cheap and easy to replace) are negligible. A relatively new-ish clutch is a good perk. As someone said a few posts back, it's one of the rarer examples you'll find.
You'd have to see this car, drive it and evaluate the quarter panel damage yourself to consider if it's worth it but given that it's a 97 5-speed I'd strongly consider it even with that panel damage. Assuming that's the extent of the damage. If there are worn interior pieces... still I'd say it's worth considering. All of these cars need a little interior parts replacement or new seat leather after some time and those are minor things to do.
You'd have to see this car, drive it and evaluate the quarter panel damage yourself to consider if it's worth it but given that it's a 97 5-speed I'd strongly consider it even with that panel damage. Assuming that's the extent of the damage. If there are worn interior pieces... still I'd say it's worth considering. All of these cars need a little interior parts replacement or new seat leather after some time and those are minor things to do.
08-21-13, 06:41 PM
#49
I would like to see some pics of it, they are rare for sure but to convert one is not to bad too.
at the end you will spend the same amount for a clean auto sc to convert to manual vs a factory 5 speed in ruff shape with money to fix it up, at the end it will be almost the same amount of money
at the end you will spend the same amount for a clean auto sc to convert to manual vs a factory 5 speed in ruff shape with money to fix it up, at the end it will be almost the same amount of money
Last edited by mikef; 08-21-13 at 06:44 PM.
08-22-13, 02:38 AM
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Alright. So I had my dad check this out since he was at training for lexus (he works for lexus as a mechanic) and it was near his area in another city. Since dad knows lexus pretty well he noticed these kind of problems.... It may need a paint job, because the car had front end damage before, so the colors don't match, and it's a 92 sc hood which is oxidizing (it doesn't look like much) also the tilt steering wheel isn't working (easy fix) needs front/rear tires, and when my dad test drove it, he said it makes some noises while shifting first, 2nd , 3rd, gear etc (what could that mean?) also front and rear brakes are kind of low (not sure what he means but think he means that they are worn) Dad didn't say anything about the interior like the seats were bad so I'm going to assume it's good. The dude says like the absolute lowest he will go is $5500 and says it's either that or he would just keep it... I haven't made an offer yet but kbb says it's worth $5100ish excellent condition and knowing how rare it is I feel that it is priced decently.. but my dad feels like he wants to offer $4500 maximum due to his estimates on the repairs etc. The mileage is also at 150k. I checked the vin, had 5 owners and 1 wreck which i believe was the front end damage. Everything else checks out. I managed to get my dad to get some pictures as well I'll post them.. I would really like to make a $5000 offer.. because I feel like if I offered $4500 it would be kind of low balling.. I don't wanna **** the guy off.. And the guy said people low balled him like crazy until the point of irritation lol.. So now with more details... how much do you think it's worth?
Last edited by BigBang; 08-22-13 at 02:53 AM.
08-22-13, 02:45 AM
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97 5 speeds are indeed rare. 149k isn't bad-- just broken in, really. IF the quarter panel damage is the only thing and there is ZERO frame damage then it won't be inexpensive to repair but wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me given that 120 were made and less are still in existence. The small mechanical issues (O2 sensors are very cheap and easy to replace) are negligible. A relatively new-ish clutch is a good perk. As someone said a few posts back, it's one of the rarer examples you'll find.
You'd have to see this car, drive it and evaluate the quarter panel damage yourself to consider if it's worth it but given that it's a 97 5-speed I'd strongly consider it even with that panel damage. Assuming that's the extent of the damage. If there are worn interior pieces... still I'd say it's worth considering. All of these cars need a little interior parts replacement or new seat leather after some time and those are minor things to do.
You'd have to see this car, drive it and evaluate the quarter panel damage yourself to consider if it's worth it but given that it's a 97 5-speed I'd strongly consider it even with that panel damage. Assuming that's the extent of the damage. If there are worn interior pieces... still I'd say it's worth considering. All of these cars need a little interior parts replacement or new seat leather after some time and those are minor things to do.
08-22-13, 03:20 AM
#53
just rebuild the tranny if you are that worried about it or upgrade to a better tranny. Are you from Houston? If so I have a ton of stock sc300 parts if you plan to buy this car. Please check the vin to make sure its a true 97 5 spd from the factory.
08-22-13, 11:13 AM
#55
The car looks very good to me. I was expecting some serious quarter panel damage but the dent isn't bad at all from the picture. Front end damage I can't tell and I'd only be concerned about the front frame-- that is what you want to be sure about. The car overall looks relatively clean in those pictures-- new paint, sure but my car needs new paint as well and has some chips here and there. The original paintjobs on these cars hold up surprisingly well even if they have blemishes. It depends on how much or how little you're willing to recondition an older classic car but I wouldn't let that deter me.
I can see the rear bumper has some scratches and the black door pillar has some blemishes-- still not a big deal if the car itself is solid.
The tilt-steering is an easy fix. I had to do that a couple of months ago and it's not as crazy as it sounds. There is a writeup here on it. A couple of rubber washer spacers from lowes.
Brakes being worn can be common. That's a simple pad change and rotor turn. You should also consider upgrading to front LS400 brake calipers no matter which SC you purchase-- far superior for daily safety.
The W58 5-speed transmission is not exactly quiet by nature. Mine makes some noises here and there but it's still very solid at 217k miles. The version in that car has the more desired remote shifting mechanism so it should be fairly smooth. Rebuilding them isn't crazy money and they are very sturdy and strong boxes until you start throwing a turbocharger onto the engine (or swap in a 1JZ or Supra TT engine). You can also upgrade to either the R154 or very expensive V160 down the road if you wish but my guess is this will be driven mostly as-is for now. I'd have to hear the 5-speed shifting to give a real world opinion but if there are issues they can be corrected like new.
The seller's lowest $5500 asking price isn't bad, considering it's a 97 5-speed and from your pictures doesn't look like hell. It can't hurt to try for a little less but I'd have $5500 ready to go if you get set on the vehicle. You likely won't find another semi-clean 97 5-speed SC for a while.
The comments about the front end damage are all that concern me. Be sure about what was repaired and how much was thrown out of whack. I once hydroplaned on an off-ramp in my Prelude and smashed up the front end driver's side *above* the frame hitting the guardrail. I was lucky in that it was all cosmetic. New fender, hood, headlight and some other pieces and the car was like new. Not a cheap repair but the car's chassis was intact. Had I bent the frame it would have been a different story.
Other than those things it could be a good buy. Given the 97 5-speed model I'm willing to forgive a bit more because it's valued a bit more in the real world. KBB values don't reflect actual 5-speed values. I believe my 217k 93 5-speed original car is something like $3400 KBB. Given its condition, what I've upgraded on the car and that 3,883 5-speeds were made vs some 60,000 SC's total I wouldn't take that value seriously. I paid $5k for mine as a clean all-original example with a couple of minor issues to repair.
Expect to fix a couple of things on any of these cars given their age.
I can see the rear bumper has some scratches and the black door pillar has some blemishes-- still not a big deal if the car itself is solid.
The tilt-steering is an easy fix. I had to do that a couple of months ago and it's not as crazy as it sounds. There is a writeup here on it. A couple of rubber washer spacers from lowes.
Brakes being worn can be common. That's a simple pad change and rotor turn. You should also consider upgrading to front LS400 brake calipers no matter which SC you purchase-- far superior for daily safety.
The W58 5-speed transmission is not exactly quiet by nature. Mine makes some noises here and there but it's still very solid at 217k miles. The version in that car has the more desired remote shifting mechanism so it should be fairly smooth. Rebuilding them isn't crazy money and they are very sturdy and strong boxes until you start throwing a turbocharger onto the engine (or swap in a 1JZ or Supra TT engine). You can also upgrade to either the R154 or very expensive V160 down the road if you wish but my guess is this will be driven mostly as-is for now. I'd have to hear the 5-speed shifting to give a real world opinion but if there are issues they can be corrected like new.
The seller's lowest $5500 asking price isn't bad, considering it's a 97 5-speed and from your pictures doesn't look like hell. It can't hurt to try for a little less but I'd have $5500 ready to go if you get set on the vehicle. You likely won't find another semi-clean 97 5-speed SC for a while.
The comments about the front end damage are all that concern me. Be sure about what was repaired and how much was thrown out of whack. I once hydroplaned on an off-ramp in my Prelude and smashed up the front end driver's side *above* the frame hitting the guardrail. I was lucky in that it was all cosmetic. New fender, hood, headlight and some other pieces and the car was like new. Not a cheap repair but the car's chassis was intact. Had I bent the frame it would have been a different story.
Other than those things it could be a good buy. Given the 97 5-speed model I'm willing to forgive a bit more because it's valued a bit more in the real world. KBB values don't reflect actual 5-speed values. I believe my 217k 93 5-speed original car is something like $3400 KBB. Given its condition, what I've upgraded on the car and that 3,883 5-speeds were made vs some 60,000 SC's total I wouldn't take that value seriously. I paid $5k for mine as a clean all-original example with a couple of minor issues to repair.
Expect to fix a couple of things on any of these cars given their age.
Last edited by KahnBB6; 08-22-13 at 11:17 AM. Reason: typo
08-22-13, 11:42 AM
#56
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The car looks very good to me. I was expecting some serious quarter panel damage but the dent isn't bad at all from the picture. Front end damage I can't tell and I'd only be concerned about the front frame-- that is what you want to be sure about. The car overall looks relatively clean in those pictures-- new paint, sure but my car needs new paint as well and has some chips here and there. The original paintjobs on these cars hold up surprisingly well even if they have blemishes. It depends on how much or how little you're willing to recondition an older classic car but I wouldn't let that deter me.
I can see the rear bumper has some scratches and the black door pillar has some blemishes-- still not a big deal if the car itself is solid.
The tilt-steering is an easy fix. I had to do that a couple of months ago and it's not as crazy as it sounds. There is a writeup here on it. A couple of rubber washer spacers from lowes.
Brakes being worn can be common. That's a simple pad change and rotor turn. You should also consider upgrading to front LS400 brake calipers no matter which SC you purchase-- far superior for daily safety.
The W58 5-speed transmission is not exactly quiet by nature. Mine makes some noises here and there but it's still very solid at 217k miles. The version in that car has the more desired remote shifting mechanism so it should be fairly smooth. Rebuilding them isn't crazy money and they are very sturdy and strong boxes until you start throwing a turbocharger onto the engine (or swap in a 1JZ or Supra TT engine). You can also upgrade to either the R154 or very expensive V160 down the road if you wish but my guess is this will be driven mostly as-is for now. I'd have to hear the 5-speed shifting to give a real world opinion but if there are issues they can be corrected like new.
The seller's lowest $5500 asking price isn't bad, considering it's a 97 5-speed and from your pictures doesn't look like hell. It can't hurt to try for a little less but I'd have $5500 ready to go if you get set on the vehicle. You likely won't find another semi-clean 97 5-speed SC for a while.
The comments about the front end damage are all that concern me. Be sure about what was repaired and how much was thrown out of whack. I once hydroplaned on an off-ramp in my Prelude and smashed up the front end driver's side *above* the frame hitting the guardrail. I was lucky in that it was all cosmetic. New fender, hood, headlight and some other pieces and the car was like new. Not a cheap repair but the car's chassis was intact. Had I bent the frame it would have been a different story.
Other than those things it could be a good buy. Given the 97 5-speed model I'm willing to forgive a bit more because it's valued a bit more in the real world. KBB values don't reflect actual 5-speed values. I believe my 217k 93 5-speed original car is something like $3400 KBB. Given its condition, what I've upgraded on the car and that 3,883 5-speeds were made vs some 60,000 SC's total I wouldn't take that value seriously. I paid $5k for mine as a clean all-original example with a couple of minor issues to repair.
Expect to fix a couple of things on any of these cars given their age.
I can see the rear bumper has some scratches and the black door pillar has some blemishes-- still not a big deal if the car itself is solid.
The tilt-steering is an easy fix. I had to do that a couple of months ago and it's not as crazy as it sounds. There is a writeup here on it. A couple of rubber washer spacers from lowes.
Brakes being worn can be common. That's a simple pad change and rotor turn. You should also consider upgrading to front LS400 brake calipers no matter which SC you purchase-- far superior for daily safety.
The W58 5-speed transmission is not exactly quiet by nature. Mine makes some noises here and there but it's still very solid at 217k miles. The version in that car has the more desired remote shifting mechanism so it should be fairly smooth. Rebuilding them isn't crazy money and they are very sturdy and strong boxes until you start throwing a turbocharger onto the engine (or swap in a 1JZ or Supra TT engine). You can also upgrade to either the R154 or very expensive V160 down the road if you wish but my guess is this will be driven mostly as-is for now. I'd have to hear the 5-speed shifting to give a real world opinion but if there are issues they can be corrected like new.
The seller's lowest $5500 asking price isn't bad, considering it's a 97 5-speed and from your pictures doesn't look like hell. It can't hurt to try for a little less but I'd have $5500 ready to go if you get set on the vehicle. You likely won't find another semi-clean 97 5-speed SC for a while.
The comments about the front end damage are all that concern me. Be sure about what was repaired and how much was thrown out of whack. I once hydroplaned on an off-ramp in my Prelude and smashed up the front end driver's side *above* the frame hitting the guardrail. I was lucky in that it was all cosmetic. New fender, hood, headlight and some other pieces and the car was like new. Not a cheap repair but the car's chassis was intact. Had I bent the frame it would have been a different story.
Other than those things it could be a good buy. Given the 97 5-speed model I'm willing to forgive a bit more because it's valued a bit more in the real world. KBB values don't reflect actual 5-speed values. I believe my 217k 93 5-speed original car is something like $3400 KBB. Given its condition, what I've upgraded on the car and that 3,883 5-speeds were made vs some 60,000 SC's total I wouldn't take that value seriously. I paid $5k for mine as a clean all-original example with a couple of minor issues to repair.
Expect to fix a couple of things on any of these cars given their age.
Yeah I've done the steering wheel fix on my sc400, simple fix. I think my dad was just trying to point out all flaws and add value to subtract from it.
I had thought about the ls400 upgrade since the brakes are worn, if i were to get the car I would probably go ls400.
Thanks for the info about the transmission, the guy did reply saying it is reliable even though it needs tlc so maybe maybe the sound was normal.. I wasn't there to hear the transmission either. Good to know it is an easy thing to fix/replace as well
Yeah, I will ask him if he saw front frame damage.
I tried explaining the kbb value to my dad as well. regards to supply and demand and how the values aren't really reflected in real world but didn't really seem too helpful in my dad's decision lol. Thanks alot!
08-22-13, 02:25 PM
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I don't know if you'd be able to score the car for $4500 but drive up there with $5k cash in hand and he'd be stupid to walk away from it. Argue the flaws with the car and point out that it books at $5100 in EXCELLENT condition, which the car is not in it's more like "Good" condition. So you're kind of already technically overpaying.
I paid $2800 for my 95' with a rebuilt title and all sorts of little issues. If I would have had the money I would have much rather spent an extra $2k to get a car like this one.
I paid $2800 for my 95' with a rebuilt title and all sorts of little issues. If I would have had the money I would have much rather spent an extra $2k to get a car like this one.
08-22-13, 02:54 PM
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I don't know if you'd be able to score the car for $4500 but drive up there with $5k cash in hand and he'd be stupid to walk away from it. Argue the flaws with the car and point out that it books at $5100 in EXCELLENT condition, which the car is not in it's more like "Good" condition. So you're kind of already technically overpaying.
I paid $2800 for my 95' with a rebuilt title and all sorts of little issues. If I would have had the money I would have much rather spent an extra $2k to get a car like this one.
I paid $2800 for my 95' with a rebuilt title and all sorts of little issues. If I would have had the money I would have much rather spent an extra $2k to get a car like this one.
08-22-13, 04:48 PM
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It is a 5 owner car, and the front end damage from the autocheck happened in 2002. from 2-3 previous owners before. He said he owned the vehicle for 1 year 9 months and drove roughly 10k miles since he had it. I guess since then nobody bothered giving it a paint job lol.
