Having recently bought an 97 SC4, these are my $.02:

1) You will love the SC. Having owned at least a dozen cars prior, I am sold on the SCs given their performance, luxury, exclusivity, and price. I will always own one of these as long as I can find them!

2) you speak of getting a smaller car, but the dimensions of the SC are fairly large; it takes up the same space as an MBZ E-class that used to occupy the garage.

3) There aren't a whole lot of aftermarket items (compare to the cars like Hondas) which is good in my opinion. It tells me that the car was engineered properly from the beginning and that I cant go too crazy adding a bunch of stuff

Have fun!

 

I used to drive really aggressively and one day I calculated an average 17.7 mpg after a 16 gal fill up. Since a tank of gas regularly costs me over $40, I've been easing up on the urban autocrossing. I keep the tach below 3-g as much as possible and ECT on normal and so far my mpg in a V8 with 75k miles is about 19.2 mpg. SC300s should be much better being an inline design with lower displacement. SC300s with 5-speeds are about the best with mileage. I once made it from SF to LA (390 miles) on one tank of gas while cruising at an average 95mph with an occasional 120mph sprint.

 

1993 SC300 5 speed
104k miles

I average every tank of gas and get between 19.5 mpg and 22mpg in a mix of city/hwy driving. I've gotten as high as 25mpg on pure highway though.

 

I have a 97 sc400 (by the way has the mpg caculater) the car has 60,000 miles on it. I got like 25 or 26 mpg on a trip last month averaging 80 mph ( used my own calcution as well to see how accurate the computer was real close just tenths of a difference) but in town I get 16 to 18.5 mpg, but my wife gets 19 to 22 mpg so it will really depends on how you drive, either way I didn't buy the car for gas mileage

 

i'm selling my first gen gs and getting an sc300 stick. i was wondering how easy is it for be to break traction off the line with the sc300 stick. i drive a gs300 auto and its impossible to do in the dry. i know the sc and gs share the same engine. but how much stronger is the stick.

 

??

 

I think its 95...92-94 had gray and tan...i'm not 100% tho...

 

i have heard the same thing. i just wanted to confirm. dam i love this forum. so dam quick

 

i've never seen anything below 95 with black from the factory, so i'll second that as a guess.

 

Black inter. started in 95

with 265's in back I can sometimes squeek when shifting to second

with 225's I would lose traction all the time ... too easy to lose the back end though.