Can I afford an NSX? Should I purchase one?

J

Joey Link

Registered Member
Joined
11 October 2006
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30
Hello everyone. I currently own a BMW 540i 6-speed. I love the car but I've been drooling ever since seeing an NSX at a meet last week. I believe I could get around $18k-$19.5k for my car. I probably wouldn't have a problem getting another couple thousand in cash and I have excellent credit if I wanted to finance a little bit, but honestly don't want the payments. I'd be looking to get in around $20k. What I want to know is what're the chances of me finding a clean NSX for around that? It seems like the prices start around $23k. You guys check this board everyday I'm sure (I know I do with the BMW boards) so you have a better pulse on the sales of these cars than I would. I wouldn't have a problem waiting for a good deal to come along. I also want to know how much it costs to maintain such a car and how reliable they are.

Just for shits I'll post a pic of my car.

main.php
 
I would say you're looking for a steal if you intend to find a good example under $25k - the cars under $25k usually have issues, may have secrets, and are probably more headache than value... for $25k you're possibly looking at deferred maintiance (eg timing belt), but occasionally you could get lucky, and find a non-snap ring (or repaired) car ready to go... still, I would say the 'real' price for a clean, maintained, ready to drive for a while, early car is approx $30k...

If you're not prepared to spend between $25k to $30k I would suggest waiting until you are ready to spend this level of money, perhaps poke around the market in the meantime to ensure this is the direction you want to go in, but don't rush into a bad car just because the numbers seem good.
 
John is right but its more realistically 30k-40k for a clean used low mileage 1991-94 year. Most of the real clean ones I have seem were starting at 32k and up for 1991's.
 
The pricerange I listed was for avg miles (eg around 75k) low mileage examples do fetch a premium, but there is also a concern for deferred maintiance with low mileage cars (eg it only has 20k miles, why would I do the timing belt?, despite there also being a time interval for such work) - if you intend to enjoy the car, and it passes a complete purchase inspection, I see no reason to look for a low mileage nsx... obviously look for a 'good' car, with history and a pro-active owner, and do not rush into any purchase.

To answer your original question, no, $20k is not going to get far in the used nsx market - it would be an effort to even find a repaired salvage car for that amount, unless it had issues - I believe a well-discussed money pit salvage car sold on ebay last week for just north of $20k - this is what you would get for this type of buy in. It's a great platform, but this kind of example would only turn you away from the car.
 
Sounds like I need to keep saving for a bit, huh? :(

One nice thing about going from the 540i to the NSX is the NSX will probably be quite a bit cheaper to own than the 540i as far as maintenance goes. On average the BMW costs $2k/yr. in maintenance and repairs, and I do most of the work myself!
 
What everybody above just said is gospel! I just bought my 91 last week. I also looked at the 20-25k cars and was sorely dissappointed in what you get for that money. I was obsessed in my search also, I spent all day scattered from early AM to late PM searching NSXPRIME, CARS.COM, E-BAY, AUTOTRADER.COM, trying to find that deal and while you may get lucky, somebody else will more than likely BEAT you to any steal thats out there due to the distance. I ended up paying the 30K and up price and got a very fine 91, you can do a search on my name and read though my threads and get a good feel of my search and results. It seemed to me I missed a couple at 28K, but expect to pay about 30-35K for a car that will make you proud.
BTW: I also had a late model 540i AT Black on Black w/ Factory Nav. recently just out of warranty and it tore my wallet up, I had the money to keep it going but I got rid of it on principal. My opinion was a 30K USED car should not leave my wife stranded once a month and cost on average 600.00 a month to fix, so I sold after like 4 months.
Good luck and welcome to nsxprime. Greg Z
 
Don't forget:

Afford the NSX = buying it or affording the monthly payments/lease

PLUS

About 2-3k$ fix costs/year and an emergency deposit of 4k-5k$ for repairs that may happen once in the lifetime of the car (snap ring? AC? engine? windows regulator? weather strip? stereo?).




Upgrades/Mods are not part of affording the car. Well almost ;) .
 
gheba_nsx said:
Don't forget:
...
About 2-3k$ fix costs/year
Click to expand...

While I agree about being able to afford something major if it breaks, I don't agree that it normally costs 2-3K$ in repairs/maintenance a year. Even if you wear out a set of rear tires and ruin a front spoiler every year and otherwise do your maintenance (as I do) it won't cost that much.
 
bodypainter said:
While I agree about being able to afford something major if it breaks, I don't agree that it normally costs 2-3K$ in repairs/maintenance a year. Even if you wear out a set of rear tires and ruin a front spoiler every year and otherwise do your maintenance (as I do) it won't cost that much.
Click to expand...

Yes but you also need insurance, services, tires to really afford the car. The 2-3k is quite a low figure, it oculd be a 1k higher in many cases (=young driver, higher insurance, ...) ;)
 
Greg Z said:
What everybody above just said is gospel! I just bought my 91 last week. I also looked at the 20-25k cars and was sorely dissappointed in what you get for that money. I was obsessed in my search also, I spent all day scattered from early AM to late PM searching NSXPRIME, CARS.COM, E-BAY, AUTOTRADER.COM, trying to find that deal and while you may get lucky, somebody else will more than likely BEAT you to any steal thats out there due to the distance. I ended up paying the 30K and up price and got a very fine 91, you can do a search on my name and read though my threads and get a good feel of my search and results. It seemed to me I missed a couple at 28K, but expect to pay about 30-35K for a car that will make you proud.
BTW: I also had a late model 540i AT Black on Black w/ Factory Nav. recently just out of warranty and it tore my wallet up, I had the money to keep it going but I got rid of it on principal. My opinion was a 30K USED car should not leave my wife stranded once a month and cost on average 600.00 a month to fix, so I sold after like 4 months.
Good luck and welcome to nsxprime. Greg Z
Click to expand...

Greg, I do not believe I ever congratulated you on your purchase. So, congrats!
 
You might be able to get a higher mileage car, but it won't be easy. I saw a black 91 in California on ebay recently for 20K with 167k on the clock. Anything within your budget will probably have issues and need work. I would stay away from cars with bad titles also.
 
gheba_nsx said:
Yes but you also need insurance, services, tires to really afford the car. The 2-3k is quite a low figure, it oculd be a 1k higher in many cases (=young driver, higher insurance, ...) ;)
Click to expand...
I wouldn't put insurance in the repair/maintenance category. That's a fixed cost that you can know up front before you buy the car.

What I know for sure is I'm coming up on 2 years with my '95 NSX which I drive every day (have put 27,000 miles on it) and strive to maintain in perfect running condition. I don't spend anywhere close to that much on repairs and/or maintenance.

2 years.

Timing belt/water pump - $1400
2 sets of rear tires - $800
1 set of front tires - $300
Brake job - $250
8 or 9 oil changes @ $30 each

That's about $3,000 total. Someone who doesn't use their car for a daily driver would have fewer tires and oil changes.

Like I said earlier, one should have the funds to fix something big if it fails and I do, but barring that the NSX is not a super-expensive car to maintain.
 
bodypainter said:
Like I said earlier, one should have the funds to fix something big if it fails and I do, but barring that the NSX is not a super-expensive car to maintain.
Click to expand...

I agree. Normally, I'm not one to advocate taking on debt (unless its for a house or something major), but life is short, and someone who wants to get an NSX should. If anything major comes up for repair, put it on a credit card and go out and drive the car. :smile:
 
bodypainter said:
I wouldn't put insurance in the repair/maintenance category. That's a fixed cost that you can know up front before you buy the car.
Click to expand...


Did I ever put them in that category? :confused:

I simply said that to afford the car, after buying it, you need 2k-3k/year every year (didn't specify for what) and some spare money for additional repairs over the years.
 
Not all low mileage NSX's are deferred maintenance. Mine is one example.......even though the car has low miles like 24k the previous owner did the timing belt, pump, etc on my car. Knowing that you do these things either x miles or x years. So even though it has low miles the maintenance was done. Assuming you have a owner that cared for the car like I do. Of course if you have someone that thinks like what John was saying then you need to just do your homework to see if the maintenance was done. You just need to get a PPI done before purchase.

If you are from Southern Calif LA or OC I would suggest you talk to Jon Martin from Cerritos Acura. 562-402-5281

Jon is one of the most respected NSX gurus out there.
 
scorp965 said:
If you're not prepared to spend between $25k to $30k I would suggest waiting until you are ready to spend this level of money, perhaps poke around the market in the meantime to ensure this is the direction you want to go in, but don't rush into a bad car just because the numbers seem good.
Click to expand...
This is a great suggestion. I will add a few additional suggestions:

-Pre-purchase inspection is an absolute must no matter how clean the car appears.

-I would not believe owners words on the major maintenance items unless I see the receipts.

-You get what you pay for, no one likes to pay, however if you pay little now settle for less, chances are you will get exactly what you paid for and end up paying more later to get the maintenance up to date, and fix minor imperfections.

-Patience

ediddynsx said:
Most of the real clean ones I have seem were starting at 32k and up for 1991's.
Click to expand...
This is 100% correct, can not agree more.
 
nsxsupra said:
This is a great suggestion. I will add a few additional suggestions:

-Pre-purchase inspection is an absolute must no matter how clean the car appears.

-I would not believe owners words on the major maintenance items unless I see the receipts.

-You get what you pay for, no one likes to pay, however if you pay little now settle for less, chances are you will get exactly what you paid for and end up paying more later to get the maintenance up to date, and fix minor imperfections.

-Patience


This is 100% correct, can not agree more.
Click to expand...


:biggrin: By the way a clean car is like Jasons car. Fast and clean!
 
I'm going to purchase a mid-80's Camry and save my pennies through the winter, leaving my cash in a high yield savings account waiting for the right deal :D

I just need to find someone around here that'd be willing to show me their NSX so I can be sure it's what I want.
 
Joey Link said:
I just need to find someone around here that'd be willing to show me their NSX so I can be sure it's what I want.
Click to expand...
Where is around here for you?
 
Joey Link said:
I'm going to purchase a mid-80's Camry and save my pennies through the winter, leaving my cash in a high yield savings account waiting for the right deal :D

I just need to find someone around here that'd be willing to show me their NSX so I can be sure it's what I want.
Click to expand...


Great idea...a person that thinks in advance.
 

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