Maintenance costs?

[696]

For years I've wanted an NSX. I'm basically certain that at some point I will own one in spite of the fact I've never driven one. I'd like a ballpark idea on what ownership costs would be. Ranging from typical maintenance to big items such as engine rebuild, trans rebuild and clutch. I want to be ready when the right car comes around.

Also, Are there any good mechanics in the Oklahoma City area?

Thanks in advance for any info

 

[asylum]

The NSX is reliable but parts are expensive and become hard to find. It is also a 25 years ols car, so you can expect some cracking rubbers and gaskets. Unexpeted maintenance is rare but with the age and mileage, we sometime see some problems on steering racks, window motors, suspension ball joints, shafts or gears and synchros. Expect a 3000 - 5000 $ belt service (depending of how much gasket and hoses you change by the same time) every 6-8 years and a clutch every 50 - 100 kmiles (3000 - 4000 $). This is just to give a general idea.

 

[696]

The NSX is reliable but parts are expensive and become hard to find. It is also a 25 years ols car, so you can expect some cracking rubbers and gaskets. Unexpeted maintenance is rare but with the age and mileage, we sometime see some problems on steering racks, window motors, suspension ball joints, shafts or gears and synchros. Expect a 3000 - 5000 $ belt service (depending of how much gasket and hoses you change by the same time) every 6-8 years and a clutch every 50 - 100 kmiles (3000 - 4000 $). This is just to give a general idea.

Thanks for info. Are those American prices? Those seem higher than some I've seen, bit many of the costs I found were from old threads and may not be applicable any longer.

I see that Science of Speed has an engine and transmission rebuild program. Has anyone used this?

 

[asylum]

The prices I put are in the higher range. You can have the belt service done for 2000 $. But if you replace some gasket, seals and hoses by the same time, you will not have a bad surpise this way. It is good to expect 8'000 - 10'000 $ maintenance cost for 10 years of ownership (fluid changes, filters, brakes, belt, clutch and some other wear items or unexpected small things).

 

[Old Guy]

I think asylum's costs perhaps reflect European labour rates (things are not inexpensive in Switzerland) and the fact that Honda's parts prices seem to be higher in Europe. My car is a 2000 and I have had it since 2011. The routine maintenance cost will run higher than a Honda Accord just because the car is a little harder to work on. My regular maintenance has probably averaged out about $200 - $250 Cdn /year which has just been fluid changes (oil, coolant, transmission, clutch & brake fluid). I did the brake pads a couple of years ago myself. I used OEM pads which are not cheap; but, I picked them up from a US Acura parts discounter for around $300. The timing belt is coming up for replacement which is probably going to be somewhere in the range of $1500. If you added in the timing belt and pads and other misc bits my average annual routine maintenance costs would probably be in the $450 - $500 Cdn /year. My car has something over 70,000 mi on it, I only drive it in the summer and it does not get a lot of use. If you start with a high mileage car and drive it a lot you should expect that you r annual costs will be higher.

So, routine maintenance is probably more than an Accord (assuming you follow Honda's recommended service intervals for both cars); but, way less than a similar vintage Ferrari. I have not included tires in the maintenance equation because that cost is too variable. Be warned that the NSX does have a reputation for tire wear and if you get sticky tires with low UTQG values and drive aggressively you could be adding new tires into your annual maintenance costs making the other stuff irrelevant.

Asylum is correct that the NSX parts prices are definitely really expensive compared to equivalent parts from the aforementioned Accord (I think the Targa A pillar gasket is around $1500 Cdn list!). Labour on a clutch will be really high and the OEM clutch (especially the later mungo flywheel version) is really pricey. Fortunately SOS does offer a reasonable cost non aggressive clutch for the NSX. But, replacement is still going to be expensive. The other thing that Asylum correctly notes is that a number of parts are becoming increasingly difficult to source because they are out of production. This particularly applies to body / trim / interior parts. If you are looking at a car that has cosmetic damage to trim parts or that some owner has taken a saw to the console to modify it to fit something, you may not be able to source new OEM parts if you want to restore it.

A complete C series engine rebuild is mind buggeringly expensive compared to a Honda J engine. If you were looking at an NSX with major engine issues, I personally would run in the opposite direction or be looking for a price offset in the order of $20,000 relative to a comparable NSX without engine issues.

 

[696]

@ old guy.

Is the 20k the cost of a rebuild. What I saw on the science of speed site looked reasonable enough. Did I miss something big? The parts availability does concern me some. I have a Porsche now, so I'm familiar with high parts and labor costs, but it seems as if all the Porsche parts are always readily available.

 

[goldNSX]

The NSX is NOT overly expensive to maintain, relative to other cars of his age an moreover newer cars of his class the NSX is very predictable and reasonably priced. Ok, it's no Civic, no S2000, it's a luxury sportscar.

Let's face it:
- the engine doesn't go south (if you boost or track or abuse, that's a different story). At other makes it GOES south even if you baby it.
- you can get easily get 100k miles out of a clutch but it all depends on your driving style
- I was afraid about parts availability too but I'd to admit that it's actually very good. It will be hard to find a particular interior trim but you can organise substitutes (even from crashed cars) but the main parts for the car to be driven are all available.

It all depends on the car you buy and how you use it. My two killer criteria were (well, back then): TB/WP changed recently? clutch done? Avoid to buy a car in the need of many repairs except the price is right (which seldomly is). The US cars seem a little bit better maintained to me than the Europe cars as parts and labor are 2x here and the DIY 'subculture' is not very widespread in Europe.

 

[Old Guy]

@ old guy.

Is the 20k the cost of a rebuild. What I saw on the science of speed site looked reasonable enough. Did I miss something big? The parts availability does concern me some. I have a Porsche now, so I'm familiar with high parts and labor costs, but it seems as if all the Porsche parts are always readily available.

First off, being Canadian I was thinking Cdn $, so depending on exchange rates $20,000 Cdn could be $15,000 - $17,000 USD (the exchange rate is all over the place recently). I was basing it on SOS's na2 rebuild cost (I have a 2000 myr) of $9250 USD and assuming that I would outsource the R&R work. I also allowed for crating, shipping and insurance both to and from SOS on the engine and some allowance for the inevitable incidentals that come with putting a rebuilt engine back into the car. I also allowed for 11 % PST and GST tax on the engine rebuild since there is no way that I would be able to get a reputable broker / shipper to dodge that tax on re entry to Canada. I am assuming that the Arizona sales tax would not apply to an out of state sale. Other wise that could be another 8 - 9 % depending on SOS's physical location in Arizona. All that stuff adds up. In retrospect, I think my $16,000 USD number could be light. If you have the shop space and inclination to R&R the engine yourself (not a trivial exercise) and live close enough that you can drive the engine to SOS, then you can cut your cost a lot. That presumes that you don't put any value on your own time.


Note that the SOS costs include redoing the valve seats; but, if the valves are damaged or there is valve train damage, I think that would all be an extra (quite large) cost. As an observation, the SOS package includes their forged pistons, not OEM replacements. On a na street driven car I am no fan of forged pistons because of the fact that the cold clearances are larger. If you used OEM pistons the SOS cost would be higher.

However, given that you are a Porsche owner currently, if it is a 15 year or older 911 variant I think you will find that the long term cost of ownership for the NSX will be significantly less than the 911.

I think goldNSX alluded to this; but, generally any 'mission critical' part is available. It is the trim and appearance related stuff that will become hard or impossible to find. To put it in context, given the long production run of the 911 variants they are almost borderline common compared to the NSX (no negative assertion on my part). The NSX had a total delivery of I think somewhere around 16,000 in North America, most of it in the early years. The final years North American deliveries were in the order of a couple of hundred per year. The net result is that the NSX does not enjoy anywhere near the level of aftermarket product support that the more common Porsche 911 variants do.

 

[mastaf]

The NSX had a total delivery of I think somewhere around 16,000 in North America,

It's actually less than 9,000 in USA.

 

[696]

Thanks for the info so far

 

[Old Guy]

It's actually less than 9,000 in USA.

You are correct. I was probably thinking of the world production number; but, I was a little low for that. Hazards of relying on memory. The lower number adds even more support for the reason for lack of aftermarket support for the NSX.

 

[Albert86]

So when you buy these cars some stuff should get attention, some goes bad.
I have only drove my car ~ 14K miles so far since I bought it.
What that went bad:
Clutch master cylinder - Replaced that and all associated hosed, and the slave cylinder while I was at it.
Spool valve gaskets (not really bad - just messy).
Head cover gaskets (like spool valve gaskets - not really bad - just messy).
Drivers side outer CV boot.
I could have kept driving on these except for the clutch master cylinder & CV boot (3rd year)
Other stuff
Rebuilt brakes - full tear down - all seals - new OEM pads - New rotors while I was at it.
Next year
All coolant hoses & after market radiator.
Next year
Rear axle rebuild (due to CV joint boot noted above).
My car had the TB service done shortly before I bought it, so I am OK for another couple of years.
This is an NSX item that should not be overlooked.
This does not include wheels, tires, and other maintenance and goodies I wanted (implied).
Yet to do - climate control - mine is not working.
Most of the parts I needed I was able get from domestic suppliers, had to look a bit for the caliper parts.
I did the work myself - are you the wrenchin kind of guy? If not have you looked for a local NSX mechanic?
The cars need a bit of attention and money to keep the as you buy them or better than that.
You need to be ready to keep up a sports car, it does take a bit of cash.
I would guess I have spent ~ 3K per year (maybe a bit more in the first couple of years) to get my car functioning and presentable - again, me under the car.
Also - the stock clutches are getting a bit scarce, but it seems there are still some of them around.
Good luck with your decision - and watch out for possible transmission snap ring issues in the earlier cars.

 

[696]

I'm not skilled at working on cars, so I would need a good mechanic. Are most Acura dealerships able to maintain the car correctly? I'm in Oklahoma City. Not sure if there are any good NSX techs here.

 

[Larry Bastanza]

From the WIKI:


8997 sold in the US
701 sold in Canada
1559 sold in Europe / Middle East / Africa
7420 sold in Japan
18685 total sold

 

[Alpo]

I'm not skilled at working on cars, so I would need a good mechanic. Are most Acura dealerships able to maintain the car correctly? I'm in Oklahoma City. Not sure if there are any good NSX techs here.

My car came from Oklahoma. One of the previous owners was getting it serviced at Don Carlton Acura in Tulsa. I don't know how far that's from you though.

 

[robbiedawg]

Are most Acura dealerships able to maintain the car correctly?

The answer is an emphatic NO. Some have no clue, so you should check how much experience they have on the NSX.

 

[696]

The answer is an emphatic NO. Some have no clue, so you should check how much experience they have on the NSX.

Thats kind of what I assumed. Tulsa is maybe an hour and 20 minutes away. Ive heard there is a good tech in Tulsa, but I don't have any first hand knowledge. It would be nice if there was someone in the same city