Opinions on a '93 Silver $35,500

[JAKiii]

I'm interested to know opinions on this car.

It's a '93 Silver with 29,200 miles and the owner is asking $35,500. The car is located in Palo Alto, CA. He's the original owner of the car and states that little maintainence has been necessary in now 10 years. "Some clutch work" was done in 1995 but the owner didn't know what that was, told me to call Sunnyvale Honda where the car had always been serviced. He has never had the 30k mile service done, the timing belt has not been replaced, even the tires are original. Owner also states that he did $1700 in paint work to repair some "dings". I will call the Honda shop he indicated had done all service on the car. Carfax was clean.

Anyone know anything about this car, or this dealer, or have suggestions... thank you in advance, --Jamie

 

[Nimbus]

Spent $1700 just for dings??

Still on original tires after 29k miles??

Red flag. Doesn't seem like a complete honest seller.

 

[PHOEN$X]

Yeah, sounds weird. I want to know how to get 29k miles from OEM tires!

 

[hlweyl]

the oem tires must look like slicks by now, but seriously, i'm in the market also and i'm shocked to see how poorly maintained many of the nsx's are out there. I've seen so many 10+ year old nsx's with the timing belt NOT done. Give this a thought here, the timing belt is a wearable item, just like tires, drive belts, brake pads, etc. What are these guys thinking?

I've taken better care of my $11000 honda civic than many of these owners of one of the finest cars ever built!

The owner of the silver nsx should have at least had the 30k service done, IMO this car is poorly maintained.

 

[nsx_shopper]

Did you hear anything back? I was also considering this car, but haven't had time to go and see it yet.

It's the paint work that scares me most...

 

[91 X]

He does sound kinda clueless about his own car, which is kinda scary, BUT does sound pretty honest...If he were trying to hide something like body work, he wouldn't have mentioned the "dings" and the $1700 to fix them....



I would sugest staying away from this one though.......

cuz I WANT IT!!!!

 

[Nimbus]

How can someone not know what has been done to his own car especially an NSX? I have a feeling he's looking for top dollar by not being completely honest about everything he knows. I say he's downplaying the $1700 "ding" work. He needs to disclose the body/paint job since it is probably noticable upon inspection.

 

[nsx_shopper]

I spoke with him- this is his 6th car, so he has an excuse for being fuzzy on the specifics with 5 others to worry about. He told me that it's been sitting undriven for two years, whcih make sthe low mileage quite believable. In general, he sounds like an honest, affluent guy.

The tires are the original type, not the original tires. He has a stack of coupons for free tires after the tire wear debacle.

As for staying away from it, can't do that- an original owner 93 in silver black with low miles is _exactly_ what I've been looking for, and it's local to me. Now if it just had headers installed...

I have an appointment to check it out tomorrow, in fairness to all I'll report what I find. My top concenrs are:

- no maintenence for a couple of years
- body work
- no service records (none!)

 

[Lud]

The tire coupons all expired in September 1999.

I agree the car is worth pursuing. I have met owners who literally did not know how to open the engine hatch. They had several sports cars and just took the NSX to the dealer for regular maintenance. That doesn't mean anything necessarily bad.

Of course you need to have the car thoroughly checked out. Since you are talking to the original owner who has used the same dealer for service since day 1, you should not have a problem tracking down all the service records. I do not understand why you said you said there are none - does the shop not keep records???

I would be moderately concerned that the car has just been sitting for extended periods (you mentioned the last 2 years). Several things can deteriorate when a car just sits for years at a time, particularly fluids and rubber, from the gas in the tank to the rubber O-ring sealing the AC refrigerant. You can even get rust on the iron cylinder liners, etc. Some of this depends on whether it was REALLY just sitting for 2 years, of if it was started a few times during that period, and also on the environment it was stored in. If it was garaged, that helps quite a bit.

As for not changing the timing belt - you will find many owners are told by their dealer service center that they do not need to worry about it at such low mileage. It does not mean other service has been neglected, and unless the belt actually breaks or skips a tooth it doesn't hurt anything.

Basically I'd say get the service records and prepare to spend a little extra on a very thorough inspection looking for problems that may be related to the car sitting unused for extended periods. Body work can be inspected for by any competent body shop. If it checks out and it's what you want, make a deal and enjoy the car!

 

[DanO]

I'd say it is a fair deal. Expect to spend cash flushing and fixing the ABS system and the AC. My '92 was sitting idle for 2 years before I purchased it and both these items went within 2 seasons. Expect to pay around 2k it fix and troubleshoot these items.

.02
DanO

 

[nsx_shopper]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a visit and a test drive are worth a million. In fairness to all I'm posting what I saw today with this car.

I'll try to be objective, as I am not going to pursue this car.

- It's not in great shape. He had body work done, but nonetheless almost every panel still has a ding, scratch or scrape. It looks like he had a cheapie detailing done with a drill/circulating buffer- it's bad. The driver side door has a creased ding running vertically over the curved top section; probably needs a new shell to fix that. The tow hook cover is missing. Scratches poorly buffed out on the rear left qtr panel. Deep scratches beneath the driver side door handle (really ugly). Scratches on the black roof. The list goes on...
- The car has clearly not been garaged. Based on the amount of foliage in the engine bay and around the trunk and boot trim, it wasn't even covered for a period of time. You'd think this would have been cleaned out to show the car...
- No oil change for over two years!
- The rear left shock seems frozen, maybe a bad seal inside? The card doesn't handle like it should, probably from sitting.
- Rear tires at 20-30% tread, forgot to check fronts.
- Original timing belt
- The engine sounds pretty loud, likely due to two year old oil and a complete lack of maintenance on the car for years
- The interior is perfect, strangely enough
- The motor pulls hard, but I didn't take it to redline for fear it would blow up with that ancient oil in there.
- Brakes seemed good, but certainly needed new fluid if not new hoses and a calpier rebuild. It would not surprise me if there were a frozen piston in there somewhere
- Curb rash on the rear right wheel
- Added bonus (in my mind): no power steering
- Front bumper drilled for license plate
- Beatiful from 20 feet away, in silver and black

All in all, this is an original owner car that has had minimal care. I would rather buy a two owner car with a few more miles from folks who took better care of the car. This one was treated like and Accord rather than an NSX.

This car is probably not going to go for this price. I figure that to get it going it needs:

30k service ($1800+?)
new shock(s)
new coolant hoses
new tires

and even then it would still have scratches and dings.

 

[Nimbus]

What a pity a low mileage silver/black NSX gets treated this way...

 

[91 X]

THANKS FOR SAVING ME A TRIP...

I wondered why the pic in the ad was a bad angle...Now I know why....dude was hidding something...
Did he even try to negotiate a deal??? Or is he sitting on $35K.

Thanks again for the heads up....

 

[PHOEN$X]

I could cry!

Man, hearing about a limited production, exotic car like the NSX being treated like this is just blasphemous! How could anyone do that to something so rare & beautiful?

 

[TigerNSX]

That really is a pity. 93 Sebrings/manual are hard to find, too

 

[Lud]

That's a shame! Too bad it's in such rough cosmetic condition. All the mechanical stuff could probably be 100% with a few grand of parts and labor. I can't believe people who drill the front bumper to mount a plate. PARTICULARLY an original owner, who certainly should have received the OEM front plate bracket with the car!

 

[Tony Montoya]

No oil change for two years is not a problem if it has not been driven far. BMW says you can go two years.

 

[NSXBill2]

Re: I could cry!

Man, hearing about a limited production, exotic car like the NSX being treated like this is just blasphemous! How could anyone do that to something so rare & beautiful?

Come to Atlanta. When I was looking for my 91, I've never seen so many beater NSX's. I think that happens in a place where there are a lot of nice cars. CA probably worse. Had to go two states away to get my really nice, original 2-owner 34K mi car...

Bill