Should I buy this car???

M

mms16

New Member
Joined
17 July 2005
Messages
4
Location
SF, CA
Hi-
I am considering a 1991 NSX automatic (I know, it's an automatic)
The CARFAX report reveals 5 owners, 4 of them since 2002, but the current owner is only asking $13K.

The vin # is JH4NA1264MT002881

It has a salvage title (from 5 states)
A junk title (from 2 states)
A rebuilt title (from 1 state)
Odotmeter fraud (from 2 states)
It has failed smog once (a long time ago, and has passed since then)
Last registration was in Louisiana and I am in California
CARFAX estimates odometer was rolled back by 8K miles, and there is an indicated 61K now.


I have not seen the car yet, but the current owner claims it to be in perfect condition.
Carfax says he purchased it 11 months ago. It also has what he claims to be an $8,000 set of TSW wheels.

Do you guy think this is a disaster waiting to happen?
What problems would I have registering it in CA (smog etc.)?
Should I avoid this vehicle at all costs (as my brother tells me)?
What would a good price for a car of this type be? (I was thinking around $8,000)

Is $13K too much for a car with this type of history? (especially since I would strongly prefer a manual)

I found the previous ad for the car on this site at:

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34713&highlight=JH4NA1264MT002881

Any input would be greatly appreciated. If anybody knows anything about this cars history please let me know. I will most likely go see the car as it is only 5 minutes away. My email is [email protected] . Thanks in advance.


-Matthew Stryker
 
if he put $8000 wheels on a car that need TLC bigtime, then you see where his motivation is.


stay far far away.

wait for the right NSX.

you get what you pay for. Wait til you can afford a 30,000 dollar NSX.
 
First financially: Wow - my usual advice is to stay far away from these but I don't think there is a big financial downside at 9-10k if it checks out and isn't too behind on the maintenance (with proof). You should be able to part it out for 5-6k without much trouble. Pay a couple hundred and have it inspected professionally on a rack. If it looks, runs, and drives OK it shouldn't have too much of a downside and you shouldn't have much trouble getting back out of it what you put in.

Next safety: What happened to it? Why was it salvaged? How was it repaired? When driving a sports car like a sports car you are trusting your life to many mechanical, hydrollic, and electrical systems that have to work reliably in harmony. You may think everything is OK but a shoddy repair job might not show up until you are at 7/10ths and your life is on the line. Please take this into consideration during your inspections and analysis. Maybe let your brother make the decision as he is not tied to the car and is one of the people that would have to suffer with the consequences if something happened to you.
 
With all do respect, if this is the price of a nsx you can afford then you probably can't afford the maintanence required with a nsx.
 
Why did he drop his asking price from $21,750 to $13,000 in just one year?!? What devalued it $8,750 so quickly?!?

But if you're 5 minutes away, go test drive it straight to your local Acura dealer and have them inspect it. They should be able to go over the basics for ~$100.

Don't expect to get into a nice clean NSX for that kind of money. They basically start at around ~$30,000 and go up from there. Remember, you get what you pay for.
 
Thank you all for the input, I really do appreciate it-

Matteni: I will certainly have it properly checked out before making any offer. You state that parting it out should get $5-6K, but that is a lot of work and would result in a massive loss on my part. I am hoping that I would not buy a car that would die on me and require parting out, but I realize that this is an option and appreciate the parting out estimate.

nsxtacey: you are correct in that I can probably not really afford the maintenance of an Acura NSX. As I just turned 25 years old I don't have a particularly high income, and although I do have $13K, the insurance & maintenance would probably be twice as much as they would be with an Acura Integra (the car I was looking for when I found the NSX in question). On the other hand I look at many of my friends who have car payments and realize that NSX insurance/maintenance together would most likely be less than the payments they make for new Sentras Scions etc. (young people who have car loans pay a lot of interest with each payment, and I would buy this car outright).

Please do not be angry about the following paragraph, I am just considering all of the options, and am not in the business of re-selling cars at a profit…
Another option I was considering: I may be able to re-sell this car after a short period of time at a profit. Yes it sounds somewhat crazy, and it is obviously risky; but there are many 1991 NSX's advertised for close to $30,000. Therefore I am estimating that a decent condition salvaged titled example should bring in $15,000. However, it might be a hard sale with the less popular automatic and ostensibly wary history of this car (I am not an automatic fan myself and I was shocked when I saw the carfax report).

Deuce B: I am sorry that I did not make my original posting clear. The old ad from this forum http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/show...4NA1264MT002881) is from owner #4, the one who is currently selling the car is owner #5 who has had it for about a year (according to carfax).

rickysals: I thought of that as well, but I am guessing that these wheels were put on the car after it was totaled (back in 11/16/1994), this is one of the questions I will ask the current owner.
 
mms16, if I were you i'd get that 2000 ITR on the classified forum. I like those cars and that one seems clean.

Lets assume the worst. The engine is worth 23K new? Can you really afford the car if something goes wrong?
 
Alright, the responses on this forum have pretty much convinced me that it is not a good idea for me to have a $13K NSX (I would love it but I am not willing to spend the money to keep it up and it is too risky being a salvage titled car)

Here is the ad for the car. It is in San Francisco....

http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/car/84815168.html

Good luck to anyone else... I hope it turns out to be a great car. Supposedly it had a timing belt in '04 and has HID headlamps. (according to http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/show...4NA1264MT002881)

Thank you all again for the helpful responses, hopefully some day I can have an NSX (by the time I can properly afford one I will be able to get a 2006 with a 6-speed).
 
mms16 said:
Alright, the responses on this forum have pretty much convinced me that it is not a good idea for me to have a $13K NSX (I would love it but I am not willing to spend the money to keep it up and it is too risky being a salvage titled car)

Here is the ad for the car. It is in San Francisco....

http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/car/84815168.html

Good luck to anyone else... I hope it turns out to be a great car. Supposedly it had a timing belt in '04 and has HID headlamps. (according to http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/show...4NA1264MT002881)

Thank you all again for the helpful responses, hopefully some day I can have an NSX (by the time I can properly afford one I will be able to get a 2006 with a 6-speed).
Click to expand...

Listing was removed by Craig's List:

- $13000 (downtown / civic / van ness)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 2005-07-16, 1:08AM PDT



This posting has been removed by Craigslist community.
 
Deuce B said:
Why did he drop his asking price from $21,750 to $13,000 in just one year?!?
Click to expand...
I can only guess that it's because he found he couldn't sell the car for anything close to $21,750.

Deuce B said:
What devalued it $8,750 so quickly?!?
Click to expand...
Nothing "devalued" it. It was never worth $21,750.
 
I think he took down his ad after getting my email saying that I was interested (I first sent this and he asked for details about me, then when I sent those, the advertisement was taken down). I did not save a copy of the original ad, but I saved the pics from it. I can post them if anybody wants. Also I have the seller’s email/cell phone # and since I am not going to buy the car I will be happy to supply them to anyone (after asking the seller’s permission first).

Here is part of what he sent me:

“….the price is 13000 with shipping for free(if necessary), since a friend ownes a shipping firm, and it will cost me nothing to ship it to you. I am currently in Honolulu, with my work. The car is in San Jose, in my home garage. I am working in Hawaii 11 months a year and i am staying in San Jose about 1 month per year. If i do not find someone special to sell the car,i will get back in San Jose in mid september. Here is my mobile phone number in Hawaii where you can call me:XXXXXXXXXX (I have “X’d this out).
The car is in my garage and the keys are in my pocket.There is nobody that can show you the car but me”

Then it goes on about using square trade. Hmmm? The original advertisement said downtown SF, not San Jose…. I personally would not consider this until September as I would insist on meeting this guy before talking about pricing (just my opinion). If anybody wants the details let me know and I will ask the seller if I should give you his contact information. I am going to write him tonight and let him know I am no longer interested.
Thank you all. This deal now sounds somewhat fishy to me (too many little possible problems, and the more I find out, the more I don’t like it), but that is my opinion.
 
mms16 said:
This deal now sounds somewhat fishy to me (too many little possible problems, and the more I find out, the more I don’t like it), but that is my opinion.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... Square Trade is often mentioned by scammers as though it's an escrow service that guarantees a purchase, which is not what it is. :eek:
 
Like someone else posted, I'd want to know why it's a salvaged title? I'd want to know if it was something that would be dangerous.
 

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