Car prices

[sunskreens]

I know guys this is a very subjective topic, and I've done a bit of research and searching around the forums, tm etc, and I just wanted to know, we all hear (or at least I do) of people saying "I bought my EG6, EF9, DC2, DA6 blah blah for around 1,500etc or some other really low price" so I wanted to know how to find these elusive beasts. I would post a wtb thread but don't wanna get ripped to pieces by people saying "that's not gonna get you anything" etc, so I just though I'd ask the peeps here first. Where do I find my own $1,500 or more VTEC glory? Or how much is a reasonable condition DC2, EF9, EG6 and DA6 worth? ie one that can pass wofs but needs a bit of work? Oh, and if this has already been covered can someone please post a link then lock this thread. Cheers guys and gals, sorry if this wastes your time

[elijahn]

$1500 for DC2's??!!
Damn i thought i got a good deal on my DOHC VTEC Torneo for $6K....

and now i see a euro r possibly go for $9K!! no matter how good a deal you get you gonna come accross a better deal once you buy your car.

[doo0T!doo0T!]

You rbest bets are eithe rto find one with a blown engine that someone has lost interest in, or someone who has no idea what they have.
My red Eg which i put the H22a in had a mint body with genuine MS-designs kit on it and I got it for $2000. It had a blown engine which didn't even make it home.
By the time I'd swapped in the H22a it was worth 7-8k.

My crx was only $1200 but it was rooted, it took a lot of work to get it up to spec and I wouldn't suggest doing that. ..ever again...

Mechanical problems are generally the cheapest and easiest to fix provided your not talking chassis damage. Paint and panel work should be avoided it can get expensive if you dont do the work yourself.

if you want to get hold of one of an old granny your best bet is to approach them with an offer on th estreet, generally once they advertise they get snapped up real quick so you have to be in the right place at the right time.
I know a guy that pulled over an old lady in Tauranga and bought her AE86 Trueno for $900
I bought an EF Gti for $150 which was my first honda and I thrashed it's ass off for two years and sold it for 2K.
Just last week I saw a real old blue-rinse Bessie crawling up the motorway in a C36 AMG with the full AMG aero kit on it. Bet that wasn't thrashed.

[VTAKYO]

To a certain extent you get what you pay for; unless the seller is super desperate to sell for whatever reason. I got my EF9 for $1500, but it was a bit rough and de-registered. Other B-series cars around this mark have been equally as rough. For $1500 I wouldn't expect much at all, they are usually that cheap for a reason; ie, deregistered, rusted, missing parts, damaged, or as doot-doot said: pretty much just a rolling body. Finding such a "bargain" is really just a matter of luck... keeping a keen eye out on trademe (in the specialist cars section particularly too) and in our vehicle exchange.

[Trivium]

Classic case of get what you pay for, if your wanting VTEC for under $1,500 then its going to be either stolen or fucked

Edit, beaten by Chris

[Pommy]

gotta be patient too, i learnt that the hard way on numerous occasions. its a buyers market right now; prices of eg6's for example are far lower than 1 year ago. if your looking for a bargain, theres afew around... just dont buy the first thing you see, but look regularly as cheap cars dont stick around for long!

oh and you might get an auto da for 1500... wont get anything in ok condition with under 200,000ks with a b series for less than 2.5k

[sunskreens]

Cheers I'm glad this thread hasn't turned into the flaming session I was worried it would be. Yeah I got the feeling that it was just the case of being the right place and at the right time, just though if I was stupid and there was some way of getting it easier, and yeah have been keeping an eye out on the forum for something but so far mint cars but out of my budget. Just want something cheap (very cheap compared to some of the beasts on here) and fun to do a few autokhana's etc just to have a play around. Will get something more serious once I have a bit more exposure to track days other racing etc, want experience lest I buy something awesome then prang it by not having enough experience to drive on the limit.

elijahn-a friend from school once bought a DC2 for 1500 (manual B18C) and then sold it for 3k. Go figure, hope I become one of those lucky bastards.

Ps while on the topic, has anyone here owned an AW11? Can I have some feedback from experience? Cheers guys and gals keep the info coming

[Reaper_2000]

friend of mine owned an aw11 (1600 smallport redtop 16v)

rusted very quick (VERY prone to rust), wasnt fast (was an auto) and they are known to be very twitchy .. NOT a good car to be honest, sw20's are far better designed if your into mr2's

no rear seats, impossible mission to work on the engine and if you want to mod one i assume you "May" run into heating issues..

[sunskreens]

Hmm the one I'm keen on is blue top, manual with c52, with some new shocks and springs and nolathane stuff. Good car for random events? (I'm not a competitive racer, need more skill)

Not fussed on seats, prolly won't mod much, maybe pod and some other basic stuff. Main selling point was that it is cheap (1,200 with wof and reg). Otherwise what Honda would be better at that price range? ie 1,500max. was keen on sloteg's da but no warrant or rego

[Demon]

Have a look in the vehicle exhance, SLOTEG is selling his DA6 for around that price.

I used to have an AW11, MINT car loved it to bits, mine was a facelift 87, T-tops, S/C Redtop, LSD Manual with a 12psi pulley kit
very good cars for autocross events
If i had another chance to grab on it jump all over it
They are twitchy on the edge, try and drift it and it will "snap" on you, if u actually "drive" it however they cant be beaten on handling

[sunskreens]

Sloteg's one doesn't have warrant or rego, otherwise I'll be over it like a rash, don't wanna drift, do that enough at work, just wanna have fun and learn how to peddle a car fast in a safe environment

[trend.whore]

Don't look on Trademe, that's how you can find good deals..

[Dionysus]

I bought an EG6 for 2k, it lived down my street and drove past each day. I just kept going down and leaving post it's with my offer on it till he got fed up and sold it to me.
I replaced the water pump/cambelt and gearbox for about $700.

Sold it six months later for 3.5k

It's like 96 spec R's, 2 or three years ago they were mid teens, now below 9k
However EG9's have gone from around 4k up to around 6k for a good one!!
When will the ITR's and EG9's cross!

[BrettyBoy]

lol at the old lady and the AE86

[SLOTEG]

Originally Posted by sunskreens

Sloteg's one doesn't have warrant or rego, otherwise I'll be over it like a rash

as i said mate, it wont take much to get the bitch legal, but i have other priorities at the moment and playing with a 20yo honda isnt one of them

good luck finding a standard, running and legal dohc vtec for under 2k, there is only a finite amount of these cars left, same with the eg's and dc2's, and once they are gone, they are gone. i dont think they will be getting any cheaper anytime soon, more likely going up in price

[Baxter]

AW11:

Needs more skill (or at least reaction time) than I have these days if you want to use it for motorsport.

I bought one last year and never really got to enjoy it (ie a good thrash). It had no power and if you ever stepped it out the rear out it felt like it would have spun 3 or 4 times before the 4AGE actually summoned enough power to catch a slide.

Though mine not might have been a good example. It looked tidy and apparently had a low km reconed engine, but died (suspected run bearing) a few months later.

I'd be too scared to hillclimb it on gravel and probably even on seal until it got used to it or found its lost power. Could be a lot of fun and good training on an autocross though.

Overall it has lower build quality the CR-Xs of the same age; and the 4AGE has no torque compared to the ZC; never got to do it, but I recon my DOHC CR-Xs would destroy it in a straight line (and certainly on the twisty bits if I was driving both )

[sunskreens]

Hmm valuable info peeps, as said above, I have not a lot of skill so just looking for something to learn car control in, and the MR2 seems cheap so thought I would go with that. If you were in my position what would you recommend? Considering I'm not looking for Schumacher like laptimes, just a whole heap of fun and something that whould be pretty easy to work on if it breaks. Thought about the old school CRX's and Civics but had a soft spot for MR2's but I'm open to all opinions. So far just looking to do random stuff like that Autokhana in Todd park a while back, and maybe some random hillclimbs in Welly, and maybe, just maybe if I grow a pair a track day. Keep em coming guys and gals

[sirgav]

hey man its a case of been at the right place at the right time,

trust me i know,

ive got ef9 for $900,
got a wof and rego one a couple years back for $1250
i've got a nos'd eg9 for $2500,
and many more that i won't brag about,

but you got to be prepared to wait, and you have to act quickly, and you have to be prepared to search all the time, there lots of bargins out there, and you have to sometimes look for the diamond in the ruff.

the best rule of thumb, is to pay the money and get a nice tidy one, because at the end of the day you get what you pay for,

don't mess around with blown engines, unless you have the parts and can do the labour yourself, it always works out worse case.... lots of unexpected stuff pops up.

there a mint green eg9 for 5800 on the forum's and trademe, thats my pick of mint cars that your looking for.

cheers
gav

[lowproz]

you can get a SOHC vtec for $1500.

You could probably get a h22 prelude or a da6. I got a few good deals from the car fair e.g $2000 for a h22 prelude on 17's with coilovers(the people i bought it off didn't even know he had them lol)and car had 120k

[Matty]

Don't discount the DOHC ZC-powered EFs. They're still 130hp in a light chassis and handle well. IMO if you're looking at grassroots motorsport you're better off having better handling and slightly less power.

[Trivium]

Very true, also look at ZC CRX's. I had one and it was pretty nippy round the place

[sunskreens]

So no go with the AW? Will go up to look at it in about 2 weeks. Apparently it has TRD shocks, springs, nolathane, blue top, stripped interior, wof'ed and reg'd for 1200. So I thought its a good idea, told the seller keen but only after inspection so yeah. Just gonna be looking out for crunchy gearbox, faulty electrics and rust. Might be too good to be true but time will tell. Oh and since lowproz mentioned pooludes, what are they like for entry level events? I would've thought that being heavy would be a bit of a monster to muscle around, that and they aren't exactly small either lmao

[doo0T!doo0T!]

Great thread.
For me its a tough one really comparing the AW11 to a CRX, I've had both and they are both a blast.
My AW11 was a red top small port in white with a TRD kit and suspension in it, I loved it but it would bite your ass hard if you didn't respect it.
Especially in the wet or on gravel.

They have a rear bump steer issue and they squat in the rear when under acceleration, combine a hard gear change into 5th at 170kmh with a good bump and it squats enough to put the ass sideways on a straight road. No shit happened to me twice and once to my dad on the same stretch of road.

After that 2nd time it did that to me I sold it before it killed me.

It was also rusting out faster than I could bog it up. Especially around difficult areas like body seams, chassis rails and sills.

It was not built half as well as a CRX and felt a lot dicier to drive at speed, (and a crx is not concidered easy) but all the same I couldn't help liking it.

If I were building another car for competition and weekend events I would definitely consider another AW11 but I wouldn't fuck around with a stock 4age, it'd be black top 20 valving it with a small turbo, like a T25/28 or something.

They have a lot going for them, small, light, low, nimble, mid engined, spare parts are easy to find and the 4age's power-plants can take a hiding.

I got the feeling from my time in the AW11 that if you set the car up right and had enough power and balls you could learn to pilot it very fast indeed.

The major downside for me was sitting in such a god-awful hideous interior. I could have shit a better car interior.

[Baxter]

Yep, pretty much as doo0T!doo0T! says.

The CR-X is much easier to drive quickly. They can turn the rear a little too quickly because of their short chasis, but no biggie.

The MR2 takes a lot more skill to drive quickly and will bite badly when it goes wrong. And I've never really seen a stock AW11 driven quickly - only supercharged ones or ones with something gruntier than the 4AGE.

MR2 would probably be an excellent training car if your just doing autocrosses, and maybe the odd sealed hillclimb once you were use to it.
I'd imagine they'd be fun on the track as well.
I defiently wouldn't get a MR2 if you considering gravel events.


CR-X definatly better build quality and almost all respects.

[Demon]

i still think aw11 > crx IMO, ill probably get another one as my next car once the DA is finished