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Thought you guys might get a kick out of the entry for the SC in The Complete Book of Collectible Cars by Richard Langworth & Consumer Guide. It was published in 2000.
Base price for the SC 400 in '92 was $38,690 and optioned out was closer to $40,000. You have to remember that was 23 years ago. Gas at that time was $1.13 the average new car was $11,500 the average income was $17,500 per year etc. That was a very expensive vehicle in the day.
I highly recommend the book to car buffs. It's an inch and half thick with color photos and is great to browse. Langworth wrote a lot of collector car books for Consumer Guide and Motorbooks (I'd attribute the mistake in pricing to the fact checkers at Consumer Guide), and this book is the distillation of all of those years of research. Unfortunately, it looks like the 2000 edition of The Complete Book of Collectible Cars is the last per a discussion I had a few years ago with the head Consumer Guide auto editor (there were several editions before then).
Consumer Guide still likes the SC. Here are excerpts from a June blog post of theirs, "Ladies of a Certain Age: Middle-Aged Coupes That Still Look Great":
Most people look pretty good when they’re young, but, alas, beauty fades with age. And so it goes with cars—coupes especially. What was hot when new can pretty quickly look used and dated.
In rare cases, however, not only does that beauty not fade, it deepens. Truly beautiful women—I mean, honestly, naturally beautiful women—pretty much stay beautiful all their lives. I’m talking Grace Kelly beautiful here. And so it goes with a very rare collection of cars.
I have three examples here, all of which I saw on the road this past weekend. In each case, I thought these cars were fabulous new, and in each case I still find them gorgeous. Enough time has passed on each of these cars that it would be impolite to discuss their age. Let’s just call them “Coupes of a Certain Age.”
Ferrari 456 GT [comments deleted] Mercedes-Benz 280CE and 300CD [comments deleted] BMW original 6 series [author noted mistake not to include]
Lexus SC 300 and SC 400 (1992–2000)
In my opinion, the rear-deck spoiler on the V8-powered 400 versions of these Lexus coupes somewhat messes up the car’s otherwise strong and simple lines. Solid is the first word that pops into my mind when I see an SC on the road; fast is the next word. Very few designs before or after this generation SC were better at melding rigidly straight lines with almost aggressively blunted end caps.
07-24-14, 07:29 AM
Collectible Cars Book on SC
