I have been on the search to buy a clean SC400, preferably with the VVT-i motor. I am wondering if there are any ClubLexus members in Sacramento that could look at a car for me? I am located in Minnesota where there are no good SC's. I would like to get someone in Sacramento to look at this car and give me their unbiased opinion. Fairly clean Carfax, with only minor damage to rear passenger corner reported in 2007. Looks like the car has been for sale for over 200 days, so I suspect something isn't quite right.

Car is located at Central Auto3311 Fulton Ave Sacramento, CA 95821

(916) 249-7813
Here is the car listing: https://www.carfax.com/vehicle/JT8CH32YXY1002966

Thanks!
Matt

 

It's definitely been slightly modded (you can see the coilovers installed, etc) and the paint just doesn't look right especially on the passenger front. I'll tell ya that from across the country there's no way I'm touching that thing with a 10ft pole for 13k lol.

 

Agreed, I would pass. The paint on that passenger door doesn't quite match the surrounding panels and whoever owned the car prior must've removed the spoiler. The missing third brake light would be an inspection fail in most states I'd imagine.

Edit: Shot you a PM.

 

When something looks too nice to be real, it usually isn’t.

Another red flag is the license plate number; that is a re-register so it is either an out of state vehicle or a salvage rebuild(??).

It appears to be in great condition but as stated above the color is off. Way over priced but a small dealer will ask a lot….

I would pass at that price for sure; $9K possibly…. Shipping to your state could be pricy, too.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. The exterior pics are not high resolution, so I am glad you guys picked up on those issues. The dealer sent me some more pics and I could see overspray underneath the front spoiler and underside by mufflers. I will pass on it. Thanks!

 

I know this thread is pretty old now. I actually bought this car. I didn't pay their asking price and I got them to come down but I can tell you it still wasn't enough. Just for funzies, this what happened when I bought it.

I purchased the car sight unseen and had it shipped from California to Texas. When the truck driver delivered the car, he had to jump it because it wouldn't start. Turns out it sat so long that the battery drained completely. I took it to O'Reilly's Auto parts and they checked the battery and the starter. Good news is they were both good. The brakes on the car were completely shot. They were some cheap aftermarket sport brakes and they grinding really bad. I had to take it to a shop to replace the brake pads and rotors on day two. Then I found the radio wasn't working. The dealer or someone had removed the fuse. I assume because they thought it was causing the battery to drain. So, that was another easy fix. Lastly, in the first week, some of the tail light lights weren't working and the fog lights weren't working. The tail lights were easy to replace. So, I fixed them and took the car to get the required state inspection. Surprisingly, after all of this it ran pretty good with smooth acceleration and shifting.

Following weeks weren't so good. I took it to a shop for the timing belt. It had 130K on the original timing belt, which I expected. What I didn't expect was other than oil changes, no maintenance had been done on this car. The tires were from 2009 and were cracking and unsafe to drive on. The brake fluid was black. The power steering fluid was black. The coolant was way overdue. The valve cover gaskets were leaking and the spark plugs were due for a change. Not necessarily required but I didn't like how the coilovers rode and they were way too low. The car was bottoming out really bad on the local roads. Good news on this is the person that installed them had enough sense to move the wiring harness out of the way. So, it wasn't damaged. I decided to have the suspension put back to stock. Last thing I forgot to mention is part of the trunk liner was missing. So, I had to source that from ebay and have it installed. It was about $5,000 to get the car mechanically sound and up to date on the maintenance.

The interior was in pretty good shape as the pictures indicated. There are some cracks but no tears and with a little work, they can be restored. The steering wheel, isn't horrible but it will need to be re-wrapped.

The body is a different story. As mentioned, the car is basically two shades of red. The original color and some Maaco red paint and no, they didn't tear the car down and paint it right, which is why it is flaking. Also, the front fenders were bent because of the poorly installed coilovers and the front bumper was cacked and the paint was flaking off. So, for another $4,000, I'm having a body shop fix the front end of the car and repaint it the right way. The trunk and rear bumper is still a slightly different shade of red and I'll have it repainted next year. The body shop said they don't do full repaints because of the time it takes to tear the car down and they prioritize insurance work over cash jobs. It's pretty common in the body shop industry apparently. Other shops wouldn't even work on the car.

So, at the end of this long story, I bought this car, shipped it to Texas and am now spending a ton of money to bring it back to its former glory. I'm into it for way more than it is currently worth but I really don't care because I am planning to keep it for the long haul. Knowing everything I know now, I probably would have still bought this car but I would have offered a lot less. Given that it is one of only 324 2000 SC400s ever sold in the US and of those, it hasn't been overly molested by some teenage ricer, it's pretty rare and unique. So, I really like the car despite the initial investment to fix it up.

Lesson learned: even if you are buying a car in another state, go check it out.

Here it is parked in my driveway before most of the work. It's still in the body shop but they have started working on it. So, hopefully I'll get it in a few weeks.