Grovel for information here! I drove a 1992 sc300 mit five speed this afternoon. Car drives great; needs shocks and new rims (all scuffed; stock). Has stock stereo (bummer). Some type of red with grey leather; driver seat worn...clearly the owner did not put leather dressing on the leather regularly. Pass seat fine. Always serviced at Putnam Lexus by the book in Redwood City, CA. Garaged. Original owner. Has 98k on it. A couple of light scratches, one small ding (paint ok), paint looks as new...everything works. There are no oil leaks; the undercarriage is dry. The car has not been detailed; used a a daily driver. Not owned by an "enthusiast".

Owner asking 10k; I offered 9.5.

I think I am going to call him back and offer him the 10 and be done with it; I did not look at used prices prior to driving the thing.

What is there to look for on a 92 sc300? Are there any known trouble items waiting to jump at me? Everything Ive heard from people is that the buy them, service them, and drive them...ie, they are bulletproof. Chatted with one sc400 owner; 200k...nothing has broken.

Words of wisdom?

Thanks in advance,

Regards,

Carl

 

i think it sounds like a fricken awsome deal.......the potential of that car is mind boggling....what 911 do you have?..i paid 20 k for my 95 sc300 5spd with 70k miles when i bought it in awsome condition...bought it 2+ years ago.....for 10k you cant go wrong....just my opinion...Jeff

 

Thanks for the input; it seems like a good deal to me, too. I am dispensing with the inspection as I don't know Lexus mechanic in the area and the local dealership is impossible to contact monday morning. There is not any type of oil leak; I've never had a german car that is perfect on oil leaks!

For ten grand I run it until the tires are gone, put a set of Borbet type s wheels (129ea for 16x7.5) on it with bridgestone re730 tires (or bridgestone potenza pole positions, maybe), drop a better subwoofer and amp in it, and we are off. Too bad it has the stock stereo and not the nakamichi; step down from the custom job in the 911 but it is still a better than average (for 1992) stock unit.

Recommendations on a woofer to drop in the rear? Also, can the stock amp be replaced without too much trouble? I happen to have a McIntosh mc420 amp laying around unused from a recently departed benz diesel.

The car has the original clutch with 98k; can you tell me how much I'll be hurt when I do the clutch? And, what is it going to cost me to put cross drilled rotors and new pads all the way around.

And, the car has 98k; should I wait until the 120k service to do the major service or go ahead and change all the fluids (inc radiator) right now when I get the car? How often do the timing belts need to be changed to avoid hanging out on the side of the road?

The driver's door binds on open/close; no scapring noises. Any thoughts on this one? Mechanic supposedly said it is not worth attending to at the moment; I will unless it costs a lot of money.

Regards,

Carl

 

these cars are super solid if you take car of em....not like german cars
for wheels i reccommend 18in..they really change the look of the car...16s are just way to small IMO
stock stereo even with out nakamichi is a very good unit...i added an amp and a pioneer subwoofer to the stock location ...worked for a while..but ended up upgrading...amp should be replaced pretty easily with a good shop
clutch..when needed i reccommend ACT..
brakes..about $100 each rotor..and 50-100 for each pad set...
as for service....i would do everything as soon as possible...you never know how the car was treated before you bought it...plus it never hurts..i would do all fluids including tranny...differential...radiator...brakes...clutch....it will make the car very happy ..as for timmingbelt..should be done with 80-90k miles...try to find out through lexus service it has been done....also inspect the accesory belt for wear...and replace if needed...
and finally..the door...dont know what to tell yua about that one..never seen an sc door bind...just look at the door hinge..its quite complicated Jeff

 

Any idea what a clutch might run me inc installation? The car has been dealer serviced so the timing belt has, more than likely, been done. I still will go try to get those records from the lexus dealer; I hope they don't give me static about pulling the records. I'll ask the PO to do it if the dealer won't.

18" wheels look best but 16" wheels are much less expensive, the tires are also much less expensive AND are much easier to acquire in out of the way places. The 16" borbet wheels go on it for 129ea unless I find something nice in a used forum.

we noticed a kind of sound; kinda like a bad wheel bearing...seems to come from the rear...like a "ummm....ummm...ummm"....we'll find out, I suppose. Car feels pretty good; definitely not a benz, though. Feels like a heavy toyota with more power than usual.

What are the best shocks available? I did not see any applications offered by Koni or Bilstein. What about Boge, Ohlins...hate to go to Jap suspension; we always threw that stuff away in my motorcycle days...absolute junk unless you bought the one off Kabaya stufff (very expensive).

Where are the amps located in this car?

Thanks for the information.

Regards,

Carl

 

man all the pride i take in this car and you call it a heavy toyota...ouch..why arent you buying another euro car then?.....just curious......

 

Let's not get sensitive here. First of all, Toyota only sells them as Lexus (originally, anyway) in the good old USA to make it more exclusive. They've sold the same car and called it a Toyota Soarer since at least 1991; saw severl of them in Tokyo and Kyoto in 1991 when I last visited.

Toyotas are great cars; it is just..what kind of car do you want? I bought the sc300 because my other car is a 1991 Porsche Carrera 2 coupe in damn near perfect condition..not one ding or scratch...guards red paint that you can fall into..a SOTO stereo with woofers I just installed that I will not use as a daily driver. I do not want two cars right now. So, when I saw the ad for the lexus I thought "sell the 911 for 28, buy this car for 10k, and pocket the difference". It already has a couple of dings in it and the paint has the usual road chips; in other words, I won't care much when the new dings show up. The value of the 911 will be hurt materially since it is such a lovely example.

Also, I want a trouble free honda or toyota; am tired oy paying fritz a lot of money to take care of the cars. We did purchase another 1987 Mercedes 300d (w124) sedan with 150k (gray/black leather) recently for my dead diesel and 6500 recently; that's Nancy's car. She, also, is selling her 1995.5 Audi S6 Avant for about 26k when all is said and done. Again, out of the expensive car and buy an almost fully depreciated car. We'll take our chances on the repairs this time around with a higher mileage car.

Basically, we relocated unexpected from mendocino county back to the SF Bay area..so, the nice expensive cars go 'cause I don't want them to get banged up around here and they will.

Regards,

Carl

 

thats cool.....as far as the lexus / toyota......its the same as honda /acura ...nissian/infiniti ..ford/lincoln....its all sales tactics.....and the later mentioned companies ...definitly provide a higher quality product..as for the ding and dent situation i understand....and if your gonna have that much of a differance in price....just do all things necissary to the lexus and spend another 6k for a toyomoto turbo kit and have a daily driver that will spank that porsche... Jeff