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Looking for a little advice on what are the things I should look out for when I go to check out this ‘88 convertible.
I took my ‘93 FD to a local car meet in Bucks County, PA saturday morning and met the owner of this car. He’s an older gentleman whose wife wants him to get rid of his two FC verts, and we have been corresponding via email for the past couple of days. Still waiting to get more details and pictures but I know this so far: Car is a “reconstructed title” which I assume means salvage title unless there is some nuance I am ignorant of, motor was freshly rebuilt when he purchased the car for his son and has been sitting 90% of the time in a university parking lot, it runs, the tires are in good shape, and the soft top is poorly patched and definitely needs to be replaced.
I am not new to rotary engines, like I mentioned I own a ‘93 FD which I’ve posted about a couple times before, and I daily an ‘04 RX8, both of which I maintain myself and are in mechanically sound condition (knock on wood). Based on the information I have so far, I am unlikely to go through with this purchase, but since the car is very local I have decided to at the very least see it in person. From your experience what are all the things I should look out for. Of course, on the off chance I like what I see I will still be sure to have a trustworthy mechanic check out the car themselves before I even consider going through with it.
so imo, step one is to really look at the car and find out why its a salvage title. the owner might know, but i like to look at the car and verify the story.
since FC's were expensive and cool when they were new, and then very cheap for a very long time it really could be anything. imo if it was salvage title because like a tank of gas was worth more than the car, i'm ok with it, but if it was stolen sawn in half and put back together, its probably too much of a project.
step 2 is probably to look at the top, and interior for signs of leakage. some is ok, but if the inside is full of water, its probably bad. the FC vert top stuff is specific for the FC vert only, so it may or may not be easy to fix.
step 3 is the interior. the interior is the hardest thing to fix.
step 4 is the outside. dents, rust, bad paint are fixable, but its hard and or expensive
step 5 is the mechanical bits. this is the easiest, the vert is the same as the coupe, and it all bolts on
imo i don't care too much about what is wrong with the car, as long as the price reflects it. i also realize FC's are tricky to price, there just aren't a lot for sale
edit: and also it seems to be really rare for an FC to have any written service history or any documentation. not sure why exactly. FD owners love to make lists, and FB's were often owned by adults, so those usually have something, but to quote Gary, every FC is fishy. even that one with 2200miles on it is fishy.
Thank you, this is valuable insight. Ill definitely look into the salvage title, and its good to know that they are mechanically identical to the coupe other than the top itself. Worst case scenario I don’t like what I see and walk away, best case scenario I get this car for dirt cheap and it becomes an interesting little long term project. And yeah I’ve noticed the same thing with some fishy FC listings.
the Vert is actually my favorite one, its just so nice. my dad had a 2003 Boxster when i had my 1990 Vert and the Rx7 is better. its much slower, but it was more reliable, less windy in the cockpit.
the Boxster sounded, smelled better, and was way faster.
03-20-23, 10:04 AM
