Hey All,
I was wondering what the community thinks the ballpark range should be for an FD? More specifically, what a buyer, new to the community (like myself) should be looking to spend on one? Is it smart to buy a stock one for a bit more money? Maybe buy a salvaged one and fix it up?
Let me know what you guys think

 

They range from very little to too much. It all depends on the buyer and what they want to spend. You can't really recommend without knowing the spending power of the buyer but I would suggest not getting an fd that needs "work" unless you're mechanically inclined or are ok with paying too much for someone else to do it for you. I would say look for one in the 18k-22k area. That seems to be the range where the really good ones are. Im sure you could find one for less but theres gonna be something up with it.

 

 

This is an age old question that has become more and more difficult to determine because the FD is currently a highly collected car. The value on nice cars is probably moving higher with each passing day.

I'll start a thread listing cars on the market and which ones I'd buy. I'm not the only one who loves to window shop the FD so it should make for a fun thread.

 

 

Price database for recently sold FD's with some info on the cars:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...47&single=true

 

 

Keep in mind the rhd cars come with their own set of problems with the usdm wiring diagrams being of little help should you need to troubleshoot something. Replacement parts for rhd specific components are difficult to find. The list goes on... buy a lhd car.

 

A pristine stock 93 Touring recently sold for $30 at a Mecom auction. The more modified the lower the price.

 

 

 

Over here? Where are you??

 

 

I suggested a sub-forum topic a couple of years ago where people could post cars that they find on eBay, Craig's List, Kijiji (in Canada) so everyone could discuss them and ... got shot down by one of the moderators. They told me it would be "advertising" and violate the advertising policy of the forum.

But you might have better luck than I did. Go for it! Window shopping for cars on the internet (1st gen, 2nd gen, 3rd gen RX-7s, RX-8s, 350Zs ... just about any sports car) is one of my favourite activities.

I'm searching for a 2nd gen TII or GTUs right now.

 

that makes no sense, but nice car collection man! especially the montego blue fd!

 

Honestly, just take some time and click through the classifieds. You'll get get a very good idea of current pricing and be able to see how milage/modifications/location/color effect pricing. You can add in searches of Craigslist/eBay/autotrader/etc for a bit more info, but those listings tend to be a bit inflated vs a comparable car listed here.

I watched the market for 2 years before buying my FD several years ago, but that may be foolish to do currently. The market has increased drastically in the past 2-3 years. The influx of j-spec cars, YouTubers jumping on the bandwagon, and 30-somethings being at the point in their lives to be able to afford their dream cars are all factors in prices rising. Hell, even the cultural shift from 80s nostalgia to 90s nostalgia.

TL;DR use the classifieds to get a good idea of pricing on a spec of car that you're looking for, and move quick. Prices may not go up much more, but they most likely won't go down.

 

While there are obviously many factors that will determine the selling price (e.g. mods/no mods, original/rebuilt engine, etc.) one simple technique I've found when searching for used cars for friends, relatives or myself is to graph the asking price vs. mileage of all the cars you find for sale on Craigslist, Kijiji, eBay, AutoTrader, etc.. I did this when searching for my FD to identify the over-priced vs. reasonably priced cars.

Just as an example, I graphed the FD Sales Price database on this forum and eliminated the project cars, parts cars and LS swaps and got this:


Use the Excel graph "trendline" feature to get a formula for the price of the car based on the mileage. The above graph trendline formula is y (price) = -7230 * ln(x) + 99768, where x = mileage of the car. As an example, a car with 80k miles should have a price of about -7230 * ln(80,000) + 99768 = $18,142, assuming it is not a salvage vehicle, LS swap, rusted out hulk sitting in a farmer's field, etc. and based on the FD Prices Database on this forum.

If an 80k mile car is advertised for $25k, then you can ask yourself the question:does the condition of the car really justify a $7k premium price? Or, if it's advertised for $8k, you again can ask yourself why it is priced so low. This is especially useful if you're going to have to drive 6 hours to go see the car and don't want to waste your time. It can help eliminate the sellers who are over-pricing the car. Or, it can help you find a reasonably priced car.

As always, use your own judgement, however!

 

 

 

I always wondered about this ... with RHD FD's outnumbering LHD's about 3:1, why are PDF RHD manuals + wiring diagrams so hard to source online, when printed versions are still readily available ? . or are we just unusually lucky living here in N America + LHD European nations ?
RHD wiring diagrams + manuals have been posted briefly on Aussie forums from time to time, but links quickly die and people who downloaded them aren't sharing them .. wassup with that ?
You would think there is some sort of RHD community support ? or is it there, but 100% underground for reasons that still escape me ?

 

I printed this out for the FD files .
Thank you so very much for this info !