This is more aimed at the guys who have the lower mileage cars or people who have seen *alot* of 3rd gens. I know the interior trim has it's issues, but does the shift **** wear at a rate higher them "most other" cars? This just doesn't look right and Carfax has a nice 10 year gap in knowledge on this car:

Can you make a logical guess on the mileage based on this pic?



Thanks for the advice!

Ryan

 

No, I do not know of anyone who can gauge a car's mileage by the wear on the shift ****'s leather.

 

There are a lot of variables I would think when it comes to the leather of a shift ****. Geographic location is one of them. If one is in a more humid enviornment than another, then that may make a person sweat a little more and have their hands (possibly) have moisture on it, which combined with dirt particles on the shift ****, may make wearing happen quicker than somewhere with a dry climate. However, this may be reading into things too much. lol.

 

No, I'm not looking for someone to say, "That car has 48,793.5 miles". I'm looking more for a roundabout mileage block. I can tell you that if I saw this **** in a MKIV Supra (The community I came from) and the car was advertised as 50K miles, I would certainly be suspect. However I haven't poked my head in enough FD's to make a logical assumption. This may be *perfectly normal* wear for a car with say 60K on it. Or this may be typical of a car with over 100K on the clock.

Thanks,

Ryan

 

By the way, the obvious question of, "Got Service records?" has been asked...waiting for a reply. In the meanwhile, just trying to get a vibe over here.

Ryan

 

Mine looks a bit worse than that and it has 108k but It hasn't changed since I got it at 102k,

 

Worn = use = some mileage
Very worn = alot of use = alot of mileage

Try to use good judgement if you are unsure and have doubt enough to ask on this forum then that to me is a red flag!!!

Don't be desperate and buy the first FD you see. There are plenty out there , be patient!

Before I bought my FD, I must of traveled far and wide 200+ miles sometimes to see a car. I looked at about 8 of them to the point of giving up hope of finding one that suited my needs...

Then one day when I was working. I saw this "diamond in the ruff," pull up next to me... It was a 1993 Montego Blue Touring FD with only 19,000 miles on it. It came to me.....

I made the guy an offer and It was mine.... This whole process from the first day I started looking to the day my true love found me,,,, took two years......

RX7UP

 

Mine has 35k miles and is in perfect condition.

 

There really is no way to tell man, sorry. Here's my out of the blue assumption though...

I'd say ~100k miles.

My car/stock shift **** have 53k on them and are in near mint condition still.

Do you have anymore pics? I'd say a pic of like the carpet(worn?) or the exterior/paint(looking for lots of chips/scratches) would be able to tell more about a car's history than the shift ****.

 

zmarko is right. Location and other variables (parked outsided, etc) play a big role in it. Mine was torn up almost as much and replaced around 55k miles.

 

i had my rx8 shift **** for about 4 months now and it looks like it just came out from the box, and i use the car about 3-4 times a week..

the **** before this looked almost perfect, about 9/10 and that was on the car for 68k miles..

 

It also depends on if the person wears rings on that hand, how much it gets sun baked, etc.

Dale

 

I'd guess 85k miles by the interior or it could be lower maybe 70k and just poorly kept

on the 94 mine has 49k miles and its near perfect
on my last car it was pretty messed up at 67k miles but it was a 93 and not that well kept before I got it

 

You cannot tell from the ****!!! You have to see the whole interior. What about the steering wheel and the panels?

I accidently scratched mine 2000 made **** and i bought a used one from a 93 FD with lots of milage but in good condition! So after 1 year if wear occurs you cannot tell me that i overuse my car! I will simply change it again, most probaply with another used one.

 

76,980

 

At 121k miles my shift **** is in near perfect condition. On the other hand the steering wheel is worn away so bad the leather has peeled off it in one section. You cant judge just by the shift ****

 

I agree with everyone that says you can't tell.

I've had 19 FDs, the shift **** wear depends on many varibles. A clean dry hand will make a shift **** stay new looking forever. A sweaty, big ring wearin' hand will screw them up quickly.

I gave a local guy a new looking shift **** to replace the ~65K mile one in his car with a HOLE worn through it. Just months later it was all screwed up again.

My 65K mile shift **** looks brand new.

 

Mine had 52k and was in about the same shape. The exterior paint was also faded, and the carfax indicated the first few years spent in Texas. Basically, age/sun determine it, not mileage.

FWIW, I got a brand new OEM shift **** for about $110, and shift boots for $45. Cheaper ***** come in at $50. Used ones may look better, but all will have some wear on them.

Dave

 

My 65k steering wheel and shift **** are perfect but the rest of the car is crap. Go figure.

 

In comparison to what Jeff said, how do you know if that is the original shift ****. Maybe he has two fd's one red one black. He favors his black fd so he decides swap out a few of the good parts off the red fd. Of the few good parts is a shift **** from the red fd. Now the red FD has the crummy old **** from the black fd. Confusing enough for you?

 

I would say that car has at least 100k miles on it based on the ****.

My car has around 55k and the **** and leather look brand new. (Garaged all the time, so there is no sun damage)

 

My car was bought in June 1992 and has over 100,000 miles. My shift **** is in very good condition. I live in Houston.

Depends on how often the owner cleaned it with leather cleaner.

Maybe he was one of those mutilple ring wearing pimps and they gouged the leather!

 

I have 114k and my shift **** looks like that but there is a small hole that actually goes to the plastic from it being worn in. But this is texas and people tend to sweat + hands on leather = wear really bad.

 

Mine was worst than that , with 120,000 miles.

 

Damn, thanks for all the responses guys! For the one person that mentioned, it's not the first one I've found...been looking for a month and a half now.
I understand the whole ring thing, I guess my biggest source of confusion was that since the 93' plastic appears to be sub-standard (compared to say, Toyota) then maybe everything else in the interior falls apart in a similar fashion (which would explain the ragged looking ****). The responses are varied, so apparently there is no real correlation here. FWIW, I was told the car has 65K miles. Unfortunately, Carfax only pops up three records for the car:
Perhaps I'm just being too paranoid, but buyer #2 could have purchased it with 150K on the clock and swapped the cluster before registering it. The pictures look *good* but you know as well as I do that they can't really do any justice. I'm waiting for more pics as well as a phone call from the owner. If he has records, great, problem solved.

Thanks again for the input guys,

Ryan