[ChanSecodina]

Hi, I'm new here. I've been lurking for awhile here but I finally decided to post now that I may be hours away from buying a supra mkII. I found an 82, supra 5-speed for sale in my area for $700. The guy selling it is moving out of the state (he's actually leaving monday) so he wants to sell his supra for travel money. It has 223k miles on the original engine. He says he got it from a police auction. The interior is imaculate. The exterior looks good. So far I've only seen both in the dark, though. I'm going back to test drive it later today. My question is pretty much: What should I watch out for besides whats mentioned here:http://www.celicasupra.com/buyingtips.htm .
The other question being do you think that $700 is a fair price for a supra with that many original miles on it when I essentially have no way of getting a record of work done on it? Oh, and while I'm asking, has anyone used carfax.com before? Is it worth the $20 or whatever they're asking?

Thanks for any help!

-Chan

 

[85SilverWedge]

IMHO, the car is 20+ yrs old. Don't get hung up on mileage, at this point a Supra of this generation without 150k is hard to find, so it almost doesn't make a difference. Here is what to judge it on. How was it treated during those 200k+ miles? You can judge that by things like overall condition etc., interior being imaculate may be a sign of an owner that cared very well for the car. If at this point it runs good, it doesn't matter what minor things you may find out later, or even if it is the original engine. Just know that you are gonna spend some money on this jewel. Test drive for drivability,(which would cover everything from front end, drivetrain, suspension) inspect for rust, check the oil for coolant, coolant for oil, and if you don't see anything that makes you go "OH MY GOD! THAT SUCKS!" Snap that puppy up for $700! :humpleg:

 

[ChanSecodina]

Ok, took it for a test drive. Damn these things are pretty fast. The inside still looks really nice on the inside, even in sunlight . The exterior has some painted over rust in all the usual places, not too bad though. Its only really bad on the back of the hatch but you can replace those for not too much right? Radiator is rust free. It smokes a little from the exhaust pipe until its warmed up. And the engine does seem like it smokes a tiny bit all the time. Theres a strange smell coming from it but I can't really tell what it is and its not a very strong smell. The windshield has a crack. I'll probably have to replace it when I have some money. The shifter seems "loose" or something. Its hard to describe. It just seems to move around really freely, making it weird to try and find where its actually in gear. Its probably just that it feels different to the car I normally drive (a 82 honda accord, don't laugh, its a good car for what it is). it doesn't slip out of gear, though. Is this by desgin? Or is it just something that happens to supras? If anyone has any thoughts please reply because if I'm gonna buy it I probably have to do it before 9PM Pacific time today.

Thanks for your input 85SilverWedge!

-Chan

 

[85SilverWedge]

Your welcome. Here's some more input.
Ask yourself:" Am I really into the Mk2 Supras enough to spend the time and money getting it returned to a healthy everyday driver?" If no, then you may have yet to settle on exactly what you want to do with your money. If yes, then I offer the following points/opinions about your test drive info:
1: You sound like you can deal with the rust you found, you made it sound mostly cosmetic. Yes you can find a hatch with a little patience.
2: A little smoke coming from the exhaust at that age/mileage is normal. If it lessons as it warms and is kinda blueish, it is most likely valve stem seals. No biggie, as long as it is not a head gasket, which can show similar signs of lessoning (in some cases) as the gasket warms up and seals itself better. This smoke is more from coolant getting into the combustion chamber and coming out the exhaust. It would have a "sweet" smell to it, where oil would smell, well, like oil. If you take a wiff of the exhaust and it just smells like an older car and doesn't smell sweet, I would think you'd be set.
3: Loose shifter. I'd bet you just have a worn shifter bushing. Plastic or nylon item. Easy fix. Use the search feature on this forum for threads on that item.
I hope this helps. I don't want to see a Supra miss a chance to have a good home.

 

[dogstar]

for $700, if it doesnt have any MAJOR (holes through panel) rust, and it runs strong and your willing to do some work to it, then buy it.

as your already driving a 20 year old car, you might know how it is... theres always some little thing that needs doing, but as far as performance cars go, the supra has been a real treat for me.
im used to fixing my friends mustangs and camaros EVERY weekend, whereas with my supra, im still under the hood every weekend, but its just doing little stuff, like adjusting the headlight pop up height, so theyre exactly the same, then adjusting the bulbs so theyre level.

or modding it... it gets addictive, quickly.
its definitely nice to not have to do major repairs every couple weeks like ive had to do on my friends 84 mustang, since hes too cheap to take it to a shop, and i charge lower hourly rates than any shop in town.

 

[ChanSecodina]

I appreciate the advice and in fact on Sunday I was about to go through with the deal and get it. There is a really long story behind this that I'm going to put on my website (once my website exists), but the gist of it is as follows:
This guy was selling the car from a used car dealership (he said he owned it but he . I offered the guy $500, he agreed and when it came time to sign over the title I found out it wasn't in his name. He said that he had never gotten around to registering the car/getting the title signed over. He wanted to forge a bill of sale from the old owner to me. i said I was gonna go and get in touch with the lady who's name it was still under and get her to write the bill of sale. I never managed to get in touch with her. I came back today and find that the guy skipped state and owes the car dealership a bunch of money. So, no supra for now. If I can find where he ditched the car and get in touch with the old owner and see who actually owns this car I might still be able to get it. In the meantime I'll probably just look for other mkIIs for sale. One test drive in it and I'm hooked. Anyone in WA want to sell me one?

-Chan

 

[Downshift]

Odds are he either took the car with him... or disposed of it.

Hope you get an MK II soon!