I'm sure some of you guys will have seen the TradeMe listing for a white 1997 Soarer for sale in Christchurch over the last few days. I flew down and checked it out yesterday with an eye to bringing it back to Auckland and parting it out. I thought it over last night and decided not to bother. The guy was asking for $3,500 but with my travel costs and the cost of getting it back up north ($600 +GST was the cheapest quote I could find), plus the time I would have to put into breaking it up, it just wasn't viable.
It was brought into NZ in October last year but didn't pass official scrutiny because they were unhappy with structural repairs that had been done on both sides of the engine bay ( It did have a VIN number which i forgot to note down, but chassis number is JZZ1000360). From the looks of the engine bay, I would say that the car had probably been end-of-lifed by a frontal smash, the upside being that all replacement front parts are in nice condition- headlights, main beams, front bar, fog lights etc..
The listing describes the car as being 'Very clean and tidy in & out' - it couldn't be further from the truth, it is filthy.
Heavy smoke 'stains' on all the cloth seats, cigarette burns on roof above drivers seat and floor carpet lining badly stained from ash and dropped drinks. I have seen many 1991 models cleaner than this. Having said that, there were no air fresheners in the car and the interior did not have a smoky smell at all.
The car does not have it's original wheels, and is currently running on some generic wheels with worn tyres.
All panels are in pretty good nick, and should sell easily. All lights in very good condition, no cracks that i saw, and rear bumper in excellent condition. I did not see any spidering of the paintwork anywhere.
Some cosmetic damage to the drivers door frame above exterior handle
I wasn't allowed to test drive the car of course, but it starts up fine, sounds good, and a quick run through the gears and all sounded well. No splits in door trim. One small crack to air vent facia in usual place.
13/1 - 5.20pm
As of a few minutes ago I see the guy has amended the listing to state that the car can now be registered on the road (once the repairs have been done of course). He said yesterday he had been told the 'small repairs' to the engine bay would cost approx $2,000, which i would expect to be a conservative estimate.
I would encourage anyone in the South island to try and pick this up for cheap and part it out. I'm sure you'd make your money back in no time. FYI, when i called this morning he offered to lower the price to $2,500 without me even making an offer...i tend to think the re-wording of the listing suggests he is getting a little anxious to sell....
Also, purchase price in Japan was 275,000 Yen = NZ$3,300
let me know if you have any questions - will be easier than me to trying to remember everything in one go. I also have an 8MB zip file of photos if anyone serious wants a look. i can put it up on sendspace.com
One last thing- the guy says it belongs to his friend/ colleague (take your pick) but I think that's highly dubious judging from my dealing with him, his response to some of my questions when talking to him in person, oh, and also cos I think his name was written in white pen across the top of the windscreen
Cheers
P.S. Chris- saw you in SOARIN this afternoon. Always nice to see Soarers around - saw two others today - a white one near Fendalton, and a nice green one heading south from Kaiapoi.
Don Bagnall Moderator New Zealand I have WAY less Soarers than Hayden :-(
Saturday, January 13, 2007 - 03:21 pm, by: Don Bagnall(Baggs)
Interestingly Mark, when I put the chassis number into the EPC, it comes back as a June 97 car (which you'd expect!), BUT colour code is 202 which as we all know is BLACK.
Interior code is: FG21 whatever that is?
Makes you wonder if it's A: A repaint (why would ya?), or B: It's had a data plate change for some (dodgy?) reason.
Saturday, January 13, 2007 - 03:42 pm, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
Nice write up, Glad that you had a good look at that 3.0GT - It looked to be a good deal but after this front structural repair issue perhaps not... Would be great for parts though.
Yes Don... Thats a good point you got there, Perhaps in the 'bellow grade repair' on the front engine bay area, the original plate was damaged or lost and another one from another wrecked soarer in Japan was used as a replacement - Thats what I predict the case could be... Some Jap car dealers can be quite sneaky with there doings from what Ive heard!
Saturday, January 13, 2007 - 07:26 pm, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
For good sake thats HORRIBLE for a 1997 model,
My 1991 interior is better than that! Just look at the fact the seat nets are stretched, the seats are filthy, the rear has a broken seat belt holder... Gosh!
Exterior looks okay, part from the door pillar scratches..
Monday, January 15, 2007 - 07:30 am, by: Matthew Sharpe(Madmatt)
Looks like the interior would clean up OK with a bit of TLC though and the dash is in good nick. But yeah, the structual issues would put me off unless I had a friendly chassis expert on hand.
Monday, January 15, 2007 - 11:40 am, by: Mark Donovan(Mark_donovan)
Yeah, the interior may well clean up OK with a alot of time and seriously strong shampoo. Like I said, no noticeable cigarette burns on any of the seats.
Don Bagnall Moderator New Zealand I have WAY less Soarers than Hayden :-(
Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 03:19 pm, by: Mark Donovan(Mark_donovan)
Anyone notice he has the factory phone on his steering wheel?? I've not seen that on ANY Soarer anywhere, let alone NZ. I know it probably doesn't work but still...
Previous
Lets hope so, for then It may be a genuinely decent deal!
