I'm halfway contemplating on selling my FC with a T2 swap. Car itself has about 98k miles. Everything done to the car is as follows:

Engine/power mods:

S4 T2 engine fresh rebuild. About 3,000 miles.
Large streetport from Lucky7Racing
Custom 60-1 S5 hybrid turbo w/ P-trim turbine wheel, T04S housing, 360 thrust bearing
Rtek 2.1
Greddy Profec B boost controller
FMIC
Koyo Rad

Suspension/brakes:

Brand new brake MC, Hawk pads, braided brake lines
Brand new Clutch master and clutch slave
ISIS Pro HR coilovers

Extra mods/ maintenance:

Gas tank completely cleaned out, coated, and resealed. Better than a new one and will never rust again.
Oil changed with Idemitsu 20w40 every 2000 miles
I have used only Idemitsu premix since I have had the new engine in my possession
Braided lines with AN fittings for the oil cooler
S5 alternator

Cons:

No AC
No PS
Still has NA transmission and diff

That's pretty much all the mods of importance. Paint is a 7/10. No fading, but has some chips and scratches since I daily drive it. Interior is about a 6.5/10. No excess wear on seats, no cracks on dash except for the idiot cluster surround. I replaced the stock steering wheel with a smaller NRG one with quick release. I'm so tall that my knees hit the stock steering wheel so I had to get a different one. Car has a sunroof, but is permanently shut. Long story about that.

Anyways, I'm not sure what would be a good selling point for the car. Any input is appreciated.

 

It will probably sell for somewhere around $3,000-3,500, so if it were my car I would put a $4,500 price on it and see if anybody bites. Actually, if it were my car I would just keep it, lol.

Engine oil is good for at least 3000 miles, and synthetic oil does not have any significant advantages for a street car that is driven in a moderate climate like Florida or Texas. A good conventional oil like Castrol GTX will work just fine. Synthetic engine oil is more suited for cars that are operated in a very harsh environment, such as racing at Daytona, or driving in Alaska or the Outback.

When you make a proper post in the classified section, I recommend expanding on this. Does the car have a manual steering rack or a power steering rack that has been capped-off? Also, was the AC removed or is it just not working?

I would also add:
- Year and original trim of the car
- Color of paint (it doesn't look original in the pictures)
- Missing FTP lenses
- Brand/model of exhaust
- Brand/model of wheels, tire brand/model and size
- Type of Hawk pads (HP, HP+, etc.)
- Are the braided brake lines DOT legal?

 

Thanks a lot! I'll be sure to add those details.

 

Fix a few of those issues (bumper lenses & sunroof) and I bet it'll go for 4k+ easy.
Real T2s are getting more and more rare, so swaps like yours are getting more and more desirable.

Pop the hood and show us a pic of the engine bay.

 

adding to the list, take some good pictures. i have a few guidelines, and the key is to keep it simple.

basically you want the cars condition to be shown in the pictures, without making it look too good, or having weird distractions.

1. make sure the whole car is in the picture.
2. don't take pics while you're putting gas in it (for some reason every Rx8 ad is at the gas station)
3. wash/vacuum it.
4. try not to make the car look too good. it needs to look better in person than in the pics, so just keep it simple.
5. make sure the pics are in focus, and not flipped.
6. if there are dents/big scratches, its good to point them out. to point it out again, the car needs to look good in the pics and then better in real life.

here is an example of bad pics, 2004 Mazda rx8 notice he's got a lot of pictures but you really get no sense of how the car is? or in fact that the car looks like a junkheap?

vs a decent set of pics ---2004 Mazda rx8 138k fully loaded 6spd--- notice how you get to see all around the car? plus inside and under the hood? the lighting is a bit weird, but i think you could get a fair assumption of what you're going to go look at before you go.

 

Wow. Thanks for all the help! I've only sold one other car before so I'm not the best at it haha. I'd love to take some more pictures of the car along with the engine bay, but I'm out of the country for a few months.

 

personally i'd just keep it, FCs are increasing in value as they become harder to find. i'd just fix the minor aesthetic issues and keep it indoors and drive it on weekends.

always kinda bothers me when someone does a lot of work only to sell the car after they just finish it all. lol

 

Yeah I'm probably just going to keep it. Haha. Getting under 5k for the car would hurt pretty bad. I've put in about 15k into this car, so I would lose a lot. I daily it right now and was wanting to get a fun daily that's reliable.

 

yep, unfortunately turbo swapped cars are still a bit more difficult to sell reasonably because there are so many that have been converted by complete dipshit ***** with no sense of what in the holy **** they are doing. that expectation sets the standard that people figure that they will need to do more work to the car.

i have had an offer of $10k for my S4 TII and this was a few years back, before this forum rather died.

 

Oh I agree with you on that. I think the only thing that is dipshit **** style with the swap is that it is still NA drivetrain. But that's only because I can't find a damn S4 TII rearend for a decent price local to me or from some guy that wants to ship it. Whenever I find a good deal on one its half way across the country and the guy doesn't want to ship it even though I will pay for the shipping and arrange it all. Extremely aggravating. I'm even starting to consider an 8.8 IRS swap, but that costs a pretty penny.

 

there's a few parts hoarders that list stuff for sale down here in orlando, worth a look/call.

i have an S5 TII viscous that im going to swap in but the clutch LSD coming out needs a bit of TLC since it has 220k on it, so i wouldn't even want to pawn it off on someone.

 

I scour craigslist in orlando often. Just checked it yesterday, but no rear ends. I did find a guy in Louisiana that has a TII parts car for 1500 with full drivetrain. If that is still there when I'm home I may try to pick it up and strip it of everything. I'll have an extra TII transmission then as well, which would be kind of nice.