I have to disagree... they are easily 16-20k range cars depending on condition.

i payed 20k for mine and my mechanic didnt even HAVE it for sale but we had to talk him down from 23k!! and it was STILL worth it at that...

i guess mines not a good example because of the wheels being kinda (well... REALLY) expensive but that aside the car was in GORGEOUS condition and easily a 18k car.

 

We, as sellers, can define the value of these things. Do you honestly think that the last generation Supras are worth what they go for or that much more than RX-7s? Given the rarity of good examples, I would say that we're short selling ourselves by asking lower prices. The top 10 sellers of Supras on cars.com average over $53k (as of this posting). That's over $30k more than the avg. top 10 FDs. (This is nationwide by the way and only cars.com).

I see all too often that someone buys one, can't afford it and looks for a quick sale by selling low. THAT'S how we get the idea that these things aren't worth more than they should be.

Sell high. If you HAVE to sell it low, then hopefully it will go to someone who can take proper care of it.

And I agree with the above. $7-9k is a huge insult to our market and only further drags down the overall true value.

 

hell yeah...... 15 months and a re-enlistment bonus later, i got myself a 15K RX7. truth be told, i was prepared to pay more but i found one that i fell in love with. i would agree with a good portion of us military types being buyers of 7s. so if you ask me, you list that think at 18K, and some guy like me, who just got off of a long *** deployment will gladly pay that for a car he really wants. it is my experience that when a service-member wants a car, he will do what he can to get it. good luck with the sale. kinda want to see a pic of it.

 

+ some absurdly large number.

 

It would be nice if this were true but it is not. ~90% of FD owners are not even on this board so it would be difficult to arrange. When someone is selling a car they list at a particular price and if it does not sell they lower until it does. The market sets the value.

The market has decided that they are so, yes, they are. Are Hanna Montana tickets really worth $400-$1000 a pop. Unfortunately, yes.

The market decides worth. It is hard to argue with the substance of what Gordon has written above, for example, but the market has different priorities.

This range is a reflection of reality. Here is a dump of my local Craigslist in the $5-$10k range. And these are asking prices - sale prices will likely be lower.

There are four other FDs listed above $10k and they have been on the market for months. There is a guy trying to get $18k for his 70k mile FD and I think it has been on sale for a year (or maybe it just seems that way).

 

$16k does sound right, but with this shitty economy idk

 

The value of anything is predicated against what X amount will buy. Well right now 16k buys a heck of lot more FD than a stock car with 55k miles on it. You can argue about it all day long but at the end of the day I'll take my 16k somewhere else and so will any soldier with any sense.

I'm selling my BB r1 with 62k miles for 16,500 with these mods:
RS seats (easily worth 2k)
M2 medium 1k
PFC 600
built motor 5k
etc...etc...

Easily another 5k in it.

I can buy a similar car for this price which is why I'm selling mine at this price. I don't know about you but that's how I price my cars and my parts. If Jim and Joe sell a PFC for 600 so do I. I can only hope people buy mine because I'll provide better service. That's how things are made and sold all over the world. If you can't wrap your head around it then you'll be confused when you're buying and selling anything but it's always made a lot of sense to me lol.

 

In the SF Bay Area, Craigslist is the place to sell or buy a car no matter how cheap or expensive it is. There are dozens of Ferraris on the at the moment (most with $100k+ prices), 10 Lamborginis, and almost 500 Porsche listings for example. I just bought a car through it a few weeks ago and will be selling two there in the next month or two. It has been ~4 years since I used Autotrader. I this area, Autotrader is for people who don't know better.

And the ads I listed (which I actually cleaned up somewhat to remove the guy listing his automatic every few hours) are those from the last 7 days (because they expire on Craigslist). Until six months ago I had not seen a single running FD under $10k, now there are several per week.


I have never understood Autotrader because many of the prices listed there for pretty much any car I'm familiar with are significantly above blue book value. When I was buying an FD five years ago most of the ones listed on Autotrader had 80k+ miles with asking prices in the $18-22$k range. I bought one (through this board) for $16k with 44k miles. I tried to exploit this apparent market price difference by listing my then current car for an inflated price after I bought my FD but got nothing except a few tire kickers and email from people telling me the KBB value for the car. I eventually sold it through a local dealer for its KBB value. Perhaps many of the cars listed on Autotrader do sell for their high asking prices but I have never seen any independent evidence that they do.

Even though there is a lot of denial about it on this board, KBB has a huge influence on the selling price of an FD. Even the least car savvy person is aware of it and banks are unlikely to lend more than the KBB amount. The irony is that KBB now might be listing inflated values for these cars (and most others) because there have been a huge drop in the market value of a certain type of used car in the last six months and it has not caught up. Also, it is next to impossible to get financing for these cars now.

I predicted recently that FD values would parallel those of Porsche 928s, with most selling for $4-$6k and a few nice ones reaching the teens - like the bell curve you suggested but with a much lower median. I assumed that it would take several years for this to happen but it may actually be months away given the continuing economic meltdown.

 

Banks use NADA along with 99.9% of any lending companies, the cars you listed from Craigslist does not mention mileage, condition and are likely autos. But once again, what do I know about the resale of fds, Ive only sold near 100 in the last 6 yrs Im by no means the be all end all of fd values, but I have a decent grasp on it. Autotrader.com is still without a single doubt the best place to sell a car. You know how many people I have met in the last 3 years that bought a fd from me? 2, all the others were shipped elsewhere around the country.

 

SF bay area fds

1. $9000.00 with 200k miles

"1993 mazda rx-7. Twinturbo. 5spd. Black with tan interior. The car has around 200k miles on it. The motor along with the turbos, clutch and tranny have only around 50k on them. The turbos are 99` jdm. the motor wasnt rebuilt, it was brand new from the factory. The car doesnt pass smog, im pretty sure it has a vacume leak which is making it run bad. It also is sometime hard to start. i have had it for four and a half years. Its always been garaged. needs a little interior work and suspension work. I dont have the time or money to work on it anymore. This car would be a great project if you wanna make a drift/track car out of it. i am asking $9000.00 OBO! NO TRADES! If you have any other questions you can call Cody at 707 363-9744. Serious callers only. Thanks."

2. $12,500.00
1993 Rx7 clean title -silver base modle, black interior, Manual Tranny, suspension- koni shocks and H&R springs, 18' MoMo Wheels, New Motor- M2 intake, Greddy intercooler, Kayo radiator, Racing Beat Exhaust & Down pipe, AST, PFC w/ comander. Runs and Drive perfect.

3. Auto Car for $9k with no mileage info

"1994 Mazda RX7!!Rare!!WOW !!Auto!!Super Clean Inside & Out!! - $8988 (Antioch/Oakland)"

4. 5 speed car for $10k with 80k miles, no engine mileage info but not a bad deal

"1994 RX7 TWIN-TURBO

82K MILES

BRAND NEW TOKICO SHOCKS ALL-AROUND

BRAND NEW CAT

PLEASE CALL SEAN AT 510-688-7878"

5. $17k Chaste White with 84k miles and decent mods

6. $11,500.00 93 red fd with no mileage or trans info and some aftermarket wheels

7. $9500.00 93 w/ 104k miles and needs paint

If I were to go by those examples I wouldnt even know we are in a recession. Those prices are right in line with the prices from 2 years ago with the exception of the 80k mile car for 10k :why:

 

i agree with the fact that autotrader is an excellent site... but i prefer to buy from fellow enthusiasts from enthusiast forums such as this.

i've started my search for a specific FD that i'd like to purchase and have been looking at autotrader, ebay, cctol, rotarytraderonline, etc. my search will take me nationally and i'd check craigs list too but it will only let me search locally. does anyone have any advice to open my on craigs list to search 'national' vs. specific region? are there many FD's for sale on craigs list nationally right now?

thank you.

 

You will likely find the best prices on fds on this site, most dont understand it is often hard to sell a car on a site where 80% of your viewers already own that type of car.

When you are on craigslist you should see a list of states over to the right side of the page, just click on the state and then click on the area/region you want to search in.

 

As a side note, when my 94 Base (slightly modded with 104K on the ODO) was total loss'd in Nov '08, Country Companies said it was worth 15,900, and they let me take my aftermarket rims back.

That being said (I think I got REAL lucky) I bet you could sell the car to the right buyer depending on condition and what the buyer is looking for @ about 16.5 and have it sold by summer. At least that would be the place to start.

Put 14K on the ask and it will most likely move quicker, again, all depending on what the buy wants. I spent the extra cash for a super low mileage FD with nice mods because the unmolested look and a moderatly modded engine was that important to me.

FWIW, there is some truth to it being worth what someone will pay, becaue the potential buyer will pay more if the car meets the criteria for what is important to them. Someone looking for a Rotary Powerhouse will shell out the Extra $$$ for a well done single. Someone looking to build a project will probably not pay as much nor care as much about the intangibles of the cars condition. just my $.02, take it or leave it.

 

Yes - but oddly enough until 6 months ago people were still listing their super high mileage, tired FDs for $13-$15k+. In five years of looking (on and off) at Craigslist FDs I don't think I have even seen a sub $10k running one. Now I see several per week.

I certainly don't have your experience selling FDs (and I have always used your site as a gauge of prices - you clearly don't want to keep the cars on the market for 3+ months) but the realignment of Craigslist asking prices over the past few months has been dramatic. I have been following it very closely over the past six months while looking for a fun BMW and prices seem to drop by the week. I picked up a like new E39 540i for $10.5k a few weeks that I was expecting to pay $15k for when I started looking. FD asking prices have had a similar trajectory.

Now perhaps the national picture is different.

 

Depreciation is nasty with E39s. You did get to spend 8 years with a truly astonishing car though.

It does put the bellyaching we go through WRT the price FDs into perspective. The car I bough had a new sticker price of $58k seven years after the last US FD was sold and is now selling for less than pretty much any clean FD. Ok, so we don't have Supra residuals but we do better than any other recent car I can think of.

I've seen single owner, low mileage M3s and M5s with $20-$30k of Dinan goodies selling for only slightly more. The amount of kit you can get for under $30k now is unprecedented. Funnily enough, I don't have the slightest temptation of selling my FD to buy one of these beasts. The beauty and performance (with a few mods) of FDs is still world class. I will never disagree with you on that - I just think the rest of the world does not give a rat's *** and that they will always be a bastard stepchild pricewise.

Sounds like fun. Even Ferraris are reliable these days so $20k services should no longer be a worry.

 

I was just trying to get you stirred up, the prices have dropped, not as dramatically as other markets but the overall price has dropped. I have owned a couple 540i6, 3 e36 m3s, and a couple 325s also. The BMW market has taken the biggest hit that I have personally seen, along with corvettes. Lexus, Mercedes, etc havent been hit as hard. I always keep my eye open on e36 BMWs and they have taken a big beating. You can find nice 80k mile m3s for around $8-9k with just a little effort.