Let's see...
The good:
- Looks like nice original paint, or if it's been repainted, good job with the reproduction decals.
- Hatch alignment is decent. Driver's side is good, passenger's side is sticking out toward the rear of the car a little. This tends to get worse over time as the bushings wear.
- Body panel alignment looks good, doesn't seem to have ever been crashed.
- Cats have been deleted, which is a good thing at this point if you plan to actually drive it.
- Interior looks nice, black/tan color combo is great.
- Air dam is in good shape.
- No sunroof, good, they all leak eventually anyway.
- Wheels are in nice shape, and they look original, not restored.
- Whoa, the stamped steel engine under-tray, and the plastic air deflector that goes between it and the air dam, are still installed and in good shape. That's rare and very nice to see.
- Factory floor mats, nice.
The bad:
- Heat shields between the turbine housing and the ABS unit are gone. Hmm, where'd they go?
- Wait, that's not a stock turbo! Looks like a Chinacharger. Must have the Treadstone T3 manifold on it then.
- Oh, and the rubber boot between the compressor inlet and the MAF has been butchered to make it fit. Not good, not good at all.
- Tail lights are getting wet inside, you can see the rusty water stains inside the lenses. Driver's side is way worse. Both of them need to be disassembled, cleaned, reflectors re-painted, gaskets replaced.
- Trip odometer reset button is broken.
- E36 M3 black spray bomb job on the cruise control actuator for some reason.
- Front strut mounts are cracked. You can still buy brand new ones on RockAuto, you know.
- Red plastic on the automatic seat belt release levers is sun-faded, bummer. Seat belt buttons look good, though.
- Ironman tires? Really?
- The under-car shots appear to strategically avoid the parts of the unibody that you really need to see. The passenger's side, where the exhaust cooks the undercoating and paint off the body and the "frame rail" structure rusts through, and the driver's side, where the steering box leaks and the fluid strips all the paint off...you can't see either of those spots, probably for good reason. The rest of the car looks fine underneath, but I would not buy this car without getting some good pictures of those areas, because that's where the problems will be.
Overall, this car wasn't prepped very well for auction. I wouldn't pay $17,500 for it. I would put it in the $10-15k range. Better prepped examples have been selling on BaT for $20-25k. Too bad, this car has a lot of good things going for it; if the seller had fixed some of the issues I think they could have expected to get a lot more for it given how crazy the market is.
tuna55
MegaDork
8/19/21 2:58 p.m.
Yes they are classics. I want one, but I can't think of anything they do well enough, other than just be really cool, to make me buy one.
obsolete said:
Let's see...
The good:
- Looks like nice original paint, or if it's been repainted, good job with the reproduction decals.
- Hatch alignment is decent. Driver's side is good, passenger's side is sticking out toward the rear of the car a little. This tends to get worse over time as the bushings wear.
- Body panel alignment looks good, doesn't seem to have ever been crashed.
- Cats have been deleted, which is a good thing at this point if you plan to actually drive it.
- Interior looks nice, black/tan color combo is great.
- Air dam is in good shape.
- No sunroof, good, they all leak eventually anyway.
- Wheels are in nice shape, and they look original, not restored.
- Whoa, the stamped steel engine under-tray, and the plastic air deflector that goes between it and the air dam, are still installed and in good shape. That's rare and very nice to see.
- Factory floor mats, nice.
The bad:
- Heat shields between the turbine housing and the ABS unit are gone. Hmm, where'd they go?
- Wait, that's not a stock turbo! Looks like a Chinacharger. Must have the Treadstone T3 manifold on it then.
- Oh, and the rubber boot between the compressor inlet and the MAF has been butchered to make it fit. Not good, not good at all.
- Tail lights are getting wet inside, you can see the rusty water stains inside the lenses. Driver's side is way worse. Both of them need to be disassembled, cleaned, reflectors re-painted, gaskets replaced.
- Trip odometer reset button is broken.
- E36 M3 black spray bomb job on the cruise control actuator for some reason.
- Front strut mounts are cracked. You can still buy brand new ones on RockAuto, you know.
- Red plastic on the automatic seat belt release levers is sun-faded, bummer. Seat belt buttons look good, though.
- Ironman tires? Really?
- The under-car shots appear to strategically avoid the parts of the unibody that you really need to see. The passenger's side, where the exhaust cooks the undercoating and paint off the body and the "frame rail" structure rusts through, and the driver's side, where the steering box leaks and the fluid strips all the paint off...you can't see either of those spots, probably for good reason. The rest of the car looks fine underneath, but I would not buy this car without getting some good pictures of those areas, because that's where the problems will be.
Overall, this car wasn't prepped very well for auction. I wouldn't pay $17,500 for it. I would put it in the $10-15k range. Better prepped examples have been selling on BaT for $20-25k. Too bad, this car has a lot of good things going for it; if the seller had fixed some of the issues I think they could have expected to get a lot more for it given how crazy the market is.
And this is why you have an expert look at a car before you purchase your dream car!!!
Another thing that I found a bit annoying is the "artistic" use of depth of field in the photos. It puts a lot of what is in the photos out of focus. So only a very small part of the photo is actually useful. Another way to hid things in plain sight. I have seen it in the past but this set of photos is using it to such an extent that it borders on being deceptive.
This image is an example. Only the area in the ellipse is in focus. You basically can not really tell the condition of anything outside of it.
At a local auto-X event here in CA, shooting photos for PROTHANE, I came across this Mit. Starion. Has a Corvette motor! My point here is, if you can't find a clean one, think about using the restorable one you find to make a hobby machine. It caught my eye!
Colin Wood said:
Is the exploding popularity of Radwood elevating Gen-X cars to desirable classic car status?
I guess I forgot to answer the original question. Yes, I believe it is.
tuna55 said:
Yes they are classics. I want one, but I can't think of anything they do well enough, other than just be really cool, to make me buy one.
Yeah, that's pretty much it, but sometimes that's enough, y'know? Mine puts a smile on my face more consistently than other cars for that reason. It's kind of a dumb car that's not objectively great at anything, but it's really cool, and when I drive it, I feel really cool.
dean1484 said:
Another thing that I found a bit annoying is the "artistic" use of depth of field in the photos. It puts a lot of what is in the photos out of focus. So only a very small part of the photo is actually useful. Another way to hid things in plain sight. I have seen it in the past but this set of photos is using it to such an extent that it borders on being deceptive.
Absolutely. That's a great point.
100% and still one of my dream cars. Though I'm holding out for a blue one with a manual. Of course I have no place to put it, so it's a moot point.
Yes, see them for sale all the time on FB marketplace with one common caveat which is the motor. It's always something with the motor. I want one but the engine problems that I see it seem to have is off putting.
Kid at my HS and his dad each had a new one around 1988. Red and Royal blue IIRC. Definitely one was red. I remember both had brush strokes through the pinstripes, 80's style. Always liked these.
Is this a trick question?
And, is No an allowed response?
The Conquest/Starion is a car designed around a perfect set of box flares and wheels.
Photography Courtesy RM Sotheby's
