If you want an average car, you pay average price. If you want an exceptional car, it seems fair to me that an exceptional price be asked. This looks to be about as good an R as I have seen for sale in recent years. The history, maintenance documentation and quality of the mods all point to a high value car. Not to mention it's physical condition. If a really good condition yellow T5-R can be approaching the 20-25K mark, then 15 seems pretty fair for a car like this. Considering no yellow R wagons came into the country, a red wagon is the next best thing. At least in my opinion. Of course a manual car would be desirable.. but manual wagons, especially in red, aren't exactly the most common car around. You can always toss manual in as well, if you're that way inclined. I wanted to convert mine but I feel like the auto kind of suits the grand tourer nature of the car.
I guess the km's on this car are a little bit high but Rs are made to be driven and in a country like this, they're generally going to have some km's on the clock. I can't say I can remember seeing many cars that have less than 200k km's. And if the car has been maintained, and especially if it's had an exchange motor the mileage is kind of irrelevant.
I guess these cars have been pretty cheap for a while and it seems to me they are at a bit of a tipping point in value. At nearly 25 years old, they have probably bottomed out and any cars that are still standing either need alot of coin spent to bring them up to scratch. Or they have had plenty spent on them already. There was a car for sale recently that had a bill for something approaching 10 grand and they weren't asking much more. I paid 3k for my red wagon and spent somewhere between 5 and 10k bringing it up to scratch and I still have things to tick off the list.
So again, 15k for a car that looks stunner and has all the work done seems like a deal.
Oh yeah and there was an article in thoroughbred and classic car mag a couple of years back that suggested now was the time to pounce on these cars. That's what prompted me to jump on mine and I'm glad I did. I've wanted one since I was a kid and now I've got one. Spending money on a car you love isn't much of a chore when you get to enjoy it whenever you want. One day I might get it resprayed and retire it for fun runs but for now I'm gonna drive that biatch.
I guess that's another question you have to ask yourself if you're considering this car.. do you want a car to stow away and savour occasionally or do you wanna ride that old lady on the regular? Mistress or wifey?
Lovely car btw.