I expect to be in a position to buy a "toy" (i.e. second) car when I have my house paid off, which should happen in the not-too-distant future. Top of my list is an NSX - the car has impressed me since it's intro in '91. Having had the opportunity to drive a couple, and having done a fair amount of research, I've made some observations, some of which seem to be confirmed by posts in this forum:
The "first gen" ('91-'93) cars that don't have high mileage seem to have held steady in value over the last couple of years in the mid $30k range, in spite of the snap ring failure issue, R-12 a/c, and smaller wheels/tires. Not entirely sure why this is, unless people truly are begining to buy them for collectability.
The manual steering of the pre-'95 manual trans cars is truckish at parking lot speed, nicely communicative at any speed above that. The power steering is great at low speed, but a little light and less communicative than the non-power setup. Of course, I'm comparing it to 3 series BMW steering, which ranks as about the best I've ever felt.
The targa roofed models, even with the various reinforcements, seem significantly more flexible than the coupes - I detect significant cowl shake, and creaks from the interior pieces, even with the roof in place. Of course, I've only driven one T, and it seemed pretty well used, particularly relative to it's 23k miles.
The 23k mile T model above was in need of a new clutch ASAP - it was slipping under acceleration at highway speed. A couple of ads I've seen mention clutch replacement prior to 60k - sometimes much prior. Is this typical?
Filtered through all of this, it looks like what I probably want is a '94 model coupe - pre P/S, but post R-12, snap ring, window regulator issues, etc. My fear, given the ultra-low production numbers after '92, is that I may be limiting myself too much.
I welcome informed comments on any of this.
The "first gen" ('91-'93) cars that don't have high mileage seem to have held steady in value over the last couple of years in the mid $30k range, in spite of the snap ring failure issue, R-12 a/c, and smaller wheels/tires. Not entirely sure why this is, unless people truly are begining to buy them for collectability.
The manual steering of the pre-'95 manual trans cars is truckish at parking lot speed, nicely communicative at any speed above that. The power steering is great at low speed, but a little light and less communicative than the non-power setup. Of course, I'm comparing it to 3 series BMW steering, which ranks as about the best I've ever felt.
The targa roofed models, even with the various reinforcements, seem significantly more flexible than the coupes - I detect significant cowl shake, and creaks from the interior pieces, even with the roof in place. Of course, I've only driven one T, and it seemed pretty well used, particularly relative to it's 23k miles.
The 23k mile T model above was in need of a new clutch ASAP - it was slipping under acceleration at highway speed. A couple of ads I've seen mention clutch replacement prior to 60k - sometimes much prior. Is this typical?
Filtered through all of this, it looks like what I probably want is a '94 model coupe - pre P/S, but post R-12, snap ring, window regulator issues, etc. My fear, given the ultra-low production numbers after '92, is that I may be limiting myself too much.
I welcome informed comments on any of this.
