I went and checked it out at lunch. Looked it over for 20 minutes and took it for a test drive. Here's what my uneducated self found:
It is not in snap ring range - tranny number is J4A4-3000143.
The seats are 7/10. Definite wear, but no tears or delamination.
Arm Rest in similar condition.
Missing door light on the Pass Door.
No obvious repaint. Was claimed to be original and I believe it.
Various chips on front.
Deep scratches on the leading edge of the wing that had been touched up.
A scuff on the transition between the quarter panel and the bumper on the driver's side. 1' x 2" scuff that could be brought 80% back probably.
Original Wheels are not available.
The clutch is supposedly 1500 miles old, but there are no records.
Some aftermarket stereo work, that seemed hacked together. Had the Bose headunit, an Alpine EQ in the glove box, and some sort of amp and sub setup that I heard but didn't see. It sounded fine with the stereo on, even turned all the way down, but buzzed with it turned off. The only part of the install I saw was the EQ, but I wasn't impressed with it.
It is leaking oil onto rear exhaust manifold or pipe. This wasn't obvious on startup or initial warm up, but after I got back from driving it fairly hard for 10 minutes or so and popped the engine lid it was obvious. Probably a VC Gasket or the VTEC Solenoid.
Engine looked stock and the bay was dirty.
There was a bit more noise than I would expect. Sounded like loose valves.
Seems like a decent daily driver candidate. The reserve is $26,900, but they will sell it outside of ebay. He said that he had been offered $23K and turned it down, but $25K would probably be enough to stop the auction. It's a bit more than I want to put into one, but you could do worse.
As an aside, it's the first time I've gotten to test drive one since they came up on the radar screen. Lots of fun. It's pretty quick, but still turns. It's not quite as much of a go kart as my CRX, but it's better than other cars I've driven that were as quick. One thing that caught me off guard was the tranny ratios. My CRX is doing 4K RPM in 5th on the expressway. The much longer gears of the NSX put me in 3rd on the expressway until I remembered that I had 2 more available.
