Price Guide For S3 Turbo?

[Laurie Cross]

Hi

I am looking to get hold of an S3 Turbo restoration project, I have bid at one on ebay, but the price is getting towards £5,000 atm, The car will need alot of work aswell, The only guides I can find say £3,500 for a possible running project to £7,000 for a decent car needing work.

 

Any ideas on what I should be looking to pay would be appreciated.

[Trevsked]

I think the days of £3500 turbo projects are gone and I am realistic about prices, I don't try and talk them up. £5000 is what I think a project is worth and to qualify that, by project I mean a car that doesn't need an engine rebuild immediately but will probably need one in the not too distant future and also requires a respray perhaps. Nice cars are £15k so a project is probably £5k to £7.5k unless it's a special of some sort (dry sump, Essex, Anniversary etc) in which case a bit more.

Even a good one wil always be a project :-)

 

Trevor.

[Bazza 907]

Totally agree.   

[Mr_John111]

It depends on your motivation Do you see this as a bargain way of getting a TE? If so and you have the skills, time and patience then getting a car for £5k could be a good deal. You will have the benefit of knowing that you have replaced refurbed all of the car and used regularly will give you years of exciting motoring. However be prepared to spend £5k on it and have it only worth £9k when finished if you have to sell into a buyers market. On the other hand if you feel that there is some profit to be made ala Wheeler Dealers then IMHO you need to be very very sure of what needs doing as costs can easily spiral out of control Just my two cents John

[GordonMasson]

Can't really coment on the going rate for a project car but having owned an esprit for 29 years what I will say is that you should expect it to cost twice as much and twice as long as your conservative estimate as a minimum.

For my tuppence worth I would suggest spending more money on a car that someone else has poured a bucket of cash into.

As It says above, the car will never be worth what you spend on it so why not buy one that has gone thought the process already and is a bit more sorted.

[nigeninja]

 I do hope you have been and looked at the car you have bid on,if its the one im thinking of

[Laurie Cross]

Thanks for the advice guys, Yes ninja it was the car you thought it was, (silver one on ebay) I had my cousin go look at earlier in the week.

 

I dont really understand ebay but i had bid £5,101 on it and been leading the bidding all week, only to have someone put an offer in 2 seconds from the end that was £700 higher than the most recent offer and £100 over my maximum!.

[dodge1979]

I think you were sAved from an overpriced dog from what I gather...and the reality of it is, if you buy a project at 5k, expect it to owe you 20-25k when its done...and that is not costing your own,labour..as an example, the previously mentioned add of the silver car made me both laugh and cringe...his estimated costs must have been based on prices 20 years ago...a grand for a full paintjob did he say? Its this sort of thing that makes a lot of projects overpriced and passed around unfinished...and not to go back into the wheeler dealer con which has been covered in anothexr thread last year...

[PhilW]

Mark from Stocks Coach works was watching this earlier.  Good chance he has it.  Maybe worth a call and a deal could be done if im right.  Worth a phone call.  he can only say no!

[cbclotus]

I have just bought a S3hc .That needs lots of work.My mate use to be a mechanic for a lotus dealer when they based in Exeter.Cam belt off water pump off. tentioner bearing new. carbs off the list goes on.But as all of us know .Esprits are special cars.I belive the later cars such as the hc models will be sought after.My car was no ten out of 150 hc na cars for the uk market.Just hope i can see it through and get the car back on the road.Cheers all.Mike

[hopo]

I agree with all of the above.... (even Trev)

Laurie, I think as has been stated above, your much better getting your hands on a non project car which has had money lavished on it by a previous owner... these cars usually throw up issues every now and again. Theyre all kind of "projects" just varying degrees of one!

[pete]

This looks a possibility

 

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/lotus/esprit/lotus-esprit-s3-1986-fully-restored/1072955

[nigeninja]

Tell you what 5 grand for that or 5 grand for the silver ebay one,i know its not a turbo but its so the car I would rather spend 5 grand on out of the two of them       

[Trevsked]

Trouble is I assume it's an insurance cat of some kind and if we look at the white damaged car that was on here a while back, that went for less than £5k and had an engine rebuild but took forever to sell. The silver car is a bit of a mess though and not worth as much as he wants I suspect.

 

Trevor.

[Bazza 907]

The red one which had a carb fire has been running since the new carbs were installed. I know that because I saw it at Castle Combe just after it had had the new carbs installed. I spent some time talking to the owner about it having been used extensively in the Walton book. 

[Laurie Cross]

I got an email from ebay offering me a second chance on the silver one, so I called the guy and he claimed he knew nothing about it, said it may have been his dad that did it.

I said I would not pay more than £4,000 for it as it only jumped over £5,000 in the last second.

 

He didn't call me back, but since them after what I have read on here, I think I will wait and look for a running example later in the year.

[Lex Templar]

It does look a little like it keeps getting bid up.. I think the key is to buy the best example you can find as the price between the best and the worst is not a lot. As mentioned you could easily put £25000 into a resto. I still think the maintained unrestored cars are the ones to look for.

[andy b]

I took a punt at a S3 turbo on ebay £3495 buy it now and i thought what the hell. There was very little description only it hadn't been on the road for a good few years. it does not even need a sorn thats how long. Any way i bought it collected from anglesey and got it home. the chap had had the turbo rebiult. fuel tanks done new rad, all the brakes re done all brake pipes. new s/s exhaust . new master cylinder. It has 43000 miles on the clock every thing works . the carbs were choked up striped and cleaned. i replaced the cam belt. and tensioner. all the heat shields were new as the old ones were in a box of bits. The engine runs sweet now. ok it does need some paint. but it has cost very little to do. the point is he who dares wins some times. andy b

[andy b]

Better to be lucky than good andy b

[pete]

if your still looking this could be of interest

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140987134607&clk_rvr_id=485632045812&item=140987134607&lgeo=1&vectorid=229508

[Laurie Cross]

I have just bought my first Esprit Turbo!, I was going to wait until next year but impulsiveness got the better off me.

 

http://www.uksportscars.com/view/6122/

 

I have bought this after seeing it on ebay last week, it didnt sell so I asked how much they wanted.

 

£8,500, maybe more than I should have paid but the colour scheme got me...

[Bazza 907]

Congratulations

Great looking Turbo and not a lot of money for what it is.

[ChrisJ]

A very good year as well

 

Chris

[rizla603104]

Great colour choice! Be warned - once you get bitten - it never leaves you!

[Lex Templar]

Lovely early car.