Hope I'm posting this in the right forum, otherwise can a mod move it?
Long time Honda fan boy and have always wanted to get back into an ITR. Owned two GSR in VSM as well. As many of you already know, looking for a clean ITR is a difficult task to say the least. My question is this:

What would actually be a deal breaker for you?
Perhaps, I'm being too picky in my search?

Below, are points that would be deal breakers for me. Are they unrealistic given that this is after all, an 18yr old car?

1. Clean title - meaning, not a rebuilt ITR, theft recovery etc.
2. Accidents that would impact frame, structural. Things like bumper covers, door dings, I'm not too worried about.
3. Original motor, LSD, transmission etc... - is this too picky? Saw a few with B18C JDM motors vs B18C5
I know there are plenty B20 builds and K20 swaps but I prefer the B18C5 for reasons I will not delve into
4. Original OEM paint
5. High kms - anything over 125,000 miles
6. Correct interior pieces - again, I've ran across a number of ITR's with GSR leather interior etc... It would be nice to have the correct interior touches such as checkered mats for a 97 and door panels etc... Not a huge deal and at the bottom of my list. I do have a set of Recaro's that I will throw in the car regardless.

All of the above to say, I've yet to run across an ITR in Canada that doesn't have a story behind it. Usually, a swapped motor, rebuilt or something else.
Should I just accept that this is par for the course and prepare to put in some work? A Fiesta ST is my alternative.

TIA

 

It depends on what you want to purchase this car for? Are you tracking it, daily driving it, or will it be a garage queen? My opinion below would be for a weekend / garage queen type of car:

1-4 would be the deal breakers for me.
5 wouldn't be a problem if 1-4 were satisfied and car was in great shape with no signs of prior modding or abuse.
6 As long as seats are in good condition and original and has badge number.

I would also add:
- No rust
- All original body panels
- Original glass
- If modified, as many OEM parts as possible to convert back to stock

 

I think you can find one that meets all your expectations, but it might come with a high price tag. I think deal breaker for me is 1-3.
4-6 shouldn't be a problem. Although I don't know anyone that would put gsr interior in a type R. Better check if they are type R wannabes.

 

Mine doesn't pass the #1 qualification, but did that on purpose because I wanted an ITR, but have never had a Honda/Acura, and wanted to use it as a learning experience too (bought as a bare shell). If I get another I'm sure I will be more picky and meet more of those criteria.

 

I think you hit on most of the points.

6 wouldnt bother me so much as you can find those items if you really want them.

Also for me, not having the badge would be a deal breaker unless i was going to build a track car or something of that nature. But for value wise I would want it to be there.

 

Thanks guys.

This would be my third car, so, essentially a weekend/garage queen and 3 or 4 track events a year.
This year, I was only able to get to the track twice.

I've seen a number ITRs now with leather interior -usually a sign of theft. I don't think anyone is trying to fool anybody that it's fake ITR - probably more likely that it's hard to replace with oem parts. What I find annoying, are sellers who aren't up front. Let's be honest, if you're a potential ITR buyer, the wrong shift ****, would be caught let alone wrong seats, motor etc... maybe you guys in the states have it better but I've been looking for over a year now easy.

But I think I'll continue to hold out given everyone's input this far. All I want is an ITR in decent condition, optional skirt kit, bronze mf10, pilot sports and the mugen gen 1 wing!!

 

As time marches on, availability decreases. Finding one that fits your criteria will be hard to find and if found, quite pricey. You need to be looking in the US(which I'm sure you are) as Canada doesn't have **** for ITR's. Trust me. The odd one will pop up in Ontario but will sell quickly, especially if it has a clean title.

I can only remember a handful of US ITR's over the last 3-4 years that were available and have now sold that met your criteria.

It really depends on how quickly you want one. It could take a year or two before something pops up. Also, keep in mind the exchange rate right now. Our dollar blows and the US currency has strength. Plus import fees, transport, etc. A $10K USD ITR will quickly turn into $14k+ when the smoke clears. And that's one that wouldn't come close to fitting your criteria. The days of 1:1 are long gone with little hope of that perfect storm happening again.

Cliffs: you gotta pay to play, be patient.

 

Agree on all points and yes, have looked in both Canada and US. I admit it gets discouraging and a 2yr old fiesta st starts to make more sense.
Too bad I'm a Honda fan boy. Damnit.

 

They definitely do exist.

My car has all 6 of the requirements and I take extremely good care of it. Took me 8 months to find it locally but I'm glad I waited and don't think many are around anymore. I have put a lot of work into it to get it to where I feel it should be.

Only have top dollar parts on it (the few that are on it) and the rest is original.
Sitting at 89,000 miles on it currently

I'd only ever consider selling it if someone made me an offer over $17k.

I have seen some really nice caRs in Ontario that have been stored in the winter pop up frequently. They are typically between 18-23k.

Again, like all have said, you need to pay to play because of the lack of availability.

 

I am more concerned with if the car has original parts. Too many itRs with k20 swaps, jdm front conversions, and crazy offset wheels that mess up the rear quarter panels

To me you drive the car not the title. I've seen several clean title cars that have been in front end collisions, frame damage or stolen but then never claimed through insurance.

 

I'm in Winnipeg, found my ITR in kenora Ontario, but originally an Alberta car.

The only thing in your list mine didn't have was the kms, it had 235,000 kms and was beat to absolute hell.

It honestly looked like there was a 20 man parking lot brawl and the ITR was in the middle of the lot. Motor blowing oil and transmission didn't have any gears left, not even reverse.

But everything was still together, just painfully abused. The price I paid reflected that, it was 3500$ and took allot of work and money to get back to a respectable condition.

I didn't have allot of money to play with, honestly the ITR could have been in any shape and I would have bought it so I guess the main question is how deep are your pockets?

You could get a pristine ITR if you have the money to hunt one down and pay the premium price that it would go for, but for myself price dictates everything, I still got what I always wanted, it just took 3 years of building and saving to get the car back to life.

Do you have a budget in mind?

 

My budget is around 16 any more than I'm too close to considering a ,clean 03 ap1. I'll be patient. The longer the wait, though, I suspect I'll end up in a different car all together.

 

What would stop you from buying an ITR? How about common sense? lol

Be ready to pay, there is a line up of guys in Canada waiting to pounce on anything clean - and there are also Americans watching the Canadian classifieds hoping to find a clean DC2R.

Earlier this year I paid 19K for a 2001, clean title, accident free, low mile (under 70000km), mostly stock DC2R. (JDM front, JDM 16", Recaro fronts, and shitty coils/CAI) Which also happened to be on the other side of the county so I also paid another 1500 for shipping.

The reality of the DC2R market is this, there are roughly four grades of car; (USD prices)
1- Perfect, 100% stock, matching numbers, vin tags on all panels, OEM paint, low low mile. (Maybe 20 in North America I would guess, and many of the owners are not looking to sell) 20K+
2- Next best thing, light mods, light body work if any, no major accidents, clean body and interior, and low to mid miles. 15K+
3- The good driver, probably lots of mods, possible branded title, fenders rolled flat, minimal rust, half decent chassis, some bondo, a good track car, will never be a collector status car.
4- Beat, probably a solid ten footer at best, rusty underneath, rebuilt or should have been, accident history, burns oil like ****, maybe has a USDM B18C1 swap, missing lots of ITR specific bits. Near the end of its life. 5K+

There is a growing price disparity between the 1/2 grades and the 3/4 grades, specially the grade 4, prices similar to a comparably equipped EG/EK.

The longer you wait for a clean grade 1/2 the more you can expect to pay IMO. I'm into my ITR for about 30K CAD now, there is no point in selling it, I will just put it in storage if anything.

 

When ever was common sense fun lol
What do you guys think about importing a rhd ITR? Since I'm not going to daily it, the annoyances won't be too bad? That's an assumption though. A db8 itr would be nice.

 

I've been wondering about most RHD imported cars, do they salt cars in japan when it snows like they do in the northeast US? Honestly I would be fine with a branded title, but overall clean shell with most of the interior bits mostly b/c I will prefer to have something I can drive and enjoy rather than be worried about damaging it if I go off course at a track, etc

As a non daily, RHD doesn't seem to bad, but im not sure since I've never driven rhd.

 

You can find jdm itr's all day for $10
I don't think they salt as heavily. I'm not sure, but aren't the Japanese taxed heavily on owning and operating a vehicle with over 50k kms? Hence, most of the 90s sports car should have decent mileage?

 

I have a grade 2 i may sell for the right offer, i'm also in BC

 

Easy-

Insurance cost
Previous accident history
Rust!
Riced out to some degree

 

No garage for parking

 

Mine was: USDM nose - no played out JDM conversion, salvage/rebuilt title/structural accident, rust, no wire tucks, multiple winters, K swaps, missing vins (and non original motor), not championship white, rebuilt/built original motor, unknown badge number. Minor mods were fine, as they reversible but nothing seriously molested.

I picked up 00-0768 about a year ago. It isn't perfect and has a bunch of flaws I am going to address over time, but the price was fair and had all my basic requirements. It has paint work on three panels and $400 claim on the bumper back when the car was two weeks old, had been lightly modded with I/H coilovers and 01 CDM red seats, which I got to rid of and replaced. The car was sitting for six years and already did a clutch and brakes, including bmc, cmc, csc and maintenance items under the hood which added up to lot using OEM Honda parts. Even though it only has 79K kms, it is still a 14 year old car, so I had in mind what would have to get done regardless. I'm not done yet, cooling and improving the oil system is next as well as a bunch of bushings.

Unless you are willing to wait until a really mint car comes around and drop serious money, I would say be prepared to put in work. I didn't want a car too perfect otherwise I would be totally scared to drive it and wanted a project to restore over time and actually be a potential investment. Dumping money into Honda is truly a waste of money, but I think you can get your money back and some if you choose the right car. If I wanted a car to track exclusively, I would probably go for a car even further away from perfection.

But yeah, so many Rs out there have JDM fronts and swaps nowadays and it seems most people want a car as original and unmolested as possible. JDM fronts, salvage titles, rust, engine swaps and unknown badge numbers kill the cars value by a lot, IMO. You just need to figure out what you are willing to give up.