So i found a guy selling his 94 toyota celica gt with a 3gste motor swap the motor has roughly 45k miles and the chassis is around 250,000miles hes asking 8500 is that a good deal?

Post pictures. I'm leaning towards no. 250k is a lot of stress and age on bushings, bearings, etc. The engine might be great but the chassis might be showing its age. If the owner has replaced virtually everything and has been repaired/replaced, including body work, then it might be worth closer to $8,500.

http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/3198876766.html
this is his add on craigslist please give me your feedback

Lol NO CELICA short of a gt4 is worth 8,500.

Price is a joke..people pay premium for STis and WRXs and EVOs in Colorado but not Yotas (unless it's a truck).

Don't even bother with that nonsense..

Edit: And yes, I read the ad..

This post has been edited by Malek: Aug 12, 2012 - 1:56 PM

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Were you able to look at the ad above? If you havent please do then let me know.

That color looks nice, but it's hard to judge the exterior condition. The quality of the engine install is of importance here, whether it was done right or not will play a role on how long it lasts.

I'd say if the car checks out after personal inspection, and the mechanicals are in absolutely solid condition, offer six thousand at the most.

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Heres his add let me know what you think.
http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/3198876766.html


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I did offer six and he said ifi asked you guys that youd justify gis price guess not xD

^^^ Lol I guess that wasn't the case..

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Technically, the price is justified because the owner is most likely well over $8500 invested in the car...but that doesn't mean that somebody is willing to pay for all the expenses; in other words, the sum of the parts in finished product isn't worth as much as part value itself.

Looks like a 2nd gen 3S-GTE, not a 3rd. It does have a GT4 front end and projectors, which are a big plus. But it's missing skirts and may not have JDM tails, so some would say that the body work isn't really complete but that's all personal preference. Overall, I would agree with others and say 6k at most. If he isn't willing to sell for that price then he doesn't really need to get rid of the car that bad. I understand where he's coming from, asking $8,500, but no, that car simply isn't worth it.

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So offner no more than 6k?

It's a 4th gen 3S. Coil packs and caldina intake manifold.

Couple others things make it out stand out as not nearly as valuable as the asking price.

I personally wouldn't pay 6k unless it had some serious repairs from the age of it.

This post has been edited by rave2n: Aug 12, 2012 - 3:09 PM

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So do you believe his asking price is valid?

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Are you saying its worth less?

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true that^^^^

also what transmission is he using?? yea ask him if he has jdm tail lights.

yea that's the thing with these cars and if not all imports. you spend about 10k on the car but you can only sell it for 60% of the value you paid to get it looking that nice.

This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Aug 12, 2012 - 4:02 PM

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I'm just impressed enough to pay 6k for that vehicle personally.

I see a swapped 4th gen, according to others. Which to start I wouldn't want. The engine bay itself, though the picture is not the best, show some signs of quick fixes, instead of clean installs. For instance the red wire going across the alt. No heat shield on the downpipe, and the stock rad.

I also noted the burn/ash marks on the door area near the guages. I wouldn't want another persons mess as such. If he wanted to sell it for such a high price, I would fix those simple things, throw some armor all on the interior and shine it up.

You could do all this to a stock GT, for around 6k, and you would know your work is sound. If the knowledge to do so is present.

I could be nit picking...I just don't like what I see for the price. It has its pluses, but I would offer around 5k. Which is basically the cost of the swap, because there will be some things you are going to be fixing in there.

This post has been edited by rave2n: Aug 12, 2012 - 5:57 PM

The swap looks dirty as f***, like someone mentioned, there seems like you could find many things shortcutted, not everyone likes to do things right if it means having to sacrifice time. Looks like a budget swap IMO, and it's probably got the s54 in it still, which isn't bad, just makes it worth less.


It sounds to me like he's trying to get back all of which he spent on the swap. That doesn't happen. On the used market, you NEVER get what you think things are worth. I've learned this with wheels, electronics, car parts, cars... etc.


I would offer no more than 6k, just because of the fact that on the outside it looks like a clean car, and looks to have the GT-4 front-end swapped in nicely.

Here's me nitpicking:

The battery isn't being held down by anything. That couple right behind of the battery has no clamps? You cannot crank up the boost to 25psi on 4th gen rods... They're thinner than 5sfe rods.

He says the engine puts out 270hp but right after says he hasn't gotten it to the dyno... what?

Overall the car looks good, but he's expecting to get more than it's worth.

One thing that no ones pointed out- Lots of snow=lots of salted roads. I know some of you live in areas and can't help it but personally I wouldn't buy a snow state (or beach area) car unless the price was real good. So def wouldn't pay 8.5k. Meh on 6k.

This post has been edited by travisxcore: Aug 12, 2012 - 7:02 PM

Let's just say I can think of a lot better cars to spend $8,500 on.

here is the real deal.

8k worth of gremlins.

for 8 k you can build one that you can know.

if that car belonged to a member and we all saw the build, AKA pressure2, Batman, just to name few you can trust the build and fork out some money.

But words look good on paper, and or the computer screen for all that matter.

Just like bidding 8k on a mystery box on EBay. You never know what youll get. I ve seen some members come with other peoples car, complaining about ****ty builds...

you can tell there are shortcuts already pointed out.

and salt is the worst enemy.

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ha ha true that.

yeah look at the battery tilted, like they said not held down = carelessness when installing stuff. I would never pay 8000 for a 6th gen, especially being a 94, i would at least want a 99 but then again i would probably go for the 7th gen gts or at least something newer...


and also the first celica i bought was for 4250, a 97 st with 176000, Ive bought two other celicas one a 94 gt with 170,000 for $700 and a 98 gt with 154000 miles for 800. You best bet is to find a piece of crap one and fix it up. my last two gt's were like that and i bought them cheap and ended up selling the 94 gt for 2000..... I will never ever buy a celica for more than 2000 when they are so easy to buy cheaper and fix up cheap!

This post has been edited by zfjohnson07: Aug 13, 2012 - 3:33 PM

^Ditto. There's a 95 GT for sale locally right now for $1,500 OBO. All it needs is the front bumper and some paint.