Buy them before we do: second-hand picks for 31 May

News

5 mins read

31 May 2019

"If you have been looking to acquire an NSX on a realistic budget, this is the cheapest, best-value NSX available today.” The seller’s words and not ours. It’s some claim, but there’s no arguing with that price.

Honda NSX, £30,000: There’s a sting in the tail, of course. The 1991-reg car has done 180,000 miles but, rather than go cold, think positively. Such a mileage proves an NSX is that rare thing: a supercar you can drive every day, rain or shine, without it going pop or costing a fortune in bills. It would be a flimsy theory but for the fact that, on the sales website we visited, we counted three NSXs with over 100,000 miles and 11 with over 50,000. They’re tough cars and, more to the point, their owners love driving them.

So, having been bitten, what should we look for when sizing up this particular NSX? It helps it’s being sold by an NSX specialist who claims it’s passed its MOT with no advisories, that the engine oil pressure is normal and that the transmission is in rude health. Still, you can never be too careful, so we’d check valve cover gaskets, rear cam plug seals and the VTEC solenoids for oil leaks and that the VTEC system itself operates smoothly. We’d want to know when the belts were changed, too.

Given those miles, we’d have a squint at the tyres looking for irregular wear that might point to alignment issues, and want to be sure that bushes, ball joints and bearings show no signs of track-day abuse. The NSX’s aluminium body is a devil to repair so we’d be on high alert for wonky panel gaps, filler and nonfactory panel seams. Fingers crossed it’s sound because good, affordable NSXs are rare.

Peugeot 306 2.0 XSI, £1989: This 1994-reg 306 has done 67,000 miles and has full service history. The one-owner car is totally original and has the factory-fit sports seats and a glass sunroof. The price looksa little stiff but we’ve a good feeling about tidy old 1990s motors…