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Cost of my first Mark VIII

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Posted by: halo001

I've been visiting this site for a while, an I'm about to buy my first car. The Lincoln Mark VIII is my dream car for high school, and a fly ride for my senior year this year, I found a Mark VIII to buy but am wondering how much I should offer? Specs, no real body defects, Engine works fine, may need to work on transmission, have to replace all the tires, brakes, and rims, its been sitting on flats for almost a year, and I will have to completely replace the suspension, SHOT OUT! Other than that, good interior, actually excellent interior, and very low miles, about 48,000 if I remember correctly. Any suggestions on the pricing of this car would be very helpful, and by reading other stuff on this site, most of the people on here are basicly experts on this model of car, so what ever you say, I'll pretty well go by.

Posted by: unity

What year?

And Florida? I dont know Florida well, but jamie97lsc is down that way. He is sorta the expert on the Marks. He could give you market prices (down there they go for pretty cheap) and may give you some help and needed parts.

Posted by: halo001

its a 98

Posted by: unity

Nice!

Posted by: halo001

My brother was about to buy his fourth, unfortunatly he was murdered earlier this month, he knew alot about these cars and this was actually about to buy this car, and another so we would have matching Mark VIIIs, I basically learned to drive in Marks

Posted by: bryantaylor

well im in jax, and i just picked up my MINT 95 for $3300. that gives you an idea on prices for the area

Posted by: halo001

so what about with the blown suspension, and the crap with the tires, rims, brakes, and can you give me an estimate with and without the transmission work that may need to be done, they reved the motor, but didn't drive it in front of us due to the the flat tires. thanks if you can.

Posted by: Movie Muscle

Feel him, out ask him for a ball park asking price and then offer a little lower. The asking ball park will always buy the car all day long. Don't insult but shave some off what ever he spits out. Has always worked fine for me.

I just bought a 98 lsc with 58000 miles good brakes tires, bit of body issues and good suspension for 4950.00 plus taxes. In Canada though.

Posted by: Blenderhead

Well to give you a comparable, I recently bought my 98LSC. It had 128K miles, freshly rebuilt trans, perfect interior, front air ride was leaking, and front bumper and grille need to be repainted, and the rear neon light doesn't work. I paid $2700 for that car. Needing tires, brakes, and air ride, I would say you should be able to get it out of there for under $2000, especially if the trans is questionable, even with the low mileage. Of course, I don't know what they are going for down there, maybe they sell for more in FL than they do in NJ.

Posted by: bryantaylor

Quote:

Originally Posted by halo001

so what about with the blown suspension, and the crap with the tires, rims, brakes, and can you give me an estimate with and without the transmission work that may need to be done, they reved the motor, but didn't drive it in front of us due to the the flat tires. thanks if you can.

to be honest man, with all the work it needs, and maybee needing a trans, i would only pay $1000-1500 if the body and interior is in awesome shape. by the fact that you cant drive it, you have no idea what else the car needs. just remeber people dont let cars just sit for no reason, why was it sitting over a year?

Posted by: jamie97lsc

with the stuff you said, needing brakes, wheels, tires, and all new suspension, keep in mind that just fixing the air ride will most likely not be the end of your suspension joys, if its been sitting for a year, and all the air ride is down and brakes are junk and all that, chances are so are all the ball joints and bushings in the front, most common thing to replace when purchasing a used mark VIII. since its a 98, you need to see if the low beams come on when you turn on the headlights, if they dont, knock 500 bucks off what you would offer right off the bat, if you have to replace the air ride parts, and front ball joints and bushings and what not, figure another $1500 bucks, if the rear neon light on the trunk lid doesnt work, you will have a hard time finding one to replace it, if yours cant be fixed by replacing the ballast. make sure the driverside seat track moves in all directions, these are about 900 new from ford, and anywhere from 200 to 400 used and very common to be stuck where they are, also, check the steering column, make sure it moves in and out and up and down like it is supposed to, its a telescopic column and electronically moves, the switch that makes it move is known to go bad, and absolutely obsolete, so you cant buy a new one. all in all without seeing it, or knowing anything about it, forget the miles that are on it, in this condition those miles dont mean a damn thing, its probably worth about 2 grand to 2,500 in its condition and you will probably dump another 2 grand into it just to get it road worthy again. i just bought a black 97 mark VIII last week everything worked on it, interior was in great shape, only thing the car needed was a paint job, paid $1,650 for it. what are you looking to spend because i have many connections over in my area of florida and i can find you a great mark for cheap money, if you are willing to do alot of work yourself then maybe that car is good for you, but if you cant do alot of the work and are going to have to pay someone to do it then you are going to spend alot of money on this type of car. i normally dont write this much for advise, i usually keep to myself lol so consider yourself lucky. usually i'm a jerk lmao. i would go and offer $1,200 and if they say no, you can always go up, you cant go down, its going to need alot of work so just keep that in mind when you offer. you could always buy it and if its too much to fix part it out and double your money.

Posted by: mespock

I agree with Jamie... first I don't care what state you are in.

Don't over spend on a Mark VIII one of it's best features... they are cheap to purchase. Cost a bit to fix up...

I wouldn't pay over $3000 for a 98 in that condtion. At best working that car is only worth $6000. So with all the repairs you'll have to do you need to keep some cash for the parts.

Sorry to hear about your brother.

Posted by: halo001

thanks guys, the car hasn't been put up for sale, the people that own it are neighbors of one of my friends, they are pretty well off, they have two firebirds, a corvette, two F150s, and a jeep, most of which they drive like once a week or less, I doubt they will miss the Mark VIII, but my friend said the last time he saw them drive it, it ran fine, and that was about 10 or 11 months ago, Ill see about the trans, my dad is a retired mechanic, so i can cut some of the work costs, but I'll have to pay for a good bit of it, and I was going to do the conversion on the suspension anyway to avoid the air bag leaking problem, and I have my brother's notes that he took when he was fixing up the Mark VIIIs that he owned. and thanks about the note about my brother, dude was trying to rob him, pulled a gun, my brother refused, and due to his speacial forces training recognized the hammer being cocked, ducked, dude shot the roof of the truck, my brother turned and hit him in the face twice, then he shot my brother through the seat, just jumped in the back of his truck as he was backing up and pulled the gun, my brother just got back from Iraq a year ago, its messed up, go through that, come out clean and get shot at home, well, he can say hi to the electric chair for me.

Posted by: XLRVIII

Quote:

Originally Posted by mespock

I wouldn't pay over $3000 for a 98 in that condtion.

I wouldn't pay more than 900.00 for a mark 8 that has blown suspension, sitting on flat tires and WONT MOVE out of it's own tracks.

I only paid $2500 for my 98 LSC and it runs, drives and isn't "beat" to death.

Posted by: warthog5

Very sorry to hear about your brother halo001.

I live in P'Cola and have a '98 LSC. 113,000 when I bought it. 115,000 on it now and I've had it about 2 1/2months.

Honestly with you being in school and wanting to drive and not work on a car. I'd suggest you pass on this one.

It's going to get EXPENSIVE! I have put all that stuff under my car in the short time I've had it.

Upper control arms
Lower control arms
Front sway bar links
All the strut rod bushings
New Front air struts
Rebuilt Front Solenoids
Rear shocks converted to T-Bird Monroe's
New Ground Battery cable
New Optima Battery
New front Hubs and spindle nuts
Trans pulled and resealed
24,000GVW trans cooler
New braded brake hoses
New Drilled Rotors [4]
new EBC Green Brake pads
Flush brake system
New steel brake line from ABS to LF Flex line
2- New inner fender Splash shields on the way
New Window tint

I gave $4600 for the car when I bought it.

There are two in the Thrifty Nickel that is not a '98. It's a 1st Gen. '94

'94 LINCOLN Mark VIII, one owner, only 66,000 miles, completely loaded, all leather, average over 27 mpg. 850-944-2087. S

1996 LINCOLN Mark VIII, low miles, fully loaded, leather, $3500 negotiable. Call 850-259-6483 or 850-259-0925.

I'd be taking a look at those before I jumped into a "Project Car".

We are trying to save you grief and money here.

Posted by: The Rev

You sound just like I did when I was buying my mark. I just fell in love with the way other peoples' looked. Mespock was right man, these are CHEAP to buy. 600 for mine. Its a 93. If they're that well off, right all the things down that warthog mentioned, and give it to em. Tell em you'd be "doing them a favor" getting that car off their property, because its obviously useless to them with all those cars.

Offer 900. There's nothing wrong with lowballing them, maybe they bite. If not I'd probably have to move on. Then again when I got mine it wouldnt start, and even when it did it wouldn't move for over 2 months, and then when it FINALLY moved it broke down, haha

good luck, and get together with Jamie, I've seen SO many deals he's come across, I definitely wish I was in your position.

Mespock why didn't you tell him though: get a gen1!

Posted by: jamie97lsc

hell, i'll give you a deal on my black 93 with 78k miles on it, i'm the second owner, all you need to do is have it repainted and drive it. i just put a whole new front end in, a lowered american air 1.5 lowered coil spring conversion, and took out the entire tan interior and swapped in a black interior. its really a clean car, and looks good from 20 feet away, but needs to be repainted, i was going to do it, but dont have the time right now. has 6000k hid's in it too so you can actually see at night! its all blacked out too even the new grille. i'd let it go with the stereo system and everything for $2,800 cash this thing flies compared to my 98 this car would stomp the piss out of my 98. it even has a straight rear window gasket!! less then a year old cooper zeon ZPT's 245-50-16. i love mark's but i think its time for me to buy something with a small motor and great gas mileage i dont need two mark's anymore.

Posted by: halo001

let me talk to some people, I had to help pay for my brothers funeral so I'm down to about 300 dollars, but i should have almost enough by the end of next month, fortunatly, my brother was paranoid, and had a good sized life insurance policy still in effect that he got before he went to Iraq, I'm sure his wife would agree to give me back half of what I paid. But I wanted a black one anyway, look better for some reason, cleaner, and a paint job isnt anything, so long as it can get me to school and look clean, My brother's first Mark VIII was a white 95 that he put some clean 22's on and with the limosine tint, it turned heads. but yeah, I'll see about that, it is an excellent deal, actually now that I think about it, I believe I have seen you driving around town down near University Mall.

Posted by: The Rev

That 93 is nice, I really like the blacked out chrome on the back, anything special you do to prep it since its chrome or just sand and paint. That and the windows are the only thing still chrome on my 93

Posted by: Danlboi

Sorry to hear the story about your brother, Halo...sucks after his service to our country in Iraq.

Sounds like you've had to do plenty of growing up, for a senior in high school, what with helping to pay for his funeral and all.

And Jamie's offer sounds pretty decent...if those folks don't bite with your first offer, I'd try and see what you could do to get the one he's offering.

I bought my '97 probably for more than I should have, but still love it...no complaints here!

Good luck whichever route you go.

Posted by: warthog5

Quote:

I believe I have seen you driving around town down near University Mall.

Ah' I don't think you have seen Jamie's car there since he lives in Tarpon Springs, FL. HeHe

Posted by: XLRVIII

My condolences on the loss of your brother...and we all thank you and your family for your brothers protection of our freedom and liberty.

is very sad that he survived the hellhole in IRAQ only to fall victim to crime when he returned to the states.. that is very very sad.

Posted by: halo001

sorry, I got him and Warthog mixed up for a second, and I saw the water in his pics, I live about 4 minutes from the beach so that kinda messed me up, that and there is a Black Mark VIII that rides downtown, though I don't know who drives it, so water and same color, Sorry about that.

Posted by: warthog5

No big deal.

I have CRS daily. HeHe [Can't Remember S#*t]

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