MN12hybrid
Active LVC Member
Hello All,
I have not been on here for a while, since I sold my 94 Mark VIII back in 2015 after I picked up a 2009 Lexus SC430.. Long story short, my Mark needed too many things to be done and had over 330k miles, with a previous owner that did not take care of it very well, despite the air suspension working perfectly of all things.. go figure! 7 months after buying the SC430 (silver) some idiot hit me head on and totaled it just 2 months after I paid it offView attachment 828574977 View attachment 828574978 , and even though it was a salvage title and was a total loss in the past that was properly fixed, it held up well in the accident even with the roof down, and the airbags worked flawlessly.
I picked up a 2006 SC430 in the much desired and harder to find blue color (2006-2010 are the newer models with 6 speed auto and other goodies the earlier ones did not have and are worth a lot more) from CL, which came from an owner who was a professor at UCLA who loved the car and did all the work at the dealer, and looking at the history, the guy was taken advantage of by Beverly Hills Lexus and I felt bad for him, but he passed away just a few months after dropping 13k into it for things with about half of what was not even needed, so I knew I had to jump on the car and bought it with around 55k miles, and I still have the car and love it, and have done many mods to it. i actually bought it from his son.. I still have the old 2009 car and the engine is on the stand and I am working on building up the 4.3 V8 since 300hp is not enough and the tune it has with the laggy electronic throttle hampers it - the car is far more capable than the 5.6 second 0-60 time.
The reason I am posting this, is that I miss my old Mark, even though it was falling apart at over 330k miles and sold it to Carlos (if I remember correctly) who picked it up and brought it back to Palmdale to use the drivetrain for another project... I also have a 2016 BMW 328I 2.0 turbo (8 speed ZF trans) with X drive which is cool, but at not even 80k miles it has stupid things I have to constantly chase after mechanically although in fairness, its been holding up well, but I know by the time I get to 100k and up its going to turn into a money pit. Its also pretty quick and getting a tune on it which should drop the 0-60 from 5.3 to just under 5 seconds.
I found an Mark VIII LSC 1997 model on CL, for $3500 FIRM and the neon actually works - I know this was fixed. The license plate reads BADMK8 - I could swear I have seen this car in the past on one of the Lincoln boards, and the fact the neon was obviously fixed and working fine. If someone bothers to fix the neon, that tells me that they are on top of any other repairs that had to be done. The guy is in no hurry to sell, and actually borderline not very responsive to my questions I have sent him, which I wanted answered before driving 80 miles to look at the car. This at least gives me the message he is not in a rush to sell it, which is a good indication its not crap - someone selling a car with issues will do anything they can to get rid of it ASAP normally. It looks from the pics to be in great condition for the most part with paint though I would likely need to sand down the headlights and clear coat them and likely install an HID retrofit kit so I am not stuck with the Ford HIDS that cost like $600 if I could even find them. It has some dings on the rear bumper that are identical to my Lexus. Interior looks not bad but there could be other stuff like cracked dash, or ripped seats - I can see the cup holder is broken and leather is faded but a $35 kit will help re-dye these faded bits and make them look new - it has wheels, with intake and exhaust mods but they did not elaborate on it. The engine looks very clean in the pics at 106k and I think its on air bags still which doesnt bother me - I actually prefer to keep it on bags, and will rebuild the entire suspension with new bags, and all new aftermarket bushiness and quality suspension components with 13" Cobra calipers and brembo rotors with stainless steel braided lines. The trans is J-modded as well, and he states that everything in the car functions perfectly and has all fresh fluids and zero leaks.
I have a LOT of MN12 Thunderbird and Mark parts left over in my storage, along with a custom box with kicker 12" subs, and an amp rack with custom cooling fans - essentially a very powerful stereo system that was a perfect fix in my 1992 Tbird LX years ago, and its appealing to be able to use this in the mark if I buy it. The damn stereo has been sitting in storage for almost 13 years, and I spent a shit load of money on it and it would be nice to use again! Please look at the link below and tell me what you guys think based off the ad and the pics? I cant tell the rims, but they almost look like torque thrusts and likely have new tires.
https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/bar/d/san-clemente-1997-lincoln-mark-viii/7215069777.html
To top this off, I have a 99 Honda Accord with only 58k miles on it family owned but had a defective slipping trans from day one after it was bought, and Honda would not help and fix it. By 30k miles, the damn car (auto trans) was rolling backwards with my foot on gas and winding it up to 4k RPM's, at only 33k miles. Turns out this model of the Accord has defective auto transmissions especially with the V6 even though I had the I4 VTEC model (better 4 cyl offering) - this trans was used in Acuras, and the Honda Accords to 2004, and their Odyssey mini vans. Honda finally got sued over this, and they were forced to recall most of the models I mentioned including the 6 cyl Accord, but my 4 cyl Accord was not covered so I picked up the Honda upgrade kit for the trans rebuild and had it rebuilt and actually was beefed up by a VERY reputable shop. The car finally drove normal for the first time ever with no slipping and has no further problems and can likely make it to beyond 300-350k miles easily as it stands now, though it needs other maintenance.. My goal is to sell this Honda Accord EX with all the bells and whistles (leather, moon roof) if I get this Mark VIII LSC. I will have to clean the honda since its filthy and put new tires on it, and fix the HVAC dash control model.. Its still on the original timing belt, and needs to be replaced with all hoses, radiator, fluids all need to be flushed and changed out.. etc. I am seeing this going for almost $3000 with 170-230k miles on them, so I think mine will sell easily if its cleaned up and I can more than make the money back and have another Mark VIII which I absolutely adore, and end up with an LSC this time!
Sorry for the long post... but is this Mark VIII worth looking into? I have found other Marks with less miles, but this one has definitely had work done to it, and with the working neon, it tells me that the owner cared enough to fix it which means they also took very good care of the rest of the car. I would like to use the comfortable Mark as a daily driver, while playing around with the engine and making it a lot more powerful and fun to drive, which should be actually easier to do than with my SC430 with the 4.3 V8 which I drive less than 1000 miles a year for a pleasure care for top-down fun and occasional trips as i try to avoid daily driving it - the rods and pistons need to be replaced in the 4.3 for forged and other things need to be done in order to get it over 400hp with offerings from the Supra store, where the Mark can hit this easily, and as mentioned I have a lot of extra parts for this car!
Thank you all in advance for reading this long post, and giving me much needed input!!
I have not been on here for a while, since I sold my 94 Mark VIII back in 2015 after I picked up a 2009 Lexus SC430.. Long story short, my Mark needed too many things to be done and had over 330k miles, with a previous owner that did not take care of it very well, despite the air suspension working perfectly of all things.. go figure! 7 months after buying the SC430 (silver) some idiot hit me head on and totaled it just 2 months after I paid it offView attachment 828574977 View attachment 828574978 , and even though it was a salvage title and was a total loss in the past that was properly fixed, it held up well in the accident even with the roof down, and the airbags worked flawlessly.
I picked up a 2006 SC430 in the much desired and harder to find blue color (2006-2010 are the newer models with 6 speed auto and other goodies the earlier ones did not have and are worth a lot more) from CL, which came from an owner who was a professor at UCLA who loved the car and did all the work at the dealer, and looking at the history, the guy was taken advantage of by Beverly Hills Lexus and I felt bad for him, but he passed away just a few months after dropping 13k into it for things with about half of what was not even needed, so I knew I had to jump on the car and bought it with around 55k miles, and I still have the car and love it, and have done many mods to it. i actually bought it from his son.. I still have the old 2009 car and the engine is on the stand and I am working on building up the 4.3 V8 since 300hp is not enough and the tune it has with the laggy electronic throttle hampers it - the car is far more capable than the 5.6 second 0-60 time.
The reason I am posting this, is that I miss my old Mark, even though it was falling apart at over 330k miles and sold it to Carlos (if I remember correctly) who picked it up and brought it back to Palmdale to use the drivetrain for another project... I also have a 2016 BMW 328I 2.0 turbo (8 speed ZF trans) with X drive which is cool, but at not even 80k miles it has stupid things I have to constantly chase after mechanically although in fairness, its been holding up well, but I know by the time I get to 100k and up its going to turn into a money pit. Its also pretty quick and getting a tune on it which should drop the 0-60 from 5.3 to just under 5 seconds.
I found an Mark VIII LSC 1997 model on CL, for $3500 FIRM and the neon actually works - I know this was fixed. The license plate reads BADMK8 - I could swear I have seen this car in the past on one of the Lincoln boards, and the fact the neon was obviously fixed and working fine. If someone bothers to fix the neon, that tells me that they are on top of any other repairs that had to be done. The guy is in no hurry to sell, and actually borderline not very responsive to my questions I have sent him, which I wanted answered before driving 80 miles to look at the car. This at least gives me the message he is not in a rush to sell it, which is a good indication its not crap - someone selling a car with issues will do anything they can to get rid of it ASAP normally. It looks from the pics to be in great condition for the most part with paint though I would likely need to sand down the headlights and clear coat them and likely install an HID retrofit kit so I am not stuck with the Ford HIDS that cost like $600 if I could even find them. It has some dings on the rear bumper that are identical to my Lexus. Interior looks not bad but there could be other stuff like cracked dash, or ripped seats - I can see the cup holder is broken and leather is faded but a $35 kit will help re-dye these faded bits and make them look new - it has wheels, with intake and exhaust mods but they did not elaborate on it. The engine looks very clean in the pics at 106k and I think its on air bags still which doesnt bother me - I actually prefer to keep it on bags, and will rebuild the entire suspension with new bags, and all new aftermarket bushiness and quality suspension components with 13" Cobra calipers and brembo rotors with stainless steel braided lines. The trans is J-modded as well, and he states that everything in the car functions perfectly and has all fresh fluids and zero leaks.
I have a LOT of MN12 Thunderbird and Mark parts left over in my storage, along with a custom box with kicker 12" subs, and an amp rack with custom cooling fans - essentially a very powerful stereo system that was a perfect fix in my 1992 Tbird LX years ago, and its appealing to be able to use this in the mark if I buy it. The damn stereo has been sitting in storage for almost 13 years, and I spent a shit load of money on it and it would be nice to use again! Please look at the link below and tell me what you guys think based off the ad and the pics? I cant tell the rims, but they almost look like torque thrusts and likely have new tires.
https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/bar/d/san-clemente-1997-lincoln-mark-viii/7215069777.html
To top this off, I have a 99 Honda Accord with only 58k miles on it family owned but had a defective slipping trans from day one after it was bought, and Honda would not help and fix it. By 30k miles, the damn car (auto trans) was rolling backwards with my foot on gas and winding it up to 4k RPM's, at only 33k miles. Turns out this model of the Accord has defective auto transmissions especially with the V6 even though I had the I4 VTEC model (better 4 cyl offering) - this trans was used in Acuras, and the Honda Accords to 2004, and their Odyssey mini vans. Honda finally got sued over this, and they were forced to recall most of the models I mentioned including the 6 cyl Accord, but my 4 cyl Accord was not covered so I picked up the Honda upgrade kit for the trans rebuild and had it rebuilt and actually was beefed up by a VERY reputable shop. The car finally drove normal for the first time ever with no slipping and has no further problems and can likely make it to beyond 300-350k miles easily as it stands now, though it needs other maintenance.. My goal is to sell this Honda Accord EX with all the bells and whistles (leather, moon roof) if I get this Mark VIII LSC. I will have to clean the honda since its filthy and put new tires on it, and fix the HVAC dash control model.. Its still on the original timing belt, and needs to be replaced with all hoses, radiator, fluids all need to be flushed and changed out.. etc. I am seeing this going for almost $3000 with 170-230k miles on them, so I think mine will sell easily if its cleaned up and I can more than make the money back and have another Mark VIII which I absolutely adore, and end up with an LSC this time!
Sorry for the long post... but is this Mark VIII worth looking into? I have found other Marks with less miles, but this one has definitely had work done to it, and with the working neon, it tells me that the owner cared enough to fix it which means they also took very good care of the rest of the car. I would like to use the comfortable Mark as a daily driver, while playing around with the engine and making it a lot more powerful and fun to drive, which should be actually easier to do than with my SC430 with the 4.3 V8 which I drive less than 1000 miles a year for a pleasure care for top-down fun and occasional trips as i try to avoid daily driving it - the rods and pistons need to be replaced in the 4.3 for forged and other things need to be done in order to get it over 400hp with offerings from the Supra store, where the Mark can hit this easily, and as mentioned I have a lot of extra parts for this car!
Thank you all in advance for reading this long post, and giving me much needed input!!
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