Slippery When Wet: 2013 Scion FR-S
I’ve been a fan of the Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ since it hit the streets for the 2012 model year and they have maintained a shocking amount of residual value as the years and miles have added up. However, today I think we’ve finally gotten the answer to “what do you need to do to a Scion FR-S (Toyota sold the 86 as the Scion FR-S from 2012-2016) to get it down to $5k?” The answer is some pretty wicked cosmetic damage and an airbag covered in duct tape — don’t believe the carfax if it doesn’t show an accident. Find this 2013 Scion FR-S offered for $5000 in SF Bay Area, CA via craigslist.
From the seller:
2013 toyota scion
VIN: JF1ZNAA19D1714222
condition: fair
fuel: gas
odometer: 96537
title status: clean
transmission: manual
2013 Toyota Scion (Stick Shift) for sale for $5000. Only 96600 miles driven. Front air bag needs to be replaced. Front bumper needs repaires. Clean title. Everything else is in very good condition.
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I spend enough time looking at online car ads (sorry boss) that I’ve gotten reasonably good at guessing if a car will have a salvage title at a given price. When I saw this price I thought, “oh no, what happened to this one?!?!”
Last year my son and I bought a Subaru Impreza 2.5RS that had been written off TWICE by insurance companies and we still bought it and had a blast driving it. Of course we sold it because it basically needed every single part replaced but for those six months we owned the car it was a hoot.
Setting aside the front damage and the air bag, you have someone selling a car but not making any effort to wash it, vacuum it, or take the crap off the front seat. Then there’s the stickers on the dash, the “Cambergang” license plate frame, what appears to be a battery jumper on the seat, and the can of Red Bull in the door. It’s like those search games – find all the red flags in this ad.
The “Cambergang” license plate frame raises an even stranger question. Did he just get that frame with a stock suspension? Or was the car lowered with a ton of negative camber, and he took off the suspension mods to sell the car, but couldn’t take care of cleaning the trash out of the interior?