Rare Soarer UZZ32 Up for Auction

[JapanCarDirect]

I was blown away to see an excellent condition, first model year, 49,000km UZZ32 up for auction in Tokyo. There were only 873 of them built with 4-wheel-steering, hydraulic computer controlled suspension in addition to all the bells and whistles of the GT-Limited version. The sad part is that it will be gone on Monday.

[CDE]

Looks like a nice find. How much is it going for?

[JapanCarDirect]

There is no available info on the list of such cars sold in the last 3 months at the JU auction. I've read that they go for up to $35,000AUS, and this one has to be in better shape than the vast majority. It's a collectors item, so we'll just have to wait and see how deep the love runs.

[CDE]

Hard to believe even a limited edition Soarer will fetch that much! 35K will buy a lot of car.

Car looks clean but I still think those rims are ugly!

[CDE]

Also, I know you said there was no info for the past 3 months...but what about the past 3 years? If it's such a limited car I don't think these pass through that often.

http://www.planetsoarer.com/UZZ32/uzz32info.htm

this site, the most expensive one I could find was 22K (from a dealer...probably overpriced if dealers there are anything like dealers here) but most seem to be around the 11-15 range from other sites I found via google. Even at 11k i'm not sure they would be worth it due to all the "special" bits. To me...."special" means 'expensive'. There was one for 33K from a dealer in OZ...it was plain jane...

Was the only difference the suspension and 4WS? Seems ridiculous if so considering normal soarers are going for 300,000ish Yen.

[jdmvip]

Seems pretty cool, but not quite my taste for what you get though.
I'm sure DJ would probably be interested.

The UZZ32 did not have the 1JZ-GTE did it?

[JapanCarDirect]

No, it has the 1UZ-FE, the same as the 4.0 liter model. The only differences are the 4 wheel steering and active suspension. This specific one went for a whopping 156,000 yen. Add processing fees and shipping to Vancouver, the FOB price would come in at around 400,000 yen, or about 30k less than estimated...oops. For the quality of machine and condition of this one, someone has a vintage unreal high quality ride, that very few on the planet have experienced. Thanks for the planetsoarer link. Good to be in contact with knowledgeable folk.

[jdmvip]

Cool, I'm sure someone will be happy with this car.

[CDE]

Until they have to spend more money than they paid for the car to fix the suspension...yikes.

[jdmvip]

Yeah I do agree with that point, I'm not a fan of cars that are rare when they have unique features because the cost and difficulty of fixing them would definitely be a worry.

Still that's a cool idea by Toyota, too bad they didn't use it in more cars, otherwise this ride would be more practical and safe for parts/service IMHO.