“I’m not pressed to sell it” says my new hero, a man named Kevin on Facebook Marketplace who is almost certainly not going to be pressed by anyone to sell his extremely purple, very custom 1988 Sterling 825, which he only slightly inaccurately calls a Sterling 825 Acura and is asking $15,000 for right now. The audacity here is astounding and wonderful.
The seller’s description starts with “(FIRE EMOJI)TESTING THE MARKET — 1988 STERLING 825 (FIRE EMOJI)” and I’m assuming the flames are for the money he spent customizing this bizarre Japanese-British-American zonkey of an automobile. I can’t get over “testing the market” because, I’m not an expert on Sterlings, but I am a living and breathing human being who looks at approximately 412 used car listings a week and I’m pretty sure this is a test the market is going to fail.
Also, there are maybe no Sterling experts because there weren’t enough Sterlings sold in the United States in order to generate expertise. This is a case, like my poor beloved Merkur, of a brand that was capsized by the strength of its home country’s currency… and the brand’s completle lack of a reason to exist.
Our champion, Kevin, continues:
Putting a feeler out there on my 1988 Sterling 825. This is a very rare gem and definitely not something you see pulling up at every car show. The Sterling was sold in North America for only a short period, and the 825 shares its engineering roots with the Acura/Honda Legend, including the Honda 2.5L V6. (Consumer Guide Blog)
No lies detected. What makes Kevin better than 99% of all Facebook Marketplace posters is that he’s both honest and extremely clear about what he is. There’s even a citation! He’s not wrong that the car shares its underpinnings with the first generation Acura Legend. That’s a good car, and even for all his Sterling-related exuberance, he’s making clear that it’s not a British-engineered car.
Additionally, he’s not wrong that you won’t see this “pulling up at every car show” or even any car show. I’ve seen one Sterling at a car show in 20 years, I think, and that was the 827 hatchback version. I will say that people were excited to see a Sterling in person. Well, weirdos like me were excited to see one at least.
Kev-man continues, utilizing Emojis at a level rarely seen on FB Marketplace. This guy is the Steph Curry of appropriate and enticing Seller Description emojis.
The 18-inch BBS wheels are an excellent and the paint looks wonderful in photos. I love a purple car, though I think, given it’s a Sterling, perhaps aubergine is more accurate. I would double or triple take if I saw this in person. In profile, especially, it does look great.
The inside does give off a sumptuous bordello vibe, assuming that bordello was run by Grimace. There’s a thick purple floor, some kind of leather or leather-like white seat with purple stripes, and even purple seatbelts and headliner. The seats proudly say “Sterling,” presumably because even K-Dog can’t remember what the car is when people ask.
Dude even did the handle on his PRNDL shifter.
I love it. If we lived in a universe that rewarded customizing cars, the amount that Kevin has put into said Sterling (which I’m guessing might be close to $15,000) would be given back to him upon sale. If anything, Kevin seems worthy of 2x of whatever he put in, because the last person this committed to the color purple was Whoopi Goldberg.
Will he get it? Hope springs eternal, but probably not. People generally don’t want to buy your specific car aesthetic, and custom cars are often worth less than stock versions. Kevin is going for it, though. Kevin knows what he has. Kevin knows his worth. Kevin will not be daunted. Kevin doesn’t even know the meaning of the word daunt.
Or, hear me out, maybe someone in his life wants him to sell the Sterling because they don’t get it, and by pricing it so high he’s all but guaranteeing no one is going to email him.
“Hey, Kevin, did anyone reach out about your listing?”
“It’s the strangest thing… no one seems interested…”
He did use hashtags (#aucra #lexus #benz #audi #honda #cars #bbs), so I’m thinking he’s really going for it. Someone searching for a Benz is going to see this Acura and maybe be so happy. They didn’t want an S-Class, they wanted the Class that comes with buying a S-terling.
Even if nobody buys it, I just want Kevin to know that I see you, I appreciate what you’ve done here, and I hope you get everything you want out of this sale and, you know, life in general.
Top photo: Facebook Marketplace
If there’s a Sterling expert in the U.S. of A., it might be me.
I owned four.
They are not horrible cars.
The 825s are to be avoided. The 1990-91s were the best, but still suffered from dodgy a/c and window lift issues.
The fastback is a damn fine looking car, especially the Silver Bullet edition, which I owned around a decade ago.
If you own one of these you are double orphan…it’s dead car from a dead company.
But that’s just how I like ’em.
As for this car, all I can say is: Ho. Lee. Shit.
I don’t know what reasonable prices are these days. I know a mechanic that paid $10-15,000 for a cherry 90s Ranger for his daughter, and $10,000 for a similar old Honda for himself.
A relative had already decided on a Sterling and had found a dealer owned car locally.
In about five minutes I found some better deals on similar cars, including a loaded model.
I was fairly impressed by them, but warned him about the obvious issues.
He used the offers I found to leverage a better deal on the local one.
He had numerous small issues and factory recalls, ALL fixed to his satisfaction, even getting a large cash rebate at some point.
He drove it past 200,000 miles then sold it.
I may have been baiting you to do this exact comment.
Well played, sir.
I still have a few Sterling parts in my stash. If you ever get one that is missing something, hit me up.
If you end up with this purple one, an intervention may be needed.
It’s not for me, but I love how far they took that interior.
I can’t quite figure out the front seat shoulder seat belts. In 3 pictures you can see what appears to be the male end of the seat belt about 6 inches up from the dash board on the A pillar passenger side.
Does that mean that the entire coil of shoulder belt has to move close to 2 feet through the frame to get into position to do any good?
No, the female end is on the retractor, which is anchored between the console and seat.
Thanks, I don’t recall seeing the female end on a retractor before.
I had to research it—it was too weird! Like, WTF, did they run the entire retractor along the window line?! That’s absurd! Plus, it didn’t look bulky enough. Took a bit to find a good picture that showed it, especially where most of them apparently didn’t have the mice belts.
Yo… that is certainly a way to customize an interior. I try to make a point of not criticizing other people’s builds, and to be fair, the outside looks great, and I’d argue that these Rover designs aged very gracefully. But I can’t get over how detrimental to the final selling price these modifications are, and it’s always sad to see this kind of delusional listing – this person is no doubt convinced the love they poured into this car should reflect in the asking price in the diametrically opposed way that it actually does. Maybe I’m wrong here, but the way I see it, the more a car gets modded according purely to the owner’s taste, the more off-putting it gets to most prospective buyers later on.
Interior reminds me of that godawful sex-spec Impreza that Mighty Car Mods had awhile back
As opposed to all the other god-awful sex-spec cars they’ve had 😉
Mind you, a youtuber might get enough content out of this car to justify buying it. Maybe take it on a Lemons Rally?
lol i guess they have had more than one, but the Impreza also had a purple interior.
It would be great for that though you’d need successful YouTuber money to justify $15k!
Actually thought this was looking kind of cool until I saw the interior
I would LOVE to see Mr. Regular review this car. It might even help Kevin find a buyer. This thing was clearly made by a furry, for furries, of furries. Those suits cost a ton so the members of the community are prequalified to appreciate K-dog’s efforts.
Reason number 3121 that it sucks that Prince isn’t around anymore.
As a fellow Prince-head ,I see what you did there!
Totally would, but kinda think nobody I know would ride with me.
My boss had a Sterling back in the day. As reliable as the Acura Legend was is how unreliable the Sterling was.
I wouldn’t have paid 15K for this thing in 1990 much less 2026.
If it were in stock condition, I’d pay $6,000. The purple treatment knocks off $5,000.
So, $1,000 Pimpmobile.
Years ago a conversation at my news desk led to the comment that there’s no such thing as a bad Honda (one of our photographers was having trouble with her Veloster, which was disappointing because they had just come out and I thought they were kinda cool).
Almost simultaneously, our managing editor and I blurted out “Sterling!” which would have been funnier if Archer had existed then. Apparently his son bought one that lasted a month and then spent the better part of a decade in his driveway.
Ah, a fellow journalist; well I’m a former photojournalist who was known to do the police blotter and obits in print form before lateralling over into TV news. Retired now and I do miss late 70s-late 90s newsroom environments.
Anyway, the 5/6/11 pm male anchor had a second gen Legend, and it was a wonderful car. He even had a personalized plate that said, “5 6 AND 11.” Or something to that effect. That seems like too many characters, but it got the point across. Maybe it was “5 6AND11.” I think they allowed eight characters and spaces. So that was probably it. I wonder what the prisoner who made that plate thought when he was stamping it out.
The reputation of early Sterlings was not great. Allegedly there was a lot of Lucas in the Sterling/Rovers that didn’t help.
I dealt with a Realtor who drove a ’92 Acura Vigor with the odd for Honda I-5 engine. It seemed nice enough riding around to various showings but didn’t really seem that much nicer than an ’86 Accord I owned.
And oh, dear Lord! What is that in your avatar pic? It looks like part insect, part fungus.
You know someone’s memorized the AP Stylebook from way back if they capitalize trademarked terms like Realtor or Dumpster.
The avatar is an abalone face. They’re the most delicious meat on earth but that’s complicated by the cuteness of their derpy little snail visages.
I appreciate your newsroom-adjacent license plate story and have another to share. I was barely on time to start my first day as slot editor for our regional papers when I blew past a cop filling up at a commercial gas station. “Good thing he’s busy getting gas,” I thought. Things got even better when the three-lane one-way taking me to work was totally vacant and just a series of green lights. I probably got up to maybe 50 mph in this downtown area before I signaled (in a BMW, believe it or not) and checked my mirrors before making my turn.
That’s when I saw the cherries and berries and promptly pulled to the curb. By the time I dropped my windows and got out my license and registration, I turned to the left and immediately thought “F*** if that’s not a Glock 17 in my face.”
“DO YOU KNOW WHY I PULLED YOU OVER!” Officer Shootypants yelled.
“Um, I was maybe driving a bit swiftly?”
“I CLOCKED YOU GOING OVER A HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR! GET THE F*** OUT OF THE CAR!”
This was hundred-proof nonsense because the Valentine One on my visor hadn’t made a peep, and it was physically impossible to attain such speed over such a short distance in almost any car available at the time. In seconds I was handcuffed and sitting on the curb as every motorcycle unit in town and at least three more cruisers descended on the intersection as if they’d just nabbed Khalid Sheik Mohammed. The bike cops were even riding in on the sidewalks.
By then cooler heads were prevailing on scene and another officer asked me where I was going, which seemed like a leading question. “To work,” I said, which prompted the question “Where is that?” The paper was one of a small handful of businesses open at that hour. I answered “Decline to state.”
At that point I knew that the police scanner on the local desk had probably squawked out my name and I could only hope no one noticed.
Pretty soon they were uncuffing me and handing me a citation as my car was being loaded onto a flatbed on its way to the impound lot. I had wanted an E39 M5 but having two 60-pound mutts made that choice impractical, so I ended up with a 540it sportwagon. Because it wasn’t the brucey bomber of my dreams, it got a personalized plate that essentially read “Not So Fast,” which one of my detainers asked me to clarify as it was being hauled away. “Yeah, that’s what it means,” I said.
By the time I got on desk I was at least half an hour late but no one said anything, which I took as ominous. Nothing came of it though, and I held and enjoyed that role for years.
Later, when I appeared for my court date, I was told no such case existed. I kept checking back but got the same answer. Ultimately I asked a lawyer friend to check my record and there was no trace of the incident.
We were about three installments into a series on police overreaction when this happened. It’s hard to imagine that didn’t have something to do with the outcome of that ordeal.
Abalone is delicious! But I haven’t had it in probably 30 years. Their population got endangered off the California coast and the SCUBA diver we knew was a judge and not a poacher. So, the deliveries of an occasional delicacy suddenly came to a halt. My mom still has some of the shells.
It’s good to have friends in the legal justice system.
I didn’t have friends in the judicial system. I had one random antagonist so rabidly unhinged that his own department put the situation in check before the overreaction kicked off further inquiry.
You can still eat native abalone in California, but it’s generally small farmed specimens, much of which are grown right under the wharf in Monterey. If you go there I recommend Sea Harvest (if they have them) or the Sardine Factory (if you really, really don’t care about money, but they’re only a couple blocks up the hill.)
As much as I love abalone, the population – along with the kelp forests they depend upon – has been in dangerous flux for decades. They’re on the rebound though, thanks in large part to well-researched management. With any luck they’ll prosper enough to become a fishery in our lifetimes. But seriously though, ab mantle sliced thin and pounded well, fried in butter, fresh garlic and parsley… maybe a squeeze of lemon… you’re in heaven.
I wonder how many of Prince’s blouses it took to make that upholstery?
If I was an eccentric centithousandaire I would buy if it was stock.
>completle
Think of how much it would cost to scratch this particular itch.
I kind of like it, purple isn’t just for Porsches, I guess, but this scheme would look so much better on a 911.
Of course this is priced at the cost of about 40 sets of Porsche lugbolts, so there’s that.
My mother who liked purple so much that half her wardrobe was purple might have bought this. Once she saw a Bates leather jacket and pants set she really wanted to buy for me in this color combo. As if I wasn’t already the weirdest kid in highschool. An English wool National Fire Service jacket with silver buttons and velvet bellbottoms was in my comfort zone, full purple leather racing suit was not. And to think this was the person that wouldn’t let me buy a 1927 Rolls Royce hearse for $750 because it was in bad taste.
Back in the 90’s when I was a tech at a Honda dealership one of the salesman had one of these. He needed brake work and none of us wanted to touch it. We convinced him that it required Witworth tools and the only one with them was the apprentice tech. He was always trying to get the poor guy to fix it. It had Lucas electronics, prince of darkness!
This car is a manual transmission away from me being interested in it. Not 15k interested, but I do rather like it, questionable interior and all.
I like it EXCEPT for the interior, which I doubt I could sit in for any length of time. The car’s in great shape and obviously cared for. The Legend was a very good car and I’m sorry I never bought one. The paint looks great and I agree that it’s more of a very dark purple named after that emoji that stands in for male genitals. While I’ve outgrown my infatuation with those ’80s BBS basketweave wheels (I happen to have a set of factory-supplied black-center ones on my NA Miata, which was some sort of special edition I think) I’ll freely admit they look good on that dark purple car.
It’s worth whatever someone’s willing to pay for it of course. Is there somebody somewhere with $15K burning a hole in their pocket RIGHT NOW for whom this car pushes all of his/her buttons? Without doubt.
Will that person happen to see Kevin’s ad while his ‘test’ is in progress?
Maybe. But also, maybe not.
In the exterior shots, man it presents well, great choice on the wheels, ride height is perfect! Let’s look insi….. OMG what has he done!??!?!
The whole conceit of these cars was it was a Rover interior wrapped in a Honda car. Real leather and real wood trim was replaced with sex-spec brontohide. NFG and ruined what made a Sterling a Sterling.
So that’s what happened to Barney after he went off the air.
lol, dark
BBS-style wheels
If those are legit BBS wheels, I’m Grover Cleveland.
You don’t think? They seem legit (I’m no expert) but maybe look fake because they’re so clean/intact and have their center caps?
I need a set of those center caps for my Miata, which came with BBS wheels from the factory. Does anybody know a place to get them affordably, or even reproduction caps?
Thanks!
Ok hear me out. $15k is a little steep for a car of this provenance- being a Sterling and all, but $12k for a Sterling this clean and nicely presented is simply a case of “find another one better, I’ll wait.” Theeeen you get to the interior, where this car went from a (subjectively) ok buy if the drivetrain has been well looked after to an utter kick in the taint. If he had redone the interior to that high standard but used NORMAL colors like tan, gray, or black, I could see $12k for it. It’s a really nice car! He played himself.
I agree the interior would be a stumbling block for me personally, and in a nice tan, $12K would almost seem a deal.
There really is an ass for every seat!
I just showed this to a few co-workers. One of them actually really liked the car. He said he’d actually drive it. He also said he’d never pay $15,000 to do it. “$8 grand at the most.”
I am right smack in the 7k to 8k and i would daily this thing camp.
Oh yes, at $8K, it’d be a steal, and I could always wear dark sunglasses while sitting in it to try to ignore the interior.
You know, the exterior shot made me go “Ok, this isn’t terrible at all! I almost like it.”
Then there was the spit-take when I scrolled down to the interior shots. Holy moly my eyes. I love color in the interior but… Christ, lol. Not sure I’d be able to make a commitment to that interior at any price.
As for the 15k, this guy DOES NOT want to part with his masterpiece. Nobody is giving him more than 5k for it and even then…
I appreciate both the commitment to the bit and also the extremely unrealistic sale price