“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.
Dear God, pass the eye bleach, and somebody put this poor thing out of our collective misery.
But that said, you never know. As my car salesdude buddy once said “there is an ass for every seat”, and in the Internet age it’s a LOT easier to find that ass. There may be some Purple People Eater out there that might just think this is the car of his (her?) dreams and stump up for it.
But for this you need two asses to get the green for the purple
That would certainly help you get more green.
The arbitrage putting asses in seats is basically what made Bring a Trailer.
Exactly. And if you get multiple asses, you can make bank.
Maybe a Prince impersonator in Atlantic City should buy it.
Has to be at least one dreaming of a purple Sterling. The one in Vegas wants a purple Acura.
I think they’d go with a red Corvette.
#ugly Like houses put up for sale by the builder that are “custom”. Its for him/her, not me. I gotta give him credit, that is an aesthetic
I never got people who put up listings up to “test the market.” When I was looking for OBS Fords on marketplace, I saw an average looking F-150 listed for $1,234 with the description “Not looking to sell, just seeing what offers I can get.” Not sure about other buyers, but I definitely wouldn’t make an offer on something the seller isn’t interested in selling
On a side note this Sterling is actually kind of cool, the exterior is nice but the interior is a bit much once the purple headliner is added to the picture
That is what reserve auctions are for.
Reserve auctions aren’t free tho.
Depends on the auction. Some only charge buyer’s premiums.
Well it’s the reverse here in CA real estate. So many scammy and spammy calls to buy my house. I reply, “sure $2m cash close 30 days;” I never hear back.
To be fair, comps here are in the $1.4-1.5m range, and I bought in 2017 at $835k and thought I overpaid. Snagged a 2.5% 30 year rate in 2021 on a refi once COVID juiced property values enough to be over 20% equity before the inflation wave.
You could say I got lucky, but I’m an elder Millennial who saw property values spike then crater during the Great Recession when I was finally getting my feet under me professionally and financially. I saw my multiples on buying low weren’t working out on the East Coast and figured, hell, no one’s making more coastal California. I made the right move, and when it happened faster than I expected with COVID I locked in when values got just high enough but before rates went up. THAT part, I knew exactly what I was doing.
tl;dr: I bought an $835k house in 2017 with $100k down – but it had to be big enough for my parents to move to CA with us. Mortgage payments started in. 2017 at $5700/month. Ten years later we’ve got 50% equity, $4450/month mortgage. Privilege is cards I was dealt, but speaking to many other out here in CA, it seems like I played ‘em right.
I never get this and it’s usually people with junk too, unless it was something that was somehow exactly what I was looking for I don’t think I’d ever message the “just testing the market” sellers
I actually like the white and darker purple in the interior, but that lighter ultrasuede is awful. I don’t know what they go for now, but at that price, if I wanted a Legend, I’d be looking for a 2nd gen coupe or saving up for one.
“They didn’t want an S-Class, they wanted the Class that comes with buying a S-terling.”
This is why Matt is a national treasure.
That and the new words … “… and the brand’s completle lack of a reason to exist.”
They said it was high class, but that was just a lie.
Car is in great shape. Love the exterior, hate the interior.
Some people just don’t know when to stop. Too much is never enough.
Looks like Prince (or The Artist…) outgrew his Honda Hawk.
Prince that was what I wanted to say but forgot
The automobile hobby is a big tent – plenty of room for all interests.
But like pedophilia, there are some interests that simply shouldn’t be.
NAMBLA?
Sure, but don’t expect someone else to pay for it.
As the owner of a Triumph Acclaim I suppose I am at the very least in the Sterling-adjacent portion of the used car market and so, on behalf of myself, no, thank you.
Those exterior shots could easily sell me that vehicle.
Anyone have a primer on these first gen Acura transmissions? I remember my friend’s parents and later my friends being shocked at how unreliable these automatics were in comparison to the manual trans accords they usually replaced. Was it something to do with them being electronically controlled? I’d love to read up on them.
They were terrible, like most Honda automatics hooked to a V6.
OMG THAT INTERIOR!!!
How many Grimace’s gave their lives to upholster that headliner alone?
Too many
Ever since we eliminated their natural predators, the Grimaces have multiplied unchecked. This seems like a good use.
I think waiting on the daily diet of McDonalds to thin the Herd has the disadvantage of giving the population enough time to reproduce…
It really a testament to how bad alcantara can look. I did one headliner in it a long time ago, but hated the results. Stock material headliners look better.
Buddy of mine had one of these when we were in college in the early ’90s. The Honda drivetrain was fine, but the Rover electronics were exceptionally dodgy.
IIRC, that was the knock on these
The Rover interior materials were worse than the electricals. hence the makeover, I suspect. The leather liked to turn mottled green on the early ones… And everything disintegrated. Shame really.
Lucas the Lord of Darkness
Traditions must be staunchly maintained you know.
CP. Also, Rover was never British luxury, rather malaise
Rover was absolutely a luxury brand in ’30s-’60s and even into early ’70s with the fabulous P6. Considerably more posh than a Jaaaag, and better engineered, which was a “value” luxury car. But yet another British Leyland victim once they got bought.
I would have put Rover a step under Jaguar in terms of cost, and that was how Leyland positioned them AIUI.
As I said, a victim of Leyland. They were a cut above prior to that. Rover was Mercedes to Jaguar’s being BMW, relatively speaking.
I came close to getting a Rover 2500, V8 and manual.
It would have looked great in a Kid Sister video in the early 2010s.
OK. I will start the bidding. $50
I’ll raise you to $35
I got a 20-piece McNuggets and a 40 of OE.
Realistically that 20-piece is a 17-piece now. No fibbing.
Wait, What!!? The front seats have a separate 3 point seatbelt and a lap belt you can buckle?
Or seat belt latches are like fingers, and are a good place to check for AI sloppery in photos.
Edit: I see no sight of the shoulder harness belts in front. Just the latches.
Something isn’t adding up, there’s no place for the belt to retract into on the b pillar like on other 825’s I looked up, and it looks like there’s a retraction mechanism in the seat where it should be hard mounted in a stock one. Plus you have the two places to buckle it in on the passenger side. It could be just heavily modified…
Further googling reveals that in 1989 Sterling switched to motorized seatbelts that had 2 latches, one for the lap belt and one for the motorized shoulder belt. So this looks to be a 1989+ model that he’s cut the shoulder belts out of. That’s got to add another $2K to the value alone!
Red flag red flag awooo awooo evacuate evacuate.
This is not a drill
You can see the male clip of the motorized shoulder belt on the passenger A pillar in the shot from the open driver’s rear door. The shoulder belt was intended to remain buckled. Seems an odd choice to put the retractor on the running part rather than the latch, but there it is.
No evidence of the 3-point belt, just the lap belts
Early motorized ‘mouse’ belts. Seperate lap belt and shoulder belt. I recall some of the shoulder belts had disconnect latches. They may have been banned later.
I mean . . . Cheers to him for going full send with that car.
It would definitely be a Radwood hit!
For me it’s funny enough seeing an Acura built by people who couldn’t give a damn about what they were doing, but this takes it to a whole new level. I just have to like it, but I do feel kind of dirty saying that.
You know, I love it. I don’t know what the value would be, but I could see it reaching $15k at auction.
It’s tempting
It’s certainly got all the quirks and features.
More quirks though.
Back in the early ’00s I lived pretty close to self serve junkyards and over the years I made probably a grand selling Sterling and Merkur parts on eBay. I imagine demand for those parts probably isn’t what it used to be.
I see he has eliminated and upholstered over all the wood trim panels which used to fall off in people’s hands….
…so I guess that’s an improvement?
Take it to a tint shop, ask them how dark you have to go so nobody can see the interior. Problem solved!
I like the exterior, it looks good with the purple and basketweave wheels. But the interior is a bit too much. I feel they would be lucky to get even half of what they are asking.
Agreed, I was just about to post similarly. He might have gotten 10K if he stopped at the paint job.
Same. The exterior and wheels I was like ok not bad, then I saw the interior. Homer Simpson gif walking backwards into the bushes.
First job out of the Navy was a dealership in 91 and they covered Sterling. I did a lot of test drives, they were either pretty nice or total crap, no in-between. I didn’t hate them, but the years haven’t been kind to them.
I’d probably step down to 17s, but agreed.
The abundant emojis are, at a minimum, a sign of AI polishing.
That was my immediate thought, too. At least the photos look real enough. Doesn’t show any immediate tells for AI polishing there.
Sadly I know an embarrassingly large number of very human people who use emojis with similar abandon.