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$350 for car - to get it running, priceless Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Wed, 5 Sep 2007 05:29:15
In Reply to: $ 350 saab turbo, Austin Underwood, Tue, 4 Sep 2007 21:28:29 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
As in, possibly Waaay too much.
As a rule, anytime a seller tells me something, I assume he is wrong or lying, depending on my mood. Either way, unless it is documented, all you can rely on is your eyes.
Selling a car that doesn't run is very, very hard. So for about $200, the seller could put in a rebuilt starter and ask for more than $550. So I'm suspicious. If it doesn't start, you can't tell a lot about what else is wrong. Does the engine run? How does it drive? How are the brakes? Are there brakes? Has a family of voles taken up residence in the heater core?
My advice is to back away slowly. You're looking for reliable transportation for your girlfriend, not a project car. I suggest that if you get this car, you'll have plenty of time for the project car, because after her first 7.5 mile walk, you won't have a girlfriend.
If you want some beat, reliable transportation, find something that is already running, that doesn't need obvious mechanical work. I'll bet that after you drop $200-$250 or so for a starter, you'll find that it needs a lot more work, and before you know it, you're in for $1K or so. Or a whole lot more. And all the heartache of finding those problems one by one. My experience is that few people have a car that is running just fine, and one thing breaks, and they decide to sell it as is. If it were running just fine, they would have been maintaining it up to then, so they were in the habit of fixing things. Folks like that fix that last problem, THEN put it up for sale. They don't invest that kind of money to waste it on trying to sell a dead car.
So my guess is that this car has a series of serious problems, and the seller was driving it into the ground until something fatal (to the car only, hopefully) breaks. It was the starter. Or not. I had a girlfrend way back that siezed an engine. She put on her best Blonde smile and sold it. Most folks figured it needed a starter. One group tried to jump start it, and when they dropped the clutch, the drive wheels locked, sending the pushers into the trunk. Happy to be deluded, they took that as a sign of good engine compression and bought it.
And the mechanic she took it to actually put in a new starter and battery without checking to see if the engine would turn. So don't always trust the pros.
If you want some cheap, reliable transportation, (1) don't look at a 19 year old car that doesn't run. (2) See rule 1.
posted by 192.249....
, Wed, 5 Sep 2007 05:41:14, Wed, 5 Sep 2007 05:29:15 <-- Viewing This Message, Wed, 5 Sep 2007 10:04:36, Wed, 5 Sep 2007 11:52:20
, Wed, 5 Sep 2007 10:49:26
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