Drove This Last Night, Deal or No Deal?

[M-technik-3]

Was gonna say that car has been on here before, Have seen the tag before and I have seen it at Bav.

[Polaris15]

I bought the car! Verbal agreement over the phone. cash is in hand, picking it up tomorrow. Plan is to sell my Civic SI, put 2,500 back into the bank and sink an immediate 2,500 into the old girl. Ahhh where to begin

[Polaris15]

One of my techs worked with him for years. He's a CPO tech. I'd get receipts documenting the timing belt, head gasket, etc - just to be sure. Good kid, talks a lot (says my tech) lol

Edit: He is a VW kid to the core (not sure why he's working for BMW, whatev), so this car doesn't "do it" for him. I don't think he's had it for a year, though he did have it on the road (see the pic with the NH plate.)

Can't imagine who would rather drive a VM over a BMW, but to each his own. He seems like an honest guy though and he appears to know his shizz.

[Polaris15]

Was gonna say that car has been on here before, Have seen the tag before and I have seen it at Bav.

Any way you could find any of his old posts?

[smooth]

read up, it was done 3k ago..

What was confusing about my post?

In response to the claim:

The previous owner had done some work. He did the timing belt 3k ago, waterpump belts, intake and exhaust gaskets plus the head gasket. (He works at BMW of Nashua)

I stand by my recommendation:

He may be a tech and all but if he doesn't have documented proof of when the timing belt was changed that should be the first thing you do

And I'm not alone:

One of my techs worked with him for years. He's a CPO tech. I'd get receipts documenting the timing belt, head gasket, etc - just to be sure.

Timing belt is between $50-100 dollars in parts depending on how much you want to dig into the project but miss the deadline and it's either a new engine or a new car depending on ability and cash flow. But if you want to only spend $20 dollars on a belt and cut corners that's your right when you own the car, but not so much when you're selling the car billed as a maintenance complete deal.

After years of buying and selling used cars and hearing all kinds of nonsense I've come to learn that the only way to know for certain that things are done correctly is to do the work yourself or pay a shop for a warranty. If some yahoo does it in his backyard or work bay, I don't care unless he's going to write on my bill of sale that I'm getting some level of warranty.

Every car has a history and every previous owner has a story. But the only thing that is real is they are getting rid of a working vehicle for some reason that you don't know...and it's your job as a savvy buyer to figure out to the best of your ability what the reason(s) may be.

People go into buying cars completely backwards. Instead of figuring out what's wrong they try and figure out what's right. Someone already pointed out that the panel was off and the response was to attribute it to lighting. Lighting that apparently begins and ends where the panel begins and ends. That particular point is likely no big deal but who knows...other than the previous owner(s). If we believe every previous owner then all cars would have freshly built engines, expensive head jobs, and maintenance complete.

If all that was done, though, they would in all probability be keeping the car. No one intentionally dumps hundreds of dollars into a car they're prepping for sale if they can't recoup the money. The only way to come close to breaking even on that stuff is to have a shop do it and keep the receipts.

[Farwest92]

Nice score. I don't think you'll have any problem sinking the $2500. Plan on replacing all the things.
I've learned that it's not uncommon for the body panels to have slightly different shades so don't worry about it. I know mine does even with the vin stickers. Welcome aboard.

[YosemiteSam]

Would buy for phone.

[Vivek]

Definitely a great deal.

[Polaris15]

So I bought the car last night and most things seem to be in order. Car starts and idles great, clutch is super tight, suspension is nice and tight. There is a heat shield or something on the right side of the car that seems to rattle after driving it for a bit then letting it idle.

As far as the timing belt goes, the PO bought the car not running because the timing belt snapped. I'm assuming he got a hell of a deal because he bought it from the previous owner like this. He installed a new/used head and rebuilt everything that needed rebuilding and has since driven it 3-5k miles. The motor runs flawlessly. Now i know this probably doesn't mean sh*t and I should have it changed.... What does this normally cost?

As for the paint being slightly off.... I don't care, i paid $2500 for the car not $25,000. All i know is the panels all line up perfectly and once I have the outside of the car professionally detailed it will be hardly noticable. Don't need to detail the inside, it's cleaner than my other car!

ABS light is on....

[Polaris15]

Here she is. Sorry about the crappy cell pic!

[flyboyx]

the car is a sweet deal. the phone is very cool but a novelty. cell phone company's have software in place to prohibit these from working anymore. its too bad. they get about 5x better reception that the phones of today. this was because cell towers were spaced so far apart in those days.

[Jaxx_]

the car is a sweet deal. the phone is very cool but a novelty. cell phone company's have software in place to prohibit these from working anymore. its too bad. they get about 5x better reception that the phones of today. this was because cell towers were spaced so far apart in those days.

I'm sure you could stuff the innards of a regular phone in there, but I'm not sure how useful that would be, having an actual car phone... maybe with a pre-paid sim? that would be pretty dope.

[Polaris15]

I'm sure you could stuff the innards of a regular phone in there, but I'm not sure how useful that would be, having an actual car phone... maybe with a pre-paid sim? that would be pretty dope.

Haha so funny the main focus of this thread has been the car phone. It is staying in the car, thats all i know.

[F34R]

Build the working car phone work and they will come...

Congrats and welcome =)

[E30ruben]

sweet buy! slam that sucker on some wheels first things first..lol
making me miss my 90 4-door :/