What would you do?
 

Sigh... life is never easy is it.

The car I was looking to buy that looked like a great deal went into Gotham Racing today. Thank God I got it inspected.

Here is the break down with labor.

1.) Body damage on driver side lower kick panel
2.) Front brake pads were 70% worn (1hr)
3.) Rear oil return line from turbo is leaking (.75hr)
4.) Oil pan gasket leaking (by the engine mount) (4.5hr)
5.) minor tranny oil leak by rear seal (.75hr)
6.) Oil filter return line gasket leaks (.5hr)
7.) Rear control arm bushings were worn (4hr)
8.) Differential housing leaks by the driveshaft (seal) (2hr)
9.) rear left strut leaks (1hr)
10.) compressor side of both front and rear turbo housing leaks oil (7hr)
11.) Air separator tank leaks coolant (.5hr)
12.) Power steering reservoir return hose leaks (1hr)
13.) vacuum hoses are brittle (5.5hr)
14.) compression reading for both the front and rear housing = (8:1)
15.) A/C doesn't work (needs freeon)
16.) Alternator whines
17.) Oil sending unit is going bad (reads low oil pressure) (1hr)
18.) Clunking noise coming from the front of the car when braking (possibly front sway bars)
19.) End tank discoloration on radiator (needs replacement soon) (2hr)

Guy wanted 12k (50k miles on chassis). Don't think that's gonna happen. I don't want to make the drive out to Dallas if it's not going to be worth it. Please respond asap if you have a dollar figure. I need to call this guy back. For those of you not wanting to add that up its 2k in labour alone.

Come on guys, give me something :) I'm really fucking tired and I need to call him back.

Wait for a better car - unless you think they made a mistake diagnosing some of that stuff...because something like "the AST leaks" seems odd unless it was leaking a lot.

If you don't mind spending a few thousand to get it back on the road, why not?

However, with that much being done to it, I would personally spend a little extra and just drop a reman into it (with a few mods). It would suck to spend $2k+ in labor and then have something else go wrong in a month or two.

That's what I thought, lol... and I already had a buyer who was going to buy my current car :( This is going to be an akward conversasion.

There's a few hundred bucks down the drain. The search continues!

EDIT: Majhik, what kinda cash total do you think I'd be looking at? I have the money, but I don't know if I'm willing to drop more than 16k right off the bat.

EDIT2: Let me put it this way. What do you think it is worth as it stands? What do you think would be a fair offer?

90% of that stuff is simple weekend in the driveway stuff. Beat him up on price.

I agree with Mahjik and Meddle. Most of that stuff is pretty basic and much of it could be taken care of with a fresh engine or at least it will be easier to do with it out.

Assumming that you can do the majority of labor yourself, you should be able to throw a reman, BNR rebuilds, and fix all the other parts for under $5k. If you can get him down to $10-11K, that wouldn't be a bad deal for a 50k mile chassis with a fresh engine.

rp

I bet 90% of the cars on this forum have at least one of the problems on that list, if not lots of them. Those are all very, very common problems. For the record, my car personally has had 2,5,9,10,11,12,13,17,19 occur and fixed, although I didn't wait for either the radiator or AST to start showing problems before replacing them. On top of that, I currently experience 15 and 18 and need to get them fixed. It sounds like Gotham is very thorough in their inspection, so don't expect any car you look at to pass perfectly (or be prepared to pay big bucks for one that does). The compression sounds very good, if by "8:1" you mean 8.0kg/cm^2 (its not a ratio its an absolute value, the ratio is something different). If it has 50k original miles and 8.0kg/cm^2 compression on both rotors, and cosmetically it is nice (not sure exactly what you mean by kick panel), then I'd jump on it, even for $12k. The stuff on that list will cost maybe $6000 to fix it all, but if you buy it for $12k + the money to fix it, you'll have an essentially perfect FD with 50k original miles for $18k, you'll be way ahead of most of the people on the forum. A better car will come along, but if you're waiting for a car that doesn't have any problems like the ones you listed, you're going to have to either wait a long time or expect to pay $18k-$20k.

I totally agree with Nathan. You are going to find those same problems or similar on almost any FD you find. I also agree with Nathan and I would lay money down that most people are driving their cars around in the same condition. And the FDs without those problems will not be sold at $12k......

Man, I can't believe how much you guys lowball people. It's a 8-10 year old used SPORTS car for christ's sake.

I think the $12k price is more than fair, even with that laundry list. You got to pay to play....

I talked to Steve last night (that's his list btw). He said he probably scared me by being too detailed. All of those leaks are really minor.

For now I think I'm going to get the rad, ast, and vacuum hoses replaced before I drive it back. The rest of the stuff I can do on my own or get a local shop to do.

He said the turbos will probably last a good 20-30k miles, so by the end of the year it's BNR Stage 3 time :)

Thanks for all of the opinions everyone. Now to decide if a reman is in order.

I bought the damn thing :p: Ah well, Steve thinks it's a bargain, heh.

Wooo hoo!

Congrats, man :).

Alot of those problems are common and are symptomatic of poor prior PMCS (Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services, military term hehe).

If Steve says it was a good deal then I think you made the right choice. Besides, now our little group of rotary demons that terrorize the streets of dfw has another member :D