Quote:
Originally Posted by nize
in my opinion, the stereo upgrade isn't really worth anything as far as affecting the value of the car.
does he have paperwork/receipts for the koni adjustables? are they front and rear, or front only? that would qualify for the lifetime warranty and affect the value of the car.
the kumho ecsta mx tires are nice, but not a 'favorite' as he claims. they are cheap, decent tires. the favorites are the goodyear eagle f1 gs-d3's which beat the kumho's in every category, or the michelin pilot sports, which are double the cost of the kumho's.
what does he mean by 'sport alignment'? who did the alignment? does he have paperwork? is it warrantied?
how many miles did the car have when he purchased in 2002? since you've already mentioned he has no paperwork for the past 5 years, i'm curious how many miles he put on the car.
i also noticed you're local. if you want, we can get together to see this car and i can point out all the pros and cons for you and the owner. we can show up in my car to easily show the differences as well, if you wanted to use it as a negotiation chip.
and a ppi takes about an hour or two at gerber motorsports in seattle. there's really no excuse to not get a ppi done on a car unless the seller is trying to hide something.
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You're right about the stereo - it had no effect on my interest in the car. I'm a bit of an audiophile and I'd probably wind up putting my own system in it (if I decided to put a stereo in it at all.) The stuff he's got in there now is definitely "hacked" in.
He's got Konis at all 4 corners, but still has the stock springs. Didn't specifically ask if he had receipts for them or not - but I would assume so, based on his claim of having all receipts since new.
He had a fairly stuffed folder that was full of receipts. A majority of the receipts were dated 1999 or earlier (with some going all the way back to 1987.) I didn't see any in there that were more recent than 99... tho I didn't go through EVERY receipt to inspect for dates. The receipts where I actually looked at the dates were the ones that had line items of interest (60k service, water pump, etc.) The 60k was done in 99.
He thinks he's put about 20k on it. He said he originally wanted to "set it up" but shortly after starting into it, he found an E36 M3 and decided to play with that instead (apparently he took a year off of work last year to chase a national SCCA auto-x championship.) So the 944 spent most of its time in the garage.
No idea whether the tires are good or not - I've been WAY more into the motorcycle scene for the last 7 years (quit racing last year so now I have cash to burn
) I've got a set of RE070's on my GTI and love 'em. If I did a wheel upgrade, I'd probably roll with a set of these (or similar.)
Didn't ask about the alignment either. Based on his auto-x experience, my guess is that he did it himself. Regardless, once the ball joints were redone it'd need to be realigned anyways - so it having a "sport alignment" right now was worthless to me.
It had a LOT of squeaks and rattles. A few interior trim pieces (mostly in the hatch area) were missing. Again, it's probably stuff that I can tighten up (missing spring clips, maybe some new/ebay panels, etc) but it overall just didn't leave me feeling very good or "wow I want this car!" My excitement was definitely deflated after driving it. I really get the feeling that it's had a pretty tough life the last few years... and really, based on the cosmetic condition of the car, really makes me wonder about the true mechanical condition (receipts or not!!) I've never known someone who is anal enough to keep every receipt for the car to not at least keep it washed/waxed every now and then (he said he's never waxed it but promised "it'll shine up"...)
And yep, I'm local... just noticed your location in your post as well
Technically, I'm not Seattle... I'm in Sammamish. Just figured that this being a national board, more people would know Seattle rather than an eastside suburb
I'm really not interested in this one anymore, and having sold plenty of stuff in the past (cars, race bikes, etc.) - I don't really want to waste his time. There's one other car I want to look at, so I may take you up on your offer to go look at it with me if you're interested and willing (dinner/beer/soda on me.) If you wanted to look at this particular car we've been talking about yourself, knock yourself out. If you think that underneath all of this, in your more experienced opinion that it's really a steal of a buy... let me know and I'll reconsider. But for now, my gut really says "no."
As for the PPI - I was going to use ******** Vick in Bellevue. They wanted $149 to do the PPI.