I doubt it will be enough to cover the $3,000 plus the clutch, brakes and new tires the 03 needs.

Your talking an easy $5,000 in parts for the above items and I'm sure he's not going to be pulling the transmission himself to do the clutch job. With the $3,000 price difference and the parts and labor needed, he's probably looking at close to a $10,000 price difference.

Later, Steve

 

^^^Easy bargaining points for the 03. If it actually needs a clutch (really? at 34k? Says who?), brakes and tires, then those are not optional, gee-I'd-like-to-have-it items. That's something that either needs to be replaced by the seller, or the price needs to come down far below the cost of having the work done, to reflect the fact that the buyer is now taking on the aggravation of getting them fixed PLUS the possibility that the bad brakes, clutch and tires are hiding another problem that won't reveal itself till these are taken care of.

i.e.: if reasonable value on the 03 in excellent, no-stories condition is $50k, and the cost of clutch and brakes at a dealer, plus tires from a good sportscar shop in his area, is $7k, then he should get more than $7k off, more like $9k to cover hassle and risk. If seller refuses, then say, Fine, you fix them for $7k and enjoy the $2000 you'll save by not "hiring" me to fix your broken car.

Again, my question to the surprisingly dissappeared OP would be: Does the seller admit to the need for brakes, clutch and tires? If so, you have a guy admitting his very expensive used car is in need of some major, expensive work, and that he can't afford to fix it. So you have a guy who needs to be EXTREMELY flexible on his price in order to unload this car onto somebody else who can afford to deal with its problems.

And if the seller doesn't admit it, is that just your opinion, or did you PPI it elsewhere, or what? (Of course, tires are pretty obvious -- really talking about brakes and clutch.)

 

Ok.. Just for a quick update.. I went with the 01! Loved all the mods the PO did and I was going to do the mods anyway so this saved me money... Was even able to get a better deal because the wheels had to be refinished. Has a nice tune to 1 bar with techart body kit all around and he had all the original parts so can always put it back to stock when needed. Full maintenance records. He even game me a case of oil for next oil change. Has full leather, alpine gps, cd changer, dvd changer, upgraded sound. Here is a quick pick from the rest area. Had to skip the 03, owner was not meticulous with records.

 

Nice!

 

you'll have a blast w it. congrats.

 

That's a sound decision. Very nice car, congratulations.

Enjoy it and beware the mod bug. It seems most people catch it if they're on this forum long enough

 

nice!