Okay, Opinion Time

I need your opinions on the car in the link. I've looked at it and driven it, and this is what I know. It has been repainted once, but before this owner bought it and he does not know why. It is very clean. The underside is like new, and there is no evidence of body work anywhere. The finish is better than factory. There is a small crack in the paint at the top of the drivers C-pillar, which I'm assuming is a stress crack. I could touch it up so it's almost not visible.
It drives really well, no problems there. The A/C doesn't work, and the arm rests on the doors are coming off. The beltline trim on the drivers door is separating near the rear edge, but hardly.
The owner and I couldn't come to terms to make a deal. So I'm asking all of you, what do you think it's worth?

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/cto/4687819774.html

October seems like a hard time of year for the seller to get top dollar for a car that you would have to store for the winter in Cleveland.
Have you appealed to his love of the car and desire to have it preserved since I expect that you would be a caring owner?
If not, I really see this selling to a young guy as a daily driver and then getting wrapped around a pole the first time the snow flys.

So I guess you don't think it's worth what he's asking?

Personally, I have no reference to the worth of Mustangs. I was just trying to help you get to the lowest price he would accept.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

I don't really need help negotiating. I know what I will have to pay for the car to get it, I just don't know if its worth it, so I'm asking you all what you think it's worth.

Are those 4 or 5 lug wheels? Does it have disc brakes out back? The price does seem a bit high, but if it's been painted right and drives well I'll take a shot at $5500. Clean Foxes are getting more rare and this one could have some less common equipment. Very nice color too.

In reply to Gearheadotaku:

$5k or so was my thought as well, though I've been out of the foxbody Mustang game for some time.

Fox's are coming back up. I would see it as a 5500 car if it's pretty rust free. At the asking price, it's darn close to what I've seen 1993 Cobras go for in DD condition.

Just to give you a comparable to look at. This is in my neighborhood so I've seen it and it's pretty clean.

http://austin.craigslist.org/cto/4688188527.html

If the A/C worked I would go 6k, maybe. As it sits, without seeing it in person I would say $5500.

If I wanted a 5 speed Mustang, I would not lose any sleep dropping $6000 for this car as long as the rust is under control. Sounds like there's a decent amount of spare parts involved in the deal. What are the odds of finding a 25 year old Mustang with less than 100,000 on the odometer? I would also buy it knowing that somewhere along the way, somebody probably ran the car pretty hard, which isn't a problem as long as they took care of it.

$5500 is my vote...

With non working A/C and that it has been repainted (the main reason), I don't think I would pay over $4500. A repaint drastically lowers the price I would be willing to pay for a car.

I like old Foxes but that's a lot of money for an old Fox. Around here that's a $3,000-$4,000 car.

Holy crap. Thats a big asking price for an old foxbody. Around here, these cars are dirt cheap. If you are like me, and really want that car, it might be worth flying to buy one. Here are a few just from today:

http://www.ksl.com/auto/listing/1691804?ad_cid=1

http://www.ksl.com/auto/listing/1654294?ad_cid=11

Thanks for all the replies guys. Let me make a couple things clear about this car. One, it is a 4 lug car with drum brakes on the rear. Two, I am an a/c engineer, so repairing the a/c isn't as big a deal as it might otherwise be, but I don't want to fix it. Three, this car is completely, 100% rust free (in northeast ohio). It appears to never have seen salt. Even though its been, I am confident it wasn't because of rust, based on the condition of the rest of the car.
Now, I'm not trying to rationalize the purchase, but just clearing up some of the questions that have been asked.
I offered him $5700 with the thought that I'd come up to $6k. He said he had turned down an offer of $6400. Several of you mentioned $5500 as a value. While I don't ever take just one persons opinion as fact, there seems to be a consensus here that at least indicates that $6500 would be too much to pay for this car. So now that I've clarified a few things, do you still feel that it's worth $5500? Another consideration is that a car like this is very hard to find in my area, and I could easily spend $1k going south to get one like it.

The rust free in NE Ohio is a big thing. Having come from Erie, PA I know what a rarity that is. Having said that, I may say 6K but that is top end. For a full price offer, I would expect the car to at least be 100% mechanically perfect.

I just looked at a 93 cobra that was sun burnt for 7K. You can find a lot of nice mustangs in Tennessee too that are not a long trip for under 6500 with no rust.

I paid $2K for the Challenge 86 notch with a 351 in it.

For $6K it would need to be close to perfect

In reply to bmw88rider:

I just bought a truck in Murfreesboro. All in it cost me $400 to get it back to Ohio, and it would have been more if I hadn't combined it with a trip to visit friends. So $6k for the car and $400 to get it back I'm at $6400 not counting my time, food and lodging.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to JohnRW1621: I don't really need help negotiating. I know what I will have to pay for the car to get it, I just don't know if its worth it, so I'm asking you all what you think it's worth.

I don't know this market either but $6500 seems like a metric crapload of cash for a run-o-the-mill 89 mustang gt. So "worth" being subjective in comparison to all the other awesome stuff I could buy with that asking price I'd say it's worth about $3500 to me only because it looks clean and you said "no evidence of repair work".

IMO, it's an unmolested, rust free Fox Body Mustang GT Fastback with less than 90k on the odo. Hell it even has a 5-speed.

I keep an eye on fox body prices and they are going up, because the newest models are now of legal drinking age. Unmolested GTs are always going to pull a premium over Notchbacks.

If non-functioning A/C isn't an issue, I would say $6k is as high as I would go. But I wouldn't be afraid to ask $5700.

The miles and the condition would be the selling point for me. I'd have no problem giving 6500 for it if I were in the market for a clean gt.

Well he just lowered the price in the ad to $6500. Still unsure about what to do, if anything.

If the guy still has the car at $6500 after a $6400 offer he's just being difficult over $100.

I wouldn't mind paying a premium for an adult owned, garage kept, unmolested car but not that much at $6800. $6500 meh, still high unless I couldn't live w/o it. That is a nice example there and not likely they come around that often. Can the car be bought for less w/o the extra wheels and tires?

I'd tend to roll the dice and wait it out for a lower price drop especially this time of year but that doesn't appear likely.

Factory 89 GT's were all two-tone. That's probably why they repainted it.

If it was all original, I'd say it was worth $6500, but it's not. That's a $5 max car where I am.

That's a lot for a fox body with a visible stress crack, better check other known spots.