Would This Car Scare You?

Seems like a very fair price based on what they were when I was looking a couple years ago.

dculberson wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

bravenrace wrote: For use as a DD. CL LInky.

I can tell you one thing. You will find NO drugs in that car. The buyer smoked, shot up, or snorted it all just before pricing that one!

I don't get this. Several people have made strong negative comments on the pricing but it's really not that bad. The only significantly cheaper ones I've seen are automatics or really beat.

I look at the mileage and it's higher than I'd want to pay without good documentation. He says little to nothing about the car. The interior is not very clean and the pictures suck. When I look at an add and see things that make a car look dirty or othewise un-kept like carpet stains, the rear of the center console is dorty, there's a box of smokes or something in the door panel and a cup of yogur in the cup holder, and on. Yeah, I know. Those things don't come with the car. But his lack of care and attention to detail do. When I go to look at a car to buy, I'm there at least 5 minutes before I really look at the car. I'm looking at the yard, the other cars, the owner him/herself, etc. If you didn't care enough to clear crap out of your car, do you care enough to make sure the maintenance is done on time?
It's a 12 year old car with (to me) questionable history, an aftermarket tint job, high miles, and not clean. I'll pass.

In reply to DrBoost:

Good points, but we are all just looking at pictures. The reason I made this post was to see if people would be turned off enough to not go look at it. You are. But these cars don't come up for sale very often in my area, especially in this price range, so how you judge a picture of a car might be influenced by whether or not you are looking for this exact car like I am, and how hard they are to find.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to DrBoost: Good points, but we are all just looking at pictures. The reason I made this post was to see if people would be turned off enough to not go look at it. You are. But these cars don't come up for sale very often in my area, especially in this price range, so how you judge a picture of a car might be influenced by whether or not you are looking for this exact car like I am, and how hard they are to find.

Yeah, that's a tough one. If I were in the market for THAT car, I'd go look at it for sure. The "issues" I see would be reasons I'd be looking to get it for 20% less. But this is from a guy that is anal about both buying and selling a car.
I've made money on the last 8-10 cars I've owned. Every one of those was my DD for a while. I just always buy well and am very good at making an ad.
Heck, the miata I had was GREAT. I drove it for almost 3 years (got it for $2250), put about $150 into it and sold it for $3800. I really feel that more than 1/2 that profit was because of my ad.

In reply to DrBoost:

Well I never said I wouldn't try to talk him down.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to DrBoost: Well I never said I wouldn't try to talk him down.

Haha, I would hope you would try. I also never said it's a bad car
Nah, I like it, it is a great looking car but the price seems high. Let us know what happens....

Having looked at and purchased an E46 in the lower end of the price range lately I will say that almost all of the cheap ones that were described as "in really good condition" had at least the following problems:
1) sagging headliner and pillar trim
2) at least one bad window motor/regulator
3) Bad bushings in the suspension (usually front control arms)

That was without even getting under the car to check rear suspension and subframe mounting.

DrBoost wrote:

dculberson wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

bravenrace wrote: For use as a DD. CL LInky.

I can tell you one thing. You will find NO drugs in that car. The buyer smoked, shot up, or snorted it all just before pricing that one!

I don't get this. Several people have made strong negative comments on the pricing but it's really not that bad. The only significantly cheaper ones I've seen are automatics or really beat.

He says little to nothing about the car. The interior is not very clean and the pictures suck. When I look at an add and see things that make a car look dirty or othewise un-kept like carpet stains, the rear of the center console is dorty, there's a box of smokes or something in the door panel and a cup of yogur in the cup holder, and on. Yeah, I know. Those things don't come with the car. But his lack of care and attention to detail do. When I go to look at a car to buy, I'm there at least 5 minutes before I really look at the car. I'm looking at the yard, the other cars, the owner him/herself, etc. If you didn't care enough to clear crap out of your car, do you care enough to make sure the maintenance is done on time? It's a 12 year old car with (to me) questionable history, an aftermarket tint job, high miles, and not clean. I'll pass.

ur crazy

plance1 wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

dculberson wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

bravenrace wrote: For use as a DD. CL LInky.

I can tell you one thing. You will find NO drugs in that car. The buyer smoked, shot up, or snorted it all just before pricing that one!

I don't get this. Several people have made strong negative comments on the pricing but it's really not that bad. The only significantly cheaper ones I've seen are automatics or really beat.

He says little to nothing about the car. The interior is not very clean and the pictures suck. When I look at an add and see things that make a car look dirty or othewise un-kept like carpet stains, the rear of the center console is dirty, there's a box of smokes or something in the door panel and a cup of yogur in the cup holder, and on. Yeah, I know. Those things don't come with the car. But his lack of care and attention to detail do. When I go to look at a car to buy, I'm there at least 5 minutes before I really look at the car. I'm looking at the yard, the other cars, the owner him/herself, etc. If you didn't care enough to clear crap out of your car, do you care enough to make sure the maintenance is done on time? It's a 12 year old car with (to me) questionable history, an aftermarket tint job, high miles, and not clean. I'll pass.

ur crazy

Maybe, but I know of what I speak. That general premise goes for just about anything. If I'm buying a house and the freshly painted walls have streaks in the paint, some would say "well, I don't like the color. I'd be painting anyway." I say "it was either painted by someone that doesn't care about their house, or it was a hasty repair." Either way, that makes me much more cautious. Trust me, as a mechanic for a long time, the cars that come in with filthy interiors, mis-matched tires and a 9-month old oil change reminder sticker are always in need of a laundry list of repairs/maintenance. They never get it done either.

You don't know what you're talking about for someone who's pretty smug... I give to you exhibit A, my 91 turbo brick, inside's a mess but I never fail to get the oil changed every 3k miles. Lesson for today: Don't be so quick to judge the maintenance of ones car by whether the carpet is dirty or if the shifter is "dorty" whatever the heck that means.

plance1 wrote: You don't know what you're talking about for someone who's pretty smug... I give to you exhibit A, my 91 turbo brick, inside's a mess but I never fail to get the oil changed every 3k miles. Lesson for today: Don't be so quick to judge the maintenance of ones car by whether the carpet is dirty or if the shifter is "dorty" whatever the heck that means.

Did I say that the car is a POS? Did I say don't buy it? Nope. You're pretty smug for a guy with low reading comprehension. I simply said those things are flags that put me a bit more on alert. You can tell pretty quickly if a car is well taken care of, and from my experience, a car that is clean inside and out is usually equally well taken care of mechanically, the converse holds true as well. So, I'll spell it out for you again:
I look at the cosmetic condition of a car as a good indicator of the overall condition of said car. Do you check he oil when you look at a car? Why? Is it because the condition of the oil in the crankcase is a good indicator of he overall health of he engine? Well, it won't tell you what a compression test, leak-down test and a bore scope will tell you but it's a good indicator....
If I come off as smug, well, sorry that's how you view it. I've been able to buy cars, use them for easily a year or more and sell them later, realizing about a 40% profit on average. Part of this is that I have only once bought a car that ended up having large mechanical issues.
Again, would I buy that car? Sure, if the price was right. From what I see in that ad, I'd not pay $5K for it.
BTW, "dorty" was supposed to be "dirty" but I'm sure you knew that. I guess I was giving someone else the opportunity to make immature jabs at others. You're welcome.

C'mon guys, keep it civil! Dr Boost has some good points, maybe he's more sure of himself than you are comfy with, but that's no reason to call him smug or claim he doesn't know what he's talking about. Anyone here is going to take better mechanical condition of their cars than the average person, he's not talking about buying cars from "within the fold" so to speak, he's talking about the average schlub off of Craigslist. So yes, I think he's got a good point. I don't agree with him 100% but that's no reason to go off on him or call him crazy.

What Dr. said is another thing to keep in mind when looking at anything your are considering buying. A good rule of thumb that I have learned over the years is that if something looks like it has been taken care of in general the better shape it and other things that are owned by the same individual.

Would that stop me from buying a car that I REALLY want, not necessarily its just something to keep in mind.

I do the same as Dr. Boost. I've always considered it a version of audience analysis. Google the phone number of the seller, see what else they sell (or have sold). Got an email address? Google that too. Got a VIN? Google that. Google everything. I can tell a LOT about a seller by just seeing their house.

I used to be a shady curbstoner that sold POS cars to suckers on Craigslist, what Dr. Boost does it good practice against what I used to do.

BTW, that BMW has a Bible in the back seat (the black zippered book). Useful info to me.

(edit)

But that Bible was just contradicted by the multiple car sale ads I found attributed to that phone number. The guy is a curbstoner. I wouldn't take any "personal" information about the car seriously. I'd treat it the same as a car from a lot or an auction, with history unknown.

(edit) From an archived posting on mautofied I found one of his user accounts, knezevic9.

Here is his Cardomain pages: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2367949/1997-honda-accord

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2958978/1994-toyota-celica

The Hummer behind it is for sale as well.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jMl1Vp-t52cJ:www.cars104.com/forsale/citysearch.php%3Fstate%3Doh%26city%3D297%26q%3Dhummer%26page%3D1+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

I wouldn't touch the car.

Wow slefain, you do even more than I do. I have googled phone numbers and e-mails as well. Many times you do find some unsavory information. And yes, I treat every car for sale as if it's on a shady used car lot unless I have something to say otherwise.
This may sound like profiling, but I also try to buy cars from affluent ares. Not because the rich take better care, but usually a couple with a combined income of 120K a year that is selling a car (in my price range) is selling it because they don't need the money. $4K isn't much to them. But, a guy like me selling a $4K car is more than likely going to be replacing that car with another one, so he (or I) need more money out of that car. Thus I cannot come down much where as Therston Howell III can stand to take $3200 just to make the car go away.

dculberson wrote: Anyone here is going to take better mechanical condition of their cars than the average person, he's not talking about buying cars from "within the fold" so to speak, he's talking about the average schlub off of Craigslist.

Funny how true that is. I came very close to buying a car from SVRex. I've never actually met him, nor had I even seen the car. But I was ready to send him a money order, fly down there and drive it home.

dculberson wrote: So yes, I think he's got a good point. I don't agree with him 100% but that's no reason to go off on him or call him crazy.

Give me time buddy, I'll give you plenty of reasons to call me crazy

DrBoost wrote: Wow slefain, you do even more than I do. I have googled phone numbers and e-mails as well. Many times you do find some unsavory information. And yes, I treat every car for sale as if it's on a shady used car lot unless I have something to say otherwise. This may sound like profiling, but I also try to buy cars from affluent ares. Not because the rich take better care, but usually a couple with a combined income of 120K a year that is selling a car (in my price range) is selling it because they don't need the money. $4K isn't much to them. But, a guy like me selling a $4K car is more than likely going to be replacing that car with another one, so he (or I) need more money out of that car. Thus I cannot come down much where as Therston Howell III can stand to take $3200 just to make the car go away.

Heck yeah I buy cars from rich folks! And car parts. I love it when some guy in Sandy Springs buys new tires/wheels on Tire Rack and needs to just "get rid" of the old stock wheels (with tires). Same with cars. They don't need the money, but want to feel better about at least getting some money out of it.

I've had a truly horrible experience buying a car from someone on this forum about 5 years ago. This guy called me back to say that it was smoking because he put seafoam in it. Fortunately, I was able to resale the car to someone else without losing too much money, while being completely HONEST about the condition of the car. Needless to say, the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Too bad he wasn't honest, like the guy on here that filled in the rust holes on the Miata he was flipping with Great Stuff.

DrBoost wrote: Funny how true that is. I came very close to buying a car from SVRex. I've never actually met him, nor had I even seen the car. But I was ready to send him a money order, fly down there and drive it home.

You wouldn't have been disappointed. I just went through the same process with him. I was ready to do the fly and drive sight unseen because he and I have dealt with each other in the past and I trust his word. In the end he ended up delivering the car since he needed to come up here and it was as good or better than expected.

Now as to the general theme of the discussion. Like you I tend to buy low/sell high and usually do quite well. But I target the cars that look ratty. To be honest I dont much care how a car was treated before I got it, I go into every transaction assuming everything it on its last legs and I pay accordingly. But I also specialize in low dollar cars. I prefer to see a dirty car to a clean one. Cars can be cleaned up for sale to hide many prior sins. A dirty car is at least honest, it lets me know what to expect, it lets me know the owner didn't "get it ready" for sale which may have included attempts to hide flaws. It's quite opposite of my selling strategy of course, I can buy a car cheap because it looks tatty, and I can clean, do minor repairs and make it appear 100% better, and then I sell it to people who shop on appearances and get better money for it. Unlike some of the less reputable sellers being discussed though I don't use the clean up and "prettification" to hide flaws, I make sure the car goes out in good shape or has any existing issued clearly identified.

Not saying either way is better, obviously its working for both of us :)

plance1 wrote: You don't know what you're talking about for someone who's pretty smug... I give to you exhibit A, my 91 turbo brick, inside's a mess but I never fail to get the oil changed every 3k miles. Lesson for today: Don't be so quick to judge the maintenance of ones car by whether the carpet is dirty or if the shifter is "dorty" whatever the heck that means.

While true, he does have a point. Working in the service end of the field, it can be generally assumed that people with very clean cars will maintain them well and people who drive rolling pigsties will just want the bare minimum to keep their car rolling.

And, to be honest, I never really thought about it, but I'd been subconsciously making that connection for years. It's not a hard and fast rule, of course, but if you're looking to BUY a car, and you're spending enough money that you want to be picky, and there are 10 other cars on your list...

But the lack of maintenance thing also seems to be endemic to BMW ownership. Guy buys new BMW, guy doesn't maintain it, guy whines that it's going to be $3-4k to come up to date on maintenance for a vehicle that has been ignored for the last 90k miles.

Okay, sorry to dredge this one up again, but I have another car I'd appreciate your wisdom on. So what do you think about this one?

325ci

Seems to be right in the market money-wise - Not a bargain, not a rip - reasonable miles.... I'd call it a fair market deal - that could be dependent on condition up close. That being said - it seems like it should be cheaper - but I lean toward cleaning up the scruffy rather than paying a premium or even market price.

Looks nice to me. KBB says the private party value is $8840, so he's in the ballpark. I wouldn't mind having a 330, but this 325 looks to be in good shape - worthy of further inspection.

seems on the high end or reasonable, (NOT unreasonable though) but if it's certified and you can see any service history, that's worth the extra dough.

Okay, found another one. What do you guys think of this one??

Linkeee