So my friend has been looking for a black on black, 6-speed, low miles TA for a few weeks now. He came across this one in Indianapolis, IN.

http://www.autotrader.com/dealers/dd...aler_id=608982

Its a 02 TA with 40K miles, they wanted $17K. He ran the car-fax and it was a one owner car from Florida, with no other problems listed. The dealer report said it didnt have anything fixed under warranty except a window motor. My friend called the dealer. It was a certified used car with a warranty. The dealer said MANY people were looking at it and asked my friend for a deposit. My friend put down a refundable $200 deposit.

It looked like a nice car, so myself, the guy looking at the car, and another friend went down there to check it out. We drove down to Indianapolis (took almost 4 hours)

My first impression of the car was that it was the exterior was kinda beat up. I opened the door expecting a emaculate 40K miles interior and I was disgusted. I looked under the car expecting a nice rust free Florida underbody, nope. **** looked more rusted than a average car that spend its whole life in the midwest. Went on to the engine. Didnt visually see anything wrong except some bults rusted and coolant inside the oil cap. At this point we wernt interested in the car anymore because of the condition but my friend took it for a test drive anyway. It drove ok, but there was noises constantly and the car didnt drive strait. He thinks it could be the rear end or drive-shift.

Bad stuff I found about this supposedly 40K mile TA.

Scratches everywhere
a few dents
Panel fading
body panels repainted
car basically needed a paintjob
two pontiac racing stickers on the side
moisture in turn signal lights
lots of rust underneath
(im thinking it could have been a flood car)
Interior dirty
Airbag sticking up
shifter warn
seats ripped
both seatbelt holders on headrest broke
both door panels were cracked
smelled like smoke.
car idled weird
smelled like coolant
didnt drive strait
constant noise while driving
coolant under oil cap
etc etc

This car defiantly didnt look or drive like a 40K mile F-body. Looked like it was a city car, beat to **** with like 150K on it.

Good things:

bone stock
new tires
rims were in great condition

We told the dealer we were not interested as this car because it in no way looked like it had 40K miles on it. He assured us this was a certified GM used car with 40K miles. I then told him the last reported milage on the carfax was 600 miles, whats to say the owner didnt drive this 150K and swap in a low mile gauge cluster, and trade it in? I forgot what he said, but he was OWNED, and went off to ask the mechanic why the car was making noise while driving. He then came back and said get this "It wasnt going strait because the tire pressure was off and the noise was the speedometer cable." WTF??? My friend offered him $8500, and he said how bout I knock off $1500 from the price of 17K. HAHA, we left and drove back 4 hours to chicago disappointed. If they plan to get $16-17K for this car they better sell it online so the buyer doesent see it up close or drive it.