trob787

Hey all,

I'm back looking for some more help pricing for a birdie. I'm looking at a 98 formula hardtop that hasn't been driven since December '15. The owner wants $1800 obo and it has ~140k miles. At that price that's the cost of the ls1 alone assuming its good. It starts according to owner when he tried today. No major repairs have been done since the owner acquired it which means it might need replacements soon considering the mileage? Maintenance mentioned included changing serp belt a few times, replaced a headlight motor and that's about it. AC leaks. Interior is good only 1 small dash crack.

I've figured a few hundred(?) to flush and replace all the fluids, 800-1k to fix the AC if I want to, probably 500-1k in tires if the old ones are bad and I think they are, plus 500-1k to ship it. Already ~3k+ I might be already talking myself out of this one.

Am I crazy to jump into a car like this when I have up to ~7k that I would spend on a 4th gen v8 bird, preferably t/a. There are a couple near me in that range but this is sooo cheap. Is this a deal or a disaster in the making? I'm guessing the owner priced out of kbb because it is spot on.

For me to see this car requires a 5 hour bus/train/drive which is something I would do if the car is worth it. I would like to hear some thoughts and opinions!

Db123formula

I would use the $7k and get something nicer. Unless it is clean (relatively rust free) and the owner kept every maintenance record. 140k miles is not alot for the age of the car but I think you're in for an undertaking.

Firebrian

Those long distance, too good to be true deals don't work out very often. There's always the risk that you end up restoring a lot more of this car than you anticipate. And even then, you'll still have more 140K mile parts that don't fail right away and could get you down the road in a few years. There are some guys on the forum that do very well buying high mileage - low cost LS1's. And undoubtedly they do all their own work. For the other 75-90% of us, these will be a struggle.

In my mind it's usually a better idea to find a much lower mileage car, with clean owner and maintenance history for your projected $7K. When I sold my 2 owner 1998 Z28 A4 with 115K miles back in 2009 for $3K I figured it needed a min of suspension, brake, exhaust (?) and AC parts - to the tune of another $1.5K-$2K into it. That was a very clean car too w/o any paint or interior issues. For $7K you could have found a 60K mile car just as clean or even cleaner. While there's no guarantee you don't get surprised on a nicer $7K dollar car, surprises tend to show up a lot more on the higher mileage and neglected cars. Sitting since Dec 2015 is certainly somewhat neglected. Even if you spend $5K to spruce this $2K mile car up....you still have a 140K mile car. What about suspension, steering, exhaust, electrical, window and seat motors, rear axles-pinion-differential, engine/trans? No one has a crystal ball. Toss in a 5 hr road trip to see the vehicle and then the cost/risk to transport or drive it back....I'd vote no. Have you seen photos? My gut feel says that when you get there, it will be further gone than you were told.

My longest boondoggle ever (7 hours) was to see a perfectly "restored" 1968 GTX convertible in Canada. Imagine my surprise when every body panel including hood and deck lid had very wavy paint. Liquid sandpaper is what I would have called the paint job on the floors. A 5th grade shop class would have done better. The photos I saw before the trip were actually decent. How did I know the guy was a shyster? The other car in his garage was a well restored 1965 Max Wedge with no details left untouched. Nice #2 car. His GTX resto was low end junk that needed to be redone. That 7 hour drive back was excruciating.

trob787

Pretty much what I figured I would hear. Thanks for the answers guys! I'll hold out for a nice clean one. Patience will pay off. This won't be the last you hear from me!