wph351

iTrader: (3)

Yep it's sad for sure. I'm going to back off of it, if the owners come to me then I'll negotiate a more reasonable price. Thats a sweet ride you have there. Any tips to keep the red looking good?

ps. Love the gen 1 lightning photo bomb in your picture. I have a low mileage white 95 myself.

NC01TA

For me, the car has been in the garage since day 1. It wasn't even outside at the dealership, but displayed in the showroom. Outside of vacations and road trips the car was never outside at night either. I've used Mother's 100% Carnauba Wax most of the time with an occasional coating of Griot's wax that my neighbor gave me as a gift. Not too much difference between the two except price.

wph351

iTrader: (3)

The owners called me out of the blue today. Offered the car for 7500. I think I'm going to pounce.

Firebrian

Good deal. Leaving you room for paint, sail panel, tires, and other things. I'd be tempted to do the bare minimum (fluids, safety items) for a year before deciding on the next course of action. And you'll be able to scope out what makes the most sense for your desired use.

Either other people low balled them ($5K-$7K) or they realized what it was really worth. $7500 might be a KBB trade-in, fair condition value.

wph351

iTrader: (3)

You are right on point. A local dealership offered 7k on trade in. From what I understand, they didn't like the salesman so they rejected the offer. I'm going to grab the car and most likely make it my daily. I'll post up pics when I get it.

Firebrian

You ought to "thank" the dealer down the road. KBB dealer trade in with those miles in "fair" condition (the lowest choice and the bottom 18% of all 17K mile cars) was $10K-$12K. In excellent condition it would have been up to $14.5K trade in.

At the $7K "offer" that dealer imo was going to realize $10K-$12K when flipping that car. The fact that KBB low ***** these cars quite a bit with low miles worked in your favor. And the manual trans being worth an extra $1000-$1500 is not even factored into KBB pricing above. What a fun DD this is going to be for you. Even when you tire of it.....at any point under 100K miles....it's still gonna be worth at least $7500. 1 owner - documentated - and red M6 are nice pluses. Hopefully, the treated the mechanicals properly. And with luck, you can bring back that paint back to respectability w/o a repaint. I always prefer original paint cars.

NC01TA

It just shows it never hurts to make an offer.
Best of luck with the purchase. Enjoy it when you're done, and post some pics even if months down the road. We'll all probably still be here.

wph351

iTrader: (3)

Agree on all points. I figure I can drive this to and from work (17 miles round trip) for a decade and probably get my money back out of it.

A repaint is out of the question. Its cost prohibitive, plus i dont like anyone fiddling with my vehicles. I'll do my best sprucing up what's there.

wph351

iTrader: (3)

Actually they called me and offered it up! That was my only chance was to wait it out and let them come to me. I wasn't expecting to hear anything. My heart jumped into my throat when I played the voice mail.
I'll post up pics of it as soon as it's home, before I do anything to the paint. Within the next week. Maybe You guys may have pointers for me.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Good deal. Sounds like you got the "right price" to make it worth while. You're absolutely correct about letting them come to you; you really can't badger someone into seeing reality on price, you have to let them figure it out for themselves and eventually come back to a fair offer if they ever get serious about selling the car. Well handled, and congrats on the purchase.

wph351

iTrader: (3)

Yep, sometimes things just have to play out on there own.

wph351

iTrader: (3)

Made the trip to get a second look at the car tonight.
There was a slight rain/drizzle during the first look, which had me uncomfortable with my mental image of the car. Tonight was clear and sunny.

Basically the car is what I thought it was. I did see three trouble areas that I missed the first time...

1.The sail panel has major clear coat/base coat burn thru on both sides of the bend on the drivers side. Either that spot was wet when I first saw the car, or somebody did bad things trying to make it shine in between my visits.
2. There is a crack in the drivers door panel. Don't know how I missed it the first time, but i did. On the bright side I could find no other flaw anywhere in the interior until........
3. Test drove the car this time. BOTH sun visors fell from the ceiling during the ride. The mounts stayed but the guts came out. The owners were legitimately shocked by that. Gave me some funny looks. Lol.

Aside from the sail panel burn, the car will clean up into a 15 footer. And it drives AS NEW. Not a shimmy, not a rattle...nothing. Brakes are strong and smooth. Clutch grabs firmly and immediately. Tires are good.

We ended up shaking hands at 7k. I'm overjoyed!

Jason E

Great deal...congrats. I just picked up my 38k mile 99 WS6 A4 3 weeks ago for $10,500, and I knew I got a great deal. You stole that one for that price! Mine will be a part-time DD I'll be able to likely sell years from now with 100k for close to what I paid for it!

wph351

iTrader: (3)

YES my dude! It's muscle car heaven when you can break even or close to it AND enjoy a car!

wph351

iTrader: (3)

Well here she is. Farm fresh! I'll get better pics soon showing the trouble spots.

Jason E

That's the idea! These cars are trending up, not down...so I fully expect the car will never be worth less than I paid for it!

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Can't say that I've seen the same on average; other than the occasional odd-ball sale up or down, they've been pretty steady for the last few years from what I've seen.

There will always be a market for the most desirable trim levels with the most desirable options and lowest miles but, IMO, the mid-mileage examples that are still in use as regular drivers won't likely hold or gain value the same over the foreseeable term as they reach higher mileage. Too many of these were tucked away with ultra low mileage for anything in the upper 5/lower 6-figure mileage range to appeal to most collectors. C5s have continued to get more affordable, and IMO this will put a cap on prices for the mid-grade/driver 4th gens, leaving only the nicest and most sought after examples to grow in value with the collectors (pretty similar to what we've seen with 3rd gens and early 4th gens vs. C4s.)

Regional differences may apply, but I think your purchase price of $10.5k was close to par for a '99 A4 WS6 at that mileage. Here's some data on a recent comparable sale, '98 A4 WS6 with 48k miles:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/northwest...l#post19641165

I remember this member's car being listed for sale for quite some time, it was originally listed for around $10k but in the above link he confirms a sale price of $8000. I think it could have done better in another region perhaps, probably selling for around the initial asking price but not massively more.

I certainly wouldn't count on getting close (meaning, to me, 90% or more) to $10.5k for a car with such specs at ~100k miles. The '98-'00 cars (and especially the '98-'99 cars since Ebony interior wasn't yet an option) just don't bring as much money as an '01+, and the A4 also has less demand/value. An early LS1 F-body would have to be something particularly special to get near or over 5-figures with an auto trans and 100k miles.

Jason E

F bodies seem to sell for significantly more down here in FL...more supply, but more demand also. As I said in another thread, I got $8k for a 97 M6 30th Z28 with 84k I owned for 15 years. Very clean car. I had doubters all over FB forums saying I'd never get that for an LT1 with those miles...yet I did, quickly, from the first person that looked at it.

I think with mine being a red WS6, it'll always have good appeal to it, A4 or not. I routinely see people paying $8-10k real money for 100k+ mile WS6s...yes, more are M6 than A4s...but still, my mileage is far less. Frankly, I didn't buy the car to flip it...I wanted something with more miles than my SS, in a little less perfect shape, so I could enjoy it regularly without being neurotic. I can easily see having this car 10 years from now, and still enjoying it big time. By that time, just like with 3rd gens, the daily drivers will be gone and buried, and the demand and prices will be on the rise.

I politely disagree with you about C4s holding 3rd gen values down...a clean IROC or GTA sells for MORE than a comparable C4. I agree higher mileage 4th gens won't be the first choice for collectors....but when all the DD grade 4th gens are dead or cut up (it pains me to see how many people are parting whole, clean title 4th gens currently versus selling them!!!), if someone doesn't want to pay $15k+ to enjoy a 4th gen, I think there will still be a market for a clean, $10-12k, 100k mile WS6/SS.

Time will tell....

Firebrian

Darn WPH351, that's a heckuva nice red WS6 for being stored outside. The defects that you mention don't show in those photos. Looks to be a solid 8 on the paint, even if sail panel is worn/blistered a bit. For $7K you get the world's most killer driver. And in your case, at 100K miles, it would still probably be worth $7K - 8 to 10 years from now. Amazing find and deal. One of the best I've seen go through here the past 5 years. The only comparable one was probably the 1999 red Firehawk A4 with 38K miles that the guy got for $9,000. Yours seems a much better deal. Worth $10K-$12K all day long imo...and possibly more.

Maybe RPMWS6 can answer this. The earlier Camaro's come with black sail panels and side mirrors. Your WS6 is obviously body color all around. Is that the way they all came? It looks "right" to me so I'm gonna say yes. I've test driven 4 LS1 Firebirds and I do think they were all body color too....though 2 were black cars, lol.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

By "30th", I assume this was a Z4C anniversary package car? If so, that factor, plus being an M6, makes that price seem quite realistic to me if the car was really that clean. That is perhaps the most desirable version of any LT1 Z28, even more so than an early pace car. So if prices are high in your area, that sale certainly makes sense. But if it was a simple garden variety (non-Z4C) M6 LT1 Z28 here in the Great Lakes region, you might still be waiting to get that sold for $8k with those miles.

The '98 WS6 I linked above was bright red, dark gray interior, A4 and very clean with 48k miles. It was an $8k sale and he seemed to have trouble getting even that. I think $10k would have been doable in my region though. And ~$10k is also consistent with what you paid for yours. The A4 cars just don't get the same love as the M6s (for the record I'm an A4 lover myself, but I'm vastly in the minority...most are just "settling" when picking the auto it seems), and the same is also true for the early year examples.

At 100k miles, you typically aren't getting $10k and up for an early WS6 with an auto unless it's something particularly special (such as a highly modified car that was bought by someone looking for that exact sort of setup, or maybe a super rare color that someone just happens to be hunting for at the time, etc.)

I understand that completely, in fact I'm looking for another for this same purpose as well. My '98 is on permanent garage queen duty therefore rarely allowed outside. My '02 used to fill this purpose, but now that it's gone I really miss having a second one that I can actually drive.

We can agree to disagree here. Of course, as stated above, if you're speaking about top tier 3rd gens (most desirable options/trim levels/etc.) with the lowest miles generally available, then C4 prices have little effect since the market for those cars cannot be satisfied by a Corvette. On the other hand, the typical shopper who would buy a higher mileage (but still clean/mid-grade condition) fun driver from that era isn't going to often pay more for an F-body vs. Corvette....and such is consistent with the prices I've seen locally and the sales of which I have knowledge. And I see the same happening with C5 vs. late 4th gen as well.

Not sure how far into the future we're looking here, eventually general inflation may play a role across the board, but I think it's doubtful that stock, 100k mile early LS1 SS/WS6 cars with an auto trans and common colors will be selling for $10-12k (in current dollars) with any regularity in the foreseeable future.

Yes, the body colored treatment is definitely correct for the OP's car. Other than a CETA, the LS1 Trans Ams came with body colored mirrors and roof panels.