D Walker

iTrader: (1)

EA has a good point, but I am going to offer a somewhat different approach.
IMHO you have two options- you can either pay the money and take your chances, or you can have the car checked out by someone knowledgable and use that information to determine how much the car is worth to you.
My guess would be that the owner knows, or at least thinks he knows, why the car will not start. Pretty much ever seller I have ever come across trying to offload a car for some reason gives $300 as the price a "mechanic" said it would cost to fix whatever was wrong with the car. Just an oddity
Anywho, if he knows why the car wont start or thinks he does then he is unlikely to budge much off his price. I would offer him $1000 cash money and see if he takes it, and if he refuses then you can always come back and negotiate around the higher figure if you feel its worth it.

Your other option is to have someone who knows what they are looking at perform a pre-buy inspection. We perform them quite often and they usually run $120 or so, but obviously the more time is spent the more $$ it cost. In the Porsche world you would be considered insane to buy a car without a pre-buy, even from a reputable dealer let alone off the side of the road. Fixing a T2 can quickly get into high prices as EA pointed out, so a little money spent up front so you have a really good idea what needs done is a lot of negotiating power on the sale table and good information you can use to figure out where to go with the car. We have been performing these pre-buy inspections a lot more often on Evo. STI, and similar cars, especially turbocharged cars or cars that might have been modded and put back to stock, because while the purchase price can be a bargain, unexpected repairs can drain the bank quickly.

love_my_Fc

i say offer him 1500 cash. if he says no just forget it and wait for another nice one. before i purchased my car i almost bought a del sol because it looked like a good deal, but before i left i checked craigslist one more time and spoted a perfect rx7. i did check the del sol out but if i didn't have that rx7 in the back of my mind i would have taken it. i'm glad i got the rx7. patients is a virtue (something like that lol)

vlad1990

Thanks everyone im not gonna get the car. i will make him an offer but i'm not gonna go over 800$ i don't think hes gonna sell the car. now that the car is not running so i guess all i can do now is wait and see what he's gonna do..

Thanks for all the help and info everyone!!
If i end up buy the car i will be here every day asking more questions so be ready to help me hahah..

THANKS!!

Vlad