$3880 good price for this?

[thatskarma]

This would be my first car, as a graduation gift. Is this a good price?
http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail/ph ... national#0

[hatedinthemind]

well its pretty clean

[Eikon]

I wouldn't pay that much for it. It's a nice clean 5 speed coupe, but not worth more than $3k tops. Door panel and steering wheel need to be replaced.. how are the brakes, clutch, belts, hoses, etc..

Seriously though, offer then $2800.. maybe settle at $3000... don't go higher.

[PEZi]

i agree with the $3000 deal... the problem is its at a stealership... so the price they are charging might be the one you need to pay

it looks very clean tho... underhood and all... just a s*** steering wheel is all i really see

ask for carfax

[MellowZ32]

a little too steep for that car!
check for rust.

CarFox?

[TroubleBound]

Ouch.
What is the blue book for it?
97k is pretty low and all but the steering wheel and door panel look bad as mentioned, plus the passenger window button is missing. The carpet could use some help too. That and it is doo doo brown interior.
$2800-$3000 like Pezi said is as high as i would go, almost 4k is ridonkulous.
Your parents are super nice for getting you a f*cking car for graduation so spend their money wisely.
Stealership+drift tax fee right there.

[93coupe]

Too much. Everyone has already told you that, though.

[Infinitiguy19]

What does the Nissan Service history say?

Any other receipts for work?

[HashiriyaS14]

As dealer prices go, not too bad.

If something's immediately wrong with it, at least you can hold them responsible. I'd say don't go any higher than $3500, but if you can get it for $3k, then obviously do that.

Seems like a very clean car.

[Loki]

Eh. The entire interior needs to be replaced. It's... brown. And is that a stock radio? Never seen one before!

BTW, if you buy it I'll mail you that missing button as a graduation present

[Otto.]

Definitely way too much. $3000 would still be kind of pricey but reasonable. Very clean looking car.

[skydragoness]

Definitely way too much. $3000 would still be kind of pricey but reasonable. Very clean looking car.

^

Although back in 2001, I bought my first S13 for $3700 .. but it had 82k and was near-perfect.

My current one I got with 98k and for $3k from a used-car dealer. 3k isn't outrageous IMO, but talk 'em down anyway (i.e. get a mechanic to inspect it to pick it apart on what it needs to negotiate a lower price).

It's fairly clean though.. and unmolested/ non-rusty 240's are worth paying a little extra for.

[Rex]

Too much.

If it's got new brakes, clutch, tires, shocks, springs, etc then it might be worth that kind of money, because someone has already dropped the $1200-$1500 into replacing all the stuff you're going to need to replace in the next year or so. Otherwise, expect to have close to $5k invested in it by next summer, want to sell it and get low ball offers of $2k or LESS.

[Bubba1]

Too much.

If it's got new brakes, clutch, tires, shocks, springs, etc then it might be worth that kind of money, because someone has already dropped the $1200-$1500 into replacing all the stuff you're going to need to replace in the next year or so. Otherwise, expect to have close to $5k invested in it by next summer, want to sell it and get low ball offers of $2k or LESS.

I agree, it's pricey, but realize dealerships start high to compensate for negotiation. It looks clean because the dealer very likely invested a few hours detailing it. The steering wheel indicates it was stored outside most of its life. I would recommend having a mechanic look it over to see what it needs. That could help you negotiate down the price. If the dealer balks letting you do that, walk away from it as he's hiding something.

[Mr1der]

check under the seats and in the glovebox to make sure the rabbit that chewed that steering wheel is no longer in the car.

and yeah...shoot for 3k on it.

[Urabus GodofTraction]

Damn, that's a $3,000 240SX?

I really need to start buying southern drifto cars and moving them north...

[Mr1der]

it's quite ridiculous isn't it?

if TS doesn't get, I'm sure some other kid with more money than brains will...

remember the old days when that car would fetch 2500 at best?

[PapaSmurf2k3]

^Yeah. I remember going through the local papers and Want advertisers and rarely seeing S13s for more than 2500. I bought mine for $1600.

[TroubleBound]

Yeah i paid $1100 hundred for my coupe after i learned my lesson getting raped for my hatch. (i paid $3k for the hatch)
Granted it had a few more miles and a little more wear, but have been driving it daily over a year now with nothing but basic maintenance.

[Onizuka]

There is always a better price, but since its being resold at a nissan dealer, it probably has some really good benefits to go along with it. I payed 2700 for my first 240 in 2001 and was totally satisfied even though it wasnt *perfect*, its still in nicer shape than most 240's I see out there.

There are killer deals out there if you look for long enough. I paid $200 for my hatchback, rust free and in excellent shape with a busted auto transmission.

[Jesda]

When a model ages, the resale values get crazy, anywhere from $400 to what someone calls a "beater" that's rust free and runs great but maybe has a dent, to $5000 for a heap of trash that some idiot thinks is collectible. Be patient and negotiate hard.

[Koshin]

3800 for an S13?!?!?1 hahaha

offer him 2500 for it....and thats still paying way to much

drift tax my friend.....drift tax

[numbnuts240]

3800 for an S13?!?!?1 hahaha

offer him 2500 for it....and thats still paying way to much

i'd never pay >2k for an s13 again.

[HashiriyaS14]

Damn, that's a $3,000 240SX?

I really need to start buying southern drifto cars and moving them north...

Honestly, at dealer prices, a MINT sub-100k S13 5spd of either body style is a $5-6k car in DC, maybe $4500 if you get lucky.

(this is all asking prices, of course)

Obviously not worth that private party, but there's probably only a $1k discount from those prices.

Condition is everything. Like with any older car, condition can double or triple the value when crappy examples are only worth $1-2k. A busted, rusted AE86 is a $1500 car, but at least on the East Coast, a mint low-mile GTS in original shape can be expensive, $5-6k.

The demand is such for these cars to have pricing characteristics not dissimilar to "legitimate" collector cars like, say, a 928. A neglected beat-up 928 is worth what, a couple grand? What's a mint one worth, $10-15k? Baseline is lower for the S13 and AE86, but the effective "condition multiplier" is the same. This is very unlike an Olds 88 from the early 90's or something, wherein a really nice one is probably only $500-1000 more than a beat up one. The S13/AE86 didn't used to be in this category, but "drift demand" has put them there, and they'll be there forever.

If you think about what it costs (at shop prices) to take a POS S13 and turn it into a NICE S13, the dealer markup doesn't look unreasonable. Granted, for the purposes of a drift car, it doesn't really make sense to buy a super-nice original, but some people want to do it anyway and so they can expect to pay a premium for that.

Obviously, the Northeast has the highest pricing for all this stuff. We generally had the fewest of these cars to begin with (people buy fewer FR cars where it snows), and a higher attrition rate (rust), and so there IS real arbitrage between CA and FL pricing and DC/NY/BOS pricing on a lot of these cars. I've shipped a couple over the years just to resell, although it's unusual that the spread is high enough to give you any sort of decent margin above your shipping costs unless you're shipping 8 at a time on a car carrier.


EDIT: Did Onizuka just post?!?!

[Onizuka]

Sure did :P
I even went to nicofest at carlisle.

Excellent post by the way.