I hate used car shopping...

[nametakennow]

I looked at 2 96' 240 LEs (I know, but I'm desperate, no one has a 5spd) today. One needed paint, a bit of ding-pullage, new brakes, new wheels (rusted!), glue on an interior piece that came up with my dad's hand (passenger window-control area), and the CEL was on. The second needed paint, and had a f-ing FLAT TIRE, so we couldn't drive it. I hate small-time auto brokers... A member has emailed me about a 95' SE he's selling, but its auto, and my dad won't mess with transmission swaps, I'm going to try to convince him, but I somewhat doubt its going to work. There are other cars I've looked at, that's just today's story. That's my vent for the day, thank you.

[Blackbob]

Just go old school and buy a Z !!!!

~BB~

[nametakennow]

Insurance on a Z would totally suck (I'm 16). And to add to my troubles (there's some other ones), I'm getting my 3rd cold sore in as many months, and its gonna be a bad one. I'm pissed...

[I30T]

Autotrader.com owns. just make sure to run a carfax.

[BadMojo]

I'd buy from a private party before a dealer. You'll get a better deal, and IMO it will be less likely that you'll be ripped off.

If you're serious about a specific car, see if you can convince the owner to let a mechanic check it out before you buy it (at your expense, of course).

[MasterMan]

cold sores are a form of herpies...

yes buy from private owners, most of the time u will get a better deal.. TAKE your time on shopping for a car.. dont just buy the first thing u see.. 2 of my friends have bought POS's cuz they dont wait they just look it over and buy it.. they also didnt wait for me to look over the car.. and now they are unhappy and have to pay alot of money for repairs.. i hate to say it but i told them....

[y3llows14]

Hey dude.....my friend has a 95 240sx Se 5 speed up for sale for only $2500. Its black, has a dent on one fender, and the interior trim peices need to be fix or replace. He is in Atl too.

[nametakennow]

What's the mileage? 2500$ is like.. pocket change when it comes to cars. I know cold sores are a form of herpes, thank you, but no, I don't have herpes. I know to buy from a private party first, and I used autotrader to find these two cars. I know to drive it first, that's obvious. I'm not a stupid shopper, I just can't find s-t. Maybe you guys will see something I don't... run a search on Autotrader using the area code 30215 and 100 mile search (hell, making it 200 or 300 miles adds only one car anyway) radius, max price 8000$, and see what you get, most of the cars are auto. I wish I lived in Cali...

[y3llows14]

I think the car has like 118k miles on it. Thats what he told me, I dont remeber for sure.

[Cold_Zero]

There are four in the paper here in Indy. If you are interested let me know.bud

[nametakennow]

Indianapolis= far away, send me the info anyway. [email protected] or AIM=nametakennow, thanks!118k miles is a bit high for my liking...

[Bubba1]

I say take your time, you'll find the right one. Desperation is not a good idea for car buying. A few pieces of advice on buying from a private party. Original owner cars are the best, and there are plenty out there. You'll get a maintenance history of the car, and chances are it's been maintained better. Fewer surprises, but you may end up paying a little more. It's worth the extra cash. I'm not selling anything so I have nothing to gain here. But beware of kid owned 240's, especially ones with stick shifts. If you read some of these threads, you'll see that kid owned 240's usually get driven harder than non-kid owned. (drifting, drag racing. learning to drive, etc) Also Wings = kids = hard life. Before I get flamed by winged, kid-owned 240sx's that are immaculate, let me point out immaculate, well-treated winged kid-owned 240sx's are a minority. They certainly exist, but there aren't many of them.

Enjoy your search.

[nametakennow]

Problem is that I need a car before school starts if at all possible, which isn't very long. I'm looking my a-- off, I check autotrader daily, and the paper on Saturdays (the only day where they have every car people ask to be listed). I even check cars.com and other sites pretty often. There's a white (I don't like white cars, but you take what you can get) 97' SE with 94k miles in the area, but I'm looking to find something lower mileage if I can. I also emailed a small broker-type deal that's the next town over about a 95' SE they have, and asked about the mileage (unlisted), I'm hoping that it was a person desperate for cash (the broker is a credit place), and the company knows nothing about the car (listed as "SE series") cause they're selling it for only 4000$ (edit: make that 3450$), maybe I'll get lucky soon. I really hope to have a car by next weekend. I posted this thread mostly out of general frustration with shopping for a car because I'm tired of it, I keep getting the aforementioned cold sores, and this summer has been overall stressful, I just want something to go right. Anyone east of... Texas (including Texas itself), who happens to be browsing through their local paper one day, if you see an S14 5spd with pretty low miles, email or IM me. I really like the 240 and this is by far the best group of enthusiast I've seen, so I'd like to stay here if I can. Thanks everybody.

[I30T]

alright, so 8000 is your max? heres what i found.

96 5spd, $8500

97 5 spd, 94k miles, $7995

This one looks *****in, but i dont know about a new engine. You'd have to go see it.

There arent many details here, but worth a look.

and here is the whole search result. It came up with a lot, and it should be near you somewhere. let us know if any of these work out.

Complete Autotrader.com search result

good luck.

[nametakennow]

I mentioned the 97' in the post above that one. The one with few details is sold, the guy's being a d-k and not pulling the add, I may look into the one for 8500$, but I doubt I can pull it down to the 8000$ (that's actually above the 7500$ max, I just say $8000 cause usually you can work it down, but I might be able to work my dad into it). Thanks man.

[I30T]

no problem.

you probably can work it down. i got mine off autotrader, and he wanted 11500 originally, i got it for 10.

[nametakennow]

Well, then maybe I can get it close to the 7500$ mark. 48k is really low, that'd be nice. My dad won't like the idea of red(insurance, arg!), but at that mileage, who cares? Autotrader really is the b----!

[I am Technoman]

Well, then maybe I can get it close to the 7500$ mark. 48k is really low, that'd be nice. My dad won't like the idea of red(insurance, arg!), but at that mileage, who cares? Autotrader really is the b----!

It is illegal for any insurance co to charge more money because a car is red. Don’t believe that story!

[TurboKA37]

boy! am i glad i just ran into my car while just shopping for multiple models;makes. i didnt even kno much about 240s before i bought mine, and im glad i didnt otherwise i think i would gone crazy like alotta the ppl on these boards trying to search for one. good luck on ur search.

[Snoboarder793]

like me. i found a couple but my dad doesnt want to drive 40 miles its nice to a 96 with som nice rims on it with 78k miles for about 9k a bit over price but i bet i could talk him down to about 7,500. theres another one near me but it has a gay body kit and 101k miles for 5,500.

[Altiman94]

The owner of my '89 hatch wanted 2775 and I got him down to 1600, and he just replaced the waterpump, tires, and air conditioner.

[Altiman94]

Take your time, I looked for two months before I found mine

[nametakennow]

I've been looking off and on for over a year, but when I found some (which, even up to May I was finding some with relative ease), my dad was like "Well, maybe it'll be for sale in July." Which, while a sensible thought to not buy a car we won't use much if at all for a while, was still frustrating. There's enough (3, though one car is very questionable) possibilities that I should have a 240 within a week, hopefully the one I30T pointed out, but we'll see. And to finish my time thought, I need a car, if at all possible, by the 6th, so... Oh, and I hate trying to get appointments for license tests, I called 2 and a half weeks ago and found out the 2 closest places are full til the 13th of Aug, and was told to go outside metro Atl if I need it sooner (which I do), so I tell my parents, and they don't bother to find what location suits them until Saturday (as in, 2 days ago), and we couldn't call (weekend) til today, and I have an appointment for the 7th, but I need a license to get a parking permit for school, and the day I get my parking permit is the 6th (which is why I need a car then too). Argh, cars and licenses are a b----!

[op.tic]

dude i hear ya man.. ive been looking for a 240 for like 2 years nowand school starts at the end of aug and i dont want to be seen in the pos i drive now, plus it has too many problems that i dont want to deal with

good luck finding one tho, i search car sale sites and papers daily too

[nametakennow]

like me. i found a couple but my dad doesnt want to drive 40 miles

Dude, that sucks. My dad and I have driven over 40 miles to look at a car a couple of times already. It seems my mom realizes the urgency, she doesn't really car how far away it is, yay! That, and she's going to call and find out where in GA we can get my license on Wednesday, or sometime a lot sooner than the 7th for sure. This is typical, my dad takes his time- drove his truck with a horrible noise til the fan-belt broke, then had to drive a few miles at a time to get home from work, and now the truck's speedo doesn't do anything until you hit 25, then jumps and works correctly, on top of having his brake light permanently (til he gets it fixed) on, even though there's nothing wrong with the brakes - so I should have expected that he will continue to fart around on this finding a car deal. Whatever, things are looking up, so...

[Snoboarder793]

yea i think my dad will realy start lookin at cars with me around next week cuz im gettin my liscence pretty soon.

[nametakennow]

I've been eligible for mine for, well, now its my 5th day (eastern time). My dad only really got serious like the week of my birthday, and he's slacked off lately with it, but mom's getting urgent, which means something will get done, though it may not be the best thing...

[Snoboarder793]

where do u live? in PA we have to wait 6 months after our 16th b-day to get our liscence and thats after 50 hours of driving with sum1 over 21. its now about 6 months after my b-day and school starts in a couple weeks so i will probly have a car b4 school so i can drive. he wants me to get a new car though but he doesnt want to spend more then 8k wtf!?

[nametakennow]

Ha! In GA we have to have our permit for a year and a day before we get our license, and 40hrs with someone over 21, +6 hrs night driving, 20hrs with driver's ed, but still need 6 at night. Parents have to sign something that says that you did all the required time (I have over 100 hours and driver's ed and defensive driving, so I think I'm pretty prepared). We get our permit at 15, and I got mine 8 days after my bday, so I had to wait til the 25th to be "eligible" for my license. We can't have passengers for 6 months, and then "only" 3 til we're 18 (woo! like I'd have 3 people in my car!), plus we can't be on the road at 12-6am, no exceptions, makes the drive to swim practice hell. At 18 we get a full license.

[Snoboarder793]

i can get my senior liscence at 17 sucker. if u take drivers ed in PA u can get ur full liscence when u turn 17 so you can drive late and everything!