centralcoaster33 wrote:That car is very rusty and 4K is a lot to ask for such a rusty old car. I think you would not be meeting your goal of a "decent, stock S13 hatch for around $2k-$3k" if you bought this car. How long is a looooong time shopping? I'd expect 6 months to a year of shopping around for what you want. I think you have a good, reasonable goal and should stick to that. Maybe post a WTB on Craigslist (and here in our classifieds) with your goal description in it. When you do find one worth investigating, be sure to inspect more than the looks of a clean interior and nice exterior... bring a mechanic or bring the car to a mechanic if you aren't qualified/ experienced. It will save you money and headache.
PS - don't be desperate in a used car transaction.
PPS - Good luck with your shopping. I hope you get to your goal!
Thanks for the reassurement man! And looong time as in about the time you described. I've even been looking when I don't have money, atm I don't even have it. I'm just waiting for the right deal to spring up and then either try to borrow money from my dad or go to the bank and get a loan. But literally I have maybe found 2 great deals. I found one when I first started looking, it was a silver 240sx on steelies for $1,800. Straight body, I don't think there was much rust (can't remember, I just know I really wanted it lol), completely stock I think and ran great apparently. It looked very basic and stock, but it was really clean. That was the best deal I have found. Now all I find is complete beaters for $3,000+. I think it's ridiculous. Or someone else's project that they didn't finish because they lost interest / can't afford it / don't have time. Which I feel like some of them it's because they either messed something up or don't know how to put it back together lol. This is the cleanest one I have found for a while, except it has
the rust.
Also, I know I shouldn't be desperate in any kind of trade / deal. I've been told not to be afraid to walk away, accept that might not work in my favor with 240's since someone will probably buy it just cause. But yeah, I would hold my ground and not let things slide. And I have a friend that I think is a mechanic, his grandpa is a mechanic and he works for him so I'm assuming he would know something. I'm not experienced, and I'm not a mechanic but I would assume I would know the things to watch out for. Rust just kind of throws me off because it might be repairable, but it might have affected more than just the surface aswell. Which worries me.
I'd have to bring a friend with me anyways, since I don't know how to drive manual lmao
. Also because some people are shady, so I would like to have someone else with me in general. I plan on learning a lot with this car, my plans are to learn manual, and learn to drift a little bit. I'm not going to missile it or track it, just every once in a while tear up a parking lot or maybe go to a small event later on. Eventually I want to buy a separate engine and take things off, probably follow a pictorial and make myself a chart of things I took off, then rebuild it completely. Swap that in, drive it for a while to break it in, and then turbo it. I might do a crazier swap later, like a 1JZ/2JZ, but for now I'll stick with the KA. I feel like it's a lot better for someone that doesn't have any experience yet, and it's
meant to be in the car, so it has relative issues that are easier found. Plus I don't have to worry all that much about wiring, I'll probably delete the emissions things (might keep the cat) and just plug things back in. I've read that you don't really need to upgrade the ECU or anything unless you're looking for 400+ HP but really I would be fine around 300HP. I'd be dailying it anyways, so there's no need for crazy horsepower yet. I've researched about rebuilding, a lot, and I feel somewhat comfortable with that. Wiring would still worry me tho, trying to avoid much wiring related things at first as I can. I'd just rather "mastering" the KA first tbh, I think that's a smarter move for me.
And yeah I do have a WTB post on here, no one has replied yet tho. The classified's seem to really only have expensive, already built, clean 240's for $8,000+. Never see too many around my price range too often. You can check it out if you want to and let me know if it's setup well. I listed it into categories like my budget, things I need, things I don't care about, and things that are a deal-breaker. But you do think $3,000 is reasonable tho? I don't know if people are trying to sell crap for overpriced amounts, or if 240's really just are like that. I've seen beater's go for the same amount as decent looking ones, but there's a difference between a 240 that's been on for a day and one that has been on for 3 weeks lol. Something must be fishy with that 3 week one, because every clean one I've seen sell's within a couple days. That silver one I mentioned was gone within 12 hours. The other one I saw, which was white I think and decently clean, was gone within about a week. People know they have to act fast, I have an app on my phone that I have searched bookmarked and they have a number next to them if new ads have been added. It only allows me to add 5 cities for each search, so I have every city in my state listed under different bookmarks
. Still works tho haha, it's nice to know if there's new listings too.
BTW, sorry for this long a** post lol. Didn't realize how much I was typing!
