would you buy this Vert?

[twistedsymphony]

I've got an S14 and I'm buying an Isuzu for the winter months (I'm in NH) but over the last 6 months or so I've been itching to buy a cheap vert just to play around with.

something that can get hand-me-down parts from my S14 and that I can take cruising down the beach on cool summer nights. I'm not looking for a performance car (that's what the S14 is for) or some crazy show car, just something cheap and fun.

OK...

so a guy near me bought a vert with a junk motor to Daily Drive (poor choice for a DD but who am I to judge) he didn't end up doing anything with it so now he's selling it (without a motor) the body looks mint, the engine bay looks mint the top and interior look mint as well, it's got a little bubbling on one of the front fenders and a small tear on the rear window... He wanted a grand for it since thats what he bought it for. (sounds good to me)

I run a car fax and found out that the car was TOTALED back in 1999 about 100K miles ago (it's got 155K miles on it now).

I was planning on picking this up and throwing in the motor from my S14 in it since I'm doing a swap with that... but now I'm not sure...

pictures:http://i168.photobucket.com/al...0.jpgh ... al...9.jpg

the engine bay before the dead engine was pulled: http://i168.photobucket.com/al...6.jpg

I usually never buy cars with that high of miles but for $1000 and something that looked as nice as it did I figured it was ok. But I'm a fickle person and I usually keep my eye on the resale value of things before I buy them, incase I change my mind 6 months later and want to get rid of it.

any way... would you buy this car? knowing it was salvaged (and being 4 owners removed from when it was "restored") what would you do in my situation?

[Eikon]

The body is straight and clean. That's not easy to find anymore. Looks to be straight at least after having been wrecked years ago.

If the interior is still in decent shape, and the top is in good shape works fine, then $1k is a pretty good deal. Do you know where the accident was? Front end or side or rear??

I would check the underneath to see what shape the bushings and tie rod ends and brakes and tires and all that stuff is in. You could spend another $1k just replacing maintenance stuff.

If all that checks out.. buy the car.

You could swap in an SR for $3k and have at least a $5k car right away.

[twistedsymphony]

it's got brand new megan tensions rods that the current owner just installed, as for the brakes, those dont matter because I've got a 300zx brake swap ready to go on my S14 so this could get the hand me downs.

another thing that makes me weary of a salvage though is that they look over them extra good when you go in for the annual inspection meaning you have a higher chance of an SR or RB throwing a flag.

car was original to NJ for 20K miles and 3 yearsthen Maryland for a yearthen Wisconsin for 3 years and 20K milesthen Florida for less than a year and 1K miles before being totaled

then the car was brought up to NH and rebuilt driven for 2 years and 15K milesthen the car was brought to Maine for 7 years and 80K milesthen the car was brought down to MA where it is now

Car fax has this to say about the accident:FloridaPolice ReportCase #546560780Accident reportedInvolving right side impactwith another motor vehicle

not sure if THIS car got hit on the right side, or if it hit THE OTHER CAR on the right side. looking at the radiator brace in the under hood shot it looks a little bent up but I wouldn't be surprised if that was from some other fender bender that never got reported.

[jspec603]

It's a tough call seeing that it claims it was totaled. Then again, it wouldn't take much to total a vert in the insurance companies eyes anyways. If all looks ok and is straight, why not? Then there will be another vert rollin the streets of NH!

[mmm240]

That's tuff, no way to drive it to see if the damage has done anything permanent. Definetely worth a look though. If it looks good and straight, offer him 750 maybe 800. I love to negotiate!

[Loki]

Why does it not surprise me that the car was totaled after moving to Florida?

Tough call. I would probably keep looking unless the top and interior is very clean.

[twistedsymphony]

well, this was going to be a little side project that I was going to try to include the wifey in (she's into cars... just not 240s)

she pretty much said she wouldn't feel safe driving around in a car that might have suffered structural damage no matter how straight it looked...

So that made the decision easy

it's up on CL in Boston now if anyone else is interested in it...

...so I guess the search continues for me.

I found a AWESOME black vert in Maine a month ago... $3K, 160K miles but a flawless body, flawless interior, and brand new top (installed by Nissan less than a year prior)... not to mention about $2K worth of stereo equipment and aftermarket wheels. I wasn't in a position to buy it at the time unfortunately.

it disappeared from CL and I still have the vin so I ran it through car fax and there has been no new owner reported, so I took a shot in the dark and emailed the guy asking if he still had it...

maybe I'll luck out and I can knock him down a bit on the price (though IMO its definitely worth what he's asking... I could probably get at least $2K if I sold the stereo bits and wheels off it
Modified by twistedsymphony at 7:55 PM 7/16/2008

[Loki]

I still have the phone number of a vert for sale down here in PA. Wants about 5k for it but it has 56k miles and what sounds to be very good condition interior, top and paint. Pretty far from you, but just wanted to throw it out there.

[twistedsymphony]

thanks for the tip Loki... I have friends and family in PA so a trip over there wouldn't be too bad (fly out drive back).

5K is way out of my price range though. I'm looking for something priced about half that... I'm sure that a good condition vert with 56K on the clock is well worth $5K but I'm more looking for something that is closer to $2K and is rust/dent free with a good top but maybe needs a motor.

Good news though... I just heard back from the guy in Maine and the beautiful black vert is still available, I guess after it didn't sell he just started driving it again since the weather was so nice.

he was asking $3200 and it's got ~160K miles but look at this thing:

top is less than a year old, no tears window is crystal clear, and it's got lots of aftermarket stereo equipment.