Quote:
Originally Posted by Bababou
Looking at buying a 94 S14 with Kouki conversion. Ive seen it in person its clean and straight, the paint needs buffed to get swirls out but no major defects in the paint and no obvious signs of rust. Looks to be mostly stock has 116,261 KM on it. Its at an importer but he sells like a private party so no sales tax. He told me $13,500 OBO seems a bit high but its the only one in town for at least 2 months. Im thinking of offering $12,000.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/c...909667834.html |
I took another look to see if I could pinpount any obvious shenanigans.
Here is what I noticed
1. The dash has been replaced and the air bags are gone. This red flag indicates the vehicle was involved in an accident. Without carfax and without being there, whose to say what the frame underneath looks like. There are no pictures of it either. I would take a good hard look at that frame regardless of what anybody says. I've also seen JDM cars cut in half and re-welded together to make a whole new car. So gota watch out for that too. need to look at the seam glues, especially under the carpet and inspect spot weld areas.
2. For such low mileage the interior seems to have a lot of wear. The broken radio bezel, center console, and seats remind me of a 240sx with 150k
3. exterior recently repainted is a warning sign, what is hiding? And how long until it shows through? I'd rather buy a car with original paint that is peeling and fading than a repaint.
4. Take a good look at the front of the car, hood and headlights/fenders don't line up properly. The body panels have obviously been removed, repaired, something has been done there. I would never touch a car like this because I know that with my facility (basically nothing) I would never be able to repair the front end properly, lining those things up takes a real skill/artist in body work which is why it probably looks the way it does currently.
All of this is adding up to: its a $6500 car. Probably paid $3500-4500 in Japan for it, hit. $2000 to get it here. $1500 in body work and paint (cheaply done).
Typical process is to rebuild a wrecked car purchased cheaply at auction, and try to turn a couple thousand in profits here since there is no paper document trail showing that its been wrecked or how bad.