Help?! Is this car worth buying ?

[misato]

The situation is thus; I had an accident with my 91 NX 2000, and I wanted to get a 240sx. Friend of a friend was selling one (yea, you can starting "uh-ohing" now), so I told him I was interested.

Car info: 1993 240SX SE Super HiCAS | 162,000 miles | white | fairly good condition black leather interior | some small rust spots, and some minor body damage on the passenger side front fender and bumper | moon-roof seals seem good | aftermarket springs on the car, lowered around 2" in front, 1" in back, camber is decent, but ride is harsh, extremely rough over any road surface faults | decent 17" aftermarket wheels and tires | Injen intake

He said he was asking $2500, but he would probably take $2000, since there was a "ting-ting-ting" coming from the engine, and the power steering whined when it was first started. I told him I was favoring it over other choices (don't really want to go $9K deeper in debt on a 99 Subaru 2.5RS Impreza), but that I wanted to get it checked out first.

Respectable Mechanic's "Pre-Sale Inspection" report:

"tink-tink-tink" The car needs it's timing chain and tensioner replaced. $1900 estimate I wouldn't even consider doing this repair since I would hopefully be looking at a SR20DET or maybe RB engine swap. I read that this noise is due to the plastic tensioner, and the chain very rarely breaks. (please correct me if I am wrong).

There is some smoke in the exhaust (burning some oil), and that "replacing the valve stem seals" could possibly fix the problem. $645 estimate

It won't pass VA emissions test with this smoke.

It also won't pass VA safety inspection due to:

Passenger side hi-beam out. $265 estimate to replace headlight switch (this is 100% confirmed, it is DEFINITELY not the lamp or a fuse).

Small hole in muffler. $95 estimate to weld the tear shut. (Not worried about longevity due to likely hood of new exhaust accompanying new engine).

Clamp and hoses replaced for power steering, to eliminate whine; $190 estimate.


Now some of you may know about Virginia's incredibly strict (even facist) regulations. Safety inspection is extremely tough and it is done ANNUALLY, as is emissions. Inspection standards are so high, if you have an aftermarket fog light on your car, it will fail inspection if it doesn't work, even though it's not stock, or required.

I plan to confirm this with my mechanic tommorrow (Wed. morning), but to the best of my knowledge, the car will pass the safety inspection if I have the headlight/muffler/power steering issues taken care of.

Now, I know a guy who knows a mechanic (asian in-circle thing), who says the guy can probably be very leniant on the emissions, and pass the car, assuming the muffler hole is fixed.

As of RIGHT NOW, I am trying to coordinate all of this with a deadline of Thursday afternoon.

What I hope you knowledgeable members of this community can help me with, is:

The guy selling this car to me will drop to a $1800 sale price; is it worth buying the car, and paying about $700 in total repair costs to have the car legally on the road in VA?? This would be a total of $2500 out of my pocket, and I would be left with the car, as originally described. It would still have a smokey exhaust, and need a new timing chain sometime in the not so distant future. I have aspirations to do the typical SR20DET engine swap, or perhaps even try to swap in an RB. However if I am putting out $2500 initially, it won't be until the late summer that I can do this.

This has been an extremely complicated endeavor so far (believe me, this is the concise version), and I am now down to the wire. I really would like to have a 240 to work on, but it MUST be a reliable daily driver as well.

I am at the mercy of your wisdom! q[@_@]p

thank you all in advance, for helping a noob.

d-_-b

[DocTaDrifT]

wow thats a lot to read i gave up half way through

[jeprokz]

doctadrift - dat was funny. so what did u.. what? .... jk man..


just ask him to subtract all repairs to the selling price.. but of course u need to have a daily driver while doing all this work. do u?

"I really would like to have a 240 to work on, but it MUST be a reliable daily driver as well."

and since u wanna be the one to work on it, right? it'll be even cheaper. unless u'll be doing an sr swap right away, then u might as well just find a chassis.

although im sure someone more knowledgeable can share their opinion on this matter. goodluck...

[95zilvia]

hell no
buy a nice clean shell for like $500 - $1000 (i got mine for $400)
then do what u want to do with it, instead of fixing all the shit first.
for $2500, you could have close to a 240sx with a sr20det, if that's what you wanted.
but that's if you do the work yourself. you want a reliable daily driver? well, that shit won't even past smog, and the suspension is shot to shit, lowering springs on blown stock shocks probably.
you dont want this car
you just want to help out your friends friend
buying this 240 is like masturbating, cuz in the end, you're just screwing yourself.

[driftyour40]

Originally Posted by 95zilvia

hell no
buy a nice clean shell for like $500 - $1000 (i got mine for $400)
then do what u want to do with it, instead of fixing all the shit first.
for $2500, you could have close to a 240sx with a sr20det, if that's what you wanted.
but that's if you do the work yourself. you want a reliable daily driver? well, that shit won't even past smog, and the suspension is shot to shit, lowering springs on blown stock shocks probably.
you dont want this car
you just want to help out your friends friend
buying this 240 is like masturbating, cuz in the end, you're just screwing yourself.

I agree, don't buy that car you can find something better.

[jeprokz]

haha.. ya i totally dismmissed the whole thing that for $1800 there is too many repairs to be done.. my bad.. there u go.. i guess i didn't look/read hard enough... but like i said.. if u r gonna go sr, might as well find a chassis/shell. goodluck..

[AllenRPS13]

Originally Posted by DocTaDrifT

wow thats a lot to read i gave up half way through

me too!

[ICKY]

HOLY CRAP! VA has emission tests now?!? Last year when I registered my car, and got the saftey inspection, they didn't say anything of do anything to the emissions. As far as i'm concered about the price, That'd be what you pay for a typical 240. I've never seen 240's with working motors sell for less than $2k here in Va Beach. I got my 95 S14 for 2k and the power steering shit the bed, rust spots here and there, blown shocks, needs a 160k mile tuneup. Yeah... I'm done now.

[Nielson]

Don't buy that car - not worth it. By the time you fix it up, do an engine swap, and fix the body you'll be in at least 8 grand. Go for a 95 240sx- I've seen em on autotrader.com about $4500 - $5000 with only 100,000 miles on em, which isn't a lot of miles for a nissan. You won't have to do body work, you can probably even get one w/ good paint for that price. No engine swap nescessary- Plenty of turbos available online, you can easily put out 250 to 280 h.p with a 6 to 8 psi turbo you can install yourself. Plus this is the 16 valve instead of the 12 so it'll breathe better & have better throttle response. So... Car, $5000, turbo kit $1200, ther rest of the exhaust system (go 2.5" mandrel-bent with a dynaflow afterburner muffler- can you say deep rumble?) should run you $350 if you find a good shop, coilover springs inc. installation be about $500, so you're talking $7000 TOTAL PROJECT and then you've got the (in my opinion) better looking body style anyway. Just a thought, but I haven't nabbed myself a 240 yet either...

[the head]

yea in theory you can always fit within your budget not to mention the ACTUAL condition of the car not the condition stated by the seller

[Ghettokracker71]

What makes you think the car will pass emmisions tests after you swap in a turbo engine,anyway?