Back to the drawling board - 98 Trans Am - Worth the price?
Well, I am back to the drawling board to find a decent LS1 within my budget of $5,000.
A little after Thanksgiving, I went to look at this 1998 Trans Am for sale. The car has 138K and is going for $3,500.
History of car
The guy bought the car to fix it up and resell for retail value. Him and his brother-in-law own an auto body shop. However, he told me he has too many projects (work and on the side) to fix this car. So he is selling it as is. He has an open clean title from Kentucky.
Driving
The car drive great. Engine sounds good and it seems to shift well. I got on it a few times and the response time seem great.
Exterior
The exterior is decent except for the few dents and one chip on the passenger side quarter panel. I contacted Maaco, and they would fix the dents,chip, and repaint the car for under $1K. I thought that was reasonable.
Interior
The interior of the car was in decent shape as well, except for the driver side seat. The guy told me, a bigger guy owned the car and let the seat go to shit. The I called a upholstery shop to see how much it would cast to fix and it is around $500. Not that bad either. The carpet was dirty, but I think a real good detail could make it look nice. I have also looked into buying new carpet for $250.00
I didn't end up going with it, because the airbag light and I believe the check engine light was on as well. I called a few car shops and they told me it would run around $1,000 to fix the airbag light...I was said, "screw this"!
Out of curiosity I check to see if the car was still for sale. The car is still for sale. I asked to see if he would come down on the price to fix the air bag light, but he won't. We chatted back and forth and I still could not get him to budge at all.
About 30 minutes or so later, he sent me a text and said, " If u decide u want it I would do 3300 cash. As is where is. Best deal I will do. And you get an open Kentucky title for it. Put ur name on it and go. No hard feelings. If i want it for that its fine if not that's fine too."
So, my question to the community is, do you think the car is worth $3,300? I can get the seat fix for $500, and the exterior for around $1,000. This puts the car at a total of $4,800. I just don't know about the air bag light and possible check engine light.
Any inputs would be great. I have to get back to him by Friday night or Saturday morning.
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