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Definitely not ALWAYS a deal breaker... Posted by B Millar [Email]  (#1109)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from B Millar) on Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:23:06
In Reply to: Buying question, DH, Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:53:11 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Unless the CarFax comes up with a SALVAGE or REBUILT title the car is still worth looking at, IMHO. You're right, it could have been relatively minor. But knowing this information now you need to inspect the car down to the last speck of paint. A lot of body shops do good work, but there are some that do shotty, crappy work, so it's your job to make sure the shop that repaired it did a decent job. Bring it to a non-affiliated Saab shop and have them put it on a lift. Look underneath for any suspicious wrinkles, creases, or weird looking welds. Look in the spare tire well under the trunk floor and make sure everything is smooth. A lot of times in seemingly minor rear-end accidents the rear floor pan doesn't fare too well but is overlooked in the repair. Look for over spray, any mismatching, peeling, or bubbling paint. Make sure all the door panels are gapped evenly and stuff (within reason). On my '04 Aero the front doors are a little saggy and the panels don't line up perfectly, and I've noticed this on other 9-5's too.
Just as a side story, my parents bought a 2000 Chrysler Town and Country a while back with a blemish on the CarFax. The price was right so they grabbed it but that car was miserable. There was silver over-spray on the wood door trim INSIDE the car, the passenger front door wasn't lined up right and closed really tight; I actually found a seam inside the car between the carpet and plastic rear wheel well that I could SEE THE ROAD from inside the car!! Luckily some guy in a pickup truck slid into it and finished it off for us. Surprisingly the airbags worked. We always joked some Whopper cheeseburger wrappers would probably fly out. Surprisingly my parents went BACK there to look for a replacement. Luckily I was with them on the test drive and noticed the rear suspension was wonky. It felt like the rear wheels were pointed in toward each other so they were fighting to steer the rear end in their own direction. This van was blue and I noticed the paint on the rear tailgate didn't match, and it was very obvious it was a silver tailgate painted blue. We got they hell away from that place. So there's an example of a crappy body shop. On the other hand my cousin hit a deer with her Jetta causing $6500 in damage to the front end and the body shop did an amazing job on it. I didn't think it was possible to do such a good job. Then my aunt got into a fender bender with her A4 and again, it's absolutely flawless.
As for the price. I bought my 2004 Aero in December with 31k miles on it for $12,500. It also had a 100% CLEAN one-owner CarFax report. I got a really good deal it did go through my mind "okay, what's wrong with it?" but I couldn't find anything. I still think you can do better than $13k though. $10k sounds reasonable, especially if they've had it forever. Good luck!
, Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:23:06 <-- Viewing This Message, Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:15:15, Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:37:11
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