I might have a chance to buy a '90 SE 5sp. I haven't seen it yet, but they owner was talking to me on the phone from the car, and I could hear it run - sounded good. He says the only thing he knows of that's not working is the pass. side fr. door ext. handle...have to open it from inside - that should be easy enough to fix. The car just rolled to 100k, and he's only asking $1500...

Now, most of this info is from him. I'll be going to see it later tonight / tomorrow, and have a much better view on it.

Based on this info, though, how does that sound?

 

I think $1500 sound a bit low even with 100k,and my expierience has always been you get what you pay for but,sometimes you get lucky. Just have a mechanic check out the car if you can. I would recomend a 92-94se with the VE engine if you could find one. But if the car is clean and checks out then I say go for $1500

 

If you can wait, I'd see if you can't find a 92-94 SE 5spd. They had a much better engine and 30 more hp. Your choice, though. $1500 seems like a lot less than it's really worth. Check for problems first. Take it for a test drive too.

If you wait for a 92-94 SE 5spd you'll be much happier, though.

 

Damn N34JZ, you posted just a couple seconds before me!

 

haha I look smart and you look foolish

btw I like the sig pic but keep two hands on the wheel at 10:00 and 2:00

 

Thanks guys. I got a chance to check it out. The guy was off on the milage by about 78k...it's running 178k miles, still not too bad for these engines. The body and interior were quite clean, with only the minor things you'd normally see on a car this old with this many miles. The engine looked good, too. Not steam cleaned, showed a lot of road dirt, etc, with signs of leakage. However, the engine ran with a noticable miss that smoothed out under excelleration. The car does have a slight exhaust leak just behind the cat, the 5sp was a little stiff moving throught the gears, not sure and smooth like it should have been. When I went to pull a left u-turn, I heard the stock front tire & wheel rubbing on the passenger side, ther instrument lights don't work - but that could just be a fuse, no may of knowing without looking further. Also, it tends to run a little hot, but that could just be a thermostat. The highlight, however, had to be the fact that, the column ignition switch went out, so rather than replace it, thay wired a push button to the ingintion, and by-passed the clutch switch when they did. This is a major no-no in my case, as my 2 year old daughter would be in the car...just what you need, is to come out, and find she's "walked" the car into traffic. Also, the parking brake didn't engage - likely a loose cable...I know that a large part of these things could be fixed quite easily, and the car did run strong when I took it out. The things that scared me, though, was the rough tranny, and that miss...that could be anything from needing a new cap-rotor, to a burned valve.

As it is, I own an 87 Max Wagon (gee, couldn't guess that one, huh?), that is running 225k. The engine runs strong on it, too. It have the slight valve tick they sometimes get - nothing I'm worried about. The engine does run very rich (I think it's the fuel reg, but not too sure just yet.) And, on mornings when it's cool, and / or it's not been run for a while, it'll blow some blue haze until the engine warms up. Then, the smoke clears, and the exhaust just smells of gas.

 

sounds like 1500+ in repairs alone.

 

Acutally I had just come out of a turn and my hand was just out of view at the bottom of the steering wheel. You think I was driving strait with the steering wheel at that angle!?

By the way, that's from a GIANT picture I have. I shrunk it down considerably. The speedo reads 81, but you can't tell in my sig.

I notice I'm the only one with an actual picture of myself in the sig and not just an empty car.

 

Screw that, man. You don't want it...