2000 Celica GT
5spd manual
Red w/ black interior
101,396 miles

the Good:
1 owner car. Never been in an accident. Transmission has been replaced. New brakes. New clutch. Good tires. Recalls have been done.

the Bad:
It's burning oil. Theres a small oil leak from the rear main seal area. The check engine light is on and the car stumbles a lot. The mass airflow sensor is probably bad. It needs spark plugs. The only exterior flaw that I can remember was a small scrape on the right rear quarter by the wheel well.


I was thinking about offering her $800-1,000 for it. I want to know what other people think.

2001 w/113k in Oregon
$8900. And that's on the lower end.

2000 GTS w/salvaged title, 135,300 going for $7600
2000 GT w/6500 miles, 10,500

Private sellers.

$800 - $1000? I'd be PISSED if someone offered me that for my car if I were her... even w/the CEL and oil burning/leaking. I'd expect to get at least 7k for it, provided the title is clean and clear.

she wants to trade it in for a Scion tC. They're most likely only going to give her like $800 for trade. I was going to offer $1000

You can give it a shot, but that car is really worth a lot more.

lol, LOWBALLER, that car is worth way more than that.

Tell her to add one of these and shes got a deal...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2000-toyota...4QQcmdZViewItem


- Matt


She can get way more than 800 on a trade in...

This post has been edited by politicsareevil: Apr 24, 2008 - 7:51 PM

I know it's a little low but she won't get more than that for trading in.

It burns/leaks a little over 1qt every 300 miles. It takes a couple tries to start the car because it idles way too low on startup. If you press the gas pedal to the floor it'll slowly go up to just over 1000rpm and stumble before making its way slowly to about 2500-3000rpm instead of shooting up to redline like it should. It needs another motor or a complete rebuild.

I told her to first see how much they would actually give her as a trade in and I would see about working something out with her.

shell get more than that as trade in. Shell get at least 2000 for the car as is.

She can sell as private seller for 4000.

You guys don't understand that, the dealer won't go through and check the car extensively. To be honest they will take the car for maybe 5-6K. As long as the exterior looks good and the clutch feels good then she'll get her moneys worth in the trade in. Then again the check engine light is on. If shes smart she will erase it and trade it in. I'm sure if the car was warmed it wouldn't struggle soo much during start. So she has a big chance to make money from her trade in.

I don't want to knock on your offer but 1000 is a little low.

>


Bingo, I worked at a local honda dealer.... they dont care about anything but body work. They can do the engine work themselves at cost. They know that. Most dealerships however do not have in house body work. So they would rather have crappy engine and great exterior. Plus they dont mind passing on a crappy car to the final consumer. It just has to work on the test drive. After that, its not their problem. Can we say crooked. Thats why the term "used car salesman" is like a 4 letter word.

- Matt

Steph, IDK why you even bothered posting this here - you knew the responses were gonna be like this. I say if you can get it for that go for it. The dealership is absolutely gonna fcuk her on it and your at least offering her more than they will. Give it a shot. If you have the $$$, what could it hurt?
Further: Do you get discounts on the labor at your work too [I remember your build thread]? If so for another 2K or so in parts you could have a sweet DD [I'm assuming Auto, so if so; Auto GT = TuRD ]

This post has been edited by DEATH: Apr 25, 2008 - 8:10 AM

>

you do know Steph works at the Dealership right?!

guys i think the deal is that the lady went to trade it in, and stef working there and knowing the problems probably means the dealer took a better look at it.
i say it never hurts to make an offer, and death is right:
it would make a perfect DD while you work on your beast!

the engine problems you describe smell of abuse or neglect. i would offer 1k$ TOPS!! in a private sale. my 0,02$.

ok. heres the story...

First of all, I'm a service adviser at a Toyota dealer. The lady with the Celica came in to have us find out why she was down a qt of oil a week after her last oil change. She started asking me about the Scions because she was thinking about trading hers in for one. So while the tech was trying to figure out where her oil was going I brought out our supercharged tC to show her and we talked for a while, shes very nice and has loved her Celica but thinks it's getting old and tired.

The kid who did the last oil change and two master techs were looking at the car and going through all the problems with me. I took one of the spark plugs out to the lady and explained everything to her. She asked me what would be involved in fixing it and I told her very honestly that it would cost a whole lot in labor to fix and if she was already thinking about getting a new car that now is the time.

I told her I was actually looking for a car for my sister that I could fix up and I would be willing to buy hers. She asked me how much I would give her for it and I told her to just wait until she was ready to trade it in, find out how much they would give her for it and then come see me and we'll work something out. She said I was first on her list when she's ready to get rid of it. I let her go without paying any diagnostic time and she thanked me for all my help and honesty.

I went to the sales manager after she left just to get an idea of what they would give her for it as a trade in. He told me he'd have to see it and drive it. I explained to him what I knew was wrong with it and he said they'd probably give her around $800 since it needs a lot of work.

I guess 1 thousand aint bad, since you explained everything.

i'll give YOU $2500.00 for it...seriously, i'm curious to know the diagnosis.

This post has been edited by axelrduvirage: Apr 25, 2008 - 12:52 PM

Seriously guys... Give Steph a little credit. Half of you came in this thread flapping your lips without actually reading that she WORKS for the dealership and knows what she's talking about.

In reality there is NO way she'd get 7,000 for that car in a private sale... and if she did the person who purchased it would be an idiot.

If the dealership would give around 800 I'd say offering 1,000 is perfectly fine. Sounds like the car needs a lot of work.

I totally flapped without knowing she worked at a dealership and had all this background on the car already. I flapped based on the surface info I had at the time of said flapping.

Knowing the BG now, I'd say 1k to 1.5k would be a great (and fair) outcome for everyone involved.

>
oh Tina, I love you


I did kinda want to hear people's honest responses without having to explain the entire situation, I was hoping they wouldn't be as negative towards me as they were but oh well.

The car does need more work than it may have sounded in the first post. Like I said it probably needs a new motor if not a complete rebuild.

I still don't really understand how just telling the whole story brings everyone's 'fair price' down 5-6 grand.

This post has been edited by hurley97: Apr 25, 2008 - 3:20 PM

Screw fair price, low ball the hell out of this woman. Slap a grand in her hand dephsteff style.

I can only speak for myself but I totally didn't mean anything in a flamey grumbly way or anything. Sorry if I came off that way.

For me the price drop is significant because now I know exactly what's wrong with the car. Or well I know more background at least. Part of that is knowing that the trade in is gonna suck for her. The other part is knowing that the car really has been looked at by credible professionals, and the amount of work that needs to be put into the car to bring it up to speed. (no pun intended)

If it were me, I'd buy the car too. Have you tried KBBing it in Poor condition? This sounds like it's in worse than poor condition but maybe that would be a starting point.

I have, I actually took that little test to determine the condition and it said poor but it doesn't give you a value for poor condition. It just says vehicles in poor condition usually require independent appraisal since the poor conditions vary a lot.

aw hell, I forgot about that.

i would pay $1500 at the most for that car. around 1000 for a car that needs to be towed. And $500 to $100 for a car that does not start.

Considering :

1) its an 8 year old car, alot of random crap need to be replaced

2) its a GT, which doesnt have all the goodies the GTS has.

3) this car only has 101k miles and its dying already. Which means this car has been in some serious abuse in its life. Maybe the lady ran over some big ass pot holes. So suspension damage is a possibility, maybe previous body damage.


to be honest, I now swear never to buy any car over 100k miles. Random things keep breaking on you and it gets annoying fast. I've experience two shell car purchases where the car was in good condition but the engine was shot. Both of them cause headache after headache.

But stef, I think your skilled enough to tackle this project. So go for it. 800 is a little low. But a car that is road worthy and can pass smog should be priced around $2000.

>


Let us know what happens

Damn... If someone wants to buy my car for $1000... I'd be sad to the extreme... but then again, my car has no problem.... should worth more right?

Yea let us know what happens