Hey, all. Looking to buy my first car and am in need of advice for one I went and took a look at today.
It's a 2003 WRX that was listed at 165k miles, with a sticker price of $10k. Now, I know this is way too much for a car with that mileage and was planning on going in and giving the car a look over myself to check for what sort of mods have been put into it, if any, and then offering between $6k and $7k for it. Later during the day that I found the ad for the car online, it was taken down. Gave them a call later in the week to see if it was still for sale as they still had an ad up for it on ebay, but as I said it was not listed on the dealer's actual website, and they told me yes, but its in the shop for work. Didn't even think to ask for what, and instead asked them if it'd be alright for me to come by and check it out this weekend. Of course it was alright.
So, today, I bummed a ride from a buddy and we drove the hour and a half trip to the dealership, for them to tell me it's still in the shop. Wound up not being able to go into the shop, but they brought the shop manager out to talk to me about it and the car happened to be by the door so they let me look at it from the doorway. From where I was, the body looked good; aftermarket headlamps and wheels though, possibly a carbon fiber hood. Couldn't really look at it though, as I was about 10 feet away and the car is black so it'd hide small rust, dings, and scratches pretty well. What I did notice though, was the engine was pulled from the car and sitting next to it. Shop manager explained to me that the thing had thrown a rod, cracking the block. He pointed out another engine sitting off to the side a bit and when I asked him what it was he told me it's a brand new factory stock 2.0 like the one the car drove out with when it was new. When asked he told me that everything else from the original car (tranny, turbo, clutch, exhaust, etc.) was staying and that there wasn't any sort of aftermarket stuff put onto the car other than the things I mentioned earlier. Course, I didn't really get to look at it myself because of the lack of up close and personal with the car. I put a refundable $200 deposit down so they'd get the job done faster and call me back so I could check it out properly in two weeks time.
He was pretty blunt with me and told me that before, he probably would have let me take the car at $8k but now that they had to put a new engine in, they're sitting firm at the $9,999.00. The fact that they were doing a full engine swap just completely caught me off guard so I couldn't even begin to try to haggle properly. So I just payed the deposit and told him to call me when they were done. Now, my logic is that they didn't pay more than $6.5k when they bought it unless they were crazy and went way past KBB value (even less than that if they bought it with the 'naded engine), and the new engine cost around $2k, so they've invested around $8.5k; and just because the engine is brand new with no miles on it doesn't mean the rest of the car suddenly loses the 165k put onto it. What do I offer and how do I haggle it when I go back? Should I even go back for anything other than my $200? This whole thing just turned sideways for me and I don't even know how to approach it, especially with it being the first car I've bought for myself.
I'm thinking go there and offer $8k. If they refuse to come down, remind them that I'm paying cash that day and let it go to $8.5k. If they come down to around $9k I'll probably take it with a stipulation that they increase their warranty (3k miles or 3 months for any car you buy from them) for me and see if they'll work that. If they don't work with me, I take back my money and walk. $10k will just drain everything from my bank, leaving me with nothing saved up if something happens making me really apprehensive about spending that much, but I did look at the KBB value with everything the same but down to 1000 miles and the car's value shot up to $14k.
Sorry for the wall of text, thanks in advance for any help/advice.
It's a 2003 WRX that was listed at 165k miles, with a sticker price of $10k. Now, I know this is way too much for a car with that mileage and was planning on going in and giving the car a look over myself to check for what sort of mods have been put into it, if any, and then offering between $6k and $7k for it. Later during the day that I found the ad for the car online, it was taken down. Gave them a call later in the week to see if it was still for sale as they still had an ad up for it on ebay, but as I said it was not listed on the dealer's actual website, and they told me yes, but its in the shop for work. Didn't even think to ask for what, and instead asked them if it'd be alright for me to come by and check it out this weekend. Of course it was alright.
So, today, I bummed a ride from a buddy and we drove the hour and a half trip to the dealership, for them to tell me it's still in the shop. Wound up not being able to go into the shop, but they brought the shop manager out to talk to me about it and the car happened to be by the door so they let me look at it from the doorway. From where I was, the body looked good; aftermarket headlamps and wheels though, possibly a carbon fiber hood. Couldn't really look at it though, as I was about 10 feet away and the car is black so it'd hide small rust, dings, and scratches pretty well. What I did notice though, was the engine was pulled from the car and sitting next to it. Shop manager explained to me that the thing had thrown a rod, cracking the block. He pointed out another engine sitting off to the side a bit and when I asked him what it was he told me it's a brand new factory stock 2.0 like the one the car drove out with when it was new. When asked he told me that everything else from the original car (tranny, turbo, clutch, exhaust, etc.) was staying and that there wasn't any sort of aftermarket stuff put onto the car other than the things I mentioned earlier. Course, I didn't really get to look at it myself because of the lack of up close and personal with the car. I put a refundable $200 deposit down so they'd get the job done faster and call me back so I could check it out properly in two weeks time.
He was pretty blunt with me and told me that before, he probably would have let me take the car at $8k but now that they had to put a new engine in, they're sitting firm at the $9,999.00. The fact that they were doing a full engine swap just completely caught me off guard so I couldn't even begin to try to haggle properly. So I just payed the deposit and told him to call me when they were done. Now, my logic is that they didn't pay more than $6.5k when they bought it unless they were crazy and went way past KBB value (even less than that if they bought it with the 'naded engine), and the new engine cost around $2k, so they've invested around $8.5k; and just because the engine is brand new with no miles on it doesn't mean the rest of the car suddenly loses the 165k put onto it. What do I offer and how do I haggle it when I go back? Should I even go back for anything other than my $200? This whole thing just turned sideways for me and I don't even know how to approach it, especially with it being the first car I've bought for myself.
I'm thinking go there and offer $8k. If they refuse to come down, remind them that I'm paying cash that day and let it go to $8.5k. If they come down to around $9k I'll probably take it with a stipulation that they increase their warranty (3k miles or 3 months for any car you buy from them) for me and see if they'll work that. If they don't work with me, I take back my money and walk. $10k will just drain everything from my bank, leaving me with nothing saved up if something happens making me really apprehensive about spending that much, but I did look at the KBB value with everything the same but down to 1000 miles and the car's value shot up to $14k.
Sorry for the wall of text, thanks in advance for any help/advice.