Might buy a 2000 tomorrow, need advice

[wshiverick]

Hey guys. Im the proud owner of an 89 runner, and always encourage friends to join the club. My roommate has been looking for a 3rd gen 3.4 manual for a while now, and a potential one came up on clist today. He's out of town for a few days, so I'm going to look at it tomorrow. I've had my 89 for 2 years or so and done a decent amount of work on it, so I feel like I more or less know what to look for when buying, but I feel like the 3rd gen might be a different animal.
The 2000 Im going to look at has 136000 miles and the guy is asking 6500. Seems like a good deal. There are a few issues the owner knows about. One is that it needs a new front bumper due to an accident, but as far as I am concerned that's not a problem, unless the crash caused other damage (radiator or something maybe?). Another is that it'll need brake work soon, which is also not really a problem. The last is that one of the rear tires is wearing unevenly. Maybe just needs an alignment but is there anything else that could be going on, ball joints maybe? It has a rear locker. He's not sure about work that's been done on it, timing belt, water pump etc but says it runs great.
Basically I'm asking you guys if theres anything in particular I should look for, listen for or feel for on a test drive. If those are truly the only issues I would think 6500 is a pretty good deal.
Thanks in advance for your advice. Heres the post: https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/4394712409.html

 

[MtnChick]

Some red flags on it to me. The hood and front bumper are not original. Also looks like maybe a miss-matched paint job on the front fenders. Run a CarFax or Autocheck on it to make sure it doesn't have a salvage title and check the VIN # on all the parts- maybe a bent frame would cause the tire to wear badly? Somebody else other than me would have to answer that question. The stipulation that buyer pays for a money order/wire transfer instead of saying cash only is unusual. Price seems too good to be true even with the admitted problems, and it's not like the guy doesn't know what Runners go for in CO, so I'd bet there is more. Maybe it will all check out OK, but I'd be leery on this one.

 

[98WhiteT4R]

Some red flags on it to me. The hood and front bumper are not original. Also looks like maybe a miss-matched paint job on the front fenders. Run a CarFax or Autocheck on it to make sure it doesn't have a salvage title and check the VIN # on all the parts- maybe a bent frame would cause the tire to wear badly? Somebody else other than me would have to answer that question. The stipulation that buyer pays for a money order/wire transfer instead of saying cash only is unusual. Price seems too good to be true even with the admitted problems, and it's not like the guy doesn't know what Runners go for in CO, so I'd bet there is more. Maybe it will all check out OK, but I'd be leery on this one.

:iagree:

 

[drewm]

Hey guys. Im the proud owner of an 89 runner, and always encourage friends to join the club. My roommate has been looking for a 3rd gen 3.4 manual for a while now, and a potential one came up on clist today. He's out of town for a few days, so I'm going to look at it tomorrow. I've had my 89 for 2 years or so and done a decent amount of work on it, so I feel like I more or less know what to look for when buying, but I feel like the 3rd gen might be a different animal.
The 2000 Im going to look at has 136000 miles and the guy is asking 6500. Seems like a good deal. There are a few issues the owner knows about. One is that it needs a new front bumper due to an accident, but as far as I am concerned that's not a problem, unless the crash caused other damage (radiator or something maybe?). Another is that it'll need brake work soon, which is also not really a problem. The last is that one of the rear tires is wearing unevenly. Maybe just needs an alignment but is there anything else that could be going on, ball joints maybe? It has a rear locker. He's not sure about work that's been done on it, timing belt, water pump etc but says it runs great.
Basically I'm asking you guys if theres anything in particular I should look for, listen for or feel for on a test drive. If those are truly the only issues I would think 6500 is a pretty good deal.
Thanks in advance for your advice. Heres the post: https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/4394712409.html

Rear tires wearing badly is generally a bent rear axle which can only be replaced not fixed. A bent frame or links knocking the rear out of alignment will generally only cause dog-tailing.

 

[wshiverick]

Think I'd be able to spot a bent axle easily? Seems like an accident that caused a bent frame would cause quite a bit of damage but I guess you could bend an axle wheeling it too rough? And yeah that money order thing seems pretty weird but dude seems legit on the phone and I would pay in cash anyways.

 

[drewm]

Think I'd be able to spot a bent axle easily? Seems like an accident that caused a bent frame would cause quite a bit of damage but I guess you could bend an axle wheeling it too rough? And yeah that money order thing seems pretty weird but dude seems legit on the phone and I would pay in cash anyways.

I've heard of a few members that have bent rear axles with wheeling. You could attempt to use a tape measure as a straight stick and attempt to check it, but I've never tried.

 

[amalik]

I agree with running the Carfax. Make sure it's not a salvage title unless you wouldn't mind that.

I myself would negotiate down to $6,000 or less based on bumper damage. A bumper isn't cheap to fix.

I will tell you him having a manual transmission is great because you don't have to worry about the pink milkshake fiasco.

 

[skcolb]

I have an Autocheck subscription leftover from buying my 4Runner last week so I ran a report.

3-owner vehicle, no reported accidents, clean title, no indication of odometer rollback. Colorado vehicle its whole life, always passed emissions. There's a record in 2009 that says "VEHICLE TITLED/REGISTERED TO AN INSURANCE COMPANY" which seems a little strange, but AutoCheck doesn't flag it. Overall nothing big on the report.

 

[wshiverick]

Thanks for doin that man, I also just got a car fax. It got reported as a total loss in 2009 (at 100k). Thats why the insurance company had it, they sold it a few months later. It has run for 36k since then though…but that seems like a deal breaker.

 

[BrianSD_42]

Here is my advice (& you'd be wise to heed it)

In addition to all else (see the buyer guide etc etc)

1) have it put up on a lift at a mechanic and check for rust and frame rot

2) have a mechanic do a simple compress test & write down the numbers
- this is cheap, < $75 in almost any city for a mechanic to do and could save you $3000

 

[BrianSD_42]

Now I see you're saying it was salvaged .... SKIP! Don't buy it.

A lot of jerks on CL try to sell salvaged cars for same price or barely less. You don't want that crap.

 

[skcolb]

Thanks for doin that man, I also just got a car fax. It got reported as a total loss in 2009 (at 100k). Thats why the insurance company had it, they sold it a few months later. It has run for 36k since then though…but that seems like a deal breaker.

Wow, I'm surprised that AutoCheck doesn't flag that. Glad you ran that CarFax.

 

[pluton]

If/when you look at another one, pull both rear wheels and hubs and look for gear oil leaks before buying. That was the 'big surprise' when I got my 3rd gen.