Hi! I found a great deal on an AP1 with about 25k miles. The car's spent most of its life in a garage in the PA/NY area.
Is this rust normal or bad? On a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being GREAT and 1 being DON'T BUY, what would you call this?

 

I bought my AP2 w/ 76k miles in NJ and similar or maybe slightly worse rust on the underbody. The front lower control arm rear bolts for adjusting caster were seized in their sleeves, which seems to be very common. I cut them out and replaced as shown in a video by DIYguys on youtube. Otherwise the rust has only been an annoyance when working on other bolts that required some extra torque to break free. If you need to drop a subframe at some point it is possible that those may be seized in the unibody too, but I haven't had to do that yet. I would just look closely at the rear wheel arches, specifically behind the rubber weather stripping on the lips. That is where others have found actual rust on the body that needs repair, though I did not have any.

 

This is a California 2/10
An upper midwestern 7/10
And a northeastern 8/10.

Giving it a total average score of 5.7/10

I feel like Doug DeMuro

There's no serious issue here. Its reasonably clean, and it hasn't seen much winter use.

 

chassis rust is acceptable , not an issue there. The worst part will be the suspension bolts, I'm willing to bet they are seized in place, but that happens to many s2000's, if you don't need to make suspension changes you may be fine. Everything else is good.

I would have the underside sprayed with a lanolin based undercoating, in a black colour.

 

Typo? You must mean 125K miles.

Good deal with this much rust? Maybe $12,000.

Didn't you just buy a 2005 car last year?

-- Chuck

 

If he's not going to drive thru winter, then a lanolin coating isn't a great idea.

I use black lanolin on my tr0Ck. It keeps it preserved for winter. But god help the person who has to work on anything underneath it.

Wait that's me :'(

 

Looks as good/better than my car. If the price is right it wouldn’t stop me at all.

 

Looks ok but I'm not sure I'm convinced that it lived most its life in a garage. Seems like it has been exposed to a fair bit of moisture.

 

thank you so much! very helpful : )

 

Body rust is a no. Rust on any part that can be unbolted and refurbished? Not an issue IMO.