Sorry guys, this will be a little bit of a long post, but I need some good advice!

Well, I've tracked down a S2000 that suits my needs, and I'm almost ready to cut the cheque. Low miles, 2002 (I wanted a 2003) S2000 in the perfect color i was looking for (NFR!!!)

Here's the only problem. Its about 2500 miles away from me, so I will be buying it sight un-seen and have it shipped to me via rail.

I'm in Canada, so the pickings are slimmer. This car is a one owner (canadian car) , but it is at a used car lot. Warranty is avail for a few extra $$$. Car fax looks good, and everything matches so far. It was apparently driven by a women in her 40's or so who has knee problems now and cant drive a stick. (its sounds like a good BS story, but it is a small, private dealer that sounds very honest)

Ok, so the car is in storage, and its been for sale since September. I hope it has not been on any test bags, er drives where people drove the shat out of it.

So, I was thinking, everything checks out good, but I did not even take a test drive. Is this a bad idea?

I'm thinking with 25,000km (15,000miles approx) that a leak down should not be needed, but with the trusty #4 cylinder problem, i'm not to sure. This car has the old banjo bolts. Is it really odd to ask to have the 4th cylinder looked at with a boroscope?

Retainers can be checked/replaced once I get the car in-case it has ever been over-revved, or should I have this checked as well at the same time as the compression/leakdown?

I am worried that if it was a female owner who only did the oil changes at the dealer, that the oil was never checked. We all know how sensitive AP1's are with low oil! There is a full service history avail. but I have not seen it yet.

Anything else I can or should do before paying the bill?

I have 2 warranty options. 3yr 60,000km with $4000 max per incident or a 4yr 100,000km with only $2500 per incident.
I'm thinking the 3 yr with $4000 max per incident because if anything goes wrong, it will go REALLY wrong. $2500 might not go very far.
I'm going to look into a few more third party warranty options to see if I can get any better ones.

Thanks all!

 

Third party warranties are hardly ever worth it.

 

why is that?

 

Nooo. If youre paying for the delivery then might as well pay for a nearby mechanic to go inspect it. Cant be more than US $ 150 for the private inspector.

 

what's the price of a used s2000 like that in CAD?

 

ah man, im not sure thats pretty far. where are you? wheres the car? maybe get someone to check out the car...or fly down there. I mean, you have to accept that you will get the car and there will be things wrong with the car. It would be nice for someone to test drive it, and a leakdown and compression test is a nice piece of mind. I would be more worried about any over-revs imo. I 2nd 3rd party warranties are hardly ever worth it...read all the fine print, and its a Honda...most people are willing to test drive a car and then if later on down the road a repair is needed, they will do that ot of pocket cause they know in the long run they will keep the car for many years.

Someone should test drive it...its something that you want to be completely happy with. carfax is fine?

 

Don't be afraid to import, although the dollar sucks right now. I imported in August and with all said and done I saved over 5K from the Canadian price and that was shipped from Florida.

I would have someone, anyone go and check out the car just in case. See if you can find an automechanic in the given city and pay them to at least go take a pre-lim look at it.

Imported cars are inspected twice and as such shouldn't have anything obviously wrong with them.

On the warrenty, I purchased a 944 used and they threw in an extended warrenty for free. Two months later and oil started leaking out and did about 1300.00 worth of damage..., I remembered the warranty and tried to get them to pay, they ended up paying for 75% of the bill with no questions asked. My suggestion is if they have extended warranties get them to sweeten the deal with throwing it in for free.

Good luck and don't rush your purchase just cuz you want one, spring is coming and there will be more available then.

 

We have a great S2Ki community, maybe get a local member to go check out the car.

 

"Extended" warranties are very limited and there are all sorts of exclusion policies. Read it VERY carefull before you sign and hand over the extra cash for them.

Although on a smaller scale, its the same concept, i worked in sales and had to constantly sale warranties(we called them protection plans, but they were actually worth it). part of the job was to learn all the other businesses warranty terms and prices. Its rediculous how much they scam people.

Just be carefull and smart. Hire a mechanic in the area to take it for a spin, or get in contact on the regional forums on S2Ki and I'm sure someone will take it for a spin for free, if not a case of beer.

 

Shoot someone a few bucks to go check the car out for you from the s2000 community. They can check the car out, take pictures for you, and test drive it to make sure its ok. I rather pay someone a few bucks to make sure everything is 100% than to be unhappy if it arrives flawed.