IMO, I wouldn't worry so much about them being modded. There are a lot of modded, well taken care of cars out there. Someone that has owned a bone stock car could have beat the snot out of it and maintained it poorly. Just use good judgment and get help and opinions from people you trust.

 

This one seems like a good deal, not a spectacular deal but just about right.

 

Go look at it and see if you can talk it down. Mine is a 2000 BB had 57,000 and needed a new top. It was listed for 12,000 and I got it for 10,000.

 

Agreed, but I'd try to aviod buying someone's track toy. A tastefully modified car will just save you money a few years down the road. I went into this car believing I would never need to modify and now I'm shopping for FI...

If you're having a difficult time finding a car in your area I would highly consider traveling. there are some absurdly cheap plane tickets right now and you can find cars that meet your specs for a lot less than the one above (and have an opportunity to take a long weekend somewhere fun.) Personally, I searched for a 00-01 with a great body and worn top. I bought my car with a few tears for a great price and immediately replaced it with canvas and glass from topsonline.com. They were great and I like my canvas a lot more than the factory material. The DIY top install was time consuming but buying an '00 saved me around 3k in price from a '03 with similar mileage.

 

I must've missed an earlier post since I don't see a modded car based on the comments from the previous posts. Anyways, $12K for an 03 with 77K miles isn't a bad price at all. Only left thing to do really is check it out in person. If you want to be really detailed about it, get a compression/leakdown test. Good luck with the purchase.

 

As a point of reference, I just picked up my 03 with 55k, 2 weeks ago for 13,900, and negotiated a brand new softtop, professionally installed.


Just to give you a rough idea, at a dealer, you can almost always assume at least a $2000 markup on used cars.


If you see a car for 15,000 at a dealer, They will probably put you in it for 13,500. Just state thats the max you are willing to pay, but you are ready to do business right now.

 

I paid 12grand for my 01 with 54K. It had a few mods.

So, 12 sounds fair for the silver S2000 in the add.

 

If it's in good condition, I think it's a reasonable price. Go take a look at it, get it inspected and if you like it enough, just make an offer.

 

Here is a listing near you

http://westmd.craigslist.org/cto/1208806334.html