The classic miles vs condition argument. I'd rather have 5x more miles and great condition.

Some cars the low miles artificially increase its worth. Others the high miles artificially increase its value.

 

walk away and find a better car.

 

I can't comment on the price , I am not sure what good S2000's are worth in the US . I see it as a nice project car as it needs some clean up work, on the underside and engine bay. Hopefully the mechanicals are in good condition but you have not been able to test drive it. The rust issue can be addressed, no idea if pricing is good or not, the others who replied seem to know.

 

Not a $30K car in my opinion, not even close.

 

For the money you could find a lower mile, rust free, well serviced car in a different colour. I like certain colours on various cars, but condition and the service habits of the previous owner(s) will always be the main considerations in buying a used car for me.

 

$30,000 for a an ordinary, rust free 2002 AP1 with 60K miles is more than I'd pay, and this ain't one of those. 60K miles OK. Rust bucket NO. Convertible selling season is long gone in IL and PA and this car is priced as if it was May and in perfect, rust free condition.



-- Chuck

 

It looks like such a clean car besides this.. exterior and interior both super clean. I’ll get a video of the underside on the lift on Monday to help me decide. The top looks to be in great shape. There’s not even curb rash on the wheels.

 

Maybe I’m too optimistic but I feel like rust bucket might be a stretch.. I can replace the control arms and nuts and bolts that are rusty. I want to see the hard brake lines though because that’s where I’d draw the line. I’m from Chicago so perhaps my acceptance for some non structural underbody rust is higher. Certainly wouldn’t even be thinking about it if the exterior wasn't so clean. Maybe I can get the price down a bit more they have has it since March and it doesn’t seem like they have budged from the $34k ask price. The dealer has mostly very positive reviews online.

 

I like the interior it does look clean, outside body is clean and wheels are perfect. I think it was well kept by the previous owners but underside rust is hard to avoid if driven in winter or near an ocean. It would not keep me from buying it, but again I am not familiar with pricing in the USA. The interior shift surround needs repair (but many seem to do that) , easy fix to remove and paint silver. The engine bay needs a major cleaning, and I would have to replace the valve cover, no way I could keep it looking like that. Again not the owner's fault as the valve covers do peel over time. I would have the underside rust proofed - black woolwax would work wonders. Make them a lower offer , that car needs about $2k of work from what we can see. Obviously we have no ideal how the mechanicals are on that car or the maintenance history, miles are nice and low. Good luck.

 

The low miles and clean exterior and interior are all most buyers ever look at or care about. So from a dealers perspective, thus is a cream puff. One of the best examples.

That this is an enthusiast car, that is mostly diy owners, that care more about bones than lipstick. Not a scenario most dealers can comprehend. So the whole time you're trying to negotiate the price bc of these 'defects', they're feeling you're being unreasonable, and unfairly beating them up on price.

They see what other 'mint' cars sold for with similar mileage and similar to their perception of this cars condition, and they feel this car should be worth that.

You are correct that so long as the body itself isn't rusted, anything bolted on can be cleaned up.

Control arms being cast iron, you can just clean them up, paint. No need to replace. Bolts you can replace. You can get entire undercarriage and under hood dry ice blasted. Not cheap, but could be worth it for this car.

Replace valve cover (don't let anyone sand blast it under any circumstances!). Replace or clean up some other stuff.

You'll definitely want to try and remove, grease (use anti seize), reassemble, all alignment bolts. Especially compliance bushing. These tend to rust and freeze. Requiring cutting them out, replacing hardware. You wanna get this outta theway now, not when you need an alignment.

Similar, all subframe bolts. Remove, grease, reinstall. Technically they're one time use,so replace any that aren't perfect.

You want to do these now, not when you need a clutch. They tend to freeze, so the luxury of doing them one at a time, stopping to regroup if you get stuck, will be so much better than having to force through to get another job done.

Loosen a little, tighten a little, loosen, tighten, limiting how much torque applied, trying not to break welded nut inside frame free.

Worst case, have to cut hole in side of frame, weld a new nut, reweld frame.