jay.d

Hello,
I just joined this forum. I have been looking to buy a S2000 for quite a while now.

Recently, I found a car sitting at an public auction. Please Let me know if its worth taking a risk to buy or not.
Here are the details.

Its a 2004 Yellow w Black Interior Base S2000
The car is being auctioned by the local county sheriffs dept.
it has 88000 miles on it.

Auction is 2 weeks from now so I can only get inside the car and look around it.
They dont give you any keys to check if the engine light is on or not. However you can open the hood.
Car looks in good condition.
As far as I can tell, it looks stock

EXCEPT

its lowered, not slammed (or maybe S2000 are that ride height, idk Sorry)
It has a carbon fiber front lip on spoiler
It has different rims (not stock) with around $90 tires on them (I googled the tires)
Brake disks have red oxide on them by sitting out in the open for couple of months I guess
I couldnt get to the trunk neither I could test the soft top function so I dont know if the soft top works or not

I did press the clutch and tried shifting in all gears and it did shift
oil levels are good but again its been sitting at first the police impound lot and not its at the public auction lot. So fingers crossed.

Can I gamble into buying this car and if so how much would someone pay for this?
I doesnt appear to be crashed.

jay.d

On the windsheild, it says runs and moves

-TopSecretCR-

Listing a few photos of the vehicle would help us, help you. Do you know reason behind the county having possession of the vehicle? Was is it involved in some sort of predicament where they had to seize the vehicle?

JoePhotographer

Pics, plus, getting the VIN (take a pic of it, so you can document it), so you can do a CarFax or other car research tool.

Manga_Spawn

Moved to S2000 talk you'll get more replies.

rpg51

Get the vin and run a car fax. Like any purchase, especially an auction, do your due diligence, decide how much you are prepared to pay, and then walk if you don't win the auction at that number. Maybe best to let someone else go for you so your emotions don't get the better of you. There are lots of good cars out there. Reminds me of the old blue grass lyric - "There's more pretty girls than one ..."

MrFunk

I wouldn't pay more than 7k for it. Way too much risk otherwise.

rrounds

I bought my motorhome(saved about 65k) and three cars at auction. RPG51 is right, set a low number and walk away if it goes over that number. Take the oil filler cap off and look, take a good flashlight. Look the whole car over top to bottom get on your knees and look the best you can and see if you can find any damage. Get a carfax done, see what it tells you. Without seeing it I would not go over 5k to 6.5k, even if the engine is bad you can find a low mileage one for under 5k. That puts you at 11k if you do the work. But if other stuff is damaged you could be out more money than going out and buying one you could test drive.

Get that carfax first,
ROD

zdave87

It's yellow.

jun11

I thought I'd add something to this as I've know people who have worked at those auction yards.... Before you bid you should consider the chance that the guys working there have had some fun in it. I'm not saying all of the auctions have employees who do this, but I've had first hand experience with it at a lot of them. My opinion is that any car bought at an auction, such as police or repo'd, should be purchased as a project car and priced accordingly. If in the end it turns out to be a cleaner car than expected, then luck is on your side.

Side story.... My parent's bought a newer Volvo from a Police (I've made it bold for whats to come) auction and asked me to clean it up while they were out of town. I found a bag of crack under the drivers seat and a bag of marijuana under the passenger seat.