No pictures of the car with the damage, NO SALE. If they have pic's then look for matching vin. numbers.
Had to be one hell of a large tree branch.

Rod

 

I agree with the line of thought from rrounds. If the hard top gets creamed, it should not affect the car itself. I am not sure what you meant by the window frame, I assumed you meant the hard top.

A careful inspection should be able to identify if the car was involved in some kind of accident that had an impact (pun intended) on panels (with VIN #s) or frame pieces. Anything new, re-painted, out of place, or out of place are all clues.

I have seen a few posts where an S is “totaled” for incidental damage such as a top ripped open to steal the seats. The car itself is perfectly fine. The issue is the replacing the seats. Almost everyone has to replace the top sooner or later.

Good luck.

 

Personally I would avoid an S with salvage title and known prior damage unless I was buying it to turn it into a dedicated track car.

There are still lots of these cars around that have clean titles and no prior damage etc.

Patience is a virtue.

 

Thanks all I'll defer on it afterall... In the future for budget is there a mileage cutoff that you guys would not feel comfortable looking at?

 

Honestly not really. With the exception of super high mileage, its all personal preference. My first s2k had 114k miles, and my second one has 58k miles at time of purchase. Both drove amazing. For me i wanted something under 60k miles. For others a tad over 100k is fine. I was very picky in my requirements for one and i managed to get 99% of what i wanted. (my first color choice was not suzuka blue but it wasnt a deal breaker for me).

Is this going to be a weekend toy? Or a track only vehicle? High mileage may not be a factor. Do you plan on driving this A LOT and maybe re-sell in the future? Maybe look for something under 100k miles.

 

If the seller has been straight forward and you truly believe it was a tree branch I’d go for it. Seems like the main no no with s2ks is the frame and that shouldn’t be a worry for this car. For reference I bought a wrecked Jeep Wranger unlimited, fixed it up, drove it for 5,000 miles and still sold it more than what I had into it. I had to get the frame straightened and all that but still drove like a champ for long road trips. If it is a car to drive and not collector car why would you pay $18k+ for the same car. Remember parts for these cars are harder to come by a simple fender bender could turn into a total loss for s2ks nowadays.

 

For a drive-around, have fun car this looks OK to me assuming the frame, etc is all good. Hard top was never part of the car so it's destruction shouldn't have influenced the title.

This is a 2001 car with 2004-05 17" wheels which I consider a plus since it will never be a 100% car with that salvage title. Much wider tire selection with these wheels. Photos are showing the roof isn't retracting all the way but that's an easy fix assuming the roof itself is OK but there are no photos of that. Replacement roof with glass rear window runs about $1200 and up including installation. Patched roofs are approaching universal this many years after production.

There are, indeed, better cars out there but a 2006 or later with about this many miles will be in excess of $22,000, not $12,000 and this is the asking price. Salvage title influences resale value but that's already in the price of this car. These cars can now be driven for several years with no depreciation. 2006 and later cars are DBW with stability assist and traction control and can be tuned for significant mid range power which makes them highly desirable to me.

-- Chuck

 

That looks like the top of the screen surround is twisted - the weather seal looks out of line. MIght just be the angle of the picture. I would rather see proper pictures / go and take a proper look at it.