I'm looking at purchasing this 2004 s2k clean title for 16k. The only problem is the owner ran into a mishap on the freeway and smacked a curb. The ride height became uneven so he took it to a shop and they told him an alignment should correct it. The side that he smacked the curb became lower like 1.5" or so. He's been to 2 alignment shops and the results are still the same. Finally, he dropped it with some coilovers to even it out.

Is this a big enough problem for me to avoid this car?

 

I'm no expert, and because of that, I wouldn't know what to look for and so I would avoid it out of fear.

 

Maybe you should take it to a shop as well, at least hes being honest with you... Take it to a shop (or several) and get have a mechanic look over the suspension components.

 

Stay away.

 

Your control arms may be bent, which is easy and cheap to replace yourself. I highly doubt that there is any frame damage. This has happened to me before and my wheel was severely misalligned. The rear wheel was pointing inwards and the rim was cracked. I brought it to several shops and they said the frame may be damaged but it turned out not to be true. It cost me $250 to fix myself.

 

So it could be control arms? He's been driving the s2k like this (coilovers evening out height) for 15k miles already without any problems.