Author Topic: should i buy this car?  (Read 1451 times)

Taurenthefirst

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should i buy this car?
« on: July 26, 2005, 01:54:22 am »
1990 Buick Reatta

it\'s a 2 seater, but is has a ton of trunk space, and there is room behind the seats for a third person to lay down in if need be.

the entire dashboard is electronic on a digital screen. it\'s really cool.

has a digitalized climate control system which works fine.

alpine stereo system, speakers work great.

66k miles (sorry, don\'t know this in km)

brand new b f goodrich tires

new paint job done by a proffesional less than a year ago

the car is a 2 and a half hour drive away from my house, but i\'ve already been down there and test drove it, engine runs perfectly, transmission seems great, brakes work fine, interior is in almost perfect condition, not a single scratch on the paint, not a single dent either.

this car would get over 20mpg from what i\'ve heard.

2 previous owners, the latest one was a part time mechanic and made a living fixing and selling tractors and also repairing small aircraft

problems:
power locks don\'t work, if you push the button they only come up half way, and they have to go all the way up to unlock, however, once the car starts moving at a good speed, they lock automatically, and that works fine.  also, this isn\'t much of a problem anyway, since there are only two doors...

molding on the drivers side door fell off while we were test driving it, but it just looks like the clips holding it on had broken

there are two buttons for the horn, one is missing, the other does not work

if i ever break the windshield, replacement ones will be very difficult to find, and will also cost around $1000 (sorry, don\'t know other monetary units)

might have expensive insurance, but my parents are paying my insurance for the first year or two atleast.

price the owner is asking- $3950
i have $3500 cash, and this would be my first car.  i\'d have to borrow some money from my parents to get and to fix the horn atleast, not worried about the lock, i can probably fix the molding myself with about $50 for parts.

i HAVE to get a car within the next month, i\'m heading off to college, but since i\'m only 16, my parents want me to come home every weekend... plus i\'ll still have soccer practices to go to... so i\'m definitely gonna need a car.  i gave them a check for $250 as a down payment for them to hold it for me untill i decide whether or not i want it, if i don\'t want it i can just stop payment on the check. as of right now i\'m planning on getting it, and picking it up this friday night after my college orientation.  anyway, on to the pictures:

(this is the picture that was in the ad. i took the others myself)
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oh yeah, just a little more info on the car, a very limited number of these were made, and they were only made from 1988 to 1991, so eventually the value of these cars will greatly increase (although the convertible version is already worth far more, some people are beginning to sell them for more than their original market value, which is around $25,000)

so, what does everyone think?


« Last Edit: July 26, 2005, 01:55:42 am by Taurenthefirst »

Phinehas

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« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2005, 02:05:01 am »
Don\'t do it! Actually, I know almost nothing about cars, so it looks good to me.

Quite frankly, I\'m more intrigued by the fact that you\'re going to college at 16... How did that happen?

Taurenthefirst

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« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2005, 02:26:23 am »
crap... shouldn\'t have posted that...
oh well, the secret is out!

i\'m actually really smart... sometimes i try to hide that though (like on these boards, never capitalizing or spelling properly or using proper grammar)
the problem is... well around where i\'m from most people are basically stupid, and if you are smart, they get jealous and think you are stuck up and just try to stay away from you.  i learned at a young age to hide my intelligence as much as possible so that i could have friends.  now it is just sort of a habit to act normal...

anyway, i have made all a\'s my entire life (not like that\'s saying anything with our school systems)
in the hardest classes offered.  as a high school freshmen i took the psat and made the equivilant of a 1380 on the old sat, and this got a whole bunch of colleges interested in me. i received a ton of mail and towards the end of my sophomore year of high school, i received 2 letters, one from west georgia university, and one from middle georgia university.  they each have a rare program (i think there are like 13 of them in the u.s. or someting) that allows high school juniors to go to college and receive both high school credit and full college credit for their last 2 years of high school.  i will take regular college classes along with regular college students, but there is a completely seperate dorm hall with rules oriented around high schoolers.  long story short, after completing the real sat (i had to have the scores to get accepted, and i made a 1420 on the old one, or a 2000 out of 2400 on the new one, however they used the scores from the old one, because this is the first year the new one has been used, and there are still problems with the scoring) and a bunch of questionaires and interviews, i finally got accepted to both colleges.  in the end i decided on west georgia, not that that means anything to any of you.  i already have received my schedule, and orientation is this friday.  classes start the 18th. each college accepts between 50 and 80 new high school students to their programs each year.

anyway, anyone else have comments on the car?

edit:
oh yeah, the great news about me going to college: i\'ll be getting a much faster computer, so i\'ll actually be able to play planeshift! and i\'m sure i\'ll get my roomate interested in it too.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2005, 02:29:44 am by Taurenthefirst »

Phinehas

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« Reply #3 on: July 26, 2005, 02:34:30 am »
Hmm... I know what you mean about trying to act normal. I may not be super-intelligent, but I\'m definitely, well... different at some fundamental level from my peers.

Oh, sorry for hijacking the thread...

Umm... cool car!!! It roxxorz!!11one

Efflixi Aduro

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« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2005, 03:52:49 am »
I say no. I think it\'s over priced for a 1990 car. Too many problems and too..old. You don\'t want problems with your first car. I plan on getting 1999 Acura Integra for my first car.
Also, try not getting an american car. Despite what they say, they still break. My uncle bought a 2004 Eddie Bour Expedition and he already traded it in because of the amount of trouble it gave.

Edit: Tell me what you want and you budget and I\'ll find you a good car. Cars are my thing. :)

Edit: Also, if the car is as collecatble as you say it is you should buy it, repair what needs to be fixed, and keep it stowed away. 66k moles is nothing at all for a 1990 car and you should keep it that way.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2005, 04:05:21 am by Efflixi Aduro »
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dragonfire999

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« Reply #5 on: July 26, 2005, 06:13:59 pm »
I have a 95 buick regal, it has a great ride and it is fun to look at. I say go for it. My car came out at 4500$ :)

Quote
= <3

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Keyaz

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« Reply #6 on: July 26, 2005, 07:45:58 pm »
you can buy a new one for the same amount of money, just make sure oyu look around a lot before you make a decision

verideon

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« Reply #7 on: July 26, 2005, 11:10:08 pm »
the car looks OK but as the others have said it will have tonnes of crap going on with the motor soon. We bought a 95 version Ford XR6 on EBAY, it\'s practilly brand new, only driven once or twice by the originak owners :P
yes... i\'m addicted to smilies :P:):D;), get me mental help peoples....

Taurenthefirst

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« Reply #8 on: July 27, 2005, 12:32:05 am »
Quote
Originally posted by Demarthl
you can buy a new one for the same amount of money, just make sure oyu look around a lot before you make a decision


a new what for that much money? ive been looking for about 2 months, looking at all the dealerships around where i live, looking for cars on the side of the road, looking in magazines, looking on the internet (that\'s how i found this one), and every car i\'ve seen in this price range either has alot more wrong with it than this one (for example, i found a dodge stealth with 107k miles on it, and they were asking $5k for it, but it still had alot of problems. it needed the front end aligned, had no ac (although it could probably just be recharged), the brake light never turned off, and it needed 2 rear tires.  i consider that to be alot more problems than there is with the reatta, and all this with more miles and a higher price (although we did get him to go down on the price to $4000)...and this was the best car we found before the reatta)

@efflixi
yeah, i agree, i\'d rather not get an american car, but it seems like all the asian cars are very overpriced. most celicas in this price range have between twice and three times the miles as this one, and don\'t get nearly as good as gas milage. and my grandparents have always bought buicks, and they are retired so they travel alot... by car... so they put alot of miles on them, and i don\'t think they have ever had any expensive repairs.


about it being old, i\'m not really worried about that, because it has hardly been driven, and when this car was made, it was top of the line, nicer than alot of cars made today...
(oh yeah, i forgot to metion, these were all hand made... i guess that is why they made so few of them)

oh, and if you really want to, feel free to find me a great car between $3k and $4k, i\'d be happy to have other options.

how much did your pay for that verideon? ive looked on ebay, and haven\'t seen any great deals... like i said, i have a very limited price range...

oh, by the way everyone, i probably won\'t put that many miles on this thing if i buy it, less miles than what has already been put on it.

thanks for the suggestions, more are welcome.

other cars ive looked at: mitsubishi eclipse
                                            mitsubishi 3000 gt
                                            toyota celica
                                            saturn sc2 (decided they were too ugly and overpriced)
                                            dodge stealth
                                            dodge avenger
                                            chevorlet camaro (i hate the way these look, would prefer not to buy one of these, but if i have to, i have seen a few with less than 130k miles in my price range)
                                             pontiac firebird... test drove one, it was pretty nice, but i haven\'t found any in my price range that weren\'t about to fall apart
                                            some others i\'ve forgoten, none of them really worth it.

the perfect car for me would be a corvette stingray... but of course they cost 4 or 5 times more than i have, and the insurance would basically cost as much as the car...

Efflixi Aduro

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« Reply #9 on: July 27, 2005, 01:08:43 am »
Go to autotrader.com and look for the cars you want its simple. Put your area, that car you want, and the price range. Ta Da! It gives you all the cars in your area for sale. No transaction or anything online, very good if you ask me.

I did a search for 300gts in my area for your price range, here\'s what I got:
http://autotrader.com/fyc/searchresults.jsp?advanced=&certified=&isp=y&search=y&lang=en&search_type=both&make=MIT&start_year=1990&end_year=2000&min_price=1&max_price=5000&distance=50&address=91214&model=3000GT&x=61&y=15
« Last Edit: July 27, 2005, 01:12:12 am by Efflixi Aduro »
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Taurenthefirst

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« Reply #10 on: July 27, 2005, 04:28:26 am »
yeah auto trader is where i found this one. i have 45 different cars bookmarked from this website (i counted them :D ).  trust me, i\'ve done my homework.

plus, all those have between twice and 3 times the miles as the reatta .  i know miles isn\'t everything, but it is a pretty good indicator of the shape the car is in.  unless it says something like new enigine and new transmission or something, there is no way i would trust something with 170k miles to be reliable enough for me to make an hour long drive everyweekend.

thanks for trying though!

don\'t worry, i haven\'t stopped searching, i want to make sure i get the best deal possible. (it was really hard to earn my money. i\'m not gonna waste it.) so far though, i haven\'t seen anything beat this.

Efflixi Aduro

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« Reply #11 on: July 27, 2005, 05:40:12 am »
Our family suv has like 150K miles on it and we just drove 8 miles back and forth to san francsico like 2 months ago. Im not telling you to go out and buy a high milage car but don\'t base it all on that.
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Taurenthefirst

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« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2005, 04:36:24 am »
dont worry i\'m not. my mom\'s van has 170k miles on it, not too many problems yet, although of course she has taken really good care of it... someone that is a little more careless, well, alot more can go wrong.

oh yeah, got a carfax on the reatta, and the dodge stealth i was talking about (still the second best option)
and everything checked out perfectly for both cars, neither one ever wrecked, or any of the other bad stuff carfax checks for (too much to list here, when i printed it out it was like 8 pages long)

Jabanger

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« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2005, 01:23:33 am »
DON\'T BUY SATURN!!!!!!  they are the worst freaking cars in the world.  I bought a 92 with 65k miles on it and in 2 years it died on me with $1200 left to pay on it.  I changed the timeing chain twice, the head, starter, all 4 struts were toast, the driver seat had to be held up with a 2x6 and it took me 3 hrs to change the alternator.  so whatever you do. DON\'T BUY A SATURN!!!

Efflixi Aduro

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« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2005, 01:53:41 am »
Quote
Originally posted by Jabanger
DON\'T BUY SATURN!!!!!!  they are the worst freaking cars in the world.  I bought a 92 with 65k miles on it and in 2 years it died on me with $1200 left to pay on it.  I changed the timeing chain twice, the head, starter, all 4 struts were toast, the driver seat had to be held up with a 2x6 and it took me 3 hrs to change the alternator.  so whatever you do. DON\'T BUY A SATURN!!!


May I say thats quite a unique first post. :P
And, he\'s right. Saturns suck.
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