whirlwind

[mamajoan]

Whew, yesterday was quite the day. Never managed to hook up with anotherjen, alas, but maybe we'll manage it this weekend or next week sometime. My mom is still away until next Thurs so I'll definitely be looking for some other companionship. ;)

Anyway, we, uh, did a bunch of stuff, did some napping, did more stuff. I dunno. It was a day. We did stuff. I was exhausted by the end of the day. So I made pumpkin-chocolate-chip muffins.

The real point of this post though is to update on the car that I looked at, and see if y'all have any advice.

This car is a 1997 Subaru and it's in beautiful shape at least outwardly. It's the owner selling it, not a dealer like the last one. The guy seems nice and the car is just about right (a little high mileage, but they all seem to have that). Yesterday he brought it to my mechanic, and the mechanic said that the timing belt was leaking oil and that the clutch is going. When I spoke to him he said that the clutch would probably need replacing in the next six months. Apparently he told the car's owner a year, and said that the clutch is 70% gone. (He didn't say 70% to me, just that it was wearing out.)

So the owner emailed me today and said that he's taking the car next week to have the timing belt replaced and that ought to fix that problem. Which leaves the clutch. He says he doesn't understand how the clutch being 70% worn out means it has a year left -- by his math, if it took 7 years to wear out 70%, it'll take another three years to be worn out completely. I'm not sure whether to laugh or just go "wtf?" I think this guy is applying math inappropriately to a real-world situation. I think he's assuming that the clutch wears out a certain set amount each [insert time period here], whereas the reality is much murkier, and anyway the more worn out it is, the faster it's going to continue to wear out. Does that make any sense? Granted I don't know much about cars, but that's my understanding. And anyway, I'd prefer to replace the clutch before it gets to 100% worn out, yeesh.

The other issue is that he's charging a bit more for this car than most people are charging for the same model, because his has a couple of premium features. It has a CD player and premium sound system. It also has heated seats and side mirrors. These are very nice features, but I don't need them, so I'm not at all sure that I want to pay that much for them.

Now, if you recall the other car I was looking at, the guy was asking $5500 for a car that might need up to $2000 of work; I offered him $4000 and he said no. This guy is asking $6500 for a car that might need up to $800 of work (according to my mechanic's estimate of the cost to replace the clutch). Logically it would seem that I should offer him $6200 to be in line with the other one. But I'm not so sure I really want to spend that much on this car. I would rather get the same exact car but without the heated seats and premium sound, and pay $1000 or $1500 less. Of course, I haven't been able to find that mythical car, sigh....

So, the question is, what do I do? If the guy thinks that the clutch has another three years on it, he might not be too amenable to me trying to bargain the price way way down. But if the clutch needs replacing within the next six months -- which seems likely, given how much use I'll put it to -- then I can't see paying him that much for the car. Do I make him a lowball offer (e.g. $5000 which is $1500 less than he's asking)? Or a higher offer like $6000 and let him haggle me up to $6200? Or should I give up on this car and keep looking? I'm reluctant to drop it entirely, because now I've spent $170 to have my mechanic look at two cars, and it would suck to just lose that money. I mean, not that it wasn't well-spent, but if I decide to drop it and look for another car, that'll be another $85, and it really adds up, you know?

Maybe I can hope that when he takes the car in for the timing-belt service next week, the Subaru mechanics will tell him the clutch is in terrible shape....

Sigh. I don't know what to do. Why does buying a car have to be so damn hard?!! Argh!!

In other news, Isaac was kind of acting weird yesterday, and I finally got off my ass to call his pediatrician about the cough that he's had for several weeks now. I'm a little worried he might have asthma or something. He's been waking himself up coughing almost every night. So now we have an appointment to see the ped next Monday, and now I'm wishing we had been able to make it for today, but oh well. And the daycare still hasn't told me whether they can take him next Thursday (school holiday, Veteran's Day, so they have extra kids) so I might have to take the day off again. ugh.

Comments

[mishaslair.livejournal.com]

Split the difference and offer $5,500?

[sydb42.livejournal.com]

I don't have any real experience with buying cars, so I don't know how much this is going to help. My husband and I recently sold a junker for $500 "family price", to my husband's great-uncle's stepson (if you can follow that). Truthfully, we were willing to sell it for $200 minimum, but wanted to see what we could get out of it (we started out at $700). I actually doubt that what this guy is selling the car for is actually his lowest amount he'll take (though I doubt his lowest price is as low, ratio-wise, as ours was--this car was taking up space in our garage and we were one step away from donating it when we got the offer to buy it). Depending on if he has other bites, he'd probably take enough less for you to be able to replace the clutch. I don't know if I'd go as low as $5000, but the worst that will happen is he'll say no way in heck and you'll still be looking for a new car.

I do kind of agree with the other person who said to split the difference and offer $5500.

[xochiquetzl]

Lowball him. At the very least, take off the $800 you'll need to spend on a new clutch.

I also think it's a potentially ominous sign that he's putting off maintenance like that. A bad clutch is bad for the transmission, and his reasoning on the timeline for replacement is indeed specious. If you trust your mechanic and like the car, well, it could be worth $5,000-5,700. But don't pay full (extra) price for a car with a bad clutch.

So, if you like the car, offer $5,000. Go ahead and let him counteroffer, haggle, but under no circumstances go over $5,700.

[xochiquetzl]

Also:

Montgomery Ward's used to do free car inspections for people buying cars. You might be able to find something similar.

Also also:

If you have a specific price you want to pay for the car--and you should--come up with a number, come up with the difference between that and what he's asking, and then subtract that from his number. Like, if he wants $6500 and you want to pay $5500, offer $4500. Okay, that's a big enough difference that he may laugh at you, but when he does, look him in the eye and suggest he counteroffer.

And again, do not pay more than what he wants minus the cost of clutch replacement.

[retch.livejournal.com]

It doesn't sound like you enjoy haggling, so go the honest route. Tell him what you are willing to pay for the car, explain that it is non-negotiable, and walk away if he doesn't take it.

I'd say take the value of the car to you, so no addition to the cost for those premium features that you don't care about, subtract out the necessary repair work, and offer that amount.

[babyotto.livejournal.com]

No advice on repairs, but I do love my subaru. You won't regret buying one, whatever you end up deciding about the price.