joeb Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 I am looking for a project. i found a 99sts and a 96 eldo for around 1500 each. the sts has bad headgaskets and the eldo will not crank. seller says it is a bad starter. i assume he tried to jump it. both have similar miles, 120k or so. i know the sts means major work while the eldo might be low effort. but what if the eldo has other issues? like a bad motor or weak trans? how do you price a car that will not start? give him scrap value or low ball him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Jim Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Ten year old car with bad head gaskets.... Thirteen year old car that won't start.... It is LOWBALL time. No way would I give 1500 for one that will not even START. 500..MAYBE...if everything else looks REAL GOOD and it has a good set of tires and wheels. On a more serious note... I would take a spare battery over and do a little troubleshooting on it. It may only be a bad starter...or it may be something a lot more serious. I am kinda suspicious of the El Dorado also... Looks like if it was only a bad starter.. as cheap as that would be to fix...looks like he would fix it so he could get more for the car. Just my opinion...it's worth what you paid for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgaouette Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Ask yourself this.Car- $1,500, timesert - $2,500, struts, transservice (while engine out) and all the other things that are likely wrong with a car that an owner felt was not worth fixing the motor on - $2,000. Ask yourself, would I pay $6K for this car if it was working?? A running 99 with 120,000 miles on it can be had for less money. As for the eldo, I'm with Texas Jim. If it were a starter it would be fixed. Also, it's probably only a 2K car if running and driving fine with no major problems. My experience with Caddys is after 100K or even 80K they are very cheep to buy and depending on maintenance history they can be very good or very bad from this point on. Walk away or plan on some head aches!!!! Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeb Posted February 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 a friend works at a small shop that does auto repair and they see a ton of customers who walk away from the cars after they find out what it costs to fix them. they have to basically tell the customers to drag them away. but he works in a shop where folks with problems come to. i am a regular joe blow and its hard to find folks who want their cars hauled away. i have never seen a 10yr old caddy on any free website for less than $500. i am sure there are a ton of them sitting in peoples driveways but how do i find them? so the guy who wants 1500 might take 500? he might tell me to go f**k myself too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Jim Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 a friend works at a small shop that does auto repair and they see a ton of customers who walk away from the cars after they find out what it costs to fix them. they have to basically tell the customers to drag them away. but he works in a shop where folks with problems come to. i am a regular joe blow and its hard to find folks who want their cars hauled away. i have never seen a 10yr old caddy on any free website for less than $500. i am sure there are a ton of them sitting in peoples driveways but how do i find them? so the guy who wants 1500 might take 500? he might tell me to go f**k myself too. Yep...he may tell you exactly that...but, the question is....what have you lost if he does? Answer...NOTHING. You still have your money..and he still has a non running 13 year old car. I would approach him in a friendly manner, not with an attitude. I would make no comments about how bad the car is...but I would walk around it, and gently touch any bad places on it, but making NO COMMENT on the bad places. He is watching you and HE SEES the bad places the same as you do. You don't need to mention them at all, till you start negotiating the price. Then just talk to him and feel him out, to see what he might be open to for an offer. I don't know your age of experience in dealing with something like this, so my remarks are kinda generic. NONE of them are directed at you personally. Have you priced RUNNING Cadillacs in your area? $3000 bucks might buy a pretty good one, since times are hard for a lot of people. Just something else to keep in mind as you are looking around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHE Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 a friend works at a small shop that does auto repair and they see a ton of customers who walk away from the cars after they find out what it costs to fix them. they have to basically tell the customers to drag them away. but he works in a shop where folks with problems come to. i am a regular joe blow and its hard to find folks who want their cars hauled away. i have never seen a 10yr old caddy on any free website for less than $500. i am sure there are a ton of them sitting in peoples driveways but how do i find them? so the guy who wants 1500 might take 500? he might tell me to go f**k myself too. So what if he tells you what to do with yourself? The Eldorado seems like a "pig in a poke" to me. If all that was wrong was a starter, why wouldn't the owner replaced the starter (or have had it done)? That would be the question I would be asking. It could be that he was quoted a rip-off price to replace the starter (that is easier than most to replace but dealers, mechanics, etc. always capitalize on the fact that it is under the intake manifold - and it's a Northstar engine...). My philosophy is that if you're not embarrased about your offer, your offer is probably too low... Always know where you want to end up out of the deal and go from there. In the case of the $1500 car, I would expect you'd want to be in the $750-$1000 range - tops. So offering $500 is a good starting point. If the owner scoffs, or tells you what you can do with yourself, politely reply, "Counter me then" and go from there. If he won't budge, the hell with him - walk away. You've lost nothing at that point. The Eldorado might just have a corroded positive battery cable - you just need to look it over. Northstar starter failures are quite rare - the starters use premium components due to its location but that's not to say that the starters never fail. Kevin '93 Fleetwood Brougham '05 Deville '04 Deville 2013 Silverado Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lothos Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 I'm in the same area as Joeb. If it's the black STS I've seen it advertised for a little while now, I bet the seller would go down in price for sure. He's been posting ads for probably two weeks now or longer. There's also another 1996 (seville or deville maybe??) that needs headgaskets on the same site that's going for $575 so show him that as well. I bet you could talk him down to 700. It's a sharp looking car though, same color and style as mine I found the Eldorada as well and it looks like the seller put a new radiator in it last month and now doesn't want to do the starter also. Maybe it's overheating and needs possible headgaskets, but he states he has other cars and doesn't need this one. 105k miles on it. Both of the cars look pretty nice though. WARNING: I'm a total car newbie, don't be surprised if I ask a stupid question! Just trying to learn. Cheers! 5% discount code at RockAuto.com - click here for your discount! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPreston2001 Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Yeah just low ball him. Tell him how much a headgasket repair cost and try to point out some other problems you see with the car. If he says no then walk away. I wouldnt buy neither one of them for more than $500. You can find WAY better deals for $1500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeb Posted February 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2009 i am going to do the work myself. and i work for almost nothing. i found a couple of grand prix gtp's with motor issues. i had one before and they are fun to play with. it really depends on how nice the rest of the car is. body work is not my specialty. yes, i think 500 is probably a good starting place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolnesss Posted February 8, 2009 Report Share Posted February 8, 2009 Find out how long he's had them. That will play a big factor in the price he'll take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick7997 Posted February 9, 2009 Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 All good advice.... A guy I used to work with told me once "If you don't ask, the answer is always no..." I'm a big believer in the low offer. Personally, reading your posts, either one of those cars is $500 max. There could be a lot more wrong there than meets the eye... and you're assuming all the risk. And, has been previously said, you don't have to be insulting about it, or nitpick the cars verbally to his face.... Take another tack, just say "Hey, I'm interested, but I only have $500 to spend..." If he says no, fine. You have all the power. When you walk out of his yard, it could be two weeks before someone else rolls up. Tomorrow, you can be making an offer on another car.... At the moment, the world is full of great car deals... Picture this guy, sitting there for two weeks, thinking "Man, I shoulda took the $500..." I was in the process of leaving the dealership when I bought the Escalade. The sales guy comes out, he's like "Before you go, how about if I try him at this number...." Which was basically their "rock bottom" number minus $1500, $500 above my "final offer". I say sure, if he'll do it, I'll write it for that. I really didn't think they'd get anywhere close to that. To be honest, I would have split the difference. And I didn't think they'd do THAT, either... By sticking to my low offer, I now have a sweet truck and an extra $1500 in my pocket... which is nice. You just never know. Don't be afraid to go low low low, and be firm about it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stenseltizm Posted February 13, 2009 Report Share Posted February 13, 2009 I read a quote somewhere 'First rule of mechanics is listen to what the guy who couldn't fix it says, and then don't trust a word of it because he's the guy who couldn't fix it.' Don't be afraid to lowball him down to rediculous levels. Look at the resale value of these cars vs the potential repair costs, a no start is horrible for unknowns. The last car I bought as a no-start the owner swore up and down it ran beautiful but wouldn't start one day and he already had a new car. I bought it , diagnosed then fixed the fpr so it started right up and proceded to pour coolant through not just the headgasket but also the crack in the head. Then the non functioning radio didn't matter cause it wouldn't have been heard over the grinding wheel bearings. The 'only have x to spend' won't work as they'll jsut say come back when you have more. Do as mentioned above and silently look at or touch all issue areas (I research what is common trouble of the type of car before I go to look at it), then make an offer. If they scoff or counter explain all the unknowns and issues vs resale and tell them what it is worth to you and say you will go as high as this (50 or 100 more than your original offer). Finish without letting them try to argue it's value and without being pushy by giving them your number and telling them if they decide to reconcider to give you a call and leave. This shows you are in no hurry and have no intention of letting your want of a car overpower your logic of reason for its value. Give it a week and you'll have your car for the lowball deal, or someone else will have overpaid for the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Jim Posted February 13, 2009 Report Share Posted February 13, 2009 ^^^^^^^^^^ What he said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeb Posted February 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 did i mention the car with the bad starter has a new radiator? that means it probably has an overheating problem. could be the dreaded headgasket issue. i am not sure which car i want to go after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adallak Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 did i mention the car with the bad starter has a new radiator? that means it probably has an overheating problem. could be the dreaded headgasket issue. i am not sure which car i want to go after. I would leave the both alone... The saddest thing in life is wasted talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHE Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 did i mention the car with the bad starter has a new radiator? that means it probably has an overheating problem. could be the dreaded headgasket issue. i am not sure which car i want to go after. Classic sign of an overheating issue - an inexpierenced shop or owner replaces the radiator in hoping that will cure the overheating. In reality, the old radiator was perfectly fine. The STS I bought 3 years ago (knowing it had bad head gaskets) also had a new radiator. Kevin '93 Fleetwood Brougham '05 Deville '04 Deville 2013 Silverado Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeb Posted February 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 you have to take your poison to get a caddy for $500. you will not get a car for that price unless it has body damage or motor/trans issues. i am looking for 96-99 sts/eldo for <500$. that means something major has to be wrong. usually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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