Should I buy It...?

First off, long time no see to the community, its probably been a year or more since I last logged on. Awsale for a 185 I really wanted fell through and after searching for almost 2 years before hand, looking at Tracs became depressing so Ill admit I just walked away, however the alltrac obsession never died. Now I want to reintroduce myself to the community and reach out for advice before I act this go around... I'm still relatively knew to the alltrac.net but not to the tracs themselves have both helped worked on them and have had buddies who haved owned them seeing first hand the headache and pleasure of ownership. This inter, leads to why I'm posting this, a used dealership about four hours drive from my location has a 1988 st165 for sale, overall car looks in good condition with only minor details to be looked at. Millage is high, around 180 thousand and the interior is showing its age, such as ware on the seats, cracks in the dash, missing the interior door opening leavers on both sides, etc. It however has a clean title, appears to have never been modded and is completely intacted. Intacted meaning it still has all the orginal oem gear, like the original spare tire, Jack stand, tire wrench, cargo hatch cover, floor mats, tape deck, etc. The dealer also is offering financing for it as well, there asking $5000 for it with a $1000 down. I know most would say just pay cash and be done, I however started my own business about a year ago and everthing I have savings wise keeps going back into it, naturally. I dont exactly mind having a monthly payment if it's for a trac but not sure if $5000 is to much or reasonable, I want to at some point collect all three gens but starting with the first makes the most cents. So after teading all this do you guys think it would be worth it?

I've checked out this car as well as two of my other friends! Needs a few things like tires and a battery in regards to drivability but other then that a strong motor. Some of the concerns you should consider are the dash is cracked pretty bad, door lock covers are missing "normal for a 88 celica", missing the ceiling light and no privacy cover for trunk which is normally missing on 88 celica's other then
That there's nothing really wrong with the interior and exterior. Now for the price! Each one of us who checked out the car tried to get him to lower it cause $5,000 for a 88 with pretty high mileage kind of sucks even when we had cash in hand ready to purchase but got zero results from it! Overall nice car that can be saved But pretty shitty price

Couple things i noticed is something looks wrong wit the coolant over flow bottle, not sure if rust or what. The second thing that kills its value is the dash. Sure you CAN find a new dash. If i was to buy this one also the price range on the high end discounting i fou d a used dash is 4200, 3800 for meire "i got a good deal" this is a $3500 private sell though. Miles, it depends on how hard it was driven. Best way to tell is third gear pulls on and off leaving it in gear. Checking for decell smoking, knocking or pinging of any kind. Does the a/c work? What are your plans if you got it?

Im not one to knock price, heck i grossly over priced mine for the merely by chance someone might want the red car. If someone has been on this site, they know what 165/185's are worth. And personally, all four ive bought, paid 1000 or less for better condition. Timing is key, cash in hand, and quick draw.

I do want to point out ive put way more into the cars when i do sell them.

Awesome-Trac":2osiqc54 said:

I've checked out this car as well as two of my other friends! Needs a few things like tires and a battery in regards to drivability but other then that a strong motor. Some of the concerns you should consider are the dash is cracked pretty bad, door lock covers are missing "normal for a 88 celica", missing the ceiling light and no privacy cover for trunk which is normally missing on 88 celica's other then
That there's nothing really wrong with the interior and exterior. Now for the price! Each one of us who checked out the car tried to get him to lower it cause $5,000 for a 88 with pretty high mileage kind of sucks even when we had cash in hand ready to purchase but got zero results from it! Overall nice car that can be saved But pretty shitty price

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Hey, thanks for that great insight man, I really appreciate! Damnit though, this is where the "Ugh" :bangshead: factor comes in, I should say I was hoping for the best but at the same time, Im not really at all that surprised. For what it would cost me to get it "road worthy" it dosnt make much sense economically to get $4000.00 loan just to have to dump another $1000.00 or more on top of that I would of at least thought the dealer would of taken care of, i.e. the tires and battery. I'll admit thats one of those things that pisses me off. Private party might be the next best thing cutting out the "middle guy" however my budget is only $3000.00 right now. I found another 165 for sale in SoCal but it needs some work such as a new shifter cable (has no 3,4, or reverse gears), front grill is missing, new tires, and window regulators. Not to mention what the guy selling might not be disclosing, he wants $3500.00 for it as is and dosent want to haggle too much, Has a few Mods such as FMI, turbo timer, blowoff valve, lowering springs etc. Id give him $2500 for it though no questions asked. Otherwise, theres also 185 up in NorCal thats also been listed but guy wants $5000 firm and it too needs work, not to mention it has a salvage title on it. It does have a lot of mods done though, haven't check with the seller to see if he'd sell it completely stock. So beyond all thought just not sure, I do feel time is starting to work against me though because these cars are getting harder to find in any condition. I believe the Trac platform still has a bit of a good future left just because of the volume that was sold over seas and the JDM RC edition will be importable next year under the 25 year exemption. But good luck getting that legally registered in "Commiefornia" under CARBs BS rules :lol: . So…, I'm just not sure but dude I so want to get my ass into a trac right now… :shrug:

tubasteve":1e6ykwfr said:

Couple things i noticed is something looks wrong wit the coolant over flow bottle, not sure if rust or what. The second thing that kills its value is the dash. Sure you CAN find a new dash. If i was to buy this one also the price range on the high end discounting i fou d a used dash is 4200, 3800 for meire "i got a good deal" this is a $3500 private sell though. Miles, it depends on how hard it was driven. Best way to tell is third gear pulls on and off leaving it in gear. Checking for decell smoking, knocking or pinging of any kind. Does the a/c work? What are your plans if you got it?

Im not one to knock price, heck i grossly over priced mine for the merely by chance someone might want the red car. If someone has been on this site, they know what 165/185's are worth. And personally, all four ive bought, paid 1000 or less for better condition. Timing is key, cash in hand, and quick draw.

I do want to point out ive put way more into the cars when i do sell them.

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On the overflow is a little plastic reservoir that had a crack on it with left over coolant crust just like when I bought mine

There was an app/site i used when i helped friends and myself get alltracs. It searched all craigslist postings across the country for every alltrac listed, and updated you when a new post with keywords i chose would pop up.

Keywords are basic, but makesure to include typos

Alltrac
Alltrack
All trac
Altrac (most hits i got)

tubasteve":1aefae7i said:

Couple things i noticed is something looks wrong wit the coolant over flow bottle, not sure if rust or what. The second thing that kills its value is the dash. Sure you CAN find a new dash. If i was to buy this one also the price range on the high end discounting i fou d a used dash is 4200, 3800 for meire "i got a good deal" this is a $3500 private sell though. Miles, it depends on how hard it was driven. Best way to tell is third gear pulls on and off leaving it in gear. Checking for decell smoking, knocking or pinging of any kind. Does the a/c work? What are your plans if you got it?

Im not one to knock price, heck i grossly over priced mine for the merely by chance someone might want the red car. If someone has been on this site, they know what 165/185's are worth. And personally, all four ive bought, paid 1000 or less for better condition. Timing is key, cash in hand, and quick draw.

I do want to point out ive put way more into the cars when i do sell them.

Click to expand...

Some good points made here dude, what really got me excited was having the option to get it financed so I could still have a bulk left in my budget in case anything happened but if I have to dump a lot right off the bat, makes no sense.The Time part is spot on though, I've miss out on quite a few good deals because I was always a $500 or more short then what they asked for, I also planned to use it to help promote my business since I still do have one foot into the local import scene. Be a great way to network while talking about cars…

tubasteve":2gixq2pn said:

There was an app/site i used when i helped friends and myself get alltracs. It searched all craigslist postings across the country for every alltrac listed, and updated you when a new post with keywords i chose would pop up.

Keywords are basic, but makesure to include typos

Alltrac
Alltrack
All trac
Altrac (most hits i got)

Click to expand...

by any chance is that app "craigslist zone"? (Personal safety I know is also a must when checking out a car off craigs, why the dealer was enticing at the moment)

I also called them about this car a few months back and they were gonna ship it from Cali to VA for free and take off 500 but I decided to purchase another alltrac alittle closer to me. I will say inside and out the car looks ten times better then the one I bought and most of the ones I've looked into.

Jeeze, I feel like I got a steal on both of my 165's... I paid $750 for one of them and $550 (including $150 for towing) for the other one. I would see if you can talk them down a bit cause that does seem a bit steep for the condition.