Hi, I must have pushed a wrong button as my post disappeard! Fingers crossed this works.
I have been a lurker for a few years as I love these cars but still have quite a few projects to finish off. I live in Australia and have been keeping an eye on prices. You used to get a nice driver in the high-teens to low 20's (oz dollars), but over the last 2 years or so these have crept up to 40's and 50's! (see carsales.com.au). Though not ready to get another car, I am thinking of jumping aboard the bandwagon before the prices go out of reach.
I am a bit different to most, in that I love the exterior look of the car, but am not overly inspired by the interior. A (relatively) cheap car has popped up for sale and I was tempted by it as it looked reasonable but had a rough interior. I was wondering if I could get it for a low price by talking down the seller due to the interior condition, and then customise the inside to my desires. So I was hoping for some info on the costs to fix up an interior to standard, and what bits are NLA. (I want a black interior anyway, this cars is grey).
Armed with the info from the buyers guide on this forum, my mate went and inspected the car. Here is some info on it.
This seat belt part is toast! Are these parts available, and at what cost?
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And the centre console is terrible, and the trans selector surround is broken (and I understand to be NLA). Do these ever come up in used condition for a RHD car? Cost?
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You can see all the plastics are tired, and several buttons/knobs are missing.
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The headliner is sagging, and A-pillar covers are all damaged. The carpets are all damaged with grease stains.
I see rotomoto712 has done a great job on a new custom interior and carpet, hopefully he can give me some indication of what he has spent (although prices in oz are always higher as our labour costs are so high).
The main dash panel pixels work, but the centre console one is playing up, despite him saying that he had replaced it. There were quite a few receipts for electrical work in recent years.
The front grille is broken, and the nosecone has damage. Are they fiberglass or plastic? Can they be fixed?
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How much are rear tail lights, as one is cracked?
The sunroof does not work, and is rusty. That seems to be a bit common. How much can I knock off his price to fix all this?
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Overall, mechanically the car seemed to go pretty well, and had a stack of service records. So it is pretty much the opposite of what the buying guide says.
The guy has $15k on it, and the car has 202,000 km. Is it due for expensive timing belt replacement or something? He has spent about $110k on it in his 15 years of ownership. And yet it is still ragged.
Ok, sorry for so many questions, I hope you good people can help me. I suspect though that the advice may be to run away!!
Cheers, Drew
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