'02 with 50K miles - advice?
 

A friend of mine is considering buying an '02 ES (w/ GT pkg - sunroof/spoiler/16" alloys) Sedan with 50K miles on it (81000 KM's) ...asking price is $12000 CAD. Aside from verifying that the maintenance records are up-to-date, is there anything else we should check out? For the Canadians out there, what do you think of this price?

He would be putting about 50K km's on the car a year, so I'm not sure if buying a car with 80K km's on it is such a good idea...

<~~not canadian but I'd check for rust.

Also, old buyers tip....check te dipstick. Pull it out, observe the oil color and condition. Then wipe the stick dry and look at it. If there is black/brown gum built up on the dipstick the person hasn't taken good care of the engine.

HI Steve ES.

$12000 is a fair retail price. With 80K the car is considered rough. To give you an idea, rough wholesale is about $10300 in black book. If your friend is buying from a dealer, he may have a hard time getting a better price. If he is buying from an individual, he may have room to negotiate. I just bought an ES GT 4 drs sedan with 72000KM for $10,000 even. It may seem like a bargain but the paint on mine is a little rough (the seller wanted the balance of his payments and nothing more). One thing to watch for: tires. The 16 inch tires are hard to find and very expensive. If the tires are no good, factor in $150 per tire to get new ones and try to get a better price. Hope that helps

I imagine the roads in Halifax are a lot like the roads here in Michigan - rough, with potholes, frost heaves, and expansion joints due to severe winter temperatures. I would take the car for a spin on a variety of different roads, and listen for buzzes, squeeks, and rattles. This is not a major concern, but a rather loose car can be a lot more annoying (and a lot less satisfying) than one that is tight and quiet.

We took the car out for short (15 minutes or so) test drive today. No signs of rust, and very few "blemishes" on the paint... it's black though, so everything shows. The interior was very good, with just one tiny half-inch rip in the passengar side fabric where the air bag is. New tires (stock size) were installed about 10K ago - Federal's (I was asking about these on this forum not too long ago - they seem like decent tires and rode quite well... so it seemed, being the passengar on a short trip). The nice thing about this car is that the original owner bought an extended warranty for it, 4 years/100K km's on the powertrain. Apparently Mazda charges a $40-50 "transfer fee" for the warranty though... seems strange to me.

btw, mrompre, I bought Kumho 711's for $105 a piece and the Federal's are $96. Not quite $125.. :)