OK, I’ve had communications with this guy who is selling his ’04 Crossfire with 57K miles on it for $10000 OBO. It’s a graphite, automatic, pictures look pretty decent (not the best quality pics on craigslist). He lives just outside of town, but work IN town. He will bring the car in the morning for me to check out in person. He says the car is in “excellent” condition both mechanically and cosmetically. Says he brought to dealerships, and they like it but obviously won’t give him what it’s worth so he’s selling it on his own (I don’t really blame him there).

Well, I’m nervous about making such a large investment without SOME sort of assurance, so I ran a car fax on it and it comes up clean as a whistle. No accidents/damage, ONE owner, Personal vehicle, no open recalls, etc.. Makes me happy to know that he’s not trying to intentionally deceive me. Car fax does, however, only say it’s a 1 owner vehicle while he says he bought it from someone else. Not exactly sure what that means. He HAS had the car serviced locally, and even though there is a lien on it, we both have accounts with the same credit union where I received a loan preapproval just today. They say they can handle all the paperwork for us in one visit (which is great).

The credit union also offers an extended warranty for over $1K with different lengths of coverage: 60/48/36 months from $1,157 to $1,744. I think I should get this, but I’m already stretching funds a bit as it is. Yes, you can give me your thoughts on this as well.

I asked him about tires and I’m wondering if you think I should add this factor in with the negotiating of the price. He said they may be about 50% worn. I’d rather have better rubber on the road than that. I got a quote from Discount Tire to install all 4 tires (Kumho SPT) with warranty, blah, blah, blah... for $756.80 installed. Not too bad a deal for fairly decent tires. They are matching cost as it is on tirerack.com which is $600.00, but all the extras bring the final price up. Tell me what you think. I’ll take any suggestions I might be able to use in the negotiation of this car. Everything looks good “on paper”, but seeing it in person will be the final thing.

Thanks for enduring my lengthy entry.