This car has been on my local Craigslist for awhile. It's an 88 V6 with 105,000 miles. The guy has it priced at $3595. The interior is nice but it's a low option car and has rust on the lower fenders, door bottoms, and lower quarter panels. It's not moving so it's obviously priced too high. I'm thinking it's maybe a $1500 car on a good day. Thoughts? Here's the link, the text of the ad, and some pictures.
https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/5896927538.html
It sure doesn't look like a $3595 car to me but maybe I've been out of the used car game too long.
That would be a $500 car out here. Maybe $800 on a good day.
If someone drops $4k on it though... I know some people where everything is for sale if someone is stupid enough to buy it for that price.
I'm still thinking $1000-1500 on a good day. Hell if the thing is still up in a month or so I should offer him $1000 and see if he takes it.
Looks like the seam in front of the rear wheel has rust. That is not an easy place to fix
They're all like that here :hick:
A competent body shop can fix it fairly easily. It costs $$ though.
I agree with Haystack. If it were rust free, I could see it being a 1500 dollar car.
I should go lok at it and offer $800, just to see the GTFO look on the guys face.
Offer him $500 and let him talk ya up to $800.
Here's 1/8 of your asking price. Take it or leave it.
So basically its a shiznitty power train with a porno red interior and a rust bucket to carry all of it. I can only imagine what the underside looks like. I sold my grandmothers mint V6 '85 Cougar that was loaded with 130K on the clock for $1500 back in 2005. I am thinking WTF do I need on this car for $500 that I cannot get out of a salvage yard for $5.
If it runs and I needed a point A to point B I could see offering $800 and pray that it makes it a year with no fixes.
Exactly. Then after 6 months of it sitting on the front lawn with the sun faded for sale sign still in the window, you will he the only person to have even thrown out a price.
You want a Cougar badly. I...KNOW it. Come to the darkside we have cookies :D
In all seriousness it'll have to be from out of state or out of town at least. Nothing seems to be sacred there!
But for $500 I could strip it of spare trim/interior bits I need, sell any other stuff on here, and s the rest. I'd probably break evenish..
If I was buying a Cougar to keep I would get a V8 car. It would have to be from out of state unless the car has never seen salt/snow. Being realistic I have 4 cars now and I'm kinda out of room.....
I checked the NADA guide for fun. This Cougar is worth about $1000. From a dealer. I think I'm going to look at this Cougar after Christmas, if it's still for sale. I'll probably offer the guy $500 and tell him my offer stands if he doesn't sell the thing. Worst case I've got a $500 parts car :hick:.
I've emailed this guy several times about looking at the car. He hasn't responded. Apparently he really doesn't want to sell it. Or doesn't know how email works.
late to the table, i would call this a 1500$ coug. it is kept up but it isnt like he has a special coug at all with all the extras.
id start at 1k.
The more i look at the 88 3.8L the more im amazed at how unique "one year only" deal these are.
I just happned to notice.. Smog pump on top left.
Its like the 88 TC,, where there are so many evtm conflicts like the Ammeter not matching the diagrams so when doing a 3g,, you gotta be careful.
$1500 seems on the high end, especially with the rust issues.
in the end, it's like any other Cougar and is only worth what somebody will pay for it, be it $500 or $5,000 :-)
Just picked up an 86 5.0 tbird with 134k miles for $520. Rear quarter has a se from someone hitting a pole and there is some peeling paint/clear coat, but otherwise in pretty good shape.
Just gotta find out out my way and arrange for me to drive it over to ya.
Dang it!�� Why cant I find these.
Man that car is in better shape then mine and i almost have their asking price in mine not to mention the fact that it was given to me :/
Where are you finding them? Craigslist?
Just local classified. Mostly a site called ksl and occasionally craigslist. I usually just do a search once every day or two. I also missed a 87 3.8 car that ran and drove for $350.
They're not that cheap on my local craigslist when they pop up.
Ten - twelve years ago I could buy Turbo Coupes for that... The 5-speed, just over 100K mi red one in my sig was $420... The black & blue ones $150 & $250, both had bad auto trans, parted those out...
Look out in the utah/nevada area. Find a car, ill go look at it and ill bet we could pass it along members tp get it to ya. If I can get out of working day shift at my work, ill have 2-3 days off straight again. Id have the time of my life meeting up with some of the guys here. Havent met one member yet after 13 years of being on this forum.
Well if you find an 87-88 Thunderbird/Cougar (not a Turbo Coupe or 88 XR7) left me know.
Yeah I guarantee if you're looking on the regular, like he is, there are tons of 'em out there with not a speck on them.
My daily driver '87 MGM, paid $2k and another 600 to have it shipped here to Upstate NY from southern MO. Worth. Every. . Penny.
Definitely consider it!
I want a cheap parts car. Not something else to drive. I need an 87-88 parts car to stock up on spare exterior/interior trim, which is why a Thunderbird is preferable to a Cougar.
With this red Cougar I linked to if I got it cheap I'd strip the usable trim parts off of it and crush the body......because rusty V6 car.
Yeah it's gotta be a steal to make that worth it!
Have you checked http://www.car-part.com ? You keep an eye on yards and ebay long enough I think you'll amass the collection you want.
I've checked car-part.com and they have stuff I'd like. The problem is I'm pretty sure I'd have to buy a whole door to get the molding and trim off of it. Shipping a door is $$$.
I found a parts car about an hour from me. Problem is that it doesn't run. I don't have and don't have access to a truck and trailer to haul it. Could get it cheap enough to be worth it too.
http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/cto/5947275996.html
You need a trailer hitch on something you own....then it's called U-Haul car dolly $29 nannnteeee naaahnnnnn and send it! :)
You're right though, tougher to get someone to let you rip off door trim if that's your goal.
I'm fairly certain the weight of an 87 Thunderbird 5.0 exceeds the tow limits of all of my cars :hick:
Yeah to get a molding I'd have to buy a whole door. Doesn't seem cost effective. Neither does buying a whole car though...
Must not want it all that bad. You could just drive down there, pull the trim and call the junkyard instead of towing it home. Or just get it towed home, or borrow a buddys truck and rent a trailer. Or tow it yourself, tow rop only costs like $20 at harbor freight. Lots of options, guess the door trim just isnt worth it.
Well if I had a friend with a pickup truck to borrow then renting a trailer would be an option. None of my friends or family members own a pickup truck. Unfortunately. I'm for sure not tow strapping that thing to any of my cars as they are in far too nice a condition for that.
Buying a car for molding and trim may not be necessary now. I had a spare, beat up, piece of driver's door molding sitting around. I was able to restore it to almost like new in about 2.5 hours.
I'd still like a parts car just so I have spares of hard to find parts. Since I figured out how to restore the moldings, however, I don't need to find a parts car before my Thunderbird is painted in the spring. I've got time to wait for a good deal.
Ehhhhhh flat towing is good for, like, down the street. And even then it's dicey LOL
I'd have to flat tow that car 66 miles. Not happening.
You guys are no fun. Pull the driveshaft and let er rip. Ice towed cars over a hundred miles and work trucks even more.
If its not sketchy, its no fun.
You"d have loved this then: I pulled a 1971 Catalina with no transmission with a 1972 Firebird using a tow rope about 26 miles on back roads. We had to use the brakes on the Catalina to stop both cars at stop signs and such to keep them from bumping together. Talk about sketchy!!!
My first 86 my dad got at an auto auction for $110. No brakes, we drove it home at 2 am with only a really bad emergency brake.
I had one tbird I bought that had been sitting for almost 10 years. The tires were flat spotted and dry rotted. I pulled up the tires and drove it home under its own power. The serpentine belt broke, replaced that and hopped along at about 20mph the whole way. By the time I got it home, the tread had seperated and got thrown off big chunks of the tires, some of them only had chords showing when I got it home.
Apparently I am not as adventurous as you two ;)
LOL Reminds me of a old friend...
He, his wife an a couple kids were headed to PA in two cars with one needing a transmission, he and his brother were going to repl it when he got there(his dad had tow service and had lots of acquired vehicles they dragged in off the PA Turnpike)... Idea was if it ped out along the way they'd still have transportation... It made it up near Tappahannock VA(about 100 miles) and it quit pulling, so ole TC pulls out the pipe and chain, proceeded to strap them together and head for PA... Well they got somewhere around Winchester VA when a cop stopped them asked where he was going, TC says "just up the road"... Cop says, just up road where??? Uhhh Pennsylvania??? Cop exclaimed "get that ed thing off the road!!" He had to go rent a legitimate tow bar to finish the trip... Which was probably another 125 miles...
I drove home a parts truck with HORRIBLE death wobble. About 100 miles. The guy said almost at the last minute "oh itll start shaking sometimes, just steer left and hit the brakes". At first it felt like the world was ending, then after that it just pissed me off since I couldn't go above 50 mph for very long. Everything that wasn't already on the floor, was immediately on the floor each time it happened LOL
I drove a Turbo Coupe home with a dead brake booster which gives approx same braking as dragging your foot, far less brakes than a dead vacuum booster... At 40mph I followed a buddy and stayed around 200ft from him(kept left foot ready to hit clutch to shove it back into 1st or hit parking brake), problem was every idiot on road wanted to get between us... Luckily the auction site was only approx 7-8 miles from my house...
3 months later, still for sale. Now bargain priced at $3200. Seller removed the photos that show the body rust.
https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/6019988688.html
-used to tow Rangers and Thunderbirds with an old U-haul tow dolley i bought for $500, behind my SWB '88 Ranger with a welded on bar with ball. Atlanta to home was about the furtherest. Stopping and up/down hills were the wildest......
No way is that car worth $4k! What the heck are they thinking is so special about it? It's pretty but it'd have to have super low miles & no rust. People are nuts!
I saw another post on here about some guy complaining about how he only got $500 for a car that doesn't run & doesn't have a title! From the pictures, it looks pretty beat down regardless of how rare it is, I'd take $500 & run!
I think it falls under the "it's old so it's worth $$$$$" category.
That line of thought is usually wrong.
Body rust photos still gone, now bargain priced at $2900!
https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/6111250831.html
800 max. They should of got rid of it in the junker deal years ago,with the good ones that went there. We are few about what these car are and can be.
I walked away from a turbo coupe for $700. Body was in bad shape, it had been sitting since 1997. I bought a 83 carbed 3.8 cat instead for $300. Threw a battery in and it fired right up.
I'd offer him $800-900 at this point to see if he took it. Well if I didn't just blow all my fun money on a paint job :hick:
Well, now you dont need to buy an $800-900 peice of trim, right? ;)
Not till I build up the slush fund again :hick:
Still for sale! Now $2495! https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/6199956232.html