Checking out a used solara, what to look for?

[Bilybobjef]

Hey I'm going to check out an 00 Solara SE V6 5spd after work today with 106k on it at a local dealer. Any specific problem areas to look for when looking the car over and doing a test drive? They are asking 8800 but I'm hoping to get them to come down a bit if I do in fact want it. Thanks for your help!

[gone]

why do you want a used car with so many miles on it already

[variant]

106k is quite alot for that price, I wouldn't even pay 7,000 for it

[PXLpainter]

I'd pay $7K for it IF...

1) It was in excellent physical and mechanical shape.
2) Dealer also throws in a 3+ year bumper-to-bumper extended warranty.
3) Saleswoman is hot and offers to give you a BJ under her desk while you sign the papers.

[cdeez]

I'd pay $7K for it IF...

1) It was in excellent physical and mechanical shape.
2) Dealer also throws in a 3+ year bumper-to-bumper extended warranty.
3) Saleswoman is hot and offers to give you a BJ under her desk while you sign the papers.

scrap the 3 year warranty on the car..you should get a 3 year warranty on the bj..haha..

[MikeATL]

3) Saleswoman is hot and offers to give you a BJ under her desk while you sign the papers.

LOL.

[Bilybobjef]

While I do appreciate the humor and opinions can anyone actually help me with my question of what to look for as far as problem areas or things that should have been replaced by this mileage? Thanks again and feel free to keep the laughs coming.

[variant]

timing belt... and oil

[shocar4]

toyota's are very reliable cars and if maintained properly they will easily go for 300k.....106k is a drop in the bucket if the car has been taken care of! see if the timing belt has been changed, that will tell you if the previous owner cared about the car!

[rollaevo99]

look for Oil & Transmission gasket leak and also look underneath the frame for over spray paint if the car got into accident or something.

[Biggi_e]

I'd pay $7K for it IF...

1) It was in excellent physical and mechanical shape.
2) Dealer also throws in a 3+ year bumper-to-bumper extended warranty.
3) Saleswoman is hot and offers to give you a BJ under her desk while you sign the papers.

HAHAHA you and your humor

[dominoSLEV6]

timing belt... and oil

When you driv eit try and get a feel fr the suspension, if it's super rocky you should replace the struts too. I'd say the timing belt is more important than that by far though. Also see if they replaced the water pump when the timing belt was done. Make sure you don't just have a guy telling you this, make sure they can prove it. Apparantly a lot of peoples CD players have broken in their Solaras. I've had two and they've been fine, but you may just want to check all the accessories and stuff like that. It would be a bummer to get the car and then discover the passenger side mirror controls are broken or something small like that. It's probably still on the originial clutch, whcih I'm sure you can find out for yourself just by driving. The clutch should be good to almost 150k even if it's driven right.

All that being said, I paid $8,100 for a 99 V6 5spd with 76k on the ODO, so I think their price is a litte high. Also mine has leather, I know that isn't standard on the SE, it has the 16" premium SLE wheels as well and a fe wother options like full sized spare etc. If the one you're looking at doesn't have that stuff, I wouldn't even consider paying more than 7.5k. Honestly the car is a very valuable car, and in the long run, better than many other cars you could get for 8.8k, but there are many places you can find one for less. I see SLE V6s with similar or less miles going for less money than that, and they come with full options such as homelink and autodim mirror, auto climate control and more. The only downside to them is they're only auto transmission. So if they're nto going to budge, I say shop around some more.

I did a kelly blue book on it for private party value as if you were buying it from a friend how much it should be worth, and even putting the leather option, premium wheels option, 4 wheel ABS, power seat, power sunroof and spoiler on the car, in good condition still only came up to be worth $6,760.

http://www.kbb.com/kb/ki.dll/kw.kc.ucp? ... pe&7;TO;S1

Go the the site yourself and put in every detail about the car to see what it comes up with, and bring that to the dealer with you to use as leverage.

After that it ust comes down to how much you want the car. When I bought mine private party like I said I paid 8.1k when the bluebook only came up to 7.2k, but I really wanted the car so I was willing to pay the extra $.

Good luck with everything, let us know how it goes.

-chris

[Coppertone_STL]

I'd also check Edmunds.com.

The site will let you enter-in every detail and extra about the car, so they can appraise what the dealer should be asking. It will even tell you how low they think you can talk them down. That's where I went before I got my car, and it told me the dealer's asking price was already lower than what Edmunds thought I could talk them down to.

[slamd02ranger]

That sounds really high. I bought a 1999 4-cylinder 5 speed for $8250

[Bilybobjef]

Well I checked out the car, its vastly different from my 05 WRX. Everything is so quiet and smooth. This car was in absolute pristine condition which is why I'm torn about it since the miles are higher than what I'd like. There is every single maintenance and oil change documented and done by Toyota with the car and not a scratch on it. I'd love to shop around more but there arent many V6 5spd's in my area and the ones that are around are in the same ballpark for more miles or not as good condition. I can get them to come down on the price a little but not a lot, guses I'm going to have to struggle with this decision on my own but thank you for all the info and opinions.