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Riddle me, these questions three:
1. Mileage
2. Asking price
3. How she knows the turbo is bad (IE, mechanic told her, she's guessing, her brother 'who knows a bit about cars' told her, etc.)
4. Any recent work done on it?
Anyway, the tiny pictures show that the body is in good shape, and its clean, which can be a good sign, but of course is only part of the picture. The turbo thing is a big question mark, there are a lot of things that can go wrong that might make it seem like the turbo is bad, but is actually a different problem. Some are cheap and easy to fix, some very frustrating and expensive. You should find out how she knows.
Check about any recently done work. There are some things (like suspension and transmission rebuilds) that are really expensive to do, but if they've been done in the last several years will be ready to go for hundreds of thousands of miles. For instance, my 2400$ wagon had an all-new front suspension and a recently rebuilt transmission, which means I can forget about those items for quite a while, which is a good piece of mind.
Don't worry if this one slips through your fingers, remember that there are lots of possibilities for these cars out there, and you don't need to take the first one that you see.
Also, you may consider getting a small loan to help pay for the car. Have a respectable family member co-sign a personal loan (it wouldn't be considered an 'auto loan' in this case), then choose a payment amount and term (like 200$ a month for 18 months or something), and then use that to buy the car. If you make your payments, in the end you'll end up with some good credit, and you'll have a car through the whole time. If you go that route, get a little more than the cost of the car, so you can afford maintainence like brake pads, tires, and fluids that almost always needs to be done early on. Make absolutely sure you can make the payments, too! Good credit is great, but bad credit is worse than no credit.
peace,
sam
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"That f***in' biodiesel is makin' me hungry."
1982 300TD Astral Silver w/ 250k (BIO BNZ)
2001 Aprilia SR50 Corsa Red w/ 5.5k (>100 MPG)
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