thanks guys,
just went to see and test drive it. it's an old lady's car and has the exterior dings and stuff to prove it. mechanically it feels sound. i spoke to the local mech who serviced it and he said there were no problems on it at all (taken with a grain of salt). supposedly, all the oil changes were done religiously. only thing i felt was that at about 30 mph, when i floored it, it didn't seem to kick down into second and revs just stayed in the 2k-3k range. i could shift it from second to third and pickup was ok. is this usual?
BTW, the car is in the Asbury heights area in NJ. if you know of anyone that can check it out in that area please let me know.
cheers...
PS. carfax was the first thing i did - came out clean.