The maintenance History will not show these types of examples of potentially very significant factors in a cars life...

1. The owner has every oil change record at the proper number of miles from the dealer... but the car's oil plug came loose once and the car was driven (pick a number) of minutes before the driver noticed that no oil pressure was showing on the guage...

2. A radiator hose gave way or split and the engine overheated before then owner realized what was happening...

3. In winter the owner slid into a curb on ice... but some shop set the toe-in so you can not feel any problems.... but you will have to redo the front end to keep from wearing out tires.

4. The Maintenance History was kept in the owner's house that burned down.
It could be a GEM of a car... with absolutely NO " maintenance History" in the sence of " paper documentation" ... which is what I took H's statement to mean... as compared to " the actual maintenance history" .. the physical things which were done to the car which are not knowable at this point in time.

And Many cars don't have paper histories of what has been done to them.. so I still think a present day mechanical check is the important thing.

Just so that we understand each other. I agree that a mechanical check is probably the most important thing.

But, since you mentioned it, let's take a look at your aforementioned items.

#1:
Do you think that an independent appraisal company can determine the wear on the main and rod bearings due to a situation that occurred many years ago? If the oil pressure reads 1.0 bar when warm and climbs up to 3.0 bar at 2500 rpm, do you honestly believe an appraisal company will realize what occurred here?

#2:
Engine overheated. And...........??? It runs fine now. Any internal damage? Bad head gasket? Cracked head? Who knows unless the problem of mixed fluids is obvious. It might not be obvious to the inspector.

#3:
If the tires are in good shape, I will say that this item will never be found until the vehicle is brought in for an alignment and a careful front end eval.

#4:
Clearly, this situation now requires a thorough inspection to be utilized as the sole criteria for purchase.

ok, so knowing that, how much should i ask for it? i dont want to spend more than 1000 tops, preferably less then 700. im kinda broke at the moment.

btw, how hard would it be to put a tach on this bad boy? and that hard shift from 2nd to third a big deal? it kinda pulls you forward when it does that. let me know