For $500, hell yeah - buy it! And Larry, I didn't mean to sound uppity about naming parts to be replaced without looking at the car, but when someone right off the bat says the don't know much about cars, I prefer to err on the side of caution lest they get themselves into a money pit. And unfortunately, up here in upstate NY where cars are almost completely destroyed and ready for the junkyard after 13 winters of road salt, people do not maintain their cars simply because the are not going to last no matter what you do (outside of storing it in the winter). The car starts to rust and people take the attitude like "screw it, its a rotted piece of junk anyway" and the maintanence stops there. Thus you have one frightening used car market!

Greg