Hey guys i'm going to go check out a 2004 RA with 13k miles on it just wondering if there is anything that i should be watching out for besides the normal things when buying a used car. If there are certain things that go bad and what not. Thanks.

 

Run a carfax on it. If you search around the forums, there's usually someone offering to look up VINs so you don't have to pay for a subscription.

Check the splash guards that are directly underneath the battery to see if there's a hole cut in it. If there is, then the car had an intake on it, so it was modded. Check for rear suspension noise. If the owner is selling it, see if you can find out if he was here, and what his U/N was. You could then look at his past posts and see what he's done.

 

I don't have a Ralliart, but I test drove an '04 with 18,000 miles on it about a month ago. I don't know how the the stock exhaust sounds like, but this one had a little bit of a grunt to it. I looked underneath and everything appeared to be stock. And it had a grounding kit on it, but I don't know if it was from the factory or not.

 

The stock exhaust has a 'grunt' to it. I was surprise too, because it does not sound like a stock exhaust. It was mitsubishi call "tune exhaust system".

 

I never really noticed how nice of a sound the exhaust has until the winter after I bought my car. I was stuck in the snow in front of my house. So I had my girlfriend get in the drivers seat while I pushed from behind. I got a front seat to the low and high rpm sounds from the exhaust that day. Hearing my baby purr up close and personal like that just made me love her even more.

 

Another question for you guys, the warranty on a new ralliart is 10 years/100k miles(powertrain) right? The dealer said that when the 2nd owner buys it the warranty is cut in half. Is this true? Thanks.

 

i think your powertain goes down to 5 years 60000 miles.. i was lookin for the warranty booklet for you i couldn't find it ????but hopefully someone here has one and will help you out with confidence ..........sry

 

Yea the dealership it's at is a mazda dealership and he said that the powertrain would be 5 years 60,000 miles i'm just trying to confirm it. Thanks a lot man. $14,000OTD for an 04 Ralliart(5sp, 13k miles) with S&S package sound like a good deal? We've tried to crack him down but he won't go any lower. KBB says about 15,500 so i think i'm getting a pretty good deal.

Edit: new tires too

 

It needs new tires after 13000 miles??...ouch, someone did a lot of burnouts...

 

psh my car is at 6k and my POS stock RS-A's already need replaced and i've never done a burn out.

 

Ill sell you mine if youd like. ive taken such good care of it it looks new. lightly moded as u can see in my sig. its a 2004 with 17K. 10K of that is highway miles from driving to south padre island and kansas for family. im selling it for wat i owe on it which is about 13,500$usd.and it has the S&S package. and i had and still have the potenzas


i see cf ninja still has my comment as his sig

 

Well they aren't the best tires ever made in terms of grip, but they were on the car we traded in for this one, an '02 Olds Alero, and it had ~60,000 kms and the tires were still good, in terms of wear.

...Maybe you just need to learn how to drive j/k

 

14k OTD doesnt soudn too bad to me, make sure you drive it and make sure that clutch and everything is all fine, just like you would a normal car.

like stated before, check for rear end noise and the hole under the batt. for an intake. i woudl get it on the freeway and pull to about 80 make sure everything is tight on it.

BTW my stock RS-a's have 2500 on them and they arent very good for grip and are never hot enoug hto stick to anything. the tires on my 05 OZ rally got warmer than these ones do. i do have to say, mine dont make much noise when powering through a corner at speed

 

Alright thanks for all the help guys, i'm gonna go do one final inspection/test drive and hopefully i'll be driving home with my new car.

 

how much is it