http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/ctd/2155333489.html

I'm looking for an 8 or 9, going for something that is somewhat cheap / somewhat stock that I will wind up modding some more, I am sure.

From looking at the pics which are not so great, I'm having a hard time figuring out whether or not that's a true JDM bumper and/or a real 9 front. Being from a dealer, they don't talk about mods at all, so it's kinda hard to know what's done there too.

If anyone knows anything about this car or has any input, it'd be much appreciated!

Trevor

 

Looks like a true JDM bumper, but I may not be the best person to judge since I haven't gotten hardcore on those yet. The front looks like a true IX, or an extremely good fakey. The emblem looks a little off, but that could be because the stuff behind the emblem is making it look non-symmetrical.

It looks to have an aftermarket intercooler, and definitely some of the piping under the hood/ they've also cleaned up some of the wiring under the hood. The stance looks a little lower than stock, but it could just be the angle and/or the years/mileage on the stock suspension.

I know of that dealer, but I don't know whether they are shady or not. I'm sure someone will chime in with some experience.

 

Stay clear of that dealer! It makes it into the to 3 of worst used car dealers in the state.

 

I don't know the car... I am not sure I would buy from a dealer that says vroom vroom for an evo. I think they are getting two cars confused!

Car looks in decent shape just a lot of miles but if it was taken care of it shouldn't be a problem.

Mikey

 

Haha, sounds somewhat childish...

 

I would steer clear of that place. They are a basic chop shop bunch of Russians that fix up totalled cars. I can almost say 100% that the bumper isn't an oem jdm. They like to keep the costs down so oem is too much.

 

carfax, and do a compression test, if u have a laptop and ecuflash get a copy of the map.. hell do a log during a test drive.. jus what i would do if i bought a used car that i know nothing about.

 

Hahah, yeah the whole VROOM thing I was kinda wondering about. Sounds very much like what a cheesy used car dealer would say. Anyone have a carfax account to take a look at it..? JA3AH86F83U120664 is the VIN.

From looking at the "free" report which is rather limited, it looks to me like the car was repo'd back around Feb of '06, then sold at auction in May. Got repo'd again later it looks like. I'm not really familiar with carfax and how they operate, but I'm guessing when it says there was a lien issue and then sold at auction, it wasn't what that owner was going for...

I dunno, if I could take a look at it and it looks good, I might consider it, but I'll be very leery if I even look at it at all. Anyone up in the McKenna / Tacoma area that would wanna take a look for me...? I'd be happy to pay if anyone was able to check 'er out for me.

 

Yeah that's kinda along the lines of what I was thinking... like maybe it's one of those "diamond in the rough" type scenarios where it's actually a decent car just at a shady dealer who unknowingly puts a good price on it. <shrug>

 

Haha last time I was there the owners were Asian, not russian. It's not quite a chop shop, but the do do all the SR swaps on the 240's they sell, and most of their cars are I need of work.

 

I never met the owners, just some employee's. It was a few years back though.

 

FWIW, I wouldn't necessarily call that a good price. There was a guy in the Portland area that sold his 03 RR for around that price (maybe less?) that had way less miles, maintained the car well, and you could actually get the history/size up the original owner in the deal. If you want a cheap Evo I'd suggest looking for private party on a 03 with higher miles. I would imagine you could find one, hopefully with less than 100k miles, for close to the same price.

 

I don't know if I would trust that dealer coming from the reactions in this forum. It looks like it's been through a lot.

 

I wouldn't trust carfax or that deal for that matter. Call your insurance company or agent and have them run a check on the vin. We did a carfax and it came up clean than our insurance agent had a whole list for us to look at...

 

^this - carfax will only show so much. The more shady the car, the less it will show.