How much would you pay for this..., 00 Celica GT Options

[hurley97]

2000 Celica GT
5spd manual
Red w/ black interior
101,396 miles

the Good:
1 owner car. Never been in an accident. Transmission has been replaced. New brakes. New clutch. Good tires. Recalls have been done.

the Bad:
It's burning oil. Theres a small oil leak from the rear main seal area. The check engine light is on and the car stumbles a lot. The mass airflow sensor is probably bad. It needs spark plugs. The only exterior flaw that I can remember was a small scrape on the right rear quarter by the wheel well.


I was thinking about offering her $800-1,000 for it. I want to know what other people think.

[hurley97]

ok. heres the story...

First of all, I'm a service adviser at a Toyota dealer. The lady with the Celica came in to have us find out why she was down a qt of oil a week after her last oil change. She started asking me about the Scions because she was thinking about trading hers in for one. So while the tech was trying to figure out where her oil was going I brought out our supercharged tC to show her and we talked for a while, shes very nice and has loved her Celica but thinks it's getting old and tired.

The kid who did the last oil change and two master techs were looking at the car and going through all the problems with me. I took one of the spark plugs out to the lady and explained everything to her. She asked me what would be involved in fixing it and I told her very honestly that it would cost a whole lot in labor to fix and if she was already thinking about getting a new car that now is the time.

I told her I was actually looking for a car for my sister that I could fix up and I would be willing to buy hers. She asked me how much I would give her for it and I told her to just wait until she was ready to trade it in, find out how much they would give her for it and then come see me and we'll work something out. She said I was first on her list when she's ready to get rid of it. I let her go without paying any diagnostic time and she thanked me for all my help and honesty.

I went to the sales manager after she left just to get an idea of what they would give her for it as a trade in. He told me he'd have to see it and drive it. I explained to him what I knew was wrong with it and he said they'd probably give her around $800 since it needs a lot of work.