Deal or no deal ?

[wintsint]

Hi,
I'm glad I bumped onto this forum. I have a question. I test drove a 2001 toyota solara SLE V6 coupe yesterday. It's fully loaded with everything in it. I really liked the car (blue), and took it a mechanic. The tires were worn out, and the rear shocks were almost done. The engine mounts needed to be changed as well. The dealer tag was 7k, with miles at 128700. I talked to the dealer and asked him to fix all the problems. Now, he is trying to get me to buy the car $6500 with engine mounts, rear shocks new and all tires at 50% tread. With tax and tag, I'm looking at around 7k here in CA. What do you guys think? The car needs to be aligned too. It goes towards the right. Should I pass it? Is that a lot of miles for this car? The engine and transmission was great (very swift). Any prices in mind? Retails at 11,000 with 8,000 wholesale value.

[Jakecallun20]

I'd say jump on this.. 6500 sounds like a good deal to me for 128k. Altho, I don't know how much the shocks, motor mounts and labor/tax will total out to be so it may not be worth it. And an alignment is an easy problem to fix.

[wintsint]

Thanks for the quick reply. It has 2 owners (the last one drove it 20,000 a year which I hope are highway miles). The motor mount, rear shocks and tires could add up to almost 800, but they are willing to do the motor mount, rear shocks and tires(50% treat) at $6500+tax, etc. How long do these cars last? Thanks again for the quick reply.

[Jakecallun20]

Well, again I would jump on it because this is a Toyota. Toyotas are very reliable cars and the Solara in my opinion is pretty sporty. The amount of time the car will last? That all depends on how you take care of your cars. I do all maintenance myself. My last car was a 1991 Oldsmobile Toronado and it had 302k when I sold it. I changed the oil/filter myself every 3000 miles along with new air filter every 10000. And of course other stuff, plugs, fuel filter, tranny fluid, etc. So any car is capable of being reliable. The cost on the shocks and stuff sounds reasonable, the guys with modified suspension on here can help you better in that dept. GL with this, oh and welcome to the site.

[wintsint]

Thanks Jake. I was just waiting to hear that response. I felt great driving the car. .. very much like a toyota, to sum it up. Well, I'll head down the dealership sometime and pick it up. Thanks for the warm welcome.

[LatinUSMC]

jump on it.....and in blue..wow

mine id at 120k no problems

welcome where in Cali are you?

[LatinUSMC]

jump on it.....and in blue..wow

mine is at 120k no problems other that tires and tune ups

welcome where in Cali are you?

[wintsint]

Yea, its blue with black rims. It's real clean and nice. I'm in orange county...

[Jakecallun20]

Sounds like a sweet car man. I drive an SLE too, Post pics when you get it.

[Gangis]

Awesome deal there. One thing you should be careful of - engine sludge. Have the mechanic open the crank case and check for sludge. It happened to me. I bought my Solara just over a year ago and then in February I found out it had sludge. Toyota DOES have a free engine rebuild/replacement policy for those affected with sludge, but I think there's a mileage limit.

[wintsint]

Thank you guys. I'll have that checked out. I bought the car today. They'll be fixing the stuff that needs to be fixed tomorrow and hand me the car later in the afternoon. I'm not sure if the mechanic I took the car to checked for any sludge in the engine. I'll have him check it out tomorrow or the day after. I've got a ton of information from here. Thank you for all your help. I'll post up some pictures once I get the vehicle.

[woa_its_j3ff]

nice. id say buy it (if you could go back in time)> and have them fix a few things first. haha. even tho there is no warranty. when i first bought my car, my rear shocks were blown and my vanity lights wouldnt work along with a few othe rminor things. i bought it on the condition that it would all get fixed for free.. guess it worked. the sticker tag they had for my car was originally 11,500 when it had 110k on it. I tgalked them down to exactly, 8,080

[wintsint]

^ Nice ride. Yea, they weren't going down any further when they decided to fix the car. I'm just hoping my engine does not have any sludge in it cause I read about it after I got back from my dealer. Oh well... lets hope for the best.

[SolaraBlue]

welcome aboard. take care of her and she'll last you a long time.
good color too. i believe the 01 solara only had one blue color (indigo ink) and it was quite rare. just like my twilight blue

[wintsint]

Thanks. Yea, the color was something that really caught my eye. What kind of oil do you guys? I prefer mobil 1 syntheic 5W-30 (every 4000 miles)? Do you think I should worry about the timing belt at 128,500? .