Is 120K miles too high for a 99 cobra?

Jon350

Founding Member
Mar 12, 2001
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SoCal
I'm looking for a daily driver since my 65 fastback is sucking the money outta my pockets..i found a '99 cobra for really cheap but it's because it has 120,000 miles on it....they say it's been well taken care off :rolleyes: I was wondering if cobra's last very much longer than that? I don't want to think about it BUT, i figured since it was a performance car with aluminum internals and high miles it's just about ready for a new motor. What do you guys say?
 
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high miles cobra

Jon350 said:
I'm looking for a daily driver since my 65 fastback is sucking the money outta my pockets..i found a '99 cobra for really cheap but it's because it has 120,000 miles on it....they say it's been well taken care off :rolleyes: I was wondering if cobra's last very much longer than that? I don't want to think about it BUT, i figured since it was a performance car with aluminum internals and high miles it's just about ready for a new motor. What do you guys say?

If you can get it for less than $10k I would go for it. It will probably run for another 50k miles with proper care and at that price you can afford to throw a r/b short block in it. :D
 
I'd say, if you can get it for a REALLY good price, go for it. That is a lot of miles but you can always rebuild. With those miles, it's due for a rebuild anyway. If the car is in otherwise good shape and you can get a killer deal, I'd go for it. I only have 36K miles on mine, but it's not my daily driver either. Good luck.
 
Depends - was it properly maintained & cared for or beat to hell?
(check plugs, drivability, and if it had regular oil changes/service and whatnot)
I would look it over very carefully in person and test drive it before purchasing, that's all...
 
Jon350 said:
I'm looking for a daily driver since my 65 fastback is sucking the money outta my pockets..i found a '99 cobra for really cheap but it's because it has 120,000 miles on it....they say it's been well taken care off :rolleyes: I was wondering if cobra's last very much longer than that? I don't want to think about it BUT, i figured since it was a performance car with aluminum internals and high miles it's just about ready for a new motor. What do you guys say?


Some cobra's are very well taken care of. 120K daily driver though, I don't know. You may want to take it to a good mechanic for s thorough chechup including compression testing on each cylinder. Good luck.
 
Ditto to what everyone said above. Basically you need a good pre-purchase inspection (PPI). Also, if they claim "well taken care of" they should be able to produce receipts for maintenance. So, if all smells like roses then make an offer. I'd think that you'd have to be doing considerable highway driving to get that many miles on a car in 4 years--so there should be a lot of highway miles which don't really hurt the engine (assuming oil changes and all). Worth giving consideration to, especially if you can get the price right.
 
I would pass on it, there are better cobras out there for the taking. A cobra will last 500k miles if its maintained correctly. but 120k miles of poor maintenace = a car thats likely to die soon. I'd spend 15K and get a really excellent one.
 
My best advice is to hold off, Mustangs go up for sale everyother day around my house, so i dont see why it should be different in your area. You should be able to find something for 10,000 and under 80,000miles. Just gotta look around. My buddy just picked up a 96 GT for 8,000 with 42,000. Car is amazingly clean.
 
oh ya every day and I do mean every day, 7 days a week. have even taken road trips in it with the gear, have had zero problems and as you can see from others they dont have any problems.