Looking at a Cobra

[mcgodx]

I was looking at Mustangs for a while now, but kind of disregarded Cobras as being too high-cost and too expensive to maintain. At any rate, I found a red one that appears to be in good shape, not sure of the mileage yet. He's asking $12,000 for it, so I'm sure it's fairly high.

Would a high-mileage Cobra be worth it? It's a '99 so I'm not sure if it had the power fix done to it, if not what kind of power am I looking at?

He lives sort of close by, so I'm hoping to look at it sometime soonish, but that all depends. I'd rather get info from the smart guys before I go look at it and blindly fall in love. You know how that goes...

What kind of gas mileage do these cars get in stock (or nearish stock) form?

 

[thomas91169]

id opt out for a 01 cobra, they should be around 15-17k in good condition.

 

[spyne]

There are a ton of threads that already cover this topic. Use the search function to see what many others with much more knowledge than I have, have already contributed to this topic. Since you are a newbie here, I'll cut you some slack.

The short version is that if the car has the "fix" the engine should be as good as the '01. I believe the "fixed" cars have a blue dot on the intake manifold, but I could be wrong. There are some changes in the interior, exterior trim and rear end that make the '01's more desireable. However, none of these are huge issues and don't change the fact that the '99 is good car with better performance than a '99 GT. If I'm not mistaken, the '99 with a "fix" is supposed to make the same 320 HP that the '01 does. As for milage, I'm getting 22-29 in my '01 depending on whether I'm driving around town or on the highway.

If you're planning on using the car for street racing, drag racing, or anything else that requires hard launches from a dead stop you'll probably be happier with a solid rear rather than the IRS in the Cobra.

Once you look at the car let us know what's been done to it and it'll be easier to give you an idea if it's a good price or not.

 

[mcgodx]

Okay. I didn't look at the car yet, but I got some more info.

It has a lot of miles. 90K in fact... The clearcoat is peeling on the driver's side door, and that's a little bad too. Because of those two, I'm starting to lean away from it, but here's the price just for ****s and giggles. I asked him why the price and he says he can go down to $10500. The interior is black, the leather is understandably worn (not that bad, but there is the fade). There is an aftermarket head unit a cat back, and I think that's about it.

Other than the clear coat on that one door the paint looks fine, if a slight bit dull (I guess it's just been a while since waxing, or something like that).

 

[thomas91169]

eh not really that bad. if paint is really an issue, at 10,500 you can get a nice paint job and still come out with a good deal IMO. then again, i live in california, we still pay 30k+ for 03/04 cobras, and a good deal on a GT is still 14k+.

 

[spyne]

I don't know where you are but 12K sounds very high for a 99 Cobra with that mileage and in the condition you described. I'm going out on a limb a bit but am guessing that once you see the car there are going to be several more "issues" with the car than you have heard about so far. Let's face it, the seller always paints the best picture they can when advertising/describing a car.

 

[mcgodx]

Yeah I think I'm going to pass. He said he'd come down to 10.5, but it looks like the car was kinda half-assed. There's an aluminum pedal on the clutch, but not the others, and the paint looks like it was never waxed, in addition to the peeling. It's really dull looking. And the fact that it's peeling in some spots on the door scares me because I don't know if the whole car will start doing that or not.