Another 'Is this car worth $x?' thread

[Shoobie]

Hello everyone. I'm interested in moving to the Mustang world. I've found a 96 Cobra for sale. I haven't seen it in person yet, so my only info is straight from the seller.

He claims that the car is stock. It has 152k miles, but he says that he hasn't had problems with it. He says he needs to sell it for financial reasons, even though he's only owned the car for a little while. He says that it's passed smog, and has new brakes, along with some other things (couldn't really hear him on the phone when he called me). The interior has no rips/tears, and the paint looks good.

He's asking $5500 for the car. Do you guys think that this is a good price? This is in California, BTW. I would obviously examine the car very closely before purchasing, as well as have a compression and leakdown test done. Assuming everything checks out, would this be a worthwhile purchase?

BTW, I already know that I would get raped by the oil/insurance companies with a car like this, so no need to warn me here.

Thanks everyone!!!

 

[EPIK]

That is a pretty cheap price 4 a cobra. But then again that is pretty high mileage also. My previous stang was a 97 cobra that I purchased for $8,500 and it had 88,000 on it when I bought it. It did have a few minor problems when I bought it such as it needed new brake pads & rotors, and 2 new tires. Another problem I didn't find out until later was that Most of the sparklug seals were leaking oil into the sparkplug holes. It also did have some other leaks such as the oil pan, rear main seal, & power steering pump. The motor mounts were also pretty shot along with the shocks & struts. But with any stang, especially a Cobra, or any high mileage sports car in general, you have to expect to have alot of the problems I mentioned. Other than that, the car ran great and strong until I sold it with 97,000 miles. The only reason I sold it was because I bought my 03 Mach 1. I still miss it.... I do remember hearing that the 96's hade some cooling problems when they came out, but I might be wrong. Just so you know, I sold mine for 8,000 with 97k miles and that included H&R springs, mach 1 shocks & struts, Maximum Motorsports cc plates, magnaflow mufflers, bassani x pipe, & Nitto tires. Plus I just had 2,500 worth of work done @ ford to fix the problems I mentioned earlier. My advice is, if you really want a 96-98 cobra, shop around for one with lower miles. Even though the initial price will be a few thousand more, it will save you money in the long run and give you a better platform to start with.

 

[Shoobie]

Thanks for the advice! I'm still debating it, but I just don't think I could let go of my reliable econobox and leave myself without much extra money for repairs. Oh well.

 

[tjmaxx]

If you could get it for $4500 it would be a pretty good deal.