I was interested in purchasing this car at auction and wanted to gets some advice on pricing. It's an early model 1985 TA with the LG4 engine in great condition with 66k miles on it. Going for $10k plus auction fee of %12..Seems kinda high for a car with this base engine in it. What do you guys think>

https://listings.worldwideauctioneer...rans-am-coupe/

 

Before Covid that would have been a lot, but these days any nice 30 year old car seems to bring $10k. I saw a clean turbo coupe automatic sell for over that a while back. Pretty undesirable combination IMO, but it was clean. The stick cars didn’t survive as often.

 

Do you mean 12%? Yeah, that's high. The cost of the car, no.

 

My opinion remains the same as the last time you posted about it, or one very similar.

Seems WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY HIGH for a LG4 car with that many miles on it. Of course, as has been repeatedly repeated, the "value" of these cars lies in their CONDITION, above all else, with the exception of ... what they started out their life as.

I still don't think $10k, and now PLUS another $1200 to the auction company, is a "good deal". Sure, might be the ONLY deal around right now, but if you don't get all starry-eyed "gotta have it now" "in lust" with this car and are willing to accept some delayed gratification (which I know is not a popular thing for many people to accept these days), you can score either a MUCH better car for the same $$$$, or another car equal to OR BETTER THAN that one, for considerably less.

Aim for the "better car" aspect. Don't settle for a high-mileage LG4 POS.

 

Looks like it's no reserve now.
Not a fan of the low level vinyl interior and that steering wheel is messed up. Why wouldn't you replace something simple like that. Especially after messing with the air cleaner. It's a sign.

​​​​​We'll see what it goes for.

 

I've seen better steering wheels in 200,000 mile junkyard cars. If it's really 66,000 and not 166,000, then somebody was holding on real tight!!! And they loved conditioning products, which is what turns the foam padding to goo.

Passenger side carpet by the radio pod looks like there might've been a heater core leak. Somebody scrubbed the carpet to death, so make sure the cooling system works and doesn't leak.

Exterior looks clean. That's important. If the structure is reasonably clean too, then it could be a good solid car to mod and play with. Nice color combo too. Interior looks more like 166,000 though.

It's apparently near you, so go to the auction with your cash, have a look at it, and if you like it, then hang back to see what happens when bidding begins. Maybe nobody will bid on it, or bids will stall before 10,000.

But it's not worth a bidding war. If someone is bidding nonsensically for that car, then he's probably a shill, so let him win, then watch the "house" go into an emergency huddle and come up with a lame excuse for why the winner wasn't qualified, so watch out for a con and be ready to walk away. Maybe when you see it, you'll walk away right away.

 

Oh, this is the same car from your other post. Same advice still applies.

Now that we see some photos, some good about it and some concerns. It's a nice color combo and a good looking car. As was mentioned, the vinyl interior is a negative, as is the steering wheel. That dent in the left rear quarter would be a hard pass for me on this one, I wouldn't want to live with it and I also wouldn't want to get into paint work on this car. There are probably other things wrong with it as well (i.e. does all of the electrical stuff, A/C, etc. all work?). Base LG4 motor and automatic is a very underwhelming combo and you'll be very bored with it quickly. Sure, it's a candidate for a motor swap if you're into that, but then that's even more money.

I'd move on to a different car.