Many of you know I've been around these forums for a long time. My first car was a 2000 ES which I did a Sport20 body conversion to, among a host of other mods. Unfortunately, I went through engines faster than oil changes with that car. To be honest it was a series of very unfortunate events, but I attribute to the fact that a car is worth only as much as the sum of all its parts, and while many parts were upgraded, not all of them were and it ultimately rendered the car useless. I was devastated to let it go. I had a ton of time and money in the car and to let it go killed me.
So I started looking for my next ride. I had about $10k in the bank between savings and the sale of my old Protege, and I was considering taking a loan to get something a little nicer. At the time I had a very good steady job, out of college, ect ect. I test drove a G35, G37, and an Acura TL Type-S. The Acura was my first choice, but at $22k it was a bit of a stretch for me.
So I did what every geek does and I made a list of every car I'd consider from $5000 - $20000. It included used Audi S4s to MS6s and everything in-between. I test drove a ton of them, but left feeling a little empty. The were great cars, but they didn't have that "feel" (you all know what I'm talking about). Frankly, they were all too heavy...
What I finally realized, sitting in my living room one day, was that I didn't want another car back - I wanted MY car back. So I went onto Cars.com and I looked up MSPs. I wanted a Titanium, low mileage, no mods. I learned my lesson with modifying cars before and wasn't gonna make that mistake again... So I found one in Norfolk, VA and was really excited. it had 62k on the clock and they wanted $11k for it. I was ready to go when the dealership called me back and said they sold it 2 days prior. Idiots...
So back to the search. I found another on in Plano, Texas. One owner, garage kept, had Tokico Illuminas and a Vibrant exhaust. 51k on the odometer and $9,500. I talked to the owner a couple of times and it seemed more like he was interviewing me to see if I was going to be a suitable buyer for the car. THAT was a good sign. The last step was having one of my father's colleagues in the area go check out the car for us (the guy was a gearhead) and the report back was: "If you don't buy this car, I will."
So I sent the guy a $500 deposit (didn't even negotiate the price), flew to Texas with my dad and drove the car home. Left Friday night and arrived in MD on Sunday morning, 1,410 miles later. Only complaint on the way back was an out-of-balance front left wheel making life slightly uncomfortable. Good news was, we averaged 69.8 MPH and 30.9 MPG.
Here's the first picture after I got MSP #1460 aka "Buzzy" home:
Since then, he's got some small rock chips in the hood, and has had the normal maintenance items to attend to, but otherwise, has been a dream to own...
). I had done plenty of research and told him I wanted it. He took me over to the finance section where I was informed that someone else had already come to look at the car and had "dibs". They had gone home to sleep on it. I was crushed. He then informed me that he had implored the other guy to put a deposit down to hold the car, but the other guy refused. I wrote him a check for $1500.00 to hold the car and start the financing paperwork. He called me the next day to advise that he had secured financing and I could come fill everything out and take the car...
We knew each other for months before we each realized who the other person was. At a meet, he circled my car, and after noting the exhaust, asked if I had bought it at X dealership. I told him "Yeah", and he told me that he was the guy that was trying to buy it. LOL. Small world. He had bought a 3 sedan instead, and has since traded up to a MS3.
