Hey everyone. Chris here from Davenport, IA.
I'm looking at a black '02 P5 manual at a local dealer and I was wondering if you guys could give me some insight. It's got 94k miles and they're asking well under NADA "excellent" value (rare for this area). An immediate red flag IMO, but the AutoCheck report was clear of any issues and it's been a local car since new with 2 previous owners.
The overall condition of the exterior was fair (some chips, scratches, dings, etc). The paint on the factory wheels is bubbling and peeling pretty badly. The interior was clean other than a tear in the carpet by the dead pedal. All electrics and HVAC worked fine. The sunroof tilts and closes fine, but when first opening to slide in, it sticks and pops against the roof before coming down and then into the car, almost like it's trying to slide inward before it completely tilts down away from the roof. A common issue?
Anyways, the biggest issue was the front end. The car started right up and seemed to idle fine. But while driving it, the front end was very floaty and just felt disconnected. Shot struts, I'm assuming. But also, while going over bumps especially with the wheel cranked in either direction, the car made some awful crunching and grinding noises. Same when driving straight down the road but hitting bumps and rough patches. Also, while encountering bumps/holes, etc especially on the highway, instead of driving straight over them, it felt like the wheels just wanted to be ripped away from the car in either direction. Still just struts?
And then, when coming out of a gear or just getting into a gear, when pulling away, basically when making the engine move in the engine bay other than just free-revving it, there were some squeeks and whatnot. Shot engine mounts? The one on the top/passenger side looked fine, but that's all I could tell. And I couldn't get underneath the car to feel or even see what all issues there might be with it (broken swaybar maybe, etc). It was raining/snowing and I didn't wanna be down there long.
Lastly, when going WOT and taking the engine through the upper half of the rev range, there was a very audible whistle-like sound, almost like a turbo. Obviously it isn't turbo'd, but that's what the sound reminded me of. What would that be? It also seemed to have a rough idle that developed. I thought maybe it started after I turned on the defrost/AC compressor, but after shutting them off it continued to idle a bit rough. Not dropping and raising revs, but vibrating quite noticeably throughout the cabin.
Sorry for the novel, but I really wanted this car to work out and was wondering if you guys encountered any of this before, or if these problems are singled out to just this particular P5 and perhaps I should just forget about the car. The salesman/manager said he has an appointment with a mechanic tomorrow, and that he'll let me know what they find/what they fix, but he hasn't driven the car yet so he isn't aware of the issues.
If they fix it, the price goes up to counter the repairs. If I buy it as-is, who knows what I could be dealing with. It may just be struts, or it may be a whole world of bank-draining headaches and nightmares.
If it weren't front any of these front end issues, I'd probably be finishing up the paperwork as I type this. But what would you do? Walk away, or let them fix it and try again?
I'm looking at a black '02 P5 manual at a local dealer and I was wondering if you guys could give me some insight. It's got 94k miles and they're asking well under NADA "excellent" value (rare for this area). An immediate red flag IMO, but the AutoCheck report was clear of any issues and it's been a local car since new with 2 previous owners.
The overall condition of the exterior was fair (some chips, scratches, dings, etc). The paint on the factory wheels is bubbling and peeling pretty badly. The interior was clean other than a tear in the carpet by the dead pedal. All electrics and HVAC worked fine. The sunroof tilts and closes fine, but when first opening to slide in, it sticks and pops against the roof before coming down and then into the car, almost like it's trying to slide inward before it completely tilts down away from the roof. A common issue?
Anyways, the biggest issue was the front end. The car started right up and seemed to idle fine. But while driving it, the front end was very floaty and just felt disconnected. Shot struts, I'm assuming. But also, while going over bumps especially with the wheel cranked in either direction, the car made some awful crunching and grinding noises. Same when driving straight down the road but hitting bumps and rough patches. Also, while encountering bumps/holes, etc especially on the highway, instead of driving straight over them, it felt like the wheels just wanted to be ripped away from the car in either direction. Still just struts?
And then, when coming out of a gear or just getting into a gear, when pulling away, basically when making the engine move in the engine bay other than just free-revving it, there were some squeeks and whatnot. Shot engine mounts? The one on the top/passenger side looked fine, but that's all I could tell. And I couldn't get underneath the car to feel or even see what all issues there might be with it (broken swaybar maybe, etc). It was raining/snowing and I didn't wanna be down there long.
Lastly, when going WOT and taking the engine through the upper half of the rev range, there was a very audible whistle-like sound, almost like a turbo. Obviously it isn't turbo'd, but that's what the sound reminded me of. What would that be? It also seemed to have a rough idle that developed. I thought maybe it started after I turned on the defrost/AC compressor, but after shutting them off it continued to idle a bit rough. Not dropping and raising revs, but vibrating quite noticeably throughout the cabin.
Sorry for the novel, but I really wanted this car to work out and was wondering if you guys encountered any of this before, or if these problems are singled out to just this particular P5 and perhaps I should just forget about the car. The salesman/manager said he has an appointment with a mechanic tomorrow, and that he'll let me know what they find/what they fix, but he hasn't driven the car yet so he isn't aware of the issues.
If they fix it, the price goes up to counter the repairs. If I buy it as-is, who knows what I could be dealing with. It may just be struts, or it may be a whole world of bank-draining headaches and nightmares.
If it weren't front any of these front end issues, I'd probably be finishing up the paperwork as I type this. But what would you do? Walk away, or let them fix it and try again?
