Help Deciding on MSP

[ajm291]

Hello. I need some input on my situation. My sister has a 2003.5 MSP. I found it for her back in 2007 with around 12K miles. She drove it, loved it and ended up buying it. Fast forward to today and it has 26K miles. A few weeks ago, the parking lot where she was parked flooded. The water line was as high as top of the opening in the front bumper. Needless to say, the water got inside of the car. It sat like this for a few days until it was towed to the local mazda dealership. She just got a call from the insurance company and they are going to total it.

Now here'e where I need some help. I can buy the car for 2K in its current state. The haven't talked directly to the dealership yet, but talking to my sis, she said that they said it needs a new wiring harness, and a few sensors. I don't think it has been successfully started, but she said she almost started it before it was towed.

I don't need the car, but I'm very tempted to buy it, gut it, and use it as a track car/nice weather car. Do you guys/gals think that it would be foolish on my part to buy it? I'm married with a newborn and a 3 year old. My wife does not want me to buy it, but I keep trying to tell her that for 2k, what's the big deal? I'm not going to sell my car or anything so I have time to fix it, but with two kids, my time is very limited, especially when wrenching on a 3rd car that will be used for my enjoyment.

How badly do you think this car is damaged? Was the ECM submerged? What electronic equipment on the floor that could have been ruined? I always wanted a turbo, but never owned one. I recently traded in my 2005 mazda3 S 5-speed for an suv with a third row so now I'm stuck with my wife's old car (2006 honda crv automatic) which is so bland to drive. I've always driven a manual tranny (1991 honda crx before mazda3)
and I miss the driving experience of it.

Any input on my situation is greatly appreciated!

 

[ajm291]

Okay. A lot of views, but no replies. Let me ask another question:

Would I be able to source the majority of parts from a non-mazdaspeed protege? Obviously not turbo related items, but how about electronics/wiring etc? I still need to get an update from the dealership on the items damaged that were reported when they connected it to the diagnostic tool. My hopes are to source parts needed from a local pick and pull junkyard with a few non-MS proteges.

 

[Spiced MSP]

whatever parts you need, you can probably get off of here in the FS threads. I honestly think the car would be fine. Just keep a close eye out for rust now. ECU and wire harnesses pop up every now and then. You could probably find one now.

 

[ajm291]

thanks for the info. If I get it, I'll be sure to look up the for sale section first for the parts I need. I really think that the issue with the harness is the fact that it was saturated with water when the dealership ran the diagnostics on it. My guess is that the water shorted some signals. I'm fairly confident that once it's dried out, it will be fine, now to convince the wife.