First off, thanks for looking.

Ok, so I'm looking at an ad for a 2002 1.8t a4 sports package, dove gray, with gray interior.. assuming dove gray is the same as dolphin gray, i'm stoked. has 72k miles, the asking price is 11,000.. which is pretty good. The ad says nothing more besides that it's manual and quattro.

Now here's where I need your help. I only have 10k.. the guy has been trying to sell this car for at least a month now. So I think he would go to 10k.

Should I ask about the car first.. such as, whats wrong with it, service records.. then bring up the price, or should i be flat out and say i can only afford 10k? i actually have 10.5k, but i want to use that extra 500 to have the car checked by a mechanic.

Or would you recommand going down there to see the car, than bring up only having 10k? which might be a waste of a trip and time for me?

i'm a noob in all aspects of car buying, so any advice is appreciated.

 

All I can say is to spare some money for the timing belt if it hasn't been changed.

 

I would honestly ask him how flexible he would be willing to be with the price.

Don't let him know that you're willing to go for 10k. See what he says after that.

 

well, just my luck. I called the owner, found out he lowered the price to 10k and got flooded with calls, someones already given him a deposit, and he has a couple of other people lined up if the first one falls through.
so back to car searching for me and saving more money. thanks for the help fellas. darkmech, that seems like the best approach, and i'll more than likely use it next time.

 

Keep looking man. The right car will fall into your lap soon enough.

I just picked my B5 up today with 70k on it for 10 flat. And that was through a dealer. So try going through dealers as well. And make the seller pay for the inspection.

 

I don't know.. I don't think deals like this happen often.. especially in the Boston area.

 

They do, I found mine on Craigslist.