Hey everyone: The wife and I drove down to Portland yesterday to check out the SC. Got back just in time to watch the 2nd half of the Hawks game too!
General impression is that she's in very good shape - the seller has both the death certificate and last will and testament of what appears to me to be the 2nd owner - a gentleman born in 1938 and who passed away in June (so all the usual nonsense from a sales guy about how the car was owned by an older person who treated it well and only drove it to church and back seem to at least partially add up in this case).
From the carfax report they also provided me, looks like the original owner purchased this car new in 1989, and sold it to the 2nd owner in 1992. When this gentleman passed away, he bequeathed it (along with $100,000!) to his friend. Guess his friend didn't want the car - as the current seller picked it up at an auto auction in the fall.
This car has been loved and garaged it's whole life. Fluids (oil, coolant, power steering) look full, and clean. The belts and tensioners all look great and no doubt have quite a bit of life left. Body looks great (no dents, all original paint). Almost everything works - all the lights come on (for example when you open the hood or console), the suspension functions as it should, the supercharger puts out a nice (12psi or slightly higher?) amount of power, etc.
This is of course a ~25 year old car, even if it only has 104,000 miles on it. Problems I did notice range from small to concerning:
1) The power seats all function correctly - with the exception of the backward/forward slider, which is very weak and almost non-functional. Guessing this particular motor needs to be replaced. Means the wife won't be able to drive the car much in the meantime, as the drivers seat is too far back for her to reach the pedals
2) There *may* be a slight coolant leak. I mention this because of a few drops of coolant directly under the middle of the engine where she was parked when we first got there. This would be directly above / in front of the frame where the front axle is - and doesn't necessarily seem to correspond with any coolant hoses or connections. There was a wire harness here which seemed wet - but touching with a rag seemed to produce more oil residue than coolant. I was unable to reproduce this leak during our drive, and never directly saw anything dripping. Could have been from another car on this lot? Inconclusive.
3) The clutch engages near the very top of the pedal, and I'm guessing the next owner will probably be replacing this at some point soon
4) Most concerning of all was what appeared to be steam coming from the exhaust. It was very hard to tell, as it was a cold day (could have just been warm exhaust appearing on a cold day, and not actually water). However, after letting the car idle in a parking lot for a few minutes - there was a distinct moist patch on the ground under each tailpipe.
So... now I have some questions for you all:
1) Having been primarily a Subaru guy for the past decade (, I'm very familiar with how Suby's usually blow headgaskets, and this failure can appear in many forms (including but not limited to water in the exhaust). The question that I'm less familiar with is how the t-bird's 3.8 V6 usually blows a headgasket. What is the usual failure mode here?
2) The seller isn't willing to come down much on price. He's currently asking $5495 on his website, and on Craigslist.... When I offered him $4500, he said the lowest he could possible go to make any money at all was $5295 and a full tank of gas (ha, the tank was already full!).... SO - assuming the worst - lets say this car is blowing a head gasket and needs a clutch - is the fact that the body is in really excellent good shape worth this price?
Now isn't really good timing for me to buy another car (we're going to be moving soonish, and until we do I don't have a place to park it)... I'm only interested in this one right now because of the excellent shape it appeared to be in... So I've got to continue mulling this over for a little while. Your further thoughts on this topic are of course greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
-Dan