Buying my first used car, please help me

[Dazed aG]

I am looking for a first car and I stumbled upon an Eagle Talon TSI AWD Coupe.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/...or/1279358859?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

My dad and I went and saw it and the guy who was selling it took us on a test drive. The car felt nice and I thought it was in good condition.(Don't take my word for it im still 15 turning 16 soon) The guy selling it told me that he did race it a few times and that he would fix up the rust spots if we decide to purchase it. He told me that he was the second owner and that he bought it when he was 16 and did a few modifications.

For my first car I am looking for a nice reliable car to drive to school and to other events. I am also looking for a car that can do some quick highway pulls when nobody else is around.

Would this car be good for me?

I will try and answer any questions that you have about the car.

Thanks for listening

 

[Mello]

The car does not look OEM facory "stock" & it has been played with (modded) & most like beat on hard. My advise is being a good & experienced mechanic, know turbos & electroinc fuel injection systems & how to tune them will be very helpful as this car's owner.

The mileage is high. If it does not have a fairly fresh rebuilt motor, you should be ready to address this. If the owner claims it's been rebuilt, demand all the paperwork for everything claimed done. Get copies of the paperwork, contact any shop claimed to have done the work & verify the trueness of all claims. If the current owner can not back up what he tells you with documentation; walk away.

RUST!!! Search this forum for "rust". Rust could be a serious issue especially on a 2G. There plenty of post which will help you know where to look & how to determine the severity.

There are very few DSM's that have been modded correctly that can be classified as "reliable".

My opinion is this car, depending on it's true condition, could be a nice 2nd car weekend worrior, but I highly doubt it would be a "reliable Daily Driver. Chances are this is at best a project car. You need to do your homework before buying.

Good luck.

 

[SasaniFab]

Do not buy this car, this is not a good example of "reliable". Even if it remained factory it has very high mileage. Good project? Sure ...... daily driver? No way

 

[IHeartMyHonda]

I love seeing people get into dsms for the first time, and late model talons are hard to come by. That being said, this is not a good first dsm, much less a good first car. It will most likely leave a bad taste in your mouth towards the whole platform. When I started college, I got my first DSM. It was a 96 RS non turbo, and although it was not fast, it was reliable, and that's what I needed.
My recommendation would be to try to find a well maintained GS (coupe or Spyder). They are super cheap compared to the turbo cars, and offer better reliability, from my experience. It will get your feet wet to the platform and is less likely to turn into a money pit.

 

[gusu]

DSMs can be reliable. I have put 70,000 miles on mine and the only things that have really gone wrong with it are all maintenance related problems or small things most people wouldn't even consider fixing on normal cars.

This however... It's a total shitbox. The owner was very clearly stuck in 2001 and had The Fast and The Furious in his mind when he modified it.

Wing means the trunk most likely leaks which means it probably smells like musty shit during the rainy months.
Will fix rust is code for I won't do shit and in the slim chance I do it will be a shit cosmetic fix.
The boost controller means he probably turned up the boost but never logged for knock.
No heat shield on the exhaust manifold so you will boil off your paint and coolant on your hood.
Painted interior, so he most likely beat the shit out of the car when he drove it.
Probably upgraded to a 16g turbo because it is a direct bolt on and literally no modification is required. Supporting mods for the turbo means you should ask for receipts, because he is probably just saying he did. Plus you don't just strap on a 16g and see much benefit without a clutch, injectors, fuel pump, and tuning.
He knows he has tasteless mods but never removed them, so he probably did other stupid tasteless shit.
He did 100 on a public road - even if it was empty he clearly isn't thinking about other people, so why should you trust his word?
He removed the gauges so for all we know he is running some stupid amount of boost and is about to blow the thing up.
The CEL (Check Engine Light) is on and he claims it is a o2 sensor. It could be or it could be worse. For all we know he is not wanting to fix it because it is stripped.

 

[DJRace]

My first car was a 1990 Laser. I had to rebuild it. If you're not up for working on the car, I'd look for one I'm better shape. Besides that, DSMs can be incredibly reliable and great to drive.

 

[Chaotic Deconstruct]

I wouldn't buy this car thinking that it's a "reliable" daily driver. With that said, 2G AWD DSM's are tough to price due to how they are valued in different areas of the country, or in your case Canada. These cars are getting rarer as the years go by. Honestly, they were pretty rare in the early 2000's when I purchased my first one.

If it was me, I wouldn't buy it just because of the amount of rust on it. If it has rust that bad by the doors I would hate to just see the rear hatch floor under the spare tire, or for that matter the underside of the car in general. The mileage wouldn't scare me anywhere near as bad as the rust would, especially in Canada.

As for the mods, they are what they are. Just briefly looking over the pictures in the listing it appears that the owner has a limited budget and modded accordingly. I've seen far worse, and everything could be corrected if given money and time. I wouldn't trust the rebuilt motor line at all though. Just assume that it has the mileage on the odometer and price accordingly.

For a 16 year old this just seems like a bad first car. I would walk away and re-evaluate your options.

 

[Chuglife]

Like Gusu said, maintenance is key. I see a few odd things in the video and ad. The Ad says it has 210,000 km but the video shows 240,000 km unless i'm seeing things. 240,000 km still isn't that bad as it equals roughly 150,000 miles for us US people. I bought my 93 talon tsi with 154,000 and did all timing, water pump, lifters, thermostat, trans fluid, transfer case and rear differential, etc. and it runs perfect and has had no issues for over a year and it's my daily. If I were you and I bought it, I would do all maintenance asap and it should be reliable daily if you don't beat on it everyday. Work the price lower so you can factor in maintenance costs that need to be done if you end up choosing the car. And it looks like he did a max of 90, not 100 like he says but still, 100km is only like 60mph so not that fast. With a 16G or even a manual boost controller he should have a boost gauge to monitor PSI.

Few things I noticed:

- What are the wires hanging all over the dash? Could spell wiring disaster somewhere..
- Check engine light...get a code reader and verify it is an o2 sensor
- It idles high at 1000-1100 RPM....could be adjusted that way or could be leaks, faulty parts, etc.
- Rust.....rust cant simply be "fixed" like he says. To be done right it takes some time and effort, like mentioned, dude would probably put some paint on it and call it good, which didn't solve anything...
- Is that an inline fuel filter on the valve cover breather? maybe I am wrong but I can't see it that clearly. Not sure if that is a legit modification or not.
- Upgraded 16G is a red flag for me...especially since it "needs a tune". It should be fine as long as the boost was all the way down, but I doubt it was. Like mentioned above, if it has a 16g it should have rewired/upgraded fuel pump, injectors, wideband o2, ecmlink or tuning, if not, it will still run fine at low boost but if dude has been beating it without proper tune the engine could be on its last leg. If you post a list of exactly what it has, people can give you a better opinion.
- Expect a clutch job in the near future if it doesn't have a new one already. More power = factory clutch goes bye bye...I just changed mine...OEM throw out bearing, fork, clutch, flywheel resurfacing...couple hundred bucks if you do the work, closer to $1000 if someone else does it.

First car.....I wouldn't do it unless you have at least $1000 to throw at it to make sure it is reliable. Weekend car...maybe.

 

[Dazed aG]

Thank you for all the replies I will have to think about it some more. As for the clutch I talked to him and he told me that he did indeed upgrade the clutch. He also says that the engine is 85% rebuilt. If I do decide to buy it I will have a bit of money to spend on it for repairs and such. Rust I will have to look into further though.

Oh and I forgot to mention he is the second owner and the wing was already on it when he bought it. The car doesn't really smell bad when I was there I checked out the trunk because the trunk does matter a tiny bit to me but since the back seats fold down I didn't have a problem. The wires on the dash were for some gauges on the pillar gauge that he had installed but took out. He did tell me that the boost was running low and that it should be running a bit higher. I will have to try and get the code for the check engine light. He did give me some receipts and I will try and post them on here

Again thank you for your help

 

[Mello]

Honestly I think he's telling a bunch of crap. If he's a real DSM'er, and from what the car looks like he should be, he'll have pictures of all the "cool" stuff he's bought & put into the car and motor & would be showing you to prove it. I think you could easily spend as much money fixing this thing as you spend buying it, if not considerably more. You should look some more elsewhere. And what is 85% rebuilt engine mean?

You should ask him if he belongs to any forums, like this one. See if he'll give you his username.

 

[Chaotic Deconstruct]

Honestly I think he's telling a bunch of crap. If he's a real DSM'er, and from what the car looks like he should be, he'll have pictures of all the "cool" stuff he's bought & put into the car and motor & would be showing you to prove it. I think you could easily spend as much money fixing this thing as you spend buying it, if not considerably more. You should look some more elsewhere. And what is 85% rebuilt engine mean?

I'm with this guy.....who describes a motor as 85% built???

The seller seems like one of those guys that not only has an answer for every question you ask, but also somehow always has an answer that makes the car sound better. Ask about a clutch, no worries now because it's upgraded. Ask about the rust issue, no worries now because it's a simple repair he will do himself. Etc, etc, etc....I try to avoid sellers like these because lies usually follow questions.

 

[Dazed aG]

If this receipts changes any of your guys minds please tell me. Thank you for the replies and starting to lean towards not buying the car because of the new information brought forth. Please tell me your final thoughts about this car and thank you for the quick replies.

I actually never asked him about the clutch because I didn't know about the problems it could have with an upgraded turbos he brought that up himself

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[ChessmoDSM]

That receipt seems wishy washy to me, be patient and look for a stock car and then build it how you want..

 

[Dazed aG]

Thank you for all the replies

 

[Tanro]

No way did all that cost just 262.50.

Even at my shop, labor on that would be from 1000-1300$ us. And I don't have service writers or office staff to pay.

That is just an estimate he had drawn up.

 

[Chaotic Deconstruct]

No way did all that cost just 262.50.

Even at my shop, labor on that would be from 1000-1300$ us. And I don't have service writers or office staff to pay.

That is just an estimate he had drawn up.

I would agree that's an estimate and not a receipt.

The date on the invoice is also just three weeks ago. Just for the parts alone on that invoice estimate he would barely be breaking even if he did have it rebuilt, and that's not counting labor. No one pays $3k for a motor rebuild then sells the car three weeks later for $2900. That is just poor logic.

My guess is he knows something is up with the motor, got an estimate to pull and repair it, realized it was more than he wanted to pay or could afford, and then put the car on the market.

Also, just take a look at the starter, alternator, etc from that invoice. If those items are 3 weeks old and on the car they will show as nearly new.

 

[ChessmoDSM]

Agree totally with the last 3 posts, move on from this one, BE PATIENT while searching(I can't tell you how important this is if you REALLY want a good DSM) and try to find something stock or "slightly modified", think stage 1, that way YOU can build it and know EVERYTHING that is done to it..

This "estimate" looks like a turn up(18 PSI no supporting mods) or no tune gone bad that just cost this guy his head and who knows what else.. Just the fact that he is stating that the work has already been done would make me run FAR AWAY...

In fact, this almost looks like something he might have picked up for $500, had it towed to a shop, and then got an estimate.. He is now trying to pass that off to the next buyer, why does it need pads, control arms, axles, tie rods ect, at the very least he took SH**Y care of it and you do NOT want anything to do with a poorly cared for DSM..

 

[PlanZero]

Just say NO EFFING WAY.
Although if you ever come across another 98 Tsi awd pick it up as they are the rarest of all 2g DSMs. Lowest production numbers, and very few left that haven't been destroyed or converted to eclipses

 

[SasaniFab]

This guy is clearly trying to f*** someone. The video is hilarious! When he goes wot you can clearly hear a large vacuum leak. Sounds like a choo choo train. Thanks for the laugh...

 

[Jay 97 GSX]

I am looking for a first car and I stumbled upon an Eagle Talon TSI AWD Coupe.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/...or/1279358859?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

My dad and I went and saw it and the guy who was selling it took us on a test drive. The car felt nice and I thought it was in good condition.(Don't take my word for it im still 15 turning 16 soon) The guy selling it told me that he did race it a few times and that he would fix up the rust spots if we decide to purchase it. He told me that he was the second owner and that he bought it when he was 16 and did a few modifications.

For my first car I am looking for a nice reliable car to drive to school and to other events. I am also looking for a car that can do some quick highway pulls when nobody else is around.

Would this car be good for me?

I will try and answer any questions that you have about the car.

Thanks for listening

Sounds like he put a 16g and the supporting fuel and other mods for it, He stats it needs 500-1000$ which i believe it needs DSM LINK 500$ and a tune because of the 16g.

Which means you will hit fuel cut once it boosts past 15psi.

doesnt look like a bad choice but this car probably wont be reliable. a stock GSX OR TSI might be but with so many mods it can become a liability and walking speeds will get you farther once its broken and needs repaired.