Question about trying to buy a car.

[merkerguitars]

Alright I found a dealership in my area that has the car I want and I should be able to get it for cheap. Its a 1995 VW TDI with a broken timing belt and a busted side window, my VW mechanic friend said its easy to do the headwork necessary and he has a full set of windows. The problem is the following:
The customer dropped off the car about 9 months ago with the broken timing belt, he was quoted $2500 to fix it, (labor parts etc). And the guy still owes over $4,000 on it. I talked to the service manager at the dealership and they still have it. All I was able to get for information from him was what bank owned it. So what should be my next step?

[RotEx]

wow he still owes 4000$ on a 95? holy moly? whats is he paying like 10$ a month?

anyways, i am pretty sure that the dealership is going to at LEAST want their $ for the repair as well as the bank is going to probablu want at least40 - 65% of what is owed on it if not the whole amount, if it is that much, i'd forget about it.

you can find those things a dime a dozen on the autotrader.

you just have to MAKE SURE theirs no leins on that car when you fork over the money, because when you go to switch it over (if the dealership doesnt do it for u) your screwed. and if the dealership DOES do it for you, you have to ESPECIALLY make sure theres no liens on it.

[THGL]

It sounds like the car has yet to be repaired, is this correct?
If so, then your next step is to contact the owner of the car and offer him a price. Depending on the owners bank and the loan he/she got, it might be possible for you to take over the loan payments, then you'd just have to pay the owner for the equity in the car (if there is any).
Also, since the car has been sitting at the dealer for 9 months, I guarantee you the dealership will charge you a storage fee for the car. The current owner should take care of this before the sale (or you could include this in the price).

Before anything is done, I'd have your mechanic friend go over that VW with a fine toothed comb. If the owner wasn't able to cover this repair cost maybe there are other things wrong with it the owner decided not to fix.

[merkerguitars]

No the car hasn't been fixed, the $2500 includes labor at $115 an hour to tear the head off, check valves to see if they are bent, replace valves, put head back on and put on new timing belt, tensioner. On the TDI when you snap a timing belt its expensive to fix if you take it to a dealership, my friend said either it will cost as little as $300 to fix (throw a new timing belt on it and a headgasket) or as much as $800 (if valves are bent), but i'm willing to spend that, since he's offering to do all the labor for free.

Originally Posted by RotEx

you can find those things a dime a dozen on the autotrader.

No I can't they are rare as hell cause its the TDI model, plus they end up selling for up to $3k over blue book around here.

[DEI37]

Yeah, the diesels command a lot of cash. It's nuts. I've seen 2002 Jetta TDI's with 200,000+ miles go for over $10,000. It's insane.

As for this particular car, I'd probably pass. You're gonna pay too much in the end to really make it worth it, in my opinion. You'll want to just replace the head while you're in there. No point in replacing stuff, only to find out it needed valve seals, or it scored a valve guide when it bent valves.

[merkerguitars]

Well if it needs a head and or valves its no big deal, since my friend gets parts with his employee discount.