Advice on 1995 Mitsubishi Gallant S

My question is about a 1995 Mitsubishi Gallant S. here is some of the car's background --It has 137000 Miles on it. The interior and the exterior is in good condition (some isolated rust spots, but nothing major). the owner said that on of the front rotors broke on him one day and the wheel came apart, hence he had both the front rotors changed from sears (had documents to support it). other than that no major work done. The timing belts are new, new tyres, new front brakes. its a manual, the clutch is good (no play) the gears shift effortlessly.

here are some potential?? problems i could find

1. when the car is on bumpy roads, the front side tyre/suspension ( i am not sure about the right word here) noise is a little clunky (he said it had new shocks).

2. when the car is acclerated in 2nd or 3 rd gear, the engine makes a low grade whinning/whirring noise. is it normal? it has no slip in any gears.

3. also, when the car is acclerated suddenly, there is a little jerk as the car acclerates (not as smooth of a accleration as a toyota, the only other car i am famaliar with) is this normal??

finally his asking price is $2400 negociable.

I would deeply appreciate your thoughts/comments. I have some pics if you would like to see them.

thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Clunks indicate some looseness in the steering/suspension. There are many other components that can cause this other than the shocks. It could be loose/worn ball joints, control arms, tie rod ends etc.

It concerns me that he let the front brakes get so bad the rotors broke. IMHO this shows a consistent lack of maitenance, so maybe there are other neglected parts of the car.

That jerk on acceleration indicates something loose in the driveline. A tiny bit of driveline play is acceptable in an old car, but this car may require some work. Engine/transmission mounts would be my first guess, but the driveshafts/cv joints could be bad.

That whining noise may likely be the transmission. If it whines in gear when driving, regardless of throttle position, a bearing may be going bad.

If the whine changes depending if you are accelerating, or maintaining speed, or slowing down on engine comression indicates a bad gear set.

If it only whines when you change gears, bad synchros are to blame.

Personally the whine bothers me a lot. The other problems are relatively easy to fix, but this car is not worth enough to warrent a major transmission repair in addition to all the other problems, even if you got the car for free.

IMHO do not buy this car.

Thank you very much magic rat for your advice.

I had the car inspected saturday and here is what the mechanic said

1. The Steering tie rod needed to be replaced

2. the front CV bush needed to be replaced, the joints looked at, and if necessary CV joints be changed

3. The engine burns some oil

4. the whining noise i talked about earlier turned out to be air noise as a window was not quite closed (duh!)

by the way according to the mechanic's advice, negociated the price to about $1750

Any thoughts magic rat??

Thanks,
Amol