I am looking into a 96 camry very clean and in nice shape it has a bad head gasket and the abs and airbag lights are on but both he was told work, I am dealing with someone who I trust but he himself doesnt know much about cars, I am not concerned about him trying to cheat me, he just doesnt know all that much about his car except what his mechanics tells him, I dont believe there are anyother issues but I am going to take it to a mechanic, He is basically giving it to me for free, he would have let me have it for free but someone offered him 500, so I offered to match if I feel its worth it,

the car drives nicely but the HG does need to replaced

For $500, I would say it is a good buy. The caveat is that a bad HG can damage other parts of the car if antifreeze gets into the engine oil and the engine is run like that. If you know that the car runs well as is with no unexplainable noises, and your mechanic says that it is in good shape, then I would say go for it.

ya, I agree with Brian that it can be a decent buy as long as nothing else is damaged. If the car was driven overheated for periods, it could have damaged internal parts. Maybe ask the current owner about that. As well, it's possible that the block surfaces can be pitted from gases escaping due to the bad head gasket. That is maybe low probablility, but it did happen to my wife's V6 and I had to go with another engine. So, there is some risk, where it may cost you $800 to fix or up to $2000 to fix. EG. you may need a valve job; rod bearings got damaged by coolant mixed in with the engine oil; head is warped from overheating and needs to be resurfaced; etc.

dave mc

Since you are taking the car to a mechanic for inspection, make sure he checks out the issues with the airbag and ABS lights. Repairing these 2 components can be very expensive.

Mike

500 dollars is actually a really good buy for a camry. i have a '96 camry myself, which was purchased in '98 as secondhand, and besides a crazy central lock and needing to replace the suspension, mine had no problems whatsoever. usually, for 500 dollars, you see people selling old pieces of crap with mud and dust all over it, so 500 bucks for a decent camry is a good deal. extremely reliable car, this.

That year and mileage Camry LE 4-cyl in good condition would fetch about $4,100...an XLE V6 would get $5,200 (thank you NADA guides). So, to me, even dropping $2,000 to fix any engine troubles would still put you ahead. I'd say snag it.