I'm learning from my mistakes

Here's the story.

August of 2005 I went and bought my first car. A 2001 Ford Focus. Ever since that GLORIOUS purchase, I've had nothing but trouble with the sh*tbox. Latley, the brakes have been acting erratically to say the least, and I've been driving around my mom's 1993 Chevy Caprice Wagon (which she bought a few months ago at an auction), and I LOVE it. I love the way it rides. I love the horsepower (5.7). I love the roominess. I love that car. I'm not sure of the actual mileage, but I know that it's well over 200k. The only thing wrong with it that I can see, is that the cluster doesn't work sometimes, so I have to be careful when driving through speed zones. Other than that, the windows, locks, rear hatch release, radio, and everything else functions flawlessly. So now, I'm in the market for a 1996 (OBD II compliant) Caprice Classic sedan. I've found one with 54,000 miles and the dealership wants $7,800 for it. It's missing a radio knob, but other than that, it's emmaculate.

So, here's basically what I'm getting at: Before I throw down my hard earned money, I need to know if the Chevy Caprice is a good investment. I'm learning from my mistakes here, and this time around I'm going to consult the good people here at Automotive Forums. Had I looked at the boards for the Focus, well, you know. I'm really liking the Caprice, and would definetly like one of my own. Thanks guys.

By the way, since I'm sure you're just dying to know, the only upgrades I'm planning on doing are a Borla exhaust, a K&N FIPK, a set of 17" American Racing Torq Thrust wheels, and of course, the icing on the cake, fuzzy dice.

dont forget to chip it, keep the wheels under 17" too, no 24"s please

It only has 54Kmi so if it was well taken care of it will go to atleast 250K with out major problems. Unless the car is show room condition i would try to talk him down to like $7000 because it is still a 10 year old car. I like the troq thrust wheels though, and with an exhaust it should sound good too.

Overall, I'd say it'd be a great investment. My grandfather purchased a '96 Caprice brand new, and to this day it's still a great, reliable, roomy, luxurious and FAST car. Personally I like the O'l Boxy's better, but thats just me. Normally my grandfather would get a new car at the 10 year mark, but since Chevy doesn't make the the big O'l RWD luxury cars anymore, and turned the Impala into just another unibodied, front wheel drive POS that causes nothing but problems for their owners (much experiance in that one)... He's decided ta hang onto this puppy as long as possible. In today's society with all these sheet metal, foam and plastic cars buzzing around, Caprice owners have the advantage. New cars have crumple zones so if in the event of a collision, they get totaled, but protect the passenger. With a Caprice (at least Pre-1991, but I know 91-96 have the big steel chassis as well) getting into a collision with a newer unibodied vehicle, will result in the other car absorbing the impact and increasing the chances of saving the Caprice from getting totalled out.