I bought my 5 speed 97 LX Sport with 207k on it from someone on Craigslist for $800. Body is in great shape (for an upstate NY car). Had to invest a couple of things in it though.
First off, the guy selling it said that the egnine started making a funny noise which pushed him to sell it (it was a 2nd car for them that they didn't need). I go give it a test drive and itdrives and runs perefectly fine. I take a look under the hood and sure enough I hear the noise coming from around the serpentine belt. It begins to get worse and worse and suddenly I see a litte puff of smoke poof out from the alternator. Shut the engine off and see the bearing cap on the alternator is gone with the bearings exposed. With that problem diagnosed, I buy it from him, go and buy an alternator, swap it out, and crank it up. Works like a champ! So I get it home and over the next few weeks I do the following:
-All new strut assemblies (quick-struts)
-New pads/rotors, calipers
-New drums/shoes
-New lower ball joints
-New front and rear sway bar endlinks
-New shifter link bushings and shifter stabilizer bushings
-New blower motor and resistor
-New stereo (had broken Sony XPLOD, replaced with new Alpine CDE-HD137BT)
-New speakers and install 10" Alpine sub w/ amp.
I also "Kemanized" the intake since the snorkel section of the housing was broken anyway. I have also been working on cleaning out the intake mani as I have take the TB off and found it coated with carbon.
It doesn't have the same pick up or punch that my ZX2 S/R did, but it works great and I would trust it on a road trip.