Looking at a 99 Taurus - Good Price?

[joshua_msu]

Looking at buying an acquantances Taurus. It is a 99 SE, with the 3.0 24V. 92K miles. Good mantainence records. New tires. Sunroof. Very clean cloth interior. Sunroof. Factory CD changer. AC. Factory spoiler and alloys. Newer brakes and battery. Runs great. Inside, I would give it an A-. Outside, I would give it a B. There is one small ding on the front passenger door. Main complaint is with scratches to both bumpers from extensive parallel parking in Chicago. Otherwise, the rest of the body is clean and in great condition. What should I offer for something like this. Is $3500 unreasonable to start?

[mechhound]

Originally Posted by joshua_msu

Looking at buying an acquantances Taurus. It is a 99 SE, with the 3.0 24V. 92K miles. Good mantainence records. New tires. Sunroof. Very clean cloth interior. Sunroof. Factory CD changer. AC. Factory spoiler and alloys. Newer brakes and battery. Runs great. Inside, I would give it an A-. Outside, I would give it a B. There is one small ding on the front passenger door. Main complaint is with scratches to both bumpers from extensive parallel parking in Chicago. Otherwise, the rest of the body is clean and in great condition. What should I offer for something like this. Is $3500 unreasonable to start?

If you know the person fairly well and he seems trustworthy, as far as telling you of any hidden mechanical problems, that is worth quite a bit, in my opinion. There are a couple web sites where you can go to check the actual value of a vehicle. KBB and Edmunds(sp?) I believe. Hopefully, someone else will jump in here about those websites and more comments also.

[jamesmetairie]

transmission,transmission! that,s the thing that,ll cost you big bucks. i ain,t sure about the 24 valve engine,if it,s equipped with the better tranny though. for the price check"kelly blue book," = private party price. then deduct about 15%. that should be the fair sales price , firm. personally here in new orleans i wouldn,t
give over $2800. for that car . too many of them have the tranny problem.

[DistanceGuy1]

The Taurus tranny problem most people mention was more pronounced with T's made in the early to mid-90's. By and large the majority of the tranny issues were addressed and subsequently fixed by the '97-'98 model years.

However, since you have access to the maintenance records, look into how many times the tranny was serviced. With the miles you state the car has the tranny s/h/b serviced at least three times (@30K, 60k and 90K). If so, a decent buy, but $500.00 cheaper would be better.