Test drove a lovely white jdm blob today and want to make an offer. Seller wants strong money, I'm considering it but don't want to over pay. I won't post the asking price right now just to see what people think it should be but I'm starting to think it's overpriced. Here's what I know about the car.

It's white. Appears to be in very good condition with 62k miles. Has 6 defi Gage's mounted in centre pod and carbon a pillar. Larger top mount. Hawkeye rear lights, badges and roof spoiler and boot has been de-locked. Brand new tomei exhaust plus standard pipe. Big screen stereo that plays dvds and has reverse camera. Black mud flaps. HIDS, Rear trailing arms don't look standard as they are pink and I believe there are other braces added to the bottom of the car. Various Zero sports engine bay dress up parts. I think there's other bits and bobs. I believe it was bought from Hurst around 3 months ago for £14k which sounds excessive to me but I'm new to imprezas so it may be right for a dealer? It was undersealed Iand has been to Zen to have the map checked and is apparently fine. It's also just had four new tyres fitted.

It looks lovely but I suspect as he paid top money for it and has sank a few grand into it in mods since buying (the Exhaust, removing boot lock and painting, roof spoiler, Zunsport grill etc) he possibly wants more than it's worth. We don't know when the cambelt was last done so I must assume it needs doing immediately.
What sort of price should I be paying?

 

It's on the high side (by 2-3 grand) but it's all been checked out by decent professionals (zen and hurst) and there aren't many jdm blobs around in that condition with that milage.

 

I think he really over paid, but ignoring that, what is a fair price for me to pay do you think?

 

11-12 would be my max and it would have to be very clean and id either want the cam belt done or id want more money off

 

What a nice example agree with the above pricing for a used import
I paid £12k over a year ago

Have you seen the white hawk for sale with the flap on?
It was M2RTX's Car on here
Seller wants bout same for that and it's had everything done to it with some real tasty parts
I paid the high price for mine because of its documented history mileage and it Was a brand new import which in my opinion was rare and a must for me

 

I just sent a message to the owner of the white hawk.

Spoke to the seller of this blob and he's firm at £12.5k but would go to £12k if he removes the exhaust and put standard one back on. As it still needs the cambelt I'm quite sure I'd still be paying too much so not sure if I should walk away for a bit and see what happens. He may adjust his price in a few weeks if it doesn't sell

 

The mods you've mentioned he's had done don't add up to a ''few grand''... unless he's massively over paid for them as well as the car.

Also why is getting rid of it after only 3 months ownership?

Edit - I'd also want the pillar gauges removing, they look ridiculous.

 

mate take the hawk if I was you you won't regret it I've seen it and heard it in the flesh I'd have it in a breath

If all else fails take mine at a mega expensive £14k with everything on

 

Mike74. To start with he's put on 4 new tyres, The exhaust was around £900, (he said he paid more but I've found it on line). He bought genuine hawkeye badges for the back, so let's say another hundred quid, then new mudflaps which he said we're not far short of a hundred. Then a genuine roof spoiler which the bodyshop painted and fitted and then it went back to have the boot lock removed, a plate welded in place, smoothed and the bootlid repainted. A couple of grand is pretty easy to wrack up.

 

Zany, I spoke with Andy about the Hawk and he's going to dig me out some details. I noticed he's selling it for the same amount the last owner was selling it for but now it's got another owner on the record and more miles on the clock. It's also been for sale for several months at that price so I know it's also overpriced. In truth my plan was to find a nice tidy UK STI for around 9 grand but I've seen a few and lost one I was hoping to buy and then got asked to go see the white blob. I was prepared to stretch the budget if I loved the blob (which I do) and if it was well priced but I think he's asking too much and I've now told him so. I can extend the budget further for the Hawk, but again, it's not sold for months and I'm only buying at the right price. Andy may be prepared to do a deal if he is motivated to sell but I have no idea if he is. If not I think I'll take a break from looking and return in a month when there may be some new cheaper cars to consider.

 

And the 1st job that should have been done was the 'unknown when or if it was ever done' cambelt

 

Yep, a real shame he didn't but what can you do. That may well have made the difference between me buying it or not

 

who tarts a car up before doing the cambelt? thats a seriously poor mentality.

12k seems to be able to buy a Spec-C these days, or JDM hawk. Think I've seen a WR1 and S203 for not much more

 

So what is the actual asking price then?

I just assumed it was more than £14k he paid for it.

Still curious as to why he'd buy a car, spunk some money on mods and then sell after only 3 months

 

For a start a map check wouldn't be enough for my peace of mind, I'd want a full remap on the UK fuel of my choice.

I'm in shock that no one has done the cambelt... it could be (and probably is) as old as the car, especially considering it was sold for top dollar when imported... fair enough if you know when it was last changed and hasn't covered the miles (as I don't believe in the 5yrs on the dot, because they don't come with date stamps and could be 5yrs old when fitted) So right off the bat if I were to buy it I'd be spending the best part of a grand to sort those 2 issues because there's no way I'd feel happy giving it beans with a Japanese fuel map and a 13yr old cambelt and tensioners... because it's anyones guess what they've been through.

So in short I wouldn't give more than £10k for it and I'd have to REALLY want it to do that.

 

He's asking £12.5k and is quite firm on price. I suspect he'll revise that in a few weeks when it doesn't sell. He gave me a genuine reason for the sale as he recently became out of work. He's a nice bloke and I have no reason not to believe, well except for the fact that he wants me to buy his car. He's still young, bought it, threw all his cash at making it look nice but the cash soon run out.

If he hadn't overpaid by so much I suspect he could sell at the right cost but he wants to recoup cash asap. While looking on various site I still see plenty of cars for sale for far more than he's asking so in some ways his pricing isn't terrible, it's just a shame it needs some cash spending in it. Even then there are more expensive cars currently on sale - even UK models!

 

Cars are only expensive at the moment because finance is cheap and easy... hang fire for a few months and they'll be getting cheaper as the reality of Brexit begins to bite.

Personally don't think it's a good time to buy a car, the performance car bubble is about to burst.

 

This.

Plenty of evidence and discussion elsewhere about how the credit fuelled performance car bubble seems to have finally run out of steam and many just aren't selling or are being reduced.

All the indications are that monetary policy and subsequent credit availability are going to be considerably tightened from here on.

You'd have to be a bit naive or stupid or have more money than sense to buy into the performance car market right now rather than hang fire for 6-12 months.