2000 galant es w/ 114k miles. deall???

[muhammad]

I am a college student and am looking to purchase my first car. I am looking for something to last 5 years and w/ OK appearance. Plus I dont want to spend over 6 Gs.

I found this 2000 Galant Es with 114000 miles.
I checked out the Carfax report, 3 owners. Vehicle has always been in Florida. (any problems with that?)
First a rental agency for a year. Second owner was a leaser for a year. Third owner had it until recently.
NO SALVAGE, NO ACCIDENTS, CLEAN REPORT.

The price: $3900 USD.

My question, is this a deal? How long would a car like this serve me?
Any things I should really check out? Maybe rust since Florida has hurricanes?

any input will be greatly appreciated.

thnx

[Koncept]

Kelly Blue Book estimates that year and model (I'm guessing it's a i4 and not the V6) at around $6k, so 3900 isn't bad. Maybe try talking them down to 3500. The car should hold up pretty well, but you will want to make sure all the maintenance has been done to it. At 120,000 you will probably have to do a fairly big maintenance if it hasn't already been done...Things like timing belt, water pumps and other belts should be checked at this stage. As far as being from Florida, there is a lot of humidity down there, that with the hurricanes can provide a lot of water damage and/or rust to a car. Those definately be things to look for.

[dknight3]

no, not a very good deal. It would be a pretty decent deal except the car was a rental.
maybe its just me but i would never buy a car thats been a rental.

[Koncept]

My car was a fleet car before I purchased it as well. Sure, there were a few dings and scratches in the door, but 4 years later the car is still as good as I got it. If not better. Of course, I could be lucky too.

[6G72Galant]

no, not a very good deal. It would be a pretty decent deal except the car was a rental.
maybe its just me but i would never buy a car thats been a rental.

My car was a rental. I bought it for $13500 with 10K miles. :P

[pinoyesv6]

hows the vehicles maintenance history? everything up to date? records of all the work that has to be done.

i mean for a car with that many miles and for what u want it to do, i'd make sure everything checks out ok or you could be spending 3900 for the car and then another couple grand for a new engine or something a month or so later if it hasn't been taken care of.

[muhammad]

The maintenance history seems ok.
Here's a brief summary:

The rental company put 17k miles on it in a year, with no recorded service.
The leaser put 6k miles on it, no recorded service.
The last owner of 6 years had service every 30k miles. Within a 5 month period, they had the suspension system serviced. Is something up with that?
About every 2 years they had the vehicle serviced.
Also at 81k miles, they had drive belts replaced.

Last recorded maintenance is at 81k miles which included drive belts, vehicle service, and inspection.

How does that seem to you guys???
The thing I am fearing is that I purchase it and within no time problems start showing up.
I know I would have to service it at 120k.
My question is, how much does it cost for all that the manufacturer suggests???

And lastly, does anyone have a rental with high mileage now? How is it running?

thanks for all your input guys
;-)

[QnzMostWanted]

timing belt? thats usually said along with drivebelts....

[muhammad]

No mention of timing belt change on Carfax report, only drive belt change.

Should I be worried?

[QnzMostWanted]

well have it checked, even at 120 it shoulda been done twice.....best bet would be to get it inspected to see if it needs to be done if u choose to get the car

[fatal1]

sounds like a good deal overall but as always test drive it ask questons...as long as the right service is done and the timing belt is changed on time these cars can run for a long time

[polishmafia]

First a rental agency for a year.

i personally beat the living shit out of rental cars. my guess is that most people do too. i would keep looking.

my .02

[cremeofthecrop]

i saw a 47k mileage gtz with few minor damages, the only thing is that it is a salvage title and it is on sale for 3300 on craigslist ...deal or no deal???

[cdipier2]

i saw a 47k mileage gtz with few minor damages, the only thing is that it is a salvage title and it is on sale for 3300 on craigslist ...deal or no deal???

no deal...you never know what you may be getting with a salvage title. the frame could be bent etc and it even could have some electrical issues

[99 galant]

id say deal, im 17 and my car is a 99 i bought it with almost 93k on it and it was 7g's and im still paying it off... but id be worried about the rental if you bought it from them bcuz of many diff drivers, but with one person having it for a while that is a good thing bcuz many drivers driving diff puts a strain on the car (so i hear) plus galants are a good car, not saying it bcuz of this site, but im on my second car my first was a piece of shit saab and my parents have gone threw cars and my galant seems to be the best so far

do what you think with the money you have... your deal is HALF of what mine was

[muhammad]

i now figure out why the low price despite the immaculate carfax.
the car had a broken turn signal, a cracked dash, a moldy smell, and it shut off at a stop light.
yeah, i am definately not getting that piece of shit!

however, after perusing this site, i have somewhat fallen in love with the galant. if i can find one under $6k, i might get one. my other choices are a maxima(which is still really nice to me), or an altima/accord/camry.
the thing i dont like about the last 3 is that they look "plain". nothing special about them.
i need to find a car soon though b4 i head back to college.

thanks for yalls input
;-)

[mapid145]

which college u going to.. most of us are either in college or about ot be done with it.. maybe someone can help u out

[muhammad]

i go to the university of georgia, located in athens, Ga.
awesome city and football team!!!

[BIGMONEYDAY]

i go to the university of georgia, located in athens, Ga.
awesome city and football team!!!

Since your a GA boy, you need to hit up dsimports.com (we used to be gatgc.com, the Georgia chapter of TGC) Even though we are not an exclusive Galant club any more, most of us still drive them. If you do decide to get a Galant, and are in the ATL we can help you out with info and also getting the elbow grease done if you need somebody to help you turn some wrenches. I'm located in SC but get to the "A" on the regular, and I usually see pretty good deals on some older G's in my local trade paper, and kinda been thinking about picking up a 2nd one to play around with. Just to let you know, I have 328K on my '99 ES V6 so they will last you if you keep up regular service on it. (Since I drive 100 miles round trip every day to work, all my miles are highway miles, which aren't that stressful on my baby.)

[Eclipse97526]

i have had my galant 3 years with not a problem, Replaced the brakes once, and re-surfaced the rotors. I had the facotry battery die on me.... Other than that, this car has 108 k Miles now, and its beggin me for a turbo ;) but i keep tellin her, I gotta save up for a rebuild and do it right ;)

[RedGalant2k1]

I'd lowball them at $2500 and go from there.

[gwmodel]

I bought a 2000 Galant that was an Enterprise rental car for the first 22K of its life. I am the second owner and now I have 112K on it. The car has been the most reliable vehicle that I have ever owned. I live in Pittsburgh, PA and the roads are tough on cars (potholes, hills, road salt).

A good friend of mine is a Mits tech and he helps me with advice. The only big dollar repair so far was replacing the 2 timing belts at 80K miles. My tech friend did it for me and he saved me $500 if a dealer would have done it. You need to have someone who knows what they are doing to do that routine maintenance task. You should have that done at 120K. I also did my sway bar links today and it went really well. I am not a mechanic at all. Check eBay for price since these things go for a song on eBay. I would buy it but I would like a maintenance history.

Get a good price Mo and get one of these things!!!

[4-G-rim]

My first Galant was a rental car for the 1st part of its life and it was a super reliable car for me. Depending what rental car company it was owned by...service maintnance should of been on the ball.

From what you posted on its carfax report...most of it has non reported service which would raise a eyebrow for me, but looks like the previous owner did some maintanance which is good.

Unless if the previous or current owner states and has proof of recent services like timing belt, water pump, fluid changes, drivetrain and suspension and they have been done recently, I wouldn't jump on it if I were you unless you have some extra $$$ to get those things done. This is strictly based on you being a college student where having a car on tip top shape is important.

[732Galant]

I bought a 2000 ES i4 with 138,000 miles with $4200 out the door after taxes, title, and fees and all that shit. :roll:

[djflex167]

i would try to get it a little lower than that, try to see if they could work it out to $3400.00!! at least!!

[cdipier2]

I bought a 2000 ES i4 with 138,000 miles with $4200 out the door after taxes, title, and fees and all that shit. :roll:

damn that dealer really ripped you. where did u get it?

[djflex167]

yeah he should've waited!!

[bellefontaine187]

he didnt get ripped he just didnt get a ''great deal'. i paid 8600 bucks for my '01 es v6 4 years ago. it was 9600 but they gave me a grand for my trade in. the car was mint dude. clear title. no issues, one owner.18,000 miles and waranteed for 7yrs/75,000 miles. ibaybee the car. drove 1st three years and never had any problems..then the tranny went. got replaced and exacty one year later this thanks giving the new tranny is already screwed up and its back in the shop. its waranteed still. just barely, another 200 miles and id be over the warantee mileage. so you never know. i thought i got a great deal on my car 8,600bucks 4 years ago for an esv6 with 18,000 miles on it with warantee, but if i didnt have that warantee it wouldnt really be that good of a deal now. plus the ac went in it too and had to be completly replaced. soooo.....shit happens. you can get a car at a great price and turn around and have all kinds of problems with it. sometimes you pay a little more for the car than you may have wanted but if you have good luck with it who cares.

[732Galant]

I bought it at Auto Exchange in Lakewood on Rt 88. I kinda stumbled upon it. I was going to buy a Z24 Cavalier but it was sold earlier that morning at another place and my previous car died a month earlier and I was running my favors short of borrowing family cars. I dont think I got ripped, I've seen many places with similar mileage for around the same price. Did I get a great deal? No, but I dont think I got "ripped" off.

[fq2691]

i would say no deal it has a lot of miles for the year
i have a 2002 with 56kmi i paid 6G's

[Eclipse97526]

Well. I bought my car 3 and a half years ago, i got it for 3900 at the time, with 65 k miles, the carfax had one ownder, a rental agency, seems these cars are quite popular for that... lol. My car was build in octobor of 1998, and sat till june 2000 till it became an active rental car, untill august 2001 the car had 65,000 miles on it, wow, in such a short time, i couldnt belive it.

But she ran like a champ, and i saw the potential in this car, mainly not bieng a honda, so i bought it in June 2004. This car had the same everything, the battery took a crap on me, and left me stranded the second month i owned it. I replaced the battery and never had one problem. Ever. I put 60k miles on it in 3 years, and she loves me ! i put a 4600 watt stereo in it, that ended up killing the alternator, I went to buy an alternator, and ended up buying a rebuild kit, and am just now finish up rebuilding the motor, I have done everything myself, and its cost out of pocket to me, 750 $ for a 100 % rebuild, even with some goodies ! of course im broke now, but my car is bought and paid for, and will have 0 miles on her. Only reason i went with a rebuild is because it was a rental, and rode hard for the begining of her life, she still ran great. This car was always wonderful to me, and never ever had a problem reguardless of it having 65,000 miles in 14 months, and i doubt they were easy miles, i know im hard on my rentals >:) haha,

[o1naturalhigh]

like others...my car was a rental @ first...i bought the car 1 yr old...i am 2nd owner...and has been one of the most reliable ones i have owned. i bought mine in 02 w/ 35k miles...for about 10.5k...but...i bought mines off a dealer lot

[zobgel]

no, not a very good deal. It would be a pretty decent deal except the car was a rental.
maybe its just me but i would never buy a car thats been a rental.

My car was a rental. I bought it for $13500 with 10K miles. :P

i bought my car for $12000 with 3k miles :wink:

dont buy a rental car....

[Eclipse97526]

It all depends what your plans are, if you want the car to last for ever and ever, buy it new, and take care of it, follow every schduled maintniance and dont race it, if u plan on rebuilding the engine someday anyways, why not buy a rental. they are alot cheaper, And the rental agencys pay the 2,500 bucks to have the dealership maintiance done, and they take care of it, you can tell buy the carfax reports, and i rail the shit outta my car, all i really had to do was a 121 dollar alternator fix, and a 60 $ water pump, but i wanted a new engine, so i rebuilt it, and now it really dont matter that it was a rental, cause it will be brand new ;) its all new suspension and everything, and looks toatly difrent, and honstly, even if u buy it used from a dealership, run a carfax report, 90 % of used galants on a car lot anywhere, were once a rental. Its because there great cars, and i bet ya, i was alot harder on my car the 65 k miles i had it, rather than the 60 k that were on it when i got it. I drove the shit outta my car, and she loves it, Galants for life !

[Drucru22]

My 2001 Galant ES was a hertz rental for a year or two until i bought it in 2003... its now got 115000 miles on it and it runs perfectly. Only had one major problem when the thermostat went up but otherwise, its been a very reliable car. I say its a good deal, but keep in mind how people treat rentals. I think i just got lucky tho...

[SMD]

First a rental agency for a year. Second owner was a leaser for a year. Third owner had it until recently.



Dont ever buy a car that used to be a Rental vehicle. Good lord. People F#CK those cars up. think about it. and i don't care how pretty it looks outside.

too much risk. its crazy to even consider that.