Advice on potential Reatta purchase

[RQ_Spartan]

Hi,

I know someone that is looking to sell their 1990 Reatta and it's been kept in great condition - never driven in winter, stored well. It does have 140k miles on it, but original owner. He even has a bunch of promo material for it from dealership. Also has lots of new replacement parts that he wants to sell along with it. For the car alone I believe he is asking $6,500 and not sure what he would ask on all the parts just yet. I am not a car expert at all but I do really like the look of this. I am considering making an offer and maybe driving it for a little bit and then hoping to sell for a little profit if possible. Reason for that is we may be moving in the next year. Any thoughts on what is a fair offer to make on this? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[2seater]

Nice clean no option car. The number one most common color combination aside from the body-colored side moldings. Maybe it is a trick of the light or photo but the seats look like they have suede side bolsters, which was early 1988 seating only?? That would be a plus, not a minus if true. JMO but $6500 is on the high side of the value and would seriously doubt it could be flipped for a profit. The extra parts is of course an unknown, but in general I wouldn't pay additional money for the parts at that asking price. Again, it is just my opinion.

[Barney Eaton]

I do not try to keep up with the prices on these cars but $6500 is high for a 140K vehicle even in great condition.    The engine will go an easy 200K with decent care. 

But there are other things that will need replacing.     He may have a hard time selling it for $5000

If he will not come down .... keep looking for a lower mileage car.  

[RQ_Spartan]

Ok, thank you both for your advice. He does seem eager to sell this and even told me he would come down on it for sure. I will see how much on that.

[RQ_Spartan]

I went to see it again today and drove it. Updates - while there is 140k miles, they engine (3800) is new with only 4,000 miles on it. Most of the major components on the car are newer and have only this amount of miles on them. The seats ARE the ones with suede side bolsters. He worked in the parts division for the company when this car same in and the first owner wanted those seats removed in place of leather ones. When the car came back to them years later, he bought the car himself and put the original seats that he had saved back into it. So, it turns out he is not the original owner, I was mistaken on that. 

 

But zero rust anywhere on it. He has never let it even get wet, no driving in rain, not going thru car wash. He washed when needed by hand. He only drives it about 150 miles per year now and still has oil changed every two years. It does need to have one headlight fixed as only one comes up and the passenger window moves slowly so would need new motor. I had the estimate done on those and runs around $250-$300 to fix both. 

 

Interior and trunk are mint, stereo and speakers work great.

 

The spare parts he has are all original and new. We did the calculation on what the after market equivalents would be and it's about $2,500...and these are original OEM parts so worth more than that. 

 

He also has the large Reatta dealer light up window sign that would go with this that sells for about $800.

 

He is asking $7,000 for the entire package; car, parts, and sign.

 

Any further thoughts would be great. 

[60FlatTop]

Would you please PM me the owner's contact information while you are waiting for a reply.

[2seater]

Well, the seating will be pretty rare and an interesting story. Only you can judge the value of things like the sign, but the package price is sounding more reasonable now. The only head scratcher is the new engine? Very peculiar for that to have been an issue, but a fresh engine is worth something for sure.

 

[RQ_Spartan]

19 minutes ago, 2seater said:

Well, the seating will be pretty rare and an interesting story. Only you can judge the value of things like the sign, but the package price is sounding more reasonable now. The only head scratcher is the new engine? Very peculiar for that to have been an issue, but a fresh engine is worth something for sure.

 

Yeah, he said that the issue was water leaking into previous engine which if caught early can be fixed with no issue. This issue was not caught in time, hence the new engine. 

[ChrisWhewell]

Well, a different perspective I have maybe, I see 6500 as a great bargain for a good running car (if your inspection shows no major issues), in this

economy that's a sweet price, and as Barney E. wrote, these cars go 200k mi. easily.    good luck, a new motor is usually never bad !

[Y-JobFan]

I would want to see some documentation as to what he constitutes a new engine.  Is it a new engine or does he consider a rebuilt engine a new engine?  If rebuilt, who did it and to what standards?  If that can be verified then while not cheap, it may well be a decent buy for the car, it's not one that you are going to buy and easily flip so plan on keeping it.  If you don't want the sign, that should be pretty easy to sell.  I would still try to get it in the $6500 range if everything is as it is supposed to be to give yourself a bit of leeway.  Those suede seats have value on their own and you will need to take good care of them

 

 

[Ronnie]

21 hours ago, RQ_Spartan said:

... The seats ARE the ones with suede side bolsters. He worked in the parts division for the company when this car same in and the first owner wanted those seats removed in place of leather ones. When the car came back to them years later, he bought the car himself and put the original seats that he had saved back into it.

I don't get it. I thought the suede seats only came in '88 models and we are talking about a '90 model. Why did a '90 model come with suede seats if the owner didn't special order them and didn't want them in his car? Makes no sense so I must  be reading this differently than other people. Seems that what is being said by you guys is if you took a '90 model and installed '88 suede seats you have increased the cars value. To me you have modified the car by installing seats that should never have came from the factory in '90.

[Barney Eaton]

   He worked for GM and they were taken out of an '88 at the owners request and replaced with all slick leather. 

He has had the suede seats for sometime and installed them into the 1990.    

. 

Edited May 26 by Barney Eaton (see edit history)

[Ronnie]

On 5/24/2023 at 6:30 PM, RQ_Spartan said:

he bought the car himself and put the original seats that he had saved back into it.

Barney you might be right but I see no mention of an '88 model anywhere in this thread. What he states above seems to imply the suede seats were the original seats for the '90 he is considering buying. Maybe Spartan will set the record straight.

[RQ_Spartan]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

Barney you might be right but I see no mention of an '88 model anywhere in this thread. What he states above seems to imply the suede seats were the original seats for the '90 he is considering buying. Maybe Spartan will set the record straight.

Yeah, I can see how what I said is confusing and the next time I see him I will ask him to clarify. My understanding from what he said was he pulled this seats from this car but based on what you guys are saying he might have pulled them from an '88 and saved them at the dealership (for over 10 years he said) and then put them into this one when it came in. 

[RQ_Spartan]

And in regards to the reselling side of it, I say that because I resell for a living so it's always on my mind. But there is a part of me that wants to buy it and drive for a year or two and then resell in order to get my money back...and maybe sell the parts and sign to make a little money.

[Y-JobFan]

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I don't get it. I thought the suede seats only came in '88 models and we are talking about a '90 model. Why did a '90 model come with suede seats if the owner didn't special order them and didn't want them in his car? Makes no sense so I must  be reading this differently than other people. Seems that what is being said by you guys is if you took a '90 model and installed '88 suede seats you have increased the cars value. To me you have modified the car by installing seats that should never have came from the factory in '90.

 didn't even look at the year lol, you are right, certainly would not have had those seats from the factory, no value added unless he sold the seats and picked up a set of leather seats, the suede ones should sell for decent money to someone with an 88