What's a car worth? Options

[Verruckt]

Can you all give me an idea what this car might be worth?

Back when I began my 914 search, I found a decent 75 2.0 at a German repair shop. The owner had basically abandoned the car here, not wanting to pay the bill ($1200). The car is not running still... The shop replaced the starter, alternator, distributor guts, spark wires, and plugs, and battery. The car has VERY low compression in one cylinder. The rear trunk has a broken hinge. Original white paint but faded pretty bad. Hell hole repaired pretty good. Some surface rust on front hood and one fender. Underside is flawless, no rust. Car has mismatching wheels. Interior is not something to brag about, but its all there. Seat rips, carpet f'ed up.

Originally they tried to get a hold of the owner to tell him i was interested in the car (it sat there for 4 months). They put a lien on it, and now they want to sell it. They initially told me $2500. They justified this by saying they had $1400 in storage fees on the car. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Well, i held out for a few weeks. They called me back wanting to maybe drop a little bit. I told them it was just too much. A couple of weeks have gone by now and I just got a call this morning, and now they want me to make an offer.

I know its hard from my description, but could anyone give me an idea what it might be worth?

[ArtechnikA]

The owner had basically abandoned the car here, not wanting to pay the bill ($1200).

The car is not running still... The shop replaced the starter, alternator, distributor guts, spark wires, and plugs, and battery. The car has VERY low compression in one cylinder.

the shop replaced all that stuff knowing it had a dead cylinder ?

this sounds like an issue that might never die, depending on the original work order.

(Scenario One - guy brings car to shop, says "runs bad, fix it." shop runs up the bill because they can, knowing it'll never run right, smelling deep pockets. shop is looking at a lawsuit and cloudy title for the car.

(Scenario Two - guy show up and says : replace my starter, replace my alternator, rebuild my distributor, i know it won't fix the problem but i want this work done anyway.)

their 'storage charges' number is none of your concern. could they store the car for 10 years and then claim it's worth $15,000? not hardly.

they originally thought the car was worth $100 - their $2500 minus the bogus $1400 storage charges minus the $1200 bill. they're probably in the ball park.

you've got a dead-engine roller with an iffy title if you do all the work, you can put in $5000 and have a $5000 car. you can do worse - lots of people spend $10,000 to get a $5000 car. (this presumes your rust estimate is accurate and there are no issues in the longs and suspension console...)

if the brakes and transmission are in decent shape, you can find a donor engine and have a driver while you fix the rest. if it won't pass whatever inspections are required in your part of the world you have a restoration project on your hands, and those are always hard to figure.

$500 and a clean titile i think would be my top offer. they need to cut their losses, and you're their brightest prospect in months ...