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2004 Corolla S without ABS - worth buying?
Hello,
I am looking at purchasing a used 2004 Corolla S, which has all the optional features except side bags and ABS (really no idea why the seller wouldn't put down another $300 into a safer car). The car is otherwise in pretty good condition, there is one oil leak that is of some concern but compared to other cars I've looked at this is the cleanest, and also very low miles (60,000).
I have two questions:
1. Would you even consider buying a car without ABS this day and age? Do cars even come without ABS anymore? Was it common in 2004 for people to buy cars without ABS? I live in a very snowy part of the country, how does that play into things? (BTW the seller is throwing in an additional set of winter tires)
2. I had the car inspected and was told that it would need about, say $1,500 of repairs within the first 6 months ($500 of that immediately for the oil leak). Book value for this car, taking the low miles and the options into account, is $8,500 at "good" condition, and that's what the seller is asking. What would you consider a reasonable buying price? Subtracting the cost of short-term repairs leaves $7,000, which means I have to start my offer at $6,500, which is almost insultingly low, but I can't possibly pay more than $7,000.
Thoughts?
I am looking at purchasing a used 2004 Corolla S, which has all the optional features except side bags and ABS (really no idea why the seller wouldn't put down another $300 into a safer car). The car is otherwise in pretty good condition, there is one oil leak that is of some concern but compared to other cars I've looked at this is the cleanest, and also very low miles (60,000).
I have two questions:
1. Would you even consider buying a car without ABS this day and age? Do cars even come without ABS anymore? Was it common in 2004 for people to buy cars without ABS? I live in a very snowy part of the country, how does that play into things? (BTW the seller is throwing in an additional set of winter tires)
2. I had the car inspected and was told that it would need about, say $1,500 of repairs within the first 6 months ($500 of that immediately for the oil leak). Book value for this car, taking the low miles and the options into account, is $8,500 at "good" condition, and that's what the seller is asking. What would you consider a reasonable buying price? Subtracting the cost of short-term repairs leaves $7,000, which means I have to start my offer at $6,500, which is almost insultingly low, but I can't possibly pay more than $7,000.
Thoughts?
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Or do what I did this past Saturday. I got tired of being told "car is sold" every time I called on a used car listing that looked good, so I leased a new 2010 Sentra 2.0 S with ABS, six airbags, top-notch IIHS crash test scores, and of course a full factory warranty for $179/month. Or, about what an $8000 used car would cost me for a five-year loan after I add in tax and fees. The used car market is getting real tough out there right now...
P.S. There's some pretty good leases on 2010 Corollas right now. All of 'em have ABS and VSC and six airbags. Haven't seen one yet for $179/month with only first payment up front, but pretty close to that (around $200/month with 0 up front).
In any case, I talked to the seller tonight and I mentioned that there would be $1500 of repairs to do soon after buying the car, so he dropped his asking price down to $7500, but mentioned that he has already had that amount offered by someone else. I have priority because I showed interest first, and I said I would give him my decision by Thursday. I think $7500 is not totally unreasonable and he IS throwing in winter tires and a remote start key, but I would have felt a lot better about paying $7000. I can't really offer lower than $7500 at this point because (unless he is bluffing) he will just go to the other buyer.
In the meantime I'm trying to find out more about what these repairs entail and whether that engine oil leak would require a very invasive repair, which I want to avoid, and also trying to come to a conclusion with regard to ABS.
So then this is really a non-issue, isn't it? How will statistics on how many cars sold in the last 10 years have ABS help you? You aren't buying all the cars sold in the past 10 years... you are looking to buy a 2004 Corolla S w/o ABS. :confuse:
The reason I asked about statistics was to get an idea of whether a 2004 car without ABS is something unusual, and how that fits into the context of the past decade or so in terms of ABS adoption over this time.
Just from talking to people, there seem to be really varying opinions. People who don't have ABS say they don't need it and have no problem, some people who have ABS say that they couldn't do without it, other people have ABS but had never really noticed and don't care either way.
I have followed the car market closely for over 30 years. I can tell you with some certainly that a 2004 compact economy car without ABS is NOT unusual. I'm not sure where you'd get stats on that, unless you want to look up all 2004 model cars and see if they came with ABS standard, or not. That would take a lot of time, though, and I think you've already answered the question for yourself--you said you know how to drive w/o ABS.
You might want to consider, perhaps, a Civic EX, they've had ABS standard since the early '90s, though Civics used tend to be a bit pricier than Corollas. If you MUST have a Corolla, just know that the vast majority of '04s will NOT have ABS. Toyota dealers tend to have cars with 'regional' equipment groups, i.e., most in any region will have more or less similar equipment. So while some equipment was 'technically' available, most 'on the lot' cars didn't have ABS, and dealers didn't encourage special orders, of course.