negotiating for used lincoln, aside from 168,000 miles the vehicle sat and idled for twenty minutes and could not produce heat from the vents. they were asking $6000. after seeing vehicle i let them know two days later i was going to keep looking. they told me they had an offer of $4500, but they would prefer to sell to me as the other bidder was a jerk(good one). i offered $4000 as i was not prepared for that question. i think i might be able to get them to $3000, if the “phantom” bidder doesn’t swoop it up.
High mileage cars can only be judged by their current condition. You have a car with a lot of miles for the age and that usually means a lot of highway mile and those miles are easy on a car. If it had good care, it could well be in much better condition that another 2000 with half as many miles.
Get a trusted mechanic to check it out. He can’t always catch everything, but it will provide you with more information.
That car isn’t worth it, even in Manhattan. It’s too expensive to fix.
Look at all of the fluids and test drive it thoroughly (“romp on it”). If it runs well and the fluids look good, 3000 would be a steal, 4000 reasonable. If the coolant temperature is okay and you’re just not getting heat from the registers, it’s probably a door in the HVAC system not functioning, or possibly a plugged heater core. I’m probably going to be in the minority here, but I love the LS, I think it’s a great car, and unless there’s something disastrous wrong with it, 4000 sounds like a good price.
JMHO but 4 is too much for this car as it sits with 168k miles on it without really knowing the history behind it.
Be aware these cars have several issues that can be pricy to repair if necessary.
- Lower ball joints/lower control arms. These are under recall but the car may not be covered depending on the circumstances. These assemblies are not available in the aftermarket I don’t believe and are dealer items. Figure a grand on this.
- Coolant bottle. This is an oddball bottle that can leak and create problems with overheating and heater operation, although in theory it should not if it’s full. Figure 4-500 on this; it’s a pain to change.
- Radiator cooling fan. The early LS uses a “hydraulic” cooling fan that has it’s own fluid resevoir and these fans were prone to failure. The 2002 and newer did not use them. It’s a dealer or salvage item and a new Ford fan is approx. 700 bucks or so I think. An option would be to remove it and engineer an electric fan in such as the '02s use.
Nice cars, great gas mileage, and comfortable but some things are costly to fix on them. Just making you aware of some of the more common glitches. 3 grand IMHO and that’s qualified with a maybe.
Considering they’re referring to someone else as a “jerk” maybe they’re also doing the same thing when referring to you.
That does not sound too professional of them at all.
I agree with mr josh. I do like my 2000 LS except the rattle caused by the front sway bar bushings.
A quick-and-dirty run through the Kelley Blue Book numbers for my zip code for an LS with the V6 and automatic shows the trade-in value is $2850 and the retail value (what you’d pay a dealer) is $7025 with 168K miles. So, you’re in the ballpark with the numbers here. As Joseph pointed out, maintenance and current condition are what matters more than a few hundred dollars either way on the purchase price.
i don’t recall hearing any horror stories about the LS, so I personally would try to make the deal if the car meets your needs.