Fair price on a celica, need to know Options

[mantis]

hey all,
first post, but i am really into 6g celicas. I want to get one so bad, but it is tough for me to find one that is in good condition and kept well.

anyways, this guy near me is selling his 98 w/ 16k mile on it for $16500. I took a look at kbb, and for everything that it has, book value is $10700. Now i know that this maybe lower than what the car is worth, so i was thinking about offering $12500. Well above blue book value, but also well below his asking price.

Am i just in "sticker shock" over the going price? What should i expect for a nice condition 97-99 with under 30k miles?

thanks!

[97GTinKC]

Definitely run a Carfax on it, that is really low miles, and if its a GT 5spd and the color and options you want, probably worth close to what he's asking, a few thousand extra now may be cheaper than modifying one later or settling for less than you want. I gave 13,800 for my 97GT last year with 32,000 miles, but it already had most everything I wanted and looked and drove like a new car. there were some advertised when I was looking for as high as $22k with less than 20k miles on them. most with less than 50k miles were in the $13-17,000 range asking price. this all was just over a year ago, cant imagine they have dropped that much in 1 year, Good luck.