First test drive in a 6GC Vert, Advise please Options

[Fr3AkAzOiD]

Long post, lots of questions, sorry.

Took my first test drive in a Celica vert this morning.
Drove a Celica hatch a few years ago so memory is fuzzy when making a comparison to the Celica vert I tested today but hopefully some of you guys can help me out.

Here is the one I looked at.
http://tinyurl.com/3qpwltm

For reference I have an '08 Cobalt XFE, I know the Cobalt has 10 more hp then the Celica but the Cobalt XFE has higher gear ratios for fuel economy so I figured performance would be about the same as they are close in weight.
The Celica hatch I drove a few years ago left me surprised with how sporty it was in comparison to the power it made. Not blindingly fast but more then I had expected.
Maybe this one has a run down engine and 190k miles has killed quite a few horses or maybe it was that with a passenger, kiddo, and the vert being heavier I was pulling around an extra 500 pounds, but it just seamed slow.

I'm hoping it was the engine being beat on as the car certainly was, several "minor" accidents that had fenders replaced resprayed. Frame looked good though.
I never ran it all the way up to red-line as it sounded fine up to about 4,000 rpm but once past that just sounded bad. I don't know, straining maybe, buzzy. Not knock but certainly not a sound I wanted to continue subjecting my ears to. My Cobalt doesn't make the worlds best engine note and when I run mine to red-line the last 1,000 rpms sound a little buzzy but I was actually worried about killing the Celica when I tried to wind out 2nd.

Throttle was a little different then what I am used to or remember on the hatch I drove. On my Cobalt and my wife's Malibu you get a nice smooth throttle that gradually and evenly increases revs as you press you pedal. On this one I had to push harder then what I'm used to in order to get any pedal travel and then it seemed to jump from idle speed to2k - 2.5k rps, after that point it increased pretty evenly. Are all manual Celica like this or could this be a sticky throttle cable or something?

Guy was nice enough to say I could take it for a day to get it checked out as the Celica is now a second car for him but when I asked if there was anything I should know about it he just said it is in the condition you would expect a 12 year old car to be in.
I'm surprised it is still running on the original clutch and seams to be in decent shape.
You can see how bad the drivers seat is in the pics on the listing and there are smaller tears on the passenger seat and some cracking and fading on the back seats.
Though I did find the the antenna motor is dead, the trunk release didn't work, and a few other minor things popped up, the paint was in a few different shades and there were a lot of scratches and two big squares that were all scratched up where it looked like a spoiler could have been mounted on the trunk but instead of at the rear of the trunk it was near the front. The rear bumper also looks like it got bumped as it no longer lines up strait, car had no rust though which was good, and surprising.

The motor for the top worked but once it got the top around 1/3 the way up it started sounding like it was straining. Is that normal or a sign that the motor is dying?


I'm sorry for all the questions but I'd just like to get as much info as I can as there are not many opportunities to test drive a manual vert around here.
It's hard to tell what is normal and what is something going wrong.

Guy went away for the weekend and I may take him up on his offer to have a mechanic check it out but I'm not sure if I want to pay $4,400 to get a almost 200k mile car and then still need to go junkyarding to get parts and then pay to have it repainted all one shade of red.

Opinions?

[opie_7afe]

your in nc there should be way better deals on celicas then that, i paid 1800 for my 94 hatch with 110,000 sure it dont have 3rd gear and probly factory clutch but transmission is 100-250$ and clutch is 105 shipped for oem, and has some body issues i need to work on but for the price it was a good deal, i would honestly pass on the vert and look for something in better condition, for that price you can find a 6gc in better condition with lower miles