$43,000 seems like a great deal for that car. While I do love the Imola color, the interior is certainly not my cup of tea. I would need a black interior on an Imola to make me happy.
I was actually the high bidder up til 3 seconds left, my bid was $43,000.
After some more research, the car was indeed hit as the autocheck shows. The passenger side fender color is clearly off, the seller only listed 1 pic of the pass side, purposely.
Major timing belt/water pump hasn't been done, the owners story conflicts a ton. Listed as getting divorced, yet clearly in the background you can see he picked up another Imola.
Too many questions for me in buying a car 8 hours away with major past damage. Everytime he's listed it he also writes CLEAR CARFAX. Yes, carfax may be clear but the autocheck clearly isnt and the owner knows the car has had damage.
I was willing to go 43k and take the risk, clean it up, drive it for a while then sell eventually possibly.
The more I thought about it, buying a car with significant previous damage, then factor in shipping to me (or flying down/driving back), taxes, timing belt/waterpump etc would put me well over 50k. For that kind of money, I'd rather spend some more and buy the "right" 02-05.
Was upset I didn't win it, but overall it's probably not meant to be. Curious to see who did end up with it though, the owner had it listed on autotrader for around 60k so maybe he set it up to bid himself last minute as others mentioned.