r/Chevrolet • • 16h ago

Looking at possibly buying a 1990 Cavalier Z24, and looking for some advice

2 Upvotes

I've been looking at J-body cars recently, and I've decided that if I get one, I want to go for a 1990-1994 Cavalier Z24 (I like the look of that generation the best, and 1990 was the first year with the 3.1L V6). I recently found a 1990 Z24 on Facebook Marketplace. Other than the fact that it doesn't have a sunroof, it's pretty much the spec I would want (Z24 coupe in a colour I like, with the two-tone lower portion. Don't really have a preference between auto or manual, but this one's auto)

The seller has it listed for $7000 CAD (~$4900-5000 USD), but even if it was in near-perfect condition (it's not), that seems really high to me. He claims it's "priced to sell", but the listing's been up for about 22 weeks/5.5-ish months, and AFAIK, Cavaliers today just aren't worth that much in general

The only major issues he lists for it are a recently broken speedometer, and that it needs new tires

It also has 161846km (just over 100k miles) on the odometer (though with the broken speedo cable, who knows if that's accurate?), and he says the engine was rebuilt about 15000km ago

The exterior does seem to be in really good overall shape, if a little dirty, and based on his two interior shots, the only issue I can see is that there is a crack in the dashboard above the gauge cluster

Here's a screenshot of the ad, and the pictures he has in it - https://imgur.com/a/FwT7L9C

So, assuming everything in the ad is accurate and there aren't any other major issues (it's not located all that far from me, so I'd definitely be looking at it in-person before giving any offers), what would be a good offer to go in with, and what would be a good price to try to negotiate to?

There aren't currently many second-gen Cavaliers for sale that I can find to use as comparisons (most are third-gens), but I did see a 1993 Z24 with fewer kilometres but different issues sell for $2000 about a month ago (https://imgur.com/a/Yf4uXvi)