Just got back from driving the VX. Unfortunately was fairly disappointed by it. Not sure if it was the general driving characteristics or this one in specific, but I expected it to be much more hunkered down feeling; it felt as if it was fairly hollow overall, not all that great in terms of on-road manners. Very well could have just been this specific VX though. Here's a rundown of what I found, much of which were points to be inspected as directed by everyone on this thread and in the thread provided by VX KAT:

-The vehicle came from NY and as such has a fair amount of underbody rust. Nothing I'd call concerning, but it's by no means a Florida car.

-The dealer has no service records for the vehicle. He *just* got it in and nothing came with it except for an owner's manual. Thus, no way to tell if it's had the timing belt, tensioner, water pump, or serpentine belt replaced. Additionally this means I don't know if it's the original engine or transmission

-The tires have about 5-10% tread left and would have to be replaced immediately. There goes $500-1000 into the vehicle. I would barely feel safe driving it home as-is on the tires that it has now.

-The ABS light is on and the system does not function at all. I hit the brakes pretty hard on some snow/ice and didn't get any ABS feedback whatsoever from the brake pedal. Between the horrible tires and lack of ABS it was a pretty scary ride coming to a complete stop from 30 MPH on a snowy patch of road. The dealer did say he would fix the ABS system prior to sale, but whether this would this be a real fix or a "fix" has me concerned. If I have to fix it myself, there's more money into it already.

-The lack of ABS and tread on the tires helped show that the TOD system does in fact function properly, lights included. Didn't get to try out 4-Low other than crawling for about 20' but it seemed to function as it should. Tried hard acceleration on snow/ice as was recommended and the TOD worked well giving the VX grip.

-The CV boots seemed to be in decent condition

-Didn't get a chance to open the hood to check the oil (already couldn't feel my fingers at this point of inspection); thus also couldn't see the condition of the battery

-There is some rust on the license plate areas, both front and rear

-Couldn't get to the bumper beam, thus couldn't tell if it was rusty

-The engine idled and ran up/down the RPM range fine; transmission held first gear a little long after startup when it was still cold, but after a few minutes it didn't hesitate any or slip at all

-Couldn't tell if there were any fluids dripping because it was parked on a recently plowed and sanded wet parking lot

-NVH was a little worse than expected, no strange noises but the steering wheel did vibrate slightly and the ride was not as compliant as expected

-Couldn't tell if the shocks were OEM or not

-The rear differential cover was somewhat rusty

-The exhaust looks as if an aftermarket tip was installed; definitely didn't sound like an aftermarket full exhaust, as the engine was much louder than the pipe itself

-There's a trailer hitch that is rusty as hell and would need to be removed

-U-Joints aren't looking too great

-The power windows *barely* worked; could be result of bad battery, but they needed manual help to go back up

-Interior is in good shape -- seats are ok but not great, door handles/levers are good, CD player is original, steering wheel is in ok shape (not great)

-Paint & cladding are decent - looks as if it got a love tap on the left rear (see pic), otherwise fine

-Part of the right front inner fender-well is hanging down and has to be re-attached

-Price is $5200


All in all I was fairly disappointed. Clearly this example needs some work and I'm not sure if I'm willing to do as much as it will really need. Figured if it needed some things here and there I would scoop it up and spend a little time working on it but there's a lot that this thing needs to get to good working shape before it can be road-trip worthy.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? Even if I buy it for $4000 it's going to immediately cost a couple grand more from the get-go; that makes it hard to justify unfortunately. It needs tires, a battery, the ABS system fixed, u-joints, shocks, and possibly more that I couldn't identify today. Add sales tax and registration and it's already a $6000+ vehicle. Thoughts?

Here's pictures of the VX - sorry they're not great, couldn't feel the fingers I was using and didn't feel like lying down on the wet pavement