OK so I'm thinking I'll give it another drive once the ice melts (not about to drive this thing on the 1/8" of ice we just got with no ABS and bald tires). Will try to look under the hood and will man up and just crawl all the way under it to check it out.

If everything looks decent I'll try to pick it up for around $4000. Any more and it's paying way too much; this thing is just above true "fixer upper" status.