thanks guys. really helpful. i am a terrible bargainer to begin with. secondly, i was planning to buy a $5000 used car for my father in law to pick up my kids from school. but after checking out the small, crappy japanese made cars, I threw it in the towel. not saying the cars are bad, but ppl who bought those cars, just don't maintain them at all and they ask for more than private party price from bluebook because they are supposed to reliable. After i posted an ad on our company's intranet, I got this offer. I work for a big company with 40000+ employees. Seller's on the business side and I am on the technology side. The trouble is we live 1.5 hours apart and the only place we can meet is our work place in middletown mahattan. Let me tell you, there're not many mechanics there
So long story short, $8100 is over my budget already. I thought I would take this car and pass my bimmer to my wife and have my father in law drive the pilot. But you all make good points. I will think about them...