Looking at a 2001 Protege

[travislindley]

Thinking about buying a 2001 Protege for my niece and I'm looking for advice. The car has a little over 100K miles and was driven by a teacher for most of (if not all of its life) and was wanting some advice on what to check out before I buy. Do these cars need timing belt maintenance schedules, common problems I should look for, any other concerns? Also, can anyone give me estimates of about how many miles these cars are good for before they start having nagging little problems? She's 17 and will be starting college after she graduates this year, so I need something reasonably dependable for her (I know this depends more on maintenance, but the lady seems to be pretty responsible and seems to have maintained the car)... ANY comments or help would be greatly appreciated... Thanks in advance.

[jeg0024]

For a beater car for a 17yo... why not? I mean shes probably not gonna care much about the condition of the car and its gonna be able to get her around for a few more years. The timing belt should be changed at 100k if it hasn't already but people have ran up some crazy 150k+ numbers on these things as long as there taken care of. Only question I would have is... are you getting a good enough deal on this car? If the money is right and the car test drives fine then I would say its ok. Probably gonna need some fluids changed and some belts replaced though.

[travislindley]

the lady wants 3500 for it but probably would come down, but i don't want to even consider it if it's not gonna be a decent car...