So many brand new cars have issues. Take the Ford 6.4L diesel for example, they blew up left and right. So much so that Ford STILL is going through law suits over it. Another one you may have heard of is the famous Ford 6.0 diesel which is known for blowing head gaskets.

Cars are not all built the same, it really is a crapshoot. You can drive two of the same cars the same way and do the same maintenance but one will always last longer than the other.

002 wrote If the engine blew, that means the car wasn't taken care of / was beaten on so you have to think what else might be going bad?

In my opinion, don't get excited over new engines / transmissions or low mileage. A car with 200k miles can drive exactly the same as a car with 20k miles. Two things kill cars, that is miles and age. Once the miles get high, age doesn't matter. Once the age gets high, miles don't matter. This car is 25 years old, the miles don't matter. When I look for vehicles I personally stay away from vehicles with new major components (engine, trans, etc). My truck did get a new engine about 70k miles ago and the reason I still bought it was because there was paperwork from a Ford certified tech / Ford dealership that put it in, and everything else checked out as far as parts not worn out.

As far as the price, I'm not sure what the market is for these vehicles (check Craigslist?), but I do know there is no way in hell I'd pay $5k for a 25 year old car.

Just think tho a year newer and that be a hell of a car