Brian,
Lots of good advice. It boils down to learning everything you can. I see in your profile that you're in Washington D.C., so you will find lots of Pagodas for sale in CT, NY, NJ, PA, ME, DE, and VA.
- Drive at as many Pagodas as possible before buying one. In a location like yours, I can see driving at least 10 examples, if not many more. Drive cars of every price range, even if they seem too beat up or too perfect for you. It gives perspective.
- You might be able to find some friendly forum members here who would show you their car and all the good and bad things about it. That would be a great education.
- Once you've been in all those cars, spoken with current owners, read this forum, and think you finally found a good car, then you need to get it inspected. Get specific recommendations from people on this forum on who to take that good car to. You might want to take it to two places to see if they come up with the same analysis!
Knowledge is power: drive a bunch of cars, talk with owners, and read through this forum until your eyes go blurry. When you're driving a Pagoda next spring with the top down, you'll be glad you spent the time researching.
Rodd
Powell, Ohio, USA
1966 230SL, Euro, Auto, Leather, both tops
1994 E420