Hey, I was in a similar situation when I bought my cat. I drove there, saw it was dogged out, and left. After thinking about it, though, I contacted the owner w/ a very low offer--low enough to compensate for the parts and time to restore it--and he jumped at it! (His wife wanted it out of the driveway.) At any rate, I spent a couple of months on it and now have a cat that get positive comments on the beach just about every time I take it out. So don't hesitate to offer much less, because who knows??