Looking to buy

[greggit]

Hi- just came here because ebay is sparse on Atoms. Id like to buy one. Thanks.

[Terry Kennedy]

Hi- just came here because ebay is sparse on Atoms. Id like to buy one. Thanks.

Welcome!

If you're looking for a somewhat specific set of options, you might have to wait a bit for a matching car to show up for sale. There's always the possibility of ordering a new one from the factory. Older cars generally hold their value quite well, unless they've been in an accident, so the price difference between new and used may not be as much as you're expecting (with the exception of salvage cars, see below). Phoning the factory (I recommend phoning instead of emailing) will get you some info on prices, and the factory may also know of owners who are selling, or cars in the build queue where the original buyer cancelled.

Probably the biggest decision is whether you want an Atom with a GM LSJ or a Honda K2x engine. The GM cars are going to be older (2008 and earlier) cars built by Brammo (previous builder). Brammo built a few Honda cars, but the vast majority of them will be from TMI (current builder).

If you're looking at a Brammo car, it is important to find out if all of the retrofits have been done - they made some changes along the way, most of which applied to earlier cars but may not have been done, particularly if Brammo lost track of the car because it had been sold. That means that a "Only 250 miles! Never titled!" Brammo car can be worth a lot less than a well-cared-for car which was actually used.

Randy is selling his second Atom on eBay right now, and that's a perfect example of a well-cared-for car which also has a huge number of other improvements. If I were in the market to buy an Atom, I'd give this one serious consideration.

At the other end of the spectrum is this car (auction ended) which is the SRA (spec racing series), with a salvage title with an "Off road use only" flag on it*. While that car sold for $15K, it is going to cost more than that just to buy a new frame*, not to mention anything else needing repair from the car hitting a wall at 27 MPH, hard enough to dislodge the engine*. Note: All * items are per the seller's auction listing

It isn't impossible to put an Atom back together yourself (there are a couple people here who have done / are doing that), but it is a complicated procedure and many of the parts are unique to the Atom, so there's no source of used parts and no service manual. Plus, the Atom community is pretty small and people will know that it was a non-factory-rebuilt car which will clobber any resale value.

[MadMaxAtom]

That wrecked #51 SRA Atom3 was "fixed good as new" and sold on Ebay for $28k; Ariel : Atom 3 in Ariel | eBay Motors

Here is a picture of the "fixed" frame; C2127CAE621F4A5C96385C4989C29B1E.jpg

There are Atoms for sale.but very few ever sell at "fire sale" levels,unless they have issues or their ex-owners are heading for the pokey..

Randys red framed Atom is a beauty and sets the standard for "used" Atoms.

[Terry Kennedy]

That wrecked #51 SRA Atom3 was "fixed good as new" and sold on Ebay for $28k; Ariel : Atom 3 in Ariel | eBay Motors

That's weird - the listing I posted above was a no-reserve auction with 46 bids. Did the winning bidder back out or something?

This listing shows a car with orange body panels (in the one remaining image), described as "won all 10/10 races in the 2011 season", while this one shows a car with yellow body panels which "finished 2nd or 3rd in the series last year". Yet they're both #51 and seem to be the same car. I'm surprised that the seller states that TMI repaired the car to "good as new". The Brammo rule-of-thumb was that any dents or kinks in the 4 main rails required a completely new chassis. By the time you pull everything off the frame and do a magnetic / ultraviolet inspection of every weld, you might just as well put the parts back into a new chassis.

The newer listing says the seller bought it after it was wrecked, which makes the winning bidder at least the 3rd owner.

I'm attaching PDF's of the 2 auctions as they'll eventually expire from eBay.

Anyway, this does illustrate my point about the pitfalls of buying a damaged Atom and fixing it up...

[Positron]

Hi- just came here because ebay is sparse on Atoms. Id like to buy one. Thanks.

Can you be more specific on what you are looking for (generation and engine), what you intend to do with it (track or street) and your price range/expectation (pristine/new, carefully used, don't care/cheap)? It will help people chime in and match what you are looking for as there are some around but all of the above.

It's slow going to match the pristine cars with the buyers who are looking for a fire sale and vise versa.

[MadMaxAtom]

Terry,notice the Ebay sellers are one in the same for "both" Atoms. I am assuming they are the same car...but either way,that is NOT the correct "repair" for a damaged frame rail,in my opinion. If there is still that much visual damage,how about the hidden damage you can't see?