THANKS a ton for all the responses. This place is great!

I have just read each and every line of each and every one of them and I
can say that at the moment I am certainly considerably less enthused
about this deal- I would say shying away from it, but I will do some
thinking.

I should have said a bit about my mission in the original post. It's
basically time-building with XC mostly within a 100 nm radius or so.
While a four-seater would definitely be nice, most of the time it will
be me & the girlfriend (she flew with me first time today and loved it)
with no real need for two more seats. I had actually been drawn to
150s/152s because of the fuel economy, but on second thought I can just
throttle back a 172 or Cherokee to 55% if I want to, right?

Performance is not a big concern right now. Although, after the flying
I did today (3.7 on the hobbs, fighting 40 knot headwinds part of the
trip), I can at least say I don't want to go any *slower* than a 152
does. :-)

I have to admit that I have not up to this point considered Pipers much
at all. I just certainly start looking that way as well, especially if
they do give more bang for the buck.

I guess the price is not really as good as I'd thought. I was figuring
it as $17,200 with the hangaring which did seem at least competitive.
And the rest of the plane is indeed in good shape. But- to those who
pointed to the fact that it's been a trainer- I hear ya. That does
bother me. I have seen what students do to airplanes and 25 years is a
long time!

In short, I definitely won't be doing anything soon and my feeling is
that I will likely pass this one by, or possibly make them an offer
considerably below asking.

~Paul