I have a couple of these cars and they are a BLAST to drive. However, they are often beat up and abused by younger owners. They are also severely overpriced on today's market.

Things to look out for on Terminators:

1. Head Replacement: Many of the 2003 cars had issues with cooling the back heads up by the firewall. A bunch of these cars had those heads replaced under warranty. Do a compression test before you do anything else on these cars.

2. Pulley Swaps: A lot of guys will swap the supercharger pulley for more boost and never tune for it. Check the snout of the supercharger. If you see signs the pulley has been changed (scuff marks, etc.) ask the owner. If they swear it has never been swapped, walk away.

3. Driver's Side Seat Bolster: A lot of these are torn and need repair. Much like a C5 Corvette, the condition of this seat bolster can give you insight on how the car has been maintained. If it is in bad shape, pass on the car as it is likely they did not properly maintain the vehicle.

4. Factory Radio: These often failed, so if you see an aftermarket unit it may have been done out of necessity.

5. Rust Around Trunk: Open the trunk and check the drainage channels for rust. Pine needles and other debris likes to gather in this spot and it can be a rust haven on any New Edge style Mustang, Terminators included.

6. Engine Temperature: Make sure to do a thorough test drive and watch the temperature gauge. If it goes anywhere past halfway, walk. These cars are known to have some overheating problems as the motors were a tight fit and they generate tons of heat.

7. ABS System: Check to see if the traction control light is on. There are three buttons under the radio. Traction control is one of them. If it is lit, press it to turn it on. If it won't turn on, the ABS module is fried. Very common issue and about $800 to repair, so you definitely want to check it.

8. Back Glass: If it is a convertible, make sure the back window is glass with a rear defroster. If it is plastic, it is a cheap top.that was put on as a replacement. Walk away because you'll have electrical problems with the rear defroster system.

9. Third Brake Light: The third brake lens is known to crack on these cars. Check to see if it is broken on the one you are looking at. If so, know it is a $500 part to replace.

10. Body Shake: If it is a convertible, take it up to 55mph and see if you feel any shudder. Even if not, park it and open both doors. What you want to look for is rub marks from the door panel on the side of the dash where they meet. If you have marks there, the body is twisted and you should walk away. This is common for a car that has been launched hard as the convertibles can't handle the instant torque and will literally twist the chassis.

11. Methanol Injection/NOS: Avoid any car that has either of those. Also, if the car comes equipped with a Killer Chiller system, walk. That system was a popular mod and it basically used your A/C to cool the engine down for running hot laps (repetitive runs with no breaks in between) to fight off heat soak (a condition that occurs when the engine is too hot to create maximum power). 

12. Clean Title: DEFINITELY look at clean titles only. 

Those are the main points, but you still need to have a mechanic inspect the car in and out before purchasing. On these cars it is an absolute necessity. Those were the big items I could think of that are easy to check and can rule a car out without getting a mechanic involved. If all those are ok, a mechanic would be the next step.

They can be fun cars, but I inspect A LOT of these and 95% are junk. The other 5% are way overpriced. These Mustangs have hard lives and people only buy them to beat them up and sell them when they have problems. Be super, super careful and diligent because it is a 32V hand-built V8. Replacement parts are nearly non-existent, so if you have an internal issue you're looking at a motor swap. And SVT blocks aren't available anymore, so you would need to go 5.0L which means a TON of changes.

I hope this helps. 

Well it all depends on how well taken care of the vehicle was and who owned it. Generally older people take care of them put them in the garage don't drive them when it's raining outside and they can be excellent. But don't even think about buying those without having a guy like me a professional mechanic will understand some check it out before you buy they're too many IFS

YIKES!