Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 42.2 - opinions?

[Gard]

I'm in the market for a pre owned boat. My budget is limited, so much so that I am considering buying a 27 year old boat - a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 42.2 with four cabins.

I have not yet made the trip to see it as I want to do the desk top research first. The problem is, there is virtually zero information to be found on this model. I was hoping you could give me your thoughts.

For reference, an ideal boat would be something like a 15 year old Bavaria 42 Cruiser with three cabins, two steering wheels... but locally it would cost twice as much as the boat in question (approx 650k vs 1100k eur/usd).

At first glance, I would have to compromise on two steering wheels, cabins that look a little claustrophobic and lacks storage, a saloon where it looks like lying down to watch the is a problem. I would also need to upgrade with a thruster, solar and davits. Otherwise it looks to be all there. I would expect to have to upgrade any boat with 5-10k worth of upgrades, and to spend about 5% of the boat's advertised price to replace end of life items first season. Still, the boat is 27 years old... Is it worth half the price of a similar size/type of boat half as old?

I know the question is a bit stupid as it all depends on maintenance and obuse. The boat is advertised as "well maintained"... as so many others, where opinions span in terms of what this actually means. We will just have to guess.

The last time I cheaped out on a 27 yr old boat (Jeanneau Sun Shine 36 - costing 35k) I ended up selling after three seasons. The boat sailed beautifully, was in acceptable shape, and it checked off a lot of boxes. But I wanted more "nice to have" gizmos and features - which the boat lacked (windlass aft and front, bough thruster, cockpit tent, solar, panels, hot water, davits...). The cost of even half the upgrades vs the new sales value wasn't justifiable. Not only that, the boat would still have annoying shortcomings; such as lack of headroom in the galley, a tiller instead of a wheel, and a main sheet tack system in the cockpit that would interfere with the cockpit tent, and a baby stay leaving no deck space for a dingy. It made more sense to sell and buy a boat that had most of these features already - allready depreciated. The boat was sold. Then life took all sorts of turns, year after year (including a pandemic), and eight years later I am still renting.