Buying Classic-Collectible Cars Long Distance

[Tudo]

Anyone get ripped off buying a car on ebay or long distance from a dealer and the car came in not as described? Anyone fight or did you just accept being taken advantage of?

let me rephrase the question, you purchased a car online and it came in different than described. Will cost you thousands to fix. It's a cheap car, approx. 10K and not worth taking a day away from the busniness. The car came from what is supposed to be a reputable Cadillac-Buick-Jaguar dealer. It's an older Mercedes.

I did not even get a fking signed bill of sale. The state of Fla may not accept what I have and in that case will not register the car. That's above and beyond the misrepresentation on the vehicles true condition. What would you do?

I DID hire an inspection service and I had a conversation with them about the possible cost of thousands of dollars in repairs this car may need ( a/c blowing warm, smoke billowing out the exhaust and thru the other holes in the exhaust system, all items that were mentioned in the inspection report as working properly ). I called them and after advising what my position is, the owner told me that before I write any checks to a lawyer to let him know the cost of the repairs and see if we can come to some settlement. Hopefully that happens approx. Monday/Tuesday. It's a big outfit and listed in the top 5 under auto inspections on yahoo/google. I won't mention names on the inspection service while we have the potential of a settlement.

While I agree the inspection service should pay something, I also believe the dealer should be held accountable. They misrepresented the car, did not even furnish a temp tag or a proper bill of sale for the car...........my words to them today were that I would kinda expect this from joe shmoes used car lot in a back alley somewhere but a caddy dealer?

What would you do now?

 

[stoned-trout]

when I flipped cars I got burnt a few times.... was sold a car as running and it had seized engine another bad tranny and a few more....lots of shady folks out there

 

[PizzaMan5000]

My first car I bought 14 years ago off ebaymotors when I was in the forth grade (I mowed about ten lawns in the neighborhood every week), and I bought it during the days when a NICE digital camera was 1.3 megapixels and 6 AA batteries were good for about 5 pictures before they died... Well the "owner" had actually just bought it online sight unseen and "immaculate" and RUNS GREAT" were exaggerations, it had rust perforation, fuel lines full of rust and being that it was air cooled it leaked oil EVERYWHERE- a quart a week. Not to mention it smoked a lot too. I simply settled with paying him half of the winning bid price. Long story short, $22k later it was a sweet ride. I have owned 9 cars personally and I have advice on classic cars.................

DON'T buy an AFFORDABLE car that needs work, save your money and buy one that's already done, because unless it's a highly collectible car (think hemi cuda type stuff) it's a waste of money to try and fix it up. Example, we had 2 Porsche 928's... The first one we bought for 5k and dropped another 15 into it to make it "nice" and it had 90k miles, we bought an all original one for 10k with 40k miles. Each magnesium wheel for those are 900 USED and a windshield is $1,100. German parts are exspensive, break the deal and RUN AWAY MAN!!!!

 

[PizzaMan5000]

I repeat run tooo thhheee hiiilllllssss, RAAWWNN FOOOOORRRR YOOOUR LIII-II-IIFEEE!

 

[stoned-trout]

who are you? the new number 2. who was number one? you are number 6. I am not a number I am a free man.....maiden rules long beach arena....yeehaw.... look for rides with 350 engines...cheap to rebuild and tons of aftermarket....made lots of cash flipping pre smog cars\trucks with said engine

 

[jayjayfrank]

the two biggest problems i see with this story are:

1) MERCEDES

2) FLORIDA

i mean, you can say its a 'cheap car' worth only '10k' but that just means 10 years ago it was $100,000 car brand new. $100,000 cars come with $100,000 problems. this is the reason the dealer sold it to the first sucker as fast as they could, i bet nobody at the dealership even looked at it, and if they did and saw the price of ignition coils alone they said "thanks but no thanks we are a business and aint no way to make money off this deal."

you understand that dealerships are 3rd parties right? they have nothing to do with the people that make the car. they have no interest in making Cadillac seem like a reputable company, infact, they need the reputation of the car manufacture to get shit sold, but on their end they dont need to deliver anything since their business is written into law.


i would talk to BAR and BBB and Yelp the shit every day.

 

[CecilGreenLeaf]

One of my good friends grew up in holland and has work in merc shops for years and while they are good cars they have expensive problems. Mercedes did alot of out of the box thinking with there cars. This makes some repairs very difficult and costly. You have to go to a specific school to work on these cars now if that says anything. Plus old Mercedes in Florida.... that car is going to be 80% rust.

 

[Tudo]

The dealer offered to write me a check the other day to make me go away. I rejected the offer.He then asked me if I want him to buy the car back. I asked, "would you do that"? He's supposed to get back with me on Monday.

So the story continues. Meanwhile I have a certificate from Mercedes Benz of America stating this is the 25th car that was built of this limited edition. Never saw one of those before.

 

[PizzaMan5000]

Yeah Tudo. If they will give you your money back, I would take it.

 

[shithawk420]

So are all German cars a pain in the ass to fix and costly?genuine question.

 

[GreeeeN GRassss]

coming from a country where German cars are probably the most popular car on the market, German cars are great, of course there is always a bad apple in every car production company. my VW van is unbreakable all i have to do is put fuel into it.

agreed i would not buy a merc. but don't class all European cars in this category

 

[shithawk420]

No I know they are great cars,just asking cuase I don't think I can afford to fix my vw Passat.don't know what's wrong with it

 

[rives]

Somewhere along the line, VW's went from being Everyman's car to being one expensive son-of-a-bitch to work on. My daughter HAD to have a Jetta, and wound up doing a $4k+ transmission in very short order. And then two years later, it needed it again. Give me a 400 Turbo-Hydro anytime.

 

[shithawk420]

Holy shit!4000$!my uncles jetta has 500,000 miles but its a diesel.his transmission it shot to but its just sitting.now I know why.I do like them though

 

[steadydets]

Buying a classic car with no background in mechanical engineering or mechanics is just a recipe for failure.


Did they take the car back? Hope everything worked out for you.

 

[DrFever]

Normally Common sense come into play here when a person buys anything online he should do some home work checking out seller / dealer see his ratings like on e-bay?? there are many things a person can do in reality for instance 1967 chevelle ss car video on it walk around pictures of trunk under hood inside wheel wells etc you like it you want it .. Again one should think its 6000 miles away from me whats it going to cost to trailer it , insure it taxes and all other costs involved needed to get it to another country or states etc ,, Things you can do is look up a inspection facility in the sellers area tell seller you want it inspected by the company u chose of course at your cost if the seller becomes weird good idea to walk away before money is transferred
2nd Day of purchase -------------> you got your plane ticket and on your way there to pay him in person pick up ride and take it to where ever is either trailering it sea can or rail to your home thats what i do unless i am buying a brand new ride i will go there and see in person
If you buy a used car from a dealer over the internet, your rights are the same as when buying a car from a dealer in person. You may also have additional rights under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, including a ‘cooling-off’ period, during which you can change your mind and cancel the order.

If you buy a used car from a private seller over the internet, your rights are the same as when you buy a used car from a private seller in person. You have fewer rights than if you buy a car from a dealer.

 

[dddaver]

Before my Dad passed, I went with him, driving a few hundred miles to buy a newer immaculate Crown Vic he had found online down here in FL. I bet it was bought by some old fart who never drove it then croaked. Pretty common thing down here actually. I thought it very unusual and was kinda thrown as he was in his 80s at that time. Very unusual for him too. He was very much the Hank Hill type. But it was cherry and he drove it till he passed. I'm just not sure I could ever buy a car totally sight unseen though.