I have to Vent...
 

So I as usual I am scouting around looking at more Trans AMs.. I found what looked like a nice '79 T/A 6.6 4spd about 80 miles from me. I called the guy on Friday & Sat and talked to him in depth about it. Fine, I tell the guy I will be there by 8:30-8:45. Everything sounded good so I loaded up my truck & trailer, checkbook and left this morning around 7:30am. I get there at 8:45 and found out they didn't open until 9:30. Anyway, one of workers let me in and I went over to take a look at it. OMG, what a POS. Online it looked pretty good but I cannot believe how someone could not describe a car honestly.. I was not looking for a $100k or even a $50k car, just be honest! What a waste of time! These guys are in the "hot rod & muscle car business" I will never purchase any older car from anyone other than the guys here on the forum!

Such a common tale. I know that what's considered nice will vary among different people, but come on.

I flew to LA to buy a Camaro years ago. I was very clear what I was looking for, and we talked in depth as to the quality of the car. He just said when I saw it I'd go "wow".

Well he was correct, but that was "wow" in a bad way, not a good way. Called a cab to take me back to the airport and flew home totally pissed off.

I went to see a 'mint' car once that had rust on the roof and 2 flat tires. I didn't even get out of my car because I was afraid of what I was going to say to the guy. :mad:

When I was looking for a nice done driver 69 Camaro for my wife a couple years ago i looked at so much junk it was not funny. I thought it would be easy with a 30K budget to find a car. Turns out most 15-30K cars were the same car just the 30K car builders knew how to hide stuff better.

I thought I had finally found the car in Nashville. Had to get a loan for most of it so the bank even sent an inspector out and passed with flying colors. I went through a week of mailing paper work back and worth to the bank and had my check.

Met the guy in Memphis and pulled up and the car looked like everything it was susposed to be. nice gaps , nice paint ect. Started crawling around and under it to find a hacked together mess worse than most of the other cars I looked at. I was so mad I just started walking back to my truck before i got myself in trouble. Guy starts asking me what was up and I just said thanks for wasting my time. All he can say is " I hope you don't think you can get a Barret Jackson car for 30K....."

In the end it cost me my deposit and some time but I am so glad I went to look at it in person.

Better the cost of a plane ticket than the cost of a whole car! Sadly, I have yet to learn that lesson... TOW was the first of 5 cars which I've purchased online in which I actually received what I expected. We found a few small things, but for the most part, the seller was honest with me.

Certainly better than the 7k mile C5 which I received with corded front tires and keyed scratch marks, or the 'rust free' second gen Camaro from Arizona that I'd swear was a demo-derby car at one point (not a straight panel on it), or the red Firebird that was the original car for TOW that had all sorts of rust that wasn't described. Hopefully never again (I say that now as I'm watching an eBay auction on a potential project...).

Along the lines of POS cars people try and sell, how about these shops who do POS work? Like, when we're trying to find a shop and you go and look at some of their work, only to walk thru the doors and run back out. The guys at the shop are talking bout how they are a"full service-one stop shop" and "can do it all." They don't think you, as the customer, can recognize shoddy work and are trying to talk up a good game. Just like they guy who's trying to sell you the car that's rotted out and is trying to sell it to you as he misrepresented the car.

Hey SW --- You only drove a little way!


I hauled an empty trailer from Seattle to Los Angeles to pick up (agreed up front if it was what it was supposed to be)... a "triple black '69 Camaro RS/SS - with A/C - 396 - automatic - Deluxe interior --- RECENTLY RESTORED". The Ad showed the car at the beach with a sunset in the background -- and warm fuzzy wonderful shots - all from a distance. I shoulda known --- but I was drawn to the description/rareness of the car.


A: The car was a Hugger Orange car painted black - that was Earl Scheib at best. It had already peeled off in chunks inside the doors and rockers.


B: The A/C was missing


C: If this was recently -- or even 25 years ago "restored" --- I didn't want what that word described.


D: Everything about the car was a complete do over.

I guess it must happen more than I thought. I can tell you that whomever gets my '71 Camaro is going to be more than pleased!

SW,

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. I wish you better luck in your search :thumbsup:

It would be an honor to have any of your cars,I would not hesitate buying from you without seeing the car first.If there were only more honest people or maybe guys that know what they were doing it would be nice.

had the same experience looking at a 68 firebird for my son. it was descibed as complete with no rust, almost got tetanus just looking at it. part that pissed me off the most was my son really wanted a musclecar, he bought a new evo instead.

Yup......I flew to Canada to look at car that didn't quite meet what was described.

Man...I'm the lucky one for once. Drove from Las Vegas to Farmington, NM via Pauls back yard and found not one, but TWO Camaros that where in way better shape than expected.

Weird....right?

I'm shocked Customs let you back across the border...

Whaaaat?!?! Someone misrepresented a car online?!?! LoL! Seriously tho, sorry for the luck tho man. Again...... People suck!! LoL! :thumbsup:

Ya, they are muscle car specialists..:) After hearing some of the experiences you guys have had, I guess driving 80 miles is not too bad..:D

You know what's funnier than that....hauling an empty trailer from Seattle to LA and coming back with nothing :lol:

One mans trash is another's treasure.

I think its relative to what you are use to having.....I have $20-35K cars. Some look at them to be the top shelf others see garbage, I see great driver quality.

So sad but true. When I sold my 69 vert, a guy flew in and, after looking the car over, said " Wow - it's just what you said".

I have you a few of you beat,


I went to buy an LS1, drove a few hours to find it was an old LT1 sitting under a tree in the dirt. An LT1 looks nothing like an LS1, before I went I asked him to see if a magnet would stick to the block just to make sure and he said he did not own a magnet, thats when I should have hung up the phone. Who doesnt have a magnet on their refridgerator?! He wouldnt give me a dime for gas money, then he had the audasity to ask me to help him unload his truck...


Well he was an older man so I helped him unload his truck, I knew yelling at the guy wasnt going to help anything. I think its gods way of testing a car guys patience!

Sorry about your trouble, but 80 miles is not too bad, considering that's only the distance to go across Houston.

When I bought my Mustang, the guy said the floor was replaced and solid. He was correct in that floor was replaced, but with roofing tar over the big gapping hole and fiber glassed over.

One ad the seller says the car is "rust free", but in the pictures you can see the rust around the back window. I guess when they say rust free, they really mean the rust on the car is free.

I drove 8 hours with trailer to look at a car that was supposed to be a nice "driver". Turned out to be very rusty and had a lot of "coverup" going on. My trip was worthwhile though, knew about another car that was another hour away and was the car I ultimately bought. Ten times nicer than the first car and this seller was so honest, he kept making excuses as to what wasn't exactly perfect... "buddy, If you had any idea what I just finished looking at..."


Jeff-

I wonder if people are deceptive sometimes or if they just have no clue. Whether it's a shop or a private individual. We run into this quite often with dealing with buying cars, I called about a 55 Chevrolet convertible a few weeks ago I was going to buy the replacement body some guy had bought and was selling a good price. It needed a frame and I was going to put one of our frames under it and sell it. Easy Money with a 4 door parts cars to get a lot of the standard parts for the car. Well after discussing with the seller about how we might get this 55 convertible body off his rotisserie, he informed me that the body had already been gapped and I realized he did his door gaps on a convertible on the rotisserie. And informed me he had been doing his cars like this for 25 plus year and the work did was just like my shops work.

He could not understand why a deal breaker for me was the fact he had already done the door gaps. In his mind he was giving me free quality labor. He totally missed the point that this body had never been bolted to chassis but it was nearly ready for paint and bodywork.

Looking back its kinda funny.

The good thing is that you went and looked at it in person. Breaking that simple rule is about the dumbest thing you can do.

That's hot rods man.

I have found that the higher end dealers do a very good job (as they should) of giving you a true picture of the car. Individuals... not so much. I still don't understand why people don't invest 500 bucks on a flight before spending 10's of thousands of dollars.

I am somewhat on the same side of the story, jsut a different viewpoint. Until recently, our clients weren't letting go of their pride and letting us go buy the car that we are supposed to build. Big mistake. They tend to not look to close, then I am scrambling to try and explain why its going to take 18k just to get the sheet metal ready for the first bit of primer and filler!

And the whole Barrett Jackson thing? Why do people have a misconception that they only sell quality stuff? People go for the buying experience and the hype, and yes they have nice "salon collections" but the rest of it is just over priced Autabuy/craigslist stuff. Alot of car collectors stuff, (not the big dogs) just has to look good in their toy shed. We have had to deal with alot of total redos from that type of environment. But I always have to justify myself because they think they bought the primo steel.

I bought the Filler Detective (find it online). Best 100 bucks ever. Its the bull**** meter. Walk up to a customers build to talk price, pull it out and they go...."what are you doing with that!?" They actually work.

Totally agree and quite similar to these:

http://www.uline.com/images/product/Large/S_15969_L.jpg

Thank GOD I don't buy cars.
I have come to the realization that if I want a car it is going to be redone 100% anyway. I just bought a 67 C 10 to start on. it is a cab 2 fenders and a frame. 1000.00 and probably 1/2 of that will end up in the scrap pile any way. I know the floor and rockers will.

I have seen too many piles come through the shop to ever think someone else can put together a car that is both nice an correct for under 60 k and that might be low. We had one show up guy paid 68k full rotisserie resto. Everything new (repo parts) not bad paint not bad LS 500hp t56 but you can tell it was done FAST and after all the work we did to it I bet we could have damn near built a whole car for 15-20 more than what he has into it now and it would be 5 times better.

One man's 10 is another mans 6.. especially if the first man is trying to sell something.. lol

I go through this all the time. Especially ebay cars. Under 50k I roll the dice. Over and its always a flight or drive out. Just last weekend drove 150 miles to pick up some "brand new take off denali 2500hd wheels". Asked several times they are take off and mint. Yes. Guy says he didn't know how to send pics. I show up. Rear tires almost bald. but a few weeks before that I drove 1500 miles to pick up a "new viper spec t56" and it was exactly as described.

SW, check your instant messages

The other side is that plenty of buyers are idiots also. I was selling my 67 a little over a year ago, and I can't count the number of people who thought it appropriate to make a offer of 50% of asking price for a car they had never seen. Or compare the price of a completely built and sorted car with good equipment that I have owned for nearly 40 years; to a piece of mismatched crap on ebay with gallons of bondo on it that was missing either paint, or interior, or trim, or engine, or etc,etc,etc. The killer was the guy and his wife that returned from a test drive having changed their mind on buying and couldnt wait to leave. I got in the car to move it back in the garage and the clutch was fried. Jackasses.

People finally quit calling and it now sits in the garage with the motor pulled. Selling sucks as much as buying.!!!

10% the former, 80% the latter. They watch a car sell on Barrett-Jackson: numbers matching, all original, 427 COPO '69 Camaro... and they think their Earl Scheib painted 327 2bbl car with a power-glide is worth $50k. They don't get it. They also don't know what they are looking at.

Totally stock:
http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/x...rk/Home4x6.jpg

Michael
Plano, TX
1968 Barracuda Notchback

Watching auctions throws me off. I've seen amazing cars go cheap at auction. Then I'll see the same type of car in worse condition selling on CL/ebay/etc... for twice as much.

I've been searching for my dream car for a long time and have lost a lot of time/weekends/gas/etc... with the same story of disappointment. Sometimes I think that if I had just bought the first POS and fixed it up, it would have cost me ~the same in all the expenditures but at least I would've been learning & enjoying it in my hands. Who knows but...I'm still searching.

Oh, and let's not overlook the dry eyes, carpel tunnel and lower back pain of sitting on the computer or squinting at smartphone for hours searching the web.

I wonder about that sometimes. Are those cars with serious issues that look nice from a distance on camera, or should I go shopping at the next R&M auction?

To be honest, if I were starting a new 1st gen Camaro build now days, I would find the cheapest car I could find simply for the VIN tag and maybe a few parts. Then I would buy a new steel body from Dynacorn or AMD and build from there.

Streetking, sorry I haven't been around much, what '71 are you selling? Didn't see it if the for sale section.

Sold:

https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=45454