I would steer clear of the dealers, having been burned in the not so distant
past by one in Northern California. You can often wind up paying a premium
price for a not so premium car. I would say that the premium that I paid to
buy the car from a Triumph 'expert' was in excess of $3,000. Face it, if you
don't know exactly what you're doing (like me) they are the ones that can
most easily screw you over.
Examples of statements made by the dealer and what I found:
Rust Free: Found rust holes under the battery box that he installed and some
rust on the rear fenders.
60K miles: Who knows, I took a look at some with over 70,000 miles that had
pedals that were less worn than mine.
Paint just needs a buffing: Required a repaint to get it right.
Never Wrecked: Found a lot of bondo on the passenger wing.
In any case I should have checked the car out better and walked. I didn't
because I was a little anxious to get the car. I'm into it another $1,500 or
so to fix the little problems and will wind up spending a lot more to have
it painted correctly and the rust holes fixed.
Don't get me wrong, I love the car now. But it took six months of nights and
weekends to get it into the shape that it is now, and I still have a long
way to go.
Good Luck,
Don Clark
Seattle, WA
72 Pimento
Still looking for a painter with an opening this year.....
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net]On
Behalf Of Creamer, Mark
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2000 11:56 AM
To: 6 Pack List (E-mail)
Subject: dealers?
Hi all,
a question regarding our search...there are a few dealers that keep popping
up, several of which advertise a lot in Hemmings or maybe have their own
sites. Some of the cars "sound" really nice, but generally the prices seem a
bit high. One list member we talked to is of the opinion we should
concentrate on private sellers and steer clear of the dealers. Just
wondering if anyone has an agreeing or dissenting opinion on the matter. If
you want to mention an experience about a particular "Classic Car" dealer,
please feel free to share it with me privately.
Thanks!
BTW, a surrogate buyer is going to check out a car in Chicago Thursday.
Thanks Ken!!) Exciting! We're really looking forward to being able to help
somebody else out with something like this one day.
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