A Big dissapointment

Well I found a car online that looked really good. A 95 Caprice Wagon with Impala SS Grill, wheels, etc. The pictures made this car look outstanding. A Texas car up until 2007 this was a rust free car that I was looking to build into a 12 second sleeper. I drove almost 500 miles to pick it up with cash and clean car fax in hand. When I arrived though I was way disappointed.
My good friend that went with me right away noticed a couple of creases on the body line. When I got the rear both 1/4's showed signs of some kind of damage. The chrome trim for the wheel well was missing some of the screws to hold it on and upon inspection we saw the holes didn't even line up. The passenger rear door had a repair at one time and the paint wasn't an exact match. Needless to say I took my Money and went home.

I guess I'm just sharing to make everyone aware of what I already know a Picture might be worth a 1000 words, but Pictures also can be deceiving. I spent 16 hours on the road yesterday with nothing to show for it. When I got home last night I looked at all the pictures again ( now knowing what to look for ) amazingly you can't see any of the defects in any of the pictures. When the guy handed me the title when I arrived I also noted that he paid 500 less then he was charging me and he got a ton of extra parts including rear glass, doors, rear bumper, Posi rear end and he paid less for all of it then he wanted me to pay just for the cars. Any extras I wanted he wanted to charge me for. I understand that everyone want's to turn a buck, but I was left with a severe bad taste in my mouth about buying cars with nothing but pictures and 5 or 6 phone calls.

That sucks. I wouldn't be turned off from buying long-distance cars, because people everywhere can be dishonest. Still doesn't make it suck any less though.

Good luck on your hunt for the perfect wagon.

You went home with your money, rather than a lemon, that is good. There are plenty of goods ones around, keep looking.

Tom C.

That's too bad. But you did better than me. I drove 350 miles each way to buy the car and I took it home. It wasn't until later that I found the hidden front-end damage.

Nick Danger wrote:

That's too bad. But you did better than me. I drove 350 miles each way to buy the car and I took it home. It wasn't until later that I found the hidden front-end damage.

That sucks, I hope that the damage wasn't to extensive, or expensive for that matter. I'll keep looking for another nice one. I'd really love to find a nice 96. Something about the last year makes me want that one. I found one, but the guy won't send me pictures or get back with me. He sent me one E-mail saying yes I still have it, I just got it out the other day, I'll send you more pictures and that's the last I heard. Oh well I'll keep looking and just put some more money into my 94 in the meanwhile.

The damage was probably minor. But I keep seeing signs of it. So it continues to bug me.

The hood isn't quite flush with the fenders. I found little cubes of glass inside the passenger door. The shroud was broken by the mechanical fan. I had to bend out the bottom of the radiator mount for the radiator to sit right. The headlights won't aim right. It's a pain to get at the bulb of the passenger side headlight. The hood won't open every time.

The guy I bought it from looked me in the eye and said that there had never been an accident, beyond the dent in the quarter panel.

Well I know how that is. This guy told me this car had never been in an accident and he does body work on the side for a hobby. I don't do body work, but even I know the signs. Over spray was obvious and you don't have to know much to recognize that. Then he told me that there wouldn't be much work to make it right. I had to point out that there was work to be done in both 1/4's, 3 doors and the rear roll pan had never been clear coated and it would have to be resprayed and cleared. I figured it was $2000 worth of work easy. It's too bad that you can't trust people you know.

I sold a car last year that had filler in the 1/4 panel that I honestly didn't know about. It was a North Carolina car and never had a spec of rust. It was a spot about the size of a basketball. When the potential buyer pointed it out to me, I lowered my price and apologized. You couldn't see it at all, just if you went over it with a magnet it wouldn't stick so you know it was there. Since I bought the car from a friend I didn't think there were any issues. My friend apologized and said he didn't know it was there either. He had bought the car from someone he knew who had just had it painted. He kept apologizing to me and it wasn't even his problem anymore. I had owned the car for over a year. If this guy would have cut his price I would have taken the car, but even after I pointed out the obvious accident it had been in, he didn't want to budge on the price.

moving forward there is a pretty good B-body network here and on ISSF with LOTS of trustworthy types that will go look for you and report factually......

I've had people look at cars for me all over the US, and even backed out of an e-bay auction I won on 1950 tin woody a few years ago (pre B-body madness) as it was totally mis represented in the auction.

That really stinks. Some people really mis-represent their cars, and this seller guy sounds like a jerk. Similar thing happened to a co-worker friend, Charlie. He was looking for a long time for a '55 Chevy Bel-Air and he thought he found one out in Illinois (or Indiana). He talked with the seller at length, and was e-mailed TONS of photos. So he had a friend go with him (he paid for his hotel and meals), rented a flatbed for his truck, and drove from here in New Jersey all the way out there only to find the car didn't look nearly as good as in the pics, was not restored all that well, and had originally had lots of rust that had been repaired on both the frame and body that the seller made no mention of. It also ran poorly and drove like crap. Charlie said it was a poorly restored death trap and he wouldn't have even been interested in negotiating a lower price. Needless to say Charlie was a bit peeved, and had wasted a LOT of money. However don't go thinking all long distance deals are bad, Charlie found one in Georgia and went down to find it was better than described and he bought it and loves it.

That's a sad story to hear too. You would really think that people could be a little more honest. I found this one on racingjunk and it's the second bad experience I've had with someone on there there. The other time I was trading my Mustang GT and a lot of cash for a 70 Monte Carlo in Ohio. The guy sent lots of pictures but when I saw the car it was never clear coated, the turn signal was busted out, the trim was pitted. He had actually wet the car in the photos to create shine. I got about 8 photos from this guy and he said something about his digital camera wasn't working with his computer. I talked to him on the phone about 6 times and from the photos he sent it looked great. I ran a carfax and it showed nothing. The problem is parking lot accidents and stuff like that don't show on a carfax when someone fixes it in their garage and does crappy work. I'll keep looking and maybe I'll find one that's as advertised or better like your friend did. I didn't total my receipts yet but 1000 miles worth of gas and meals wasn't cheap. I bought my friends meals, pop, coffee, snacks too because he was doing me a favor and going to get it. In the end I had a long day with a good friend, but not the car I went for.

Even with the money spent on gas etc, you probably saved a ton by not buying something that could have turned out to be a pile of junk.