Bob,
A few months ago I went to look at a TR6 that was for sale on ebay. The owner
was
close by, so it didn't cost me much to make the trip, but boy did the trip save
me
a lot of grief. It is amazing how good a car can look in a photo compared to how
it looks up close. I don't know of anyway to protect yourself when buying after
having only pictures to view, You really don't know anything about the seller or
his ethics. He good be a habitual liar who has never been caught. That episode
pretty much chanegd my mind about buying a car via ebay.
I personally looked at about 15 TR6's before I finally bought one, O fteh ones
that I turned down, a few were badly overpriced, but most were misrepresented in
the ad and in some cases, there were obvious attempts to conceal problems. One
dealer I visited near Lockford, CA had 10-15 LBC cars in various states of
disrepair sitting around in his yard and barn. he and his mechanic( accomplice )
were busy moving parts from one car to another to have a few that were
"presentable". The car I test drove had seats that weren't bolted in, none of
the
guages worked, and after a very short drive, I told him that there was
definitely
problem a problem with the steering and brakes, and the transmission was making
a
lot of noise he lowered his price.
Buyer-be-ware!
Geof in CA 68tr6
Bob Rochlin wrote:
> Kai,
> You may be really angry about making that kind of trip for nothing. The
> only thing worse would have been to have bought the car and become
> enlightened gradually. Some car sharks are far more adept at hiding serious
> defects, and I've found that many are unabashed liars.
> I don't understand how one can buy a car on E-Bay sight unseen. I know
> that many sellers are honest enthusiasts, but how do you know? I bought my TR6
> on E-Bay from an "all positive feedback guy" and when I traveled to NJ to look
> at it, being my first TR6, did not realize some of the misrepresentations
> until I had it for a while. I was very lucky, the problems were minor and I
> still very feel good about the car.
> I would only ask someone else to look at a car as a prelude to my making
> the decision to arrange to see it myself. Many of us (myself included) will
> put a great deal of time, money, and effort into a poor deal after the fact
> just to vindicate our egos.
> Bob Rochlin
> 72' TR 6
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