WARNING WHEN BUYING A CAR>>

[abe280SL]

Well, I know its been said before and everyone has a tale to tell.
Found my dream 70 280SE  new silver paint and near new black interior...car looked gorgeous with 84k miles. Told CA car NO RUST...
though the car is in Texas now. Spent all morning with a internet video hook up looking at the car.  When I asked to see the under carriage... there was a little hesitation and was told there might be a little rust...but for $2500 if I decide to buy the car, they could scrape all the old paint and coat the bottom with protective undercoating.   After a few hours they sent me pictures of an undercarage that had been recently sprayed painted in black and the exaust in silver paint....yes, to hide the rust.  It turned out that after looking at some of the receipts (they told me the car was well documented...but only gave me 4 receipts from the last 3 years) I was able to track down the last owner in California....yep, he told me the car probably had 184k, spent lots of money, and his mechanic told him that it had lots and lots of rust.  I also was able to see a dmv registration from Pennsylvania. I wasted most of my week on this car,...when this dealership reassured me "no rust" a "california car".  As always buyer beware...inspect it yourself or pay someone else....I almost made a BIG mistake.  God, salesmen are really good at what they do. I was so upset my bp was 162/100 and had to take another blood pressure pill.  Funny thing is that the whole purpose of getting this old car was to releave stress..
abe

[thelews]

How much was the car?

[Benz Dr.]

I suppose we've all seen something like this in one degree or another. On the other side of it, if you tell someone ALL of the things you know are wrong with the car, it either won't sell or you get nothing for it.
Most people say nothing ( good or bad if they're smart ) and let the prospective buyer sort it out on their own. Most people are in biz to make money, fairly or not.

[al_lieffring]

The acid test for if or not a 60-70's Mercedes is rust free is located in the trunk under the spare tire.
 
The factory tire change jack.
 
If the seller is 100% sure that the car is completely rust free, it should be no problem to jack up the car by the lift posts in the rocker panels without any fear of damage to the car. But if there is any significant rust there, the car instead will sag down as the rusty jack post rips a hole out of the quarter panel and the jack then will tilt over leaving a huge dent in the door.

If any vendor wanted to really convince me or any knowledgeable buyer that a Benz is 100% rust free, they should be willing to include a photo of a wheel off the ground using the car's own jack.

[abe280SL]

I know all these cars will have some rust....and maybe this one may not have been too bad. I just wish that they would have left the underside alone when I asked them to take pictures.  Instead they painted everything just before taking the pictures (I know because previous pictures did not have the silver shinny mufflers).  It made me suspect that they were hidding something or in their eagerness to sell the car they wanted it to look perfect...first they told me it was the previous owner that painted then they admitted to have painted it.  When I tracked the previous owner he told me about the rust...which is relative.  It is a beautiful silver car and you will notice the lights on the license plate instead of one left and one right, it is on the bottom bumper.  This may be a european car that came here on the gray market.  If you see it   get a ppi...I was willing to do that untill I loss all trust with the people selling it.  Too bad, I really loved that car and it shows well. I know there is a car with my name on it.  To be fair to the sellers I prefer not to disclose any personal info. A few other things also happened that made me upset. They promised $600 off, then the more they knew I was hooked they changed their mind.  When they knew I was upset about the under carriage...they thought I saw the muffler with holes so they gave themselves away by offering to replace the muffler.  Or and did I mention that during the internet video they car's engine stopped and they had to push the car...they said it ran out of gas...it may be true.  Just too many little things that made me unsure.
abe

[thelews]

Perhaps you missed my question...how much was the car?

[abe280SL]

Sorry John, didn't see...it was just under 20k and when it was on ebay it hit just over 15k (didn't meet reserve).  The car really looks great outside. It needs the wood redone inside, the engine looks its age, but again the paint looked WOW. I would have given 27k if the engine and wood looked better and underside was a true CA car. There is a green one in San Diego that looks very nice...but its green. It just looked too good to be true. I may have still bought the car if they didn't try to hide the undercarriage and start taking back their offer.  My point was buyer beware...pay for ppi.
The sad thing is that these cars are lovely cars and nice ones are hard to find because they are not worth the restoration cost...too bad.
abe

[waqas]

quote:Originally posted by abe280SL

There is a green one in San Diego that looks very nice...but its green.

Something wrong with green cars?

[thelews]

quote:Originally posted by abe280SL

Sorry John, didn't see...it was just under 20k and when it was on ebay it hit just over 15k.  The car really looks great outside. It needs the wood redone inside, the engine looks its age, but again the paint looked WOW. I would have given 27k if the engine and wood looked better and underside was a true CA car. There is a green one in San Diego that looks very nice...but its green. It just looked too good to be true. I may have still bought the car if they didn't try to hide the undercarriage and start taking back their offer.  My point was buyer beware...pay for ppi.
The sad thing is that these cars are lovely cars and nice ones are hard to find because they are not worth the restoration cost...too bad.
abe

I was wondering the number, because there are no free lunches.  At the number you mentioned though, you shouldn't have had significant rust issues to deal with.  Be very glad you found out soon enough.

[abe280SL]

Nothing wrong with green...just like nothing wrong with blonds, redheads, or brunettes.  Just a matter of preference...thats why there are many colors to choose from  
abe

quote:Originally posted by waqas

quote:Originally posted by abe280SL

There is a green one in San Diego that looks very nice...but its green.

Something wrong with green cars?

[Shvegel]

I say this every now and then but I see so many people get trapped I keep saying it.

When you see a European market car in the us with a Mile Per Hour speedometer it means the speedometer was changed when the car was imported(Dept of transport regulation).  The mileage shown is the mileage since importation.

I have seen tons of early 80's 500SEC's that "Only had 40,000 miles on it" that needed major work.

[JamesL]

I have heard many people say green cars are unlucky. I had a green car and it was a dog.

[cascadia]

I've heard green is unlucky in racing ONLY if it's a non-british car.....

Sorry to hear about your trouble with this car, I had the same experience when trying to buy a W111 cabriolet last year on the opposite coast.  I hired someone for a ppi who had experience with these cars, it didn't take him long to give me the bad news.  Seems that the gas pedal base was welded to a brace because the floor board beneath it was gone.  All the while the seller had been lying through his teeth about "no rust, no rust, no rust".  If he had just been truthful from the start it would have saved me some $$$!

quote:Originally posted by Tosh

I have heard many people say green cars are unlucky. I had a green car and it was a dog.