Worst drive distance to checking a used car ratio

Johnboyjjb wrote: 90 minutes one way to look at a "twin cam" neon. Single cam. We decided right away that it wasn't the car for us.

90 minutes, fifteen seconds to see the cam cover and rule it out. That's what I'm talkin about!!!

Only time I ever got burned on a deal was for a disassembled 1995 Eclipse GSX on Craigslist. I need the trans and driveline for a Spyder AWD swap I was working on at the time, didnt care about the rest, and it was only $400.

Loaded up my 1995 F150 and the car hauling trailer and headed south. Drive all over Chicago because apparently there was an "avenue" on one side of town and a "street" on the other side of town. Finally find the place, dudes parents are there, dude is nowhere to be found. Parents are eastern European and do not speak good English. Finally get across that I am here for "the car in the garage" and the dad gets a bad look on his face.

Dad calls the boy who owns the car, and two middle aged guys show up about 20 minutes later, pretty lit up from the tavern down the street. We go around back and find that the whole garage is blocked by a big rollback dumpster full of wet dirt and concrete. I put my jacks under it and get it up on wooden boards/rollers. Unhook the trailer, hook my truck up to it and try to pull it out of the way. Its going nowhere. Put the truck in 4 low, its still going nowhere. Dick around moving stuff in the dumpster to move some weight around, try again, nothing. At this point I was either going to
Break a chain
Break my truck (250k mile 1995 F150 that had been totally pisspounded for every one of those miles)
Break this guys face

Guy is actually a pretty nice guy after we get to talking, gives me $50 for gas and tolls coming down there. Give him my phone number, he says the trailer will be out of there Tuesday. I bend my license plate back on the truck, run all the tolls and head back to God's Country (Wisconsin)

I call a few times, never hear back. consider it wasnt meant to be, give up on the AWD swapped Spyder, and bought a nice Galant VR4 to drive a few weeks later.

A few weeks after the GSX incident, a friend and I headed down to south Chicago to look at a Galant VR4. I am told "super clean, bought from the original owner, always garaged, all paperwork since new, all stock" Just what I wanted, 80k and Kensington Gray to boot! I was told I had to bring an ECU since the original had died, minor details I had a pile of them at the time. Grabbed one off the stack and headed out with 50 $100 bills in my pocket.

3 hour drive (this time in a Civic thank God!)

Get close, call the guy. He isnt answering his phone. Drive to the address, place doesnt have a garage, see the Galant sitting on the street down the road. Dude still doesnt answer the phone. Car looks OK, a little dirty but its outside.

Dude shows up, stupid stoner kid. Says yeah we did a few things to it (battery is loose in the trunk, disconnected wastegate, externally vented BOV on an otherwise stock car). Put in my ECU, fire it up. Runs OK. Trans shifts OK for a DSM. Drives OK. Car has been smoked in, hit in the rear while it was parked on the street. Well repaired but not what I want. His retard buddy shows up with his "sweet" Galant VR4. No front bumper, aftermarket intercooler mounted crooked. Slammed to the point of ridiculous.

I offer the dude $2500, he gets pissed, we drive away. He calls me 30 minutes later said he would do $2500. I say, I am half an hour away, the price is $2k. He hangs up and I never hear from him again.

The worst thing that I have had happen is mapquest had a mistake and it was 3 hours not 1.5 to get my WRX. At least it turned out, some of these stories must have been infuriating.

I did a 72 hour weekend (starting in Alabama), of which about 48 hours was on a Greyhound or waiting at the Greyhound station, to NOT purchase a late 70's Dodge conversion van in West Virginia. Boy, so many details about that story are screwed up, but that's one that deserves a couple of beers just to retell!

Bryce

You guys lol.

I had a similar experience selling my SVT. Guy begged me to hold onto a car at an agreed price and then wanted to pay $300 less when he arrived.

I told him no.

I drove to Macon, Atlanta and then back to Warner Robbins and finally back home looking at a series of Datsun 510s about 6 years ago. Had an empty trailer and cash—but didn't find anything that was good enough to jump on.

In retrospect, I should have bought 2 of the 3 cars that I looked at, as 510s are even more impossible to find now.

Ooh, I want to play!

I bought my Integra as a shell on ebay. No engine or trans, it said. Perfect. Auction ended, and I made arrangement to pick it up from Connecticut, 6 hours away. Did I mention it was in January? That will be important in a bit.

I'm not a truck guy, so I had to borrow a 4Runner and rent a U-Haul trailer. Rent on Friday, wake up at 3am so I can make the drive up and back and return the trailer before they close on Saturday. I make good time, even driving through Manhattan, and show up well before lunch. I don't see the car, but some 19 year old kid comes out and says the car is at his grandma's house, and he was just finishing pulling the engine. Wait, what?

By "finishing," he meant, "I haven't done a goddamn thing." To make things worse, his grandma's driveway was a big hill, with the garage down at the bottom. The Integra was sitting just outside the garage, literally frozen to the ground. Remember, it's January, and water flows downhill, before freezing. Dude had an engine hoist, but it doesn't work so well on a sheet of ice, and we can't push the car back into the garage because our feet also don't work very well on ice. After farting around for an hour or so, I finally put my foot down and say that I'm taking the car one way or another. He says he wants the head off the B18b that's in there and he'll sell me the short block and transmission for $75 or something. Fine, I say. We pull the head and now I've got an extra 120 lbs for my poor borrowed 4Runner to tug back.

Of course, since we couldn't push the car into the garage, we also can't push it onto the trailer. I back the 4Runner down the driveway so I can pull the Integra up to the street, and promptly get stuck on the hill. Wheels just spinning on a thin layer of ice. Unhook the Integra, wheels still spinning. Shart. Not only can I not take my new car home, I can't get myself home.

Fortunately his brother has a giant diesel powered something or other. He shows up 10 minutes later, pulls the 4Runner out of the driveway, pulls the U-haul out of the driveway, pulls the Integra out of the driveway, pulls the Integra up onto the trailer, AND helps me hook everything back up, because my hands are long since frozen and he's a swell guy. Holy crap, I wanted to kiss him on the mouth.

I still didn't make it back in time. Had to pay an extra day for the U-haul.

Nashco wrote: I did a 72 hour weekend (starting in Alabama), of which about 48 hours was on a Greyhound or waiting at the Greyhound station, to NOT purchase a late 70's Dodge conversion van in West Virginia. Boy, so many details about that story are screwed up, but that's one that deserves a couple of beers just to retell! Bryce

Just tell us where to send the beer money to. And start writing.

About a dozen years ago a friend of mine had just moved back to Dallas from Vegas. A doctor he worked with there had an 85 928 for sale that my friend had never seen, but was described as "in good shape for an 85". At the time my friend was driving an 86 Mustang GT with minor paint fading and some sun bleaching on the seats, in other words, it was what we considered "good shape for an 86".

The plan was we'd make a bonzai run to Vegas after work on Friday, buy the Porsche Saturday morning, he'd spend Saturday night with his girl, I'd see the strip. He'd haul ass home in time to get to work Monday and I'd take the long way home seeing the southwest in the Porsche.

Another friend went for the adventure. So the three of us pile in the Mustang and head west late Friday afternoon. We get there mid morning Saturday. The 928 had cooked paint, body damage, four corded tires, a leaking radiator, two gallons of antifreeze leaking on the rear floor, and the interior looked like he'd kept a tiger in it.

We followed the rest of the plan except for the scenic drive home. We made it back into Dallas around 3 am Monday morning. They went to work and I went to sleep.

On my way to San Francisco from Chicago this morning. Will know in a couple of hours if it's a road trip or a waste

Some pretty good stories here. Glad to know I'm not alone.

In the past week I've probably spent a total of 12 hours driving to and from cars that were grossly misrepresented in the ads. One was NOT a manual transmission, another had a ton of rust (no rust said the man), another had been rearended hard at one point (no accidents, right), another had no floors whatsoever (again, no rust right?), and the last had a totally rotten engine harness.

Thanks to SyntheticBlinkerFluid though, yesterday I was able to take a 6 hour train ride, then a 1 hour drive, to pick up a car and drive about 5 hours back home. GRM prepurchase inspections are well worth it.

oldtin wrote: On my way to San Francisco from Chicago this morning. Will know in a couple of hours if it's a road trip or a waste

Place your bets! Place your bets!

Looked at pictures and talked with an owner of a 6MT '04 S4 avant. Car sounded good. Asked him no accidents/paint work, right? He said no. I spring for a PPI, tell the shop specifically to check for accidents/paintwork. They say it's all good.

I wake up at o dark thirty, rope my poor bro in law into driving me out to the airport and get a 6am flight out to Salt Lake ~500 miles away with the intention of driving it back.

Guy picks me up to the airport. Within 2 seconds of rounding the drivers rear quarter panel I instantly notice the entire panel has been repainted, and not all that well.

I turn to him, point it out and basically say WTF!

Ugh. I've given up on buying cars long distance as even with a PPI I've been burned too many times...

I drove 4 hours from home on two seperate occasions to buy mint cars and they were both in horrible shape....one was an 87 Celica GT-S and the other an 88 RX-7. They were so bad I didn't even test drive them...one look and I was done. I'll never understand why some people misrepresent their cars like that.

Drove about 3 hours to see a Saturn at a dealer. Car was ok, but the dealer wanted $400 in doc fees on top of the price we agreed on over the phone. I didn't buy that Saturn.

this is one of the best threads ever.......

docwyte wrote: Guy picks me up to the airport. Within 2 seconds of rounding the drivers rear quarter panel I instantly notice the entire panel has been repainted, and not all that well. I turn to him, point it out and basically say WTF! Ugh. I've given up on buying cars long distance as even with a PPI I've been burned too many times...

Yep, you haven't lived the car chasing game until you've bought a one-way plane ticket back home with a few thousand dollars cash in your bag.

GRM's tolerance for bullE36 M3 is unbelievable. I refuse to drive more than 3 hours for any car.

Drove across town to look at a TSX for the wife. Open the hood, it's blatently obvious that the front end got hit by a freight train. VIN plate and the VIN provided were completely different. Run the "new" VIN on the wife's iPhone, car is salvaged. Spent 10 minutes cussing the guy up and down, then about 4 weeks flagging his posts on craigslist.

Took a trip up to DFW to look at a relatively low mile CRX. Come to find out the miles are low because the odometer hasn't turned in the past 5 years, and the red CRX in the photos has since been repainted lime green.

That weekend turned out to be a total bust, the ex I went to see in DFW had misrepresented herself on facebook by about 20lbs as well....such is life

Mine isnt the worst but, it was a P71 that lived 2 hours away. The guy didnt have pics but assured me that it ran and looked great. The price was on par for a decent specimen too. I get there and the car is burried up to the axles in the ground. Looks like it sat there its entire life. The car had no battery and was missing the intake up to the throttle body. I guess they have mass air sensors... The car also looked like a homless person lived in it. I told the guy to berkley off and left.

I did send a guy back home after he drove for 4+ hours to look at my truck. I was asking a fair price and he tried to offer me a little over half of my asking price. I was asking 4000 and he offered 2300. He said that he could buy it for 3500, but he would need money from his wife. The guy had the nerve to ask if he could mail me the rest. I said no, but if he gave me a deposit, I would hang on to it until the next weekend, when he could come back. He said, no thanks and he would call me later if he got the money. I sold the truck the next day for the asking price. Nice guy and cash in hand. The other guy called back and cussed me out for a while because I sold it. He had an extra 500 dollars too, to make it 2800. The guy kept calling me back and going more and more bipolar with each call. I finally snapped and went off on him.

glueguy wrote: Yep, you haven't lived the car chasing game until you've bought a one-way plane ticket back home with a few thousand dollars cash in your bag.

Great way to be given a little "extra" search at the airport.

The First E30 M3 I was going to buy: (2003) - Ad on S14.net said "88 Alpine white, Cardinal Interior, 140K miles, 9K" - Contacted a forum member that was helping the seller out. Said the car looked good and was negotiable.

The plan was: My cousin got me a one way buddy pass from Seattle to Santa Barbara, CA, and I was to drive the car back. Stand-by flights from SEA to Utah, then Santa Barbara.. I get to SB and the seller's friend in HIS silver M3 picks me up and takes me to look at the car. Needless to say, the car was not as described. I tried to negotiate down a bit more but the seller didn't budge. I noticed some rust around the normal front windshield area of the M3, the seats needed refurbishing.. We take it to a body shop and get an estimate on the rust repair and the seller still doesn't want to budge.. We were 500.00 apart. I was ready to pull the trigger, but something was telling me "This is not the one".. I thank the seller and ask for a taxi-cab number so I can go to the Airport.. His friend offers to drive me to Sacramento and drop me off there because he's going home for the weekend... This story = 1 day flying, 3 hours driving in an M3 from SB to SAC, then and overnight nap in the Airport, then Home... It was all worth it and I was glad I didn't pill the trigger on that one.. a month later, the engine was needing a rebuild..

FFWD: (2003) A month later, Military friend that was retiring soon has his one owner 91 Diamond Schwartz M3 with 87K miles, European Delivery, . He wants to buy a 350Z. He calls me and asks me if I know anyone that might want to buy his M3. He's in Colorado, and I saw the M3 briefly in a parking lot about 6 months before when we met. He tells me what the dealer at the local Nissan is offering him 7K as trade in. Granted, this guy is not an enthusiast. The car needed a little TLC in the exterior, spoiler rough, and a good detail.. Work shocks, and dry-rotted tires,, Nothing difficult.. Interior MINT.. I tell him that I can go 8K on the car if he wants me to fly out there and get it next weekend. We agree and I pack up my gear and head out with my buddy pass to Colorado. He picks me up in the Air Port, we head to the UPS store to do the paperwork, the next morning I drive out to Best-buy to install a radio for the 1400 mile drive home.. It was the best bonding experience I've had with a car in my life... I enoyed it the whole way through.. I pulled up in my drive-way on mother's day 2003... ah... memories...

Too bad I had to sell it 2 years later due to a military assignment.. The Mechanic that inspected it when I got it to Tacoma bought it. No questions asked. I wonder where it is now..

Oh man I was hung up on the E28s in jersey; I forgot this one.

My brother made a deal for a MKi jetta coupe with a PG G60 swap. Trade for a set of wheels. The car was in Alabama, my brother is in PA and I live in Ohio. The seller tells my brother that he drives the car once a week and it runs great, no problem. We tell him we plan to meet between Bama and Harrisburg; and drive it home. Should make it. I leave work at 3pm and jump on us30. Get to my brothers at 10:30 Thursday night driving my diesel rabbit truck (50mpg is nice). He gets home from work at 11:00 and we throw some tools and two spare tires in his element. We drive to Knoxville, TN and pull up to the meet spot and the car look awesome; BUT it's on a trailer. When he comes out he is surprised we don't have a trailer, he said he thought we were joking. MKIV guy, right? So we go through it right there in the parking lot; rewire the lights and do a redo of the factory jump on the fuel pump. Runs good, we top off the coolant, oil and fuel and hit the road. Andy drove the jetta and I tailed him in his element. About fifteen miles I was on the phone telling him I was running the wipers since it was puking fluid. So, this part of the long story/short is the motor doesn't have a freeze plug so as soon as the thermostat opens it drops the coolant. Head turned white it overheated so bad. We coasted it off the interstate into a cracker barrel parking lot. I spend the next two hours trying to rent a pickup and dolly. Friday afternoon so no dice.

We decide to drive back to his house in PA, grab my tow bar from the caddy and bring the Dakota back and tow it home. On the way back and forth we lost three of the four tires off the jetta and I spent four straight days on the road.

Car is wickedly cool now though!