Victory Motorcars

[wurls]

Guys,

Has anyone ever purchased a car from Victory Motorcars in Houston Texas before? If so, was it a positive or negative incident?
I'd like to know because down the road, I would consider getting a 993, and Victory seems to have a lot of nice examples online in their showroom.

As a negative, I contacted the owner of Victory about a possible trade for my 88 RoW 911 with 57,000 miles, for one of his 993's to which he was very interested in a trade, but was only willing to offer me $14,000 for my car. That's about half of what I figure it to be worth!
Have the values of G-50 3.2's really gone down that much???

Any insight?
Thanks!

[boba]

Victory Motorcars has been the subject of quite a few threads, so a search will turn up lots of comments. Go in with your eyes open and forewarned.

As to the value of your '88, I think you may be optimistic, unless your car is excellent and unique, even then you may be thinking a bit high. He is offering you a low value but that is the hard reality of trade in value.

[mca]

I had a bad experience. Misrepresented vehicle. I paid a premium price for a car that was in "excellent" condition.

Unfortunately I didn't know about this site prior to purchasing my car and did not have a pre-purchase inspection.

Bought it 5 years ago and the details are kind of fuzzy now. I remember the windshield being beat to hell, had a poor repaint, tons of oil leaks, mismatched exhaust studs, heavily leaking windshield, numerous door dings, worthless a/c (common though), blown shocks, etc. They claimed the engine was in tip top shape. Had to rebuild it 3 years later. Had extensive paperwork which showed "engine has been extremely over heated". The list goes on and on.

I will say that the purchasing and delivery process was outstanding. Very easy and timely.

[Por_sha911]

The search button on the upper right side is your friend. Much already said about them.

[Super_Dave_D]

I did and luckily you have found this site before you made the same mistake!!!!!!!

[NewfieMZ3]

My advice, treat them as any private seller. Service records, Good third party PPI. 14K is probably reasonable, but low, wholesale/trade in value.

[Pazuzu]

They buy low, sell high, and if you make a purchase at arms length (via e-mail, etc) you should expect to be screwed.

It seems that the few cases where people were happy were when they went to Victory and saw the car, tested it, sat in it, etc. It's hard for them to hide obvious rust, torn interior, body damage and bad mechanicals when you see it in person.

They do have some nice cars, and they have some ratty cars. The webpage makes them ALL look nice...

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

They buy low, sell high, and if you make a purchase at arms length (via e-mail, etc) you should expect to be screwed.

It seems that the few cases where people were happy were when they went to Victory and saw the car, tested it, sat in it, etc. It's hard for them to hide obvious rust, torn interior, body damage and bad mechanicals when you see it in person.

They do have some nice cars, and they have some ratty cars. The webpage makes them ALL look nice...

You can no doubt find a better deal buying from an independent owner. A smaller car jockey operation that has no/little overhead, no fixed location, and no reputation to maintain is the worst place to buy. The middle choice is a place like Victory. Neal is running a well established, high profile business and he has to earn a decent reputation to keep the doors open. He will buy as low as he can, sell as high as he can, and expect buyers to be knowledgeable about the product. He can't afford to deliberately cheat someone, but not everyone agrees as to what is fair. Go in knowing an independent PPI is essential and that he's running a business trying to make a buck selling used cars and you'll be OK.

[speedracer]

If I were you I would just put your 911 up for sale here in Canada. There are way less 911's to choose from here and your sounds like a nice car. It should get sold rather quickly although I would say low to mid 20's Canadian would sell it.

[theiceman]

if your in Toronto bring it to one of our Saturday morning get togethers at Artisanos on islington and we wil apraise it for you

[vulcan300]

I've had the displeasure of working on two cars from Victory motors in the last year and both of them were beautifully polished turds. The owners, both form the Toronto area, bought the cars without seeing them and with PPIs supposedly done by Victory. The second car was especially bad. A mid 80s Cab, it was purchased for around 25K US as a near mint mechanically impeccable car. All I can say is that the engine was leaking an impeccably large amount of oil from the case halve seam and the rest of the engine looked like it hadn't been serviced since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. I would recommend you buy a car locally form someone active on Rennlist or Pelican or through the local PCA buy and sell. I would personally never buy one form Victory without a very very thorough PPI by a reputable third party.

Also, you should definitely search on Victory motor cars in this forum. You'll find a lot of similar feedback.

That's my 2 cents..

J

[dshepp806]

search,...search,..search.

[1990C4S]

THe fact that they buy service books from eBay (allegedly) should be a warning sign.

Artisanos on islington - when?

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by wurls

I contacted the owner of Victory about a possible trade for my 88 RoW 911 with 57,000 miles, for one of his 993's to which he was very interested in a trade, but was only willing to offer me $14,000 for my car. That's about half of what I figure it to be worth!
Have the values of G-50 3.2's really gone down that much???

Any insight?
Thanks!

Your car is not likely worth $28k, it could be, I don't know your car, but $20k is more in the right area. Prices have fallen.

[berettafan]

You will be leaving $10k on the table (absolute minimum) in the proposed transaction.

Put a little effort into the process and sell/buy on your own using a good shop for PPI on the buy.

[berettafan]

Dealers add ZERO value to used 911's. Zero. None. Nada. Nothing. Zippo. Zilch. Jack squat.

For many folks there is a feeling of safety when buying used cars from a dealer. This feeling, particularly with old 911's, is massively misplaced. Don't care WHO the dealer is. Find your own car and get a top shelf PPI done by the best in the area and at most you'll spend $400 or so to get all the comfort that can reasonably be given on such a car. ANY dealer will charge a MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH higher premium on the car than that. And you'll STILL have to do the PPI.

[FenderGuy]

Originally Posted by 1990C4S

Your car is not likely worth $28k, it could be, I don't know your car, but $20k is more in the right area. Prices have fallen.

They are willing to take it for $14k but will be jacked up to $28k if he sold it to them

[Nine9six]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

They buy low, sell high, and if you make a purchase at arms length (via e-mail, etc) you should expect to be screwed.

It seems that the few cases where people were happy were when they went to Victory and saw the car, tested it, sat in it, etc. It's hard for them to hide obvious rust, torn interior, body damage and bad mechanicals when you see it in person.

They do have some nice cars, and they have some ratty cars. The webpage makes them ALL look nice...

+1 On Panuzu remarks...

All car dealers buy low, sell higher. Otherwise there's no incentive; and by incentive, I mean profit

[500_19B]

Although if you are very careful, you can probably do a reasonable deal with Victory, I will not buy from them. Outside of the various allegations I have read, I know Mr. Neal explicitly lied to me when I made some inquiries. I won't deal with anyone, private or dealer, who will lie.

[wurls]

Originally Posted by theiceman

if your in Toronto bring it to one of our Saturday morning get togethers at Artisanos on islington and we wil apraise it for you

That sounds like a plan this summer!
Keep in touch!