[gliding_serpent]

Live an learn. My gut feeling is never wrong. I knew something was up when such a beautiful looking car (speed yellow, wide body... duck tail... drool) had gone unsold for so long.

Good to know that others out there are also not such an easy push-over.

That being said, they did a lot wrong: Getting the seller to sell by saying it was for a private collection not flipping (and zero addition to the odometer from sale. If they did use it, then they lied to me by saying the broken odometer was fixed), saying the top end was done when it was not, saying they got the car new tires (when the prior owner did), trying to get me to do a PPI at a shop they work with, insisting that they bought it from another dealer and thus did not know the history (when they got it from the owner directly who was very open in all ads about work that needed to be done, and his price reflected it). It was quite slick of them actually. They never lied directly. They played dumb, said they could not find documentation (they just moved conveniently and things are in boxes, but insisted the top end was rebuilt by the magical "dealer out west" that they bought the car from), and ignored my requests to get the prior mechanics shop's info from old service records (I can understand not giving out an old owners name without consent). Hear no evil, see no evil.

Do some routine service, pop on some decals and ducktail, take off the high end race wheels to sell, and near double the purchase price without declaring the known car issues. And who knows, maybe someone will be seduced by a car that looks great... and they will pay top dollar, assuming a dealer would only charge top dollar if it was in good shape... not in dire need of a top end rebuild.

I felt bad for the last owner. He was pretty sad to see his baby essentially get some lipstick, and then be put on the lot with no real work put into it (drivers headlight was not even properly reseated) for near double the price.