Dusty Cars in Pleasanton, CA

[richardrobert]

Does anyone have any experience with them. I am from out of state and looking at a car. Are they reputable?

[joe18d]

I tried to get some additional pics & info on a VW Single cab they have had for sale on ebay and got blown off. I am still shopping for one if anyone knows of any FS.

Joe in Hudson

[richardrobert]

Thanks Joe. I experienced the exact same thing. Asked for additional pics, paint meter readings (car claiming to be original paint) a start up video, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. This is the response I got

"the car runs and drives excellent, title is in the owners name, see pictures on the ad, there is a driving video already posted, that is the information"

I want facts and data, not a sellers opinion.

It's too bad too because it looks like a nice car.

[997RS1]

I made contact about that yellow 912 for sale. He agreed to meet at their dealership on a Sunday, and he made sure i knew he was going out of his way to do this because it's closed. Initial gut feeling - not a friendly guy. Didn't give me the warm and fuzzies when i met him. More like, kind of a d-bag and not very friendly. We look at the car, somehow I am still interested. I ask to test drive it, and he says 'that's a little bit more involved than I'm willing to do right now. I ask if we can at least start it up. He says no.

Drove all the way out to Pleasanton to look at it. Waste of time. I'm surprised they have as many good reviews as they do, he's not a friendly dealer who seems like he's trying to make a sale. Most places would be happy to start the vehicle for you, unless they have something to hide.

Pass on that dude. Its why he sells on ebay mostly, he prefers customers who are out of state. He told me this himself.

[richardrobert]

That's the exact car I was looking at as well. He needs a different line of work. Thanks for chiming in, I was just making sure it wasn't just me.

[Mocker]

Dude has a car for sale and he refused to start it up? WTF?

[speedster911]

5-6, maybe 7 years ago I contacted them regarding a 74 carrera they were selling for a " friend". They agreed to meet me at a specific location in sacramento as I dont think they had a permanent location then. Young kid pulls up driving about 5 miles an hour... so slow it was an obvious red flag. Going over the car, front end full of rust, back end zero rust... yup, two diffrent ends welded together. When I pointed out the obvious.. he kept pushing me to make an offer, probably asked me ten times what I thought the car was worth. They have had some interesting cars posted over the years.. have never reached out again, from what has been posted on this thread, I think there are red flags on all their interactions.

[aigel]

Their stuff is literally dusty. Very weird concept. I live close by, but was always turned off by their “showroom”, lmk if I can check something out for you.

[joe18d]

He pulled the same line on me about" selling the vehicle I was interested in "asa favor for friend".

Joe in Hudson

[richardrobert]

How are they still in business?!!!!

[dusty356a]

Hello, this is Dusty Cars responding to 997RS1: He asked to see the car on a Sunday, a day we are closed. I drove 20 miles each to meet him on my day off to show him the car. After looking at the car he wanted to go for a drive. We never start our cars inside because of fumes and health reasons. I explained that I could not do a test drive on a Sunday and that if he wanted to schedule a test drive during the week that would be better, when other employees are there to push cars around. Also i had somewhere to be, it was Sunday. He messaged me and said he would be coming to test drive the car a few days later. I noticed at that point that while the tires looked new they were actually 20 years old (the car had been stored) So I ordered and installed new tires for the customer's test drive and he never showed up. He then sent an email offering $39K for the car. It is an original paint car in superb condition and it is sale priced at $40K firm. I turned down his offer of $39K for that reason, the car is fairly priced at $40K and that is the price, it had been marked down multiple times. So he wanted to buy the car and now he is insulting me because we didn't take his offer. On top of that he slandered me by calling me a db, why because I met him on a Suday, my day off, and didn't accept his offer? Hateful people make life more difficult than it needs to be. Most buyers are not that way, luckily.

[Mocker]

Seems like a reasonable response, but why the giant font? This is a generally friendly place.

[Unobtanium-inc]

I don't know about the back and forth with this buyer or seller, we have two opinions. But I know I never meet people on the weekends to sell a car, never. We get a lot of people who come up from NYC on the weekends and want fun stuff to do. What is more fun than coming to look at a bunch of Porsche? Except these are not serious buyers.

Anyone serious about buying a car, a fun secondary car that is being bought with discretionary income, will take the day off of work to come see it. Anyone who just wants to casually look on the weekend is not a serious buyer.

I hope Dusty learned a lesson from this.

---Adam

[Tony V]

I for one appreciate the larger font! Eyes aren't what they used to be.
Response sounds reasonable to me.
Tony

[Matt Monson]

No good deed goes unpunished. I don’t work on the weekends. I don’t expect anyone else to. I wouldn’t even ask it of them.

[dusty356a]

Thanks for the feedback. At Dusty Cars we spend a lot of time preparing and picturing cars, steam cleaning the undercarriages etc, and each listing costs about $1500 in wages to properly clean and document each car in pictures and video. We strive to have the most transparent listings on Ebay. Some people ask for additional pictures and video, over and above the 80 pictures and video provided. If 80 detailed pictures and a video is not enough, we ask the customer to have the car inspected prior to purchase. I would like to point out that the complaints above are not from anyone that actually purchased a car, or even spent a dime at our business. I represent a talented team of employees, I sell every car myself, and I can't always please everyone. But my biggest concern is selling a car and having an unhappy customer after a sale. That is why I urge every customer to have a car inspected if 80 pictures is not enough. Thanks to you all

[997RS1]

Thanks for the response Dusty. Here's the thing- we spoke and I planned to meet you on a Sunday, and that i was coming from pretty far out (San Francisco). I was a serious buyer and I was expecting to see the car, drive it and possibly make a deal. If I wanted to look at it, I could look at the 80+ pictures you had online.

After your denial of test driving the car, I for some odd reason was STILL interested (not sure why, because at this point both my wife and i were both put off by your demeanor and lack of salesmanship). So I said ok, if we can't test drive it, can we at least start it? "No". NO ONE needs to push anything to start a car. This should've have been an easy task. That was another red flag for me.

We then talked numbers, and you went on a diatribe about how you have "a lot of employees, and they have insurance" and yada yada yada. A bunch of information that didn't need to be passed onto me. I found that extremely odd. And despite your post, I actually agreed to $40k, but not without driving it.

I left thinking 'now I have to drive all the way back during the week' (this is almost 4 hours out of my day just in travel), which is damn near impossible because I have a 9-5, and you're closed on weekends. So now I've got to rearrange my schedule to accommodate this failure of a visit. Listen, if i'm trying to sell a car, I'll start it for the customer. If it doesn't drive, no big deal. Let's jumpstart it at least hear it on a cold start. Who in their right mind makes plans to show a car and doesn't expect to start it?? I can tell you I'm not a tire kicker, I have a few Porsches and I don't waste people's time. However you wasted mine by going all the way out there. So after sitting and thinking about it, I decided to pass. I never sent you a follow up email offering $39k. I didn't like the vibe you gave off, and I didn't have a good experience, so I moved on. As they say, "when you buy a Porsche, you're not just buying the car, you're buying the seller."

Anyway, I won't apologize for your lack of salesmanship, be happy this review only stayed on this board and didn't end up on Google or Yelp. Someone posted on here asking about experience with you and your shop, so i contributed my experience. Unfortunately it was negative.

Good luck with your business and selling that 912, it deserves a good home. Cheers.