ya i was upset, but not to bad. i only drove like two hours to look at it.

 

Chalk it up to experience. I've driven up to 5-7 hours away several times, only to be disappointed EVERY TIME. No long distance deal has ever worked out for me. You just have to get better at asking the questions. If they can't tell you what's wrong with their car (ie numerous specific flaws regardless of severity), you know they are hiding things. That owner must have been blind and deaf not to be bothered by those things you mentioned. And apparently they did little to address them. Not a good sign of owner "love" for their car.

That car even at $5K might have been a nightmare....and probably was. Consider that another forum poster just bought a '98 WS6 A4 with 40K miles for $9K. You could have spent $5K on the car you just saw and still had a junk-box at $10K into it. Don't get disappointed. You may have to go through this a few more times before the "right" car appears in front of you. Keep a look out for "seniors" who have decided to sell their "baby." Be a little wary of younger hot rodders who don't notice anything but how fast they are going. There are a lot of nice LS-1's down south. Keep looking.

 

ya not the first time ive drove far either. lets keep this going though. i want you guys to check out this ride. again, another no option car, no ttops either, lower miles, with a cracked dash being the only interior flaw he mentioned. what do you guys think?

https://cookeville.craigslist.org/cto/5463629325.html

 

Check this car out. I know its a long ride but it looks to be worth it. https://ls1tech.com/forums/eastern-c...l#post19174908

 

that is a WAY long drive. lol lookin to stay around the 6-7 range anyways, not looking for a show car, but dont want a pos either.

 

come on, let me hear from you brothers. eager to get an ls car.

 

Doesn't do anything for me. Doesn't give me the vibe of a nice car. Craigslist ad with minimal description. Not even an engine shot. I prefer the red Z28 MadMike9396 linked. Prices are similar.

 

As a general rule, I refuse to travel any great distance to look at a car, because I know from experience that most cars will be a disappointment. Sometimes the deal might be good enough to be worth it even if there are small disappointments, but it's a risk that I would only take if I had a really good feeling - and even then, I'd have to first ask myself if the car would still be worth it even if my "good feeling" was overstated by ~25% or so.

You rarely get the whole story when talking to a seller. People like me (and I suspect you are the same) notice things that average owners sometimes genuinely don't notice about even their own cars. The less picky that a person is, the nicer they think their car is, and then they assume everyone else will find it equally "mint". When you begin to press these folks on how they can use words like "mint" when there are several obvious flaws, they often seem to claim some variation of, "well, it's nicer than most of the other ones I see." That is the definition of "mint", as used by the average car seller, and that's why I don't have much faith in any ad. Over time, you do tend to get a feel for which ads seem to hold more promise, based on both pictures and how they are written, but I'm still very hesitant to consider travel unless the car would still interest me at a condition somewhat less than what the ad would suggest.

 

yea, most sellers dont seem to see obvious flaws that i see, but some just straight out lie. thats what i cant stand. i mean why tell me the interior is near mint, then i show up and there are panels missing, panels cracked, missing buttons, cigarette burns and stains everywhere. do these people think im gonna look past that? haha. also i hear the saying, "well it looks real clean for a fifteen-twenty year old car". na bro, **** is **** no matter how old it is.

 

yea, the car he linked looks to be a nice ride. no doubt. but memphis to NJ is out of the question. im really looking for a six speed as well, nothing against autos, just prefer a six speed. and plus my budget is 6-7k. he is wanting 8k i believe it is now. but im really trying to not go over 6500. not looking for a 50k mile near mint car for that price, just a genarally nice ride. not a falling apart tin can.

 

You have discovered the exact sort of scenario that I was outlining above. I really don't think all those people feel they are "lying", I think they are truly in denial/ignorant about the actual condition of their car, or they figure that because they've seen a couple that are worse, theirs isn't so bad, and "isn't so bad" then get's translated into "mint". This is why the words "mint, perfect", etc., mean almost nothing. They are just ad filler.

Some people seem truly shocked when you start pointing out flaws, even the obvious stuff that can be seen in a picture. Then you have to wonder how much worse it will actually be in person.

 

And sometimes, the current owner isn't even aware of the full story on their vehicle. One 5 hour trip I took back in the mid-1990's was to see a scarce muscle car owned buy a fairly high profile professional athlete. The car had been in magazines and the guy had a good rep and good tastes. So I expected no surprises when I got there. The car did have a few minor flaws that I could overlook. What I couldn't overlook was that the car didn't have the documentation as claimed. The original broadcast sheet turned out to be from another car that went down the assembly line that same day. The color and options were totally different. The VIN numbers were close. So I was the first person in the history of this 26 year old car to realize that the key documentation was for another car? No one else ever noticed it? Since I wanted a mostly stock/original car with all the right paperwork, that was a deal breaker. While I enjoyed the scenic 5 hr drive to the country on the way in...it was a long 5 hrs on the way home.

One of my worst ever longer trips was to see a "fully #'s matching" and "nice" 1969 Plymouth GTX convertible owned by the owner of a new car dealership. You would think that would mean they knew something about new and old cars. The car was rough as I walking up to it. When he popped the hood I was in shock. There was so much oil, grease, dirt, and filth in that engine bay, it was hard to see anything, let alone "numbers." On the underside of the engine the grime was so thick it was clear no one had touched this thing in a decade or more. #'s matching? You couldn't even see any engine numbers without cleaning off the grime. And I wasn't about to clean his car for him. That wasn't the worst of it. The car had no VIN tag and no Fender Tag listing the car's major options. The car was either once stolen or had the VIN tag lost as a state assigned alternative ID tag tag was attached to the lower windshield. This car was about the exact opposite of #'s matching....lol. And this owner described to me over the phone how all the numbers were right and verified. Yeah right! As crazy as this one seemed, I have a few more like just as bad. Never underestimate the ability of a seller to be totally clueless or intent on nailing you to the wall.

My worst ever car trip was fairly local, only a 75 minute trip. The seller "recently restored" his 1965 Dodge Convertible for his daughter's use at college. She didn't really want it and the car is now for sale. The guy sang the praises of this gem being in #1 condition and without flaw. The paint was flawless. You know the type, you could spend an hour looking at it, and not find fault with it. On the phone, I listed all the weak areas typically seen on this type car and he responded each time with: "that's perfect." Well I had to see this, especially for just $9,000. Driving up the bumpy dirt driveway (first red flag) I spied a rusted Dodge hulk off to the side and of course ignored it. When I greet the guy at the front door I ask him where the #1 car is. He points over to the rusted hulk. Huh? I didn't have to get within 50 ft of it to know it was a complete wreck. That car had never seen a restoration or a bit of work since it left the factory in 1965. Every body panel was liberally coated with rust. Every piece of interior was stained, cracked, mildewed, etc. The tires were flat. The rims were 90% rusted. Every piece of metal trim on the car was heavily pitted. The "new" soft top was ripped into dozens of shreds to the point that the car's interior was 95% exposed to the elements. I could put my arms through the holes in the sheet metal. The paint? Only 30-50% of it was left - the rest of the panels were showing surface rust on bare metal.

This was a #5 or #6 derelict, basket case...the kind you see abandoned in the back woods. Until the moment I walked away in complete disbelief this guy was claiming what a nice "car" it was and I didn't know a good car when I saw one. He didn't agree with my assessment at all. In fact, he was a bit upset that I refused to make "an offer" on his #1 restored baby. As I was leaving I was looking around for hidden TV cameras to see if I was on "Candid Camera" or something. You can ask all the right questions, and get all the right answers, but if the seller lives on Pluto, it's not worth much.

 

FireBrian-wow the dodge hulk story made me laugh. he was telling you to your face how nice of a car it was?? thats how the guy with the first camaro i went to see was. saying it was so nice and yada yada, im like "dude. you ,must bl blind and ignorant as hell" didnt say it, but thats what i was thinking.

 

It's interesting that nobody noticed the paperwork discrepancy in all those years, I guess previous owners either didn't care to check or didn't know what they were looking at.

This reminds me of an interesting story about my '00 WS6 that I bought brand new. My original intention for this car was show and cruise duties (I later decided to modified it for street/strip duty, but that's a different discussion), so I was very concerned about getting all the paperwork that I could from the dealer, making sure they didn't toss the window sticker, etc. I was hoping to get a build/broadcast sheet but they had already prepped the car before I had a chance to look or ask (I did think about asking to check their garbage can, but didn't.) Anyway, through all of that it never occurred to me to check the SPID sticker for accuracy; who would need to do that on a brand new car, right? Well a few weeks later I was waxing the door jambs and noticed that there was no "WS6" RPO on the SPID sticker, and further inspection showed several wrong codes and a VIN number that wasn't correct. I knew right away that the VIN and RPOs were for a V6 model Firebird, and the serial number portion of the VIN was one digit off. So the car just ahead of mine on the assembly line was a V6 Firebird, and somehow its SPID ended up on my car. *I* know this was a factory mistake because I bought the car brand new with literally 3 miles on it, but I have to wonder how many future owners/shoppers will catch this discrepancy. The guy I sold it to was a friend, he knew I bought it brand new so he never questioned it. But then he resold it to someone in Minnesota, I have no idea if the story carried on to the next owner.

Wow. This poor individual was either hallucinating about the restoration or he was really intent on trying to convince some "born yesterday" enthusiast that this is what a restoration looks like. Is anyone ignorant enough to fall for that? I can see why his daughter didn't want it, maybe she doesn't have the heart to tell her dad that he may be suffering from dementia.

It's really a big red flag when someone says that anything is "perfect", unless maybe it's already been made clear that the car moves only on a trailer and scores 1000 points at well-known national concourse events. Otherwise, like you said earlier, they all have flaws and when someone is willing to describe rather minor flaws in great detail then you have a pretty good indication of their credibility.