Inspect and lose the car or don't inspect and get a dog????

[yale]

So here is a question... Two years ago I bought a 1973 911E on ebay from Jack Molinier. On the phone Jack sounded like a decent sort, the car seemed to fit my bill and I pulled the trigger on the car at the Buy It Now price. As some of you know this was just a disaster for me, the car was wholly misrepresented and in fact not even drivable.

Goldchains911 on the Pelican board sent me this message at the time:
DORK do a little leg work before buying
what kind of dork buys a car without putting his hands on it first?
I buy cars from long distances all the time but I inspect first and then beat them down if not well represented. take your lumps because you ****ed up by not having a ppi or inspecting yourself you don't seem to know the cars but have some money to throw around do a little research before you cry fowl

And of course he is right in that I should have inspected the car.

So here it is years later and I see another car on ebay being sold by a guy in Arizona. I give the guy, Mitch, a call and explain that I'm interested in his car but given past experience need to get it inspected. He understands, but you know how it is in terms of peoples time and selling cars so as the car is in storage and not currently insured I am having to get a tow truck to take it over to Becks for the inspection.

Mitch called me last night to say he sold it at BIN to someone else who didn't need to inspect the car. So are there any answers here? If you wait and make the seller go through the hassel of an inspection it seems you will loose out on a decently priced car, if you don't get inspected you are playing Russian roulette. I am not writing this to blame Mitch or anything, it's understandable that he sold the car, I just don't see decently priced cars sitting around though...(unless they are purple.)

Here is the car I am talking about:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

[500gls]

I followed your story some time ago, bummer, I think you sold it some time later but lost a substancial amount of money.
I am across the big pond and I have bought 3 x 911 already without ever seeing them. I have a garage and some experience in restoring the cars so I'll take the chance.
Once I bought one and I got another one on the board that lived close by to check the car ( of course a leak down test is not possible ) but that worked out very well because the owner didn't want to drive the car to a garage for a ppi.

but it could also be worse than your story !!! .... I'll be flying in the US in 2 weeks to attend a trial of a guy I bought a car from and to make a long story short , lost the money and he resold the car to someone else ...so no car as well. My chances are 50/50 .
So get a nice garage learn some basic skills and you can take a bit more chance next time !!

[gmund1948]

I have sent people out to look at a car for me and even paid shops to do so,
I have sent shop guys $100 or more to look at it depending how far away it was

Most people who know these cars can value one in a few minutes/ 1/2 hour
If it is expensive then be prepared to give a deposit and mark as sold providing it passes a pre-purchase inspection at the shop, It has always worked on cars for me unless they were so cheap I should have taken my chances Like the $9500 57 Carrera GT ( with a 912 engine) that a dealer had in Florida that I missed or the $9500 911SI saw a few minutes after posting and the guy tried to get out of the deal but the deal got done.

Look Look and keep looking

Dont spend that much without somebody doing something unless you like to
bet on snake eyes




$41K is a chunk to spend without peace of mind

You could have saved a bunch or

[execmalibu]

Knowing well in advance EVERYTHING about what you are buying should protect you... Be a VERY educated buyer!!

Ask all of the RIGHT questions and ask a lot of questions! And get lots of pictures! If the car is cheap one of the best questions is "have a lot of people looked at the car"... If the answer is yes then you probably have good idea that it is junk...

But not always! Before me 10 people looked at a 1973 911E with a sunroof, sport seats, factory air, original paint and interior etc and they ALL passed at $12,500!
I thought the car was amazing and have no idea what the other 10 buyers were expecting from a used 911?

If you ask the right questions the pictures should support representations of the seller. Obviously if it is outright fraud or active concealment then you might have a problem but when you ask the right questions and listen to the sellers answers you usually can get a pretty clear picture of what the car is like.

Granted the mechanical condition will be unknown but the overall cosmetic condition of the car usually will give you a good idea about the rest.

Also know that these are 40 year old cars they are NOT new and one persons idea of what is "good condition" might be different from yours... I have bought 911s that people have described as needing a lot of mechanical work and in my opinion the car was fine! Just old...

I have bought many cars sight unseen from the description and with pictures... In most cases the cars have been as good or Better then expected!

Both of these cars came from out of state and are great cars!

[Six Gun]

There is no substition for a face to face inspection. I have bought a few cars (newer) with PPI's, but my older cars were both done with eye ball inspection. It is usually < than $1K for the trip. These cars are too old and rust prone to rely on pictures, or strangers opinions.

Once the seller knows you are willing to come and look at the car, I have found that the information flow is more factual.

[skinnerd]

If you don't do a before purchase inspection, you have no one to blame for yourself if it turns out badly for you.

Period!

If someone else beats you to the punch because they didn't do a PPI.
So be it.
Very probably they will make the same mistake you made.
So don't worry about them.

Another car will come along.
If you are meant to purchase it, you will... following your PPI.
Good luck.

[Ringmeister]

I don't think you lost out, you can do better for the money. I've bought many cars sight unseen and never had a disappointment, in fact, I've always found the cars to be better than I thought they would be. Just dumb luck.

There was one bad one from a well-known Porsche restorer in so. cal but he took the car back so I won't count it.

[yale]

Hey Folks,

Thanks for the responses. Some of you buy and sell cars like candy I know but I live in NYC, have no attached garage, and have had only a few cars so it would be unlikely that I will ever have a place to work on a car. And as for flying to see cars, I can't imagine the amount of times you would end up looking at crap. In terms of asking lots of questions...I did that with mycarrera27rs (Jack Molinier) and the answers I got left me feeling better about the car then what the car was in reality.

I did try to ask this guy who worked on his car so that i could call them, but that information was not clear until after the car was sold. I appreciate your comments, thanks again for taking the time.

[skinnerd]

Yale:

Simply.....just get a PPI from a shop local to the car.
Almost any place in the US has a S Registry person that can recommend a competent shop that can do the PPI for you.
That way you don't have to fly to see the car.
The shop will look the car up and down, and give you the honest assessment of the car.

Afterwards, you can purchase with a clean conscience.
Or easily reject it as the dog it really is.

[Longballa]

Get away from ebay for one. Buy from another source such as this site. I bought a RS America in Tulsa Oklahoma once and told the guy if I didn't like I'd get back on the plane and fly home to San Diego. I bought it and drove it home to SD. There's a lot of early 911's for sale right now. Wait and get the right one from the right person. If you don't have the skills to do a PPI yourself than pay a local shop to do it. If the guy selling it doesn't want to deal with that than run to the next and probably way better car! A plane ticket and a PPI as you know is better than what you already had to deal with.