When buying an old car sight unseen you have to be ready for anything.

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'81 300CD - 180K, cannot be killed by any conventional means
'99 Ford Escort - good MPG

So far, I've bought 3 cars over the internet - 2 of them through eBay. However I have never turned over the cash without examining the vehicle first.

Guess I'm not that trusting of human nature....

Ditto.

I've bought several BlueBirds and several cars through ebay and traderonline via the internet, fly down with the money, no tickey no washey. They're never as represented, whether intentionally or inadvertantly.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Hail damage to a California car??? It might be more misrepresented than you figure.

Sixto
87 300D

Yea, if it runs you're basically SOL.
Sell the car on eBay again, and cut your losses now.

What you don't want to do is spend $10K fixing it, then turn around and sell it for $5K when you find a good one.

You may be right, paypal coud care less but it looks like my CC Bank may be able to help..

This is the car...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270225416216

Photos of the most obvious hail damage.

http://imageevent.com/grek30/300d;jsessionid=5uf4wq4t93.buffalo_s

Hard to photograph but this is a good example..

Actually both my eBay vehicle purchases were pretty much exactly as advertised. The third vehicle was my 300CD which was found on the website of a small dealer who specialized in Bio/WVO conversions, the price was negotiated by phone, and then I went and looked at it before paying. Again, pretty much exactly as advertised.

Guess I've just been really lucky.

Looks like he did a pretty good job of taking the pictures to keep them from showing the damage...

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1984 300 Coupe TurboDiesel
Silver blue paint over navy blue interior
2nd owner & 2nd engine in an otherwise
99% original unmolested car
~210k miles on the clock

1986 Ford F250 4x4 Supercab
Charcoal & blue two tone paint over burgundy interior
Banks turbo, DRW, ZF-5 & SMF conversion
152k on the clock - actual mileage unknown

He's a real piece of work allright.. I bought this car for a specific reason, for possible commercial use and conversion to WVO and the truth is I could deal with the hail damage if it checked out mechanically. It's one thing to conceal that but to claim it could be driven safely at highway speeds nearly caused a needless accident.., that's just uncounciable.

It's a mess and it looks like I'm gonna be stuck with it. The bottom is very solid and it handles well though.., it does have potential..

It seems pretty clear in the Ebay auction that it isn't a CA car, but only recently taken from CO to CA. I don't see anything written in the auction that it is safe at highway speeds. I agree that something should have been said about the hail damage. He's pretty clear that there's a problem with the transmission.
What mechanical problems does it have? Was the work that the seller claimed had been done in last 2 years actually done? Price does not seem way out of line to me.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I think the term Highway needs to be defined. Some people use the term just to mean Road or Roadway. Example: "it's my way or the Highway"; meaning It's my way or hit the road.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

To me this sounds like safe driving at highway speeds.., the fact is it will not go over 45mph and is not really safe to operate anywhere.

The automatic transmission recently started slipping a bit. Despite the slippage, the car still performs well and will do 85-90 mph if you need her to.

Looks like that work was done. What was also done is a direct fuel line run to the secondary filter, what seems to be only front brakes operating, a motor that will barely run at normal idle when the car is in gear so I doubt very much the compression is good as claimed. I was prepared for the fact the trans would possibly need rebuilding but if a car cannot be safely driven that should obviously be stated. And there's literally 100's of indentations on the car he claims he never noticed but the first thing the delivery driver asked me when he brought the car was if the hail damage was mentioned. It's so bad it's pretty obvious that's why the windsheild had to be replaced. And those photos were supposedly taken in January but they are alot older than that.

What I have is a $500 parts car that is not safe to drive. If it was advertised as that I wouldn't be complaining but that's not the way it was sold nor what I was in the market for..

If the fuel line runs directly to the secondary filter, that might explain your power problems. You wouldn't have a lift pump if that is what is happening and it's hard to imagine how it is getting enough fuel to run at all without a fuel pump.
I can't tell from the Ebay pictures how the incoming fuel line is routed. I only see the return line. Is the lift pump still mounted on the side of the injection pump? Are the lines just removed from it? Is there no primary filter anywhere? I would certainly change the fuel and air filters as those are typically the obvious sources of low power.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

It was just bypassed, that all. I got it on the expressway again but this time when there was little traffic and did manage to get it up to 65mph but on any incline the trans would slip when trying to maintain speed or even slight excelleration. But it did make it 40 miles to where a great mechanic from Germany is going to install another transmission. It looks like the motor may be alright too but there is still a persistant fuel leak.. If the motor turns out to be good all is not lost.., that car may still have alot of miles left in her. And with the custom body it has it might turn out to be a cool car after all.