I'm pretty embarrassed to say that I bought a car that turned out to be
a lemon. Saw it on Ebay and had my father check it out locally
( I didn't have the means of getting there in time ).

Long story short, the car I bought has been in an accident, the seller
swore that it was in great condition and never been in an accident.

I went to my local MB dealer to see if they could pull up the service
records for the car, but they told me they could not. I was under the
impression that they could based on win number, although it has not
been serviced at my local dealer ?

However they gave me the MB dealer code of the dealership that has
serviced this car and told me to call the MB 800 number to get the
name and location of the dealership. I called but they told me they can
not give me the information.

We had a certified mechanic take a look at the car today and he found
a bar from the front passenger side wheel into the frame to be bent out
of shape, also a pinch in the frame by the driver side motor mount.

I would be much grateful if anybody here has some pointers for me,
I'm mainly trying to gather information since it looks that I have to
take the seller to court.

I'm sorry if this is not the right forum to post in, but this is where I
usually hang out.

Thanks,

Sorry to hear that! Post the VIN number maybe someone can run a carfax report for you.

Yea, well I did the carfax report, the bigger one for about $10,
but that's clean.

Thanks,

just curious, which dealership wouldn't give you the service history.

who was the seller, location, name, e-bay name feedback


oral description by seller or anything in writting?

This is a very helpful group but I for one don't know what you need help with. You call the car a lemon which suggests to me mechanical problems rather than a checkered past.

If the problems have to do with collision damage, take it to a reputable body shop for an estimate so you know how deep in the hole you are.

I don't know your financial situation but the general sense is to spend ~$150 to have a pre-purchase (doh!) inspection done by a reputable independent MB specialist. The dealer jockeys who get stuck with PPIs are younger than your car.

I haven't been able to squeeze an ounce of information from an MB dealer about any used MB I owned at time of asking. The most I've gotten is a vehicle master inquiry (VMI) which gives you little more than a listing of unresolved recall items, engine and transmission serial numbers and a list of option codes. Outside of the recall history, I can tell you the rest based on the VIN.

Good luck.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Good advice Sixto on getting the PPI done. However, I wonder what is the general advice when trying to buy a car on line like ebay? You don't know till the last moment if your bid is going to get the car. The seller wants to get paid a depsoit shortly after auction ending and not conditional on you getting a satisfactory inspection done. Have have others arranged for a PPI on an ebay purchase before cash changing hands?

If I won the bid I'd gladly pay the PPI to gain some independent feedback before I arranged transportation to pick it up or have it shipped. Would you go so far as to say if you couldn't get a PPI done then you wouldn't bid on a car site unseen?

__________________
JD