i thought that this was a mystery.

the m-b dealer in escondido, ca put a cl55amg up for sale a week ago. when i noticed it, i was traveling. would not be back home for a couple of days. so, i asked the dealer to hold it for me with a non-refundable deposit. until i could arrange to arrive home, then fly out to san diego to inspect the car.

that dealership gave me some nonsense excuse that because it was a public company, it could not do that. it would be first come, first served.

how silly. first time that i have ever encountered that. i wasn't about to fly out to san diego only to arrive and be told, sorry we sold it a couple of hours ago.

so, i sought out a 300sl aficionado to see if one of his 300sl buddies might eyeball the car for me. and, that was done.

in fact eric did inspect it for me. even invited the sales guy at m-b escondido to bring it over to his shop for the inspection. just so that the salesman might notice a real professional 300sl restoration facility. might recognize that the examination was not being conducted by joe the ragman.

i wish that i had been there for that. salesman would not allow for the evaluation of the abc system. nor for a borescoping of the engine cylinders.

though most of the car appeared in good shape, there were some serious cosmetic body deficiencies.

so serious that i could not imagine that the dealer put this car out on sale unrepaired.

so, i asked for the dealer to give me a quote on correcting those deficiencies as well as allowing for an inspection of the engine condition and the abc suspension.

short hand, i was told to go f*ck myself.

the car has a small number of miles on it. but, i passed on it. i did not like the attitude of that m-b dealership.

i cannot imagine a dealership selling a car with serious cosmetic deficiencies. makes no sense to me.

does it to any of you?

Honestly, I would be surprised if they did anything. I have never seen a dealer really do what the customer wants; if anything, they may do a half-assed job against your prepayment. The only way to handle a dealer is to get the lowest price possible out of him. Low ball him to learn his pain threshold and walk if the price is too steep.
Also, if he gives you the "wait while I run the numbers" line, tell him you have to pick someone up, and he can email you the final numbers. They love to smack dealer /doc fees on after they have set the hook. The more you can do electronically, the less time you'll waste.

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Prost!

Why bother working with you when someone off the street will pay whatever they are asking. Its sad but too often true.

How serious are we talking about? Dealers will try to make a profit off any vehicle they think they can. Some examples:

Check out the driver seat on this one:
WE BELIEVE EVERYBODY DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE!! $99 MONTHLY

This one has some pretty obvious rock chipping on the hood:
2002 Honda Accord SE

This Civic needs a little work:
2003 Honda Civic

This Plymouth needs a little more:
1947 Plymouth Deluxe

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

As well they should, they are a business whose business is making money. Any car has some value, as long as its priced accordingly there is nothing wrong with selling an ugly, beat up, or broken car.

My father is dealer, his problem is people don't read ads. He has had a few trade ins with bad motors, puts them on Craigslist at huge discounts, say 1/3rd of the book and puts NEEDS ENGINE in the ad, people fly down there and are all disappointed to hear it needs a motor. They just assume the dealer was stupid and mispriced the car. If its dirty cheap, there is probably a reason and as long as the dealer is forthcoming with the deficiencies, there is nothing wrong with that in my eyes.


Not willing to take a deposit is strange. Especially if its non refundable. I've always taken them, and so has my dad.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

Whole rear bumper has been sprayed too.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

Did you talk to a single sales person, many or the sales manager? Don't base an entire business on the actions of one person.

Was the deposit to be in cash or credit card? If credit card, the charges can be canceled by the card owner leaving the dealer with nothing.

The dealer has no idea if an outside shop is going to damage the car so they will limit hands on disassembly. ( Re: strip a spark plug and who will be held liable? )

Was the car advertised as needs work or was it pitched as good condition? Some dealers do sell as is / needs work cars.

no to everything you asked.

the internet sales guy was so inept, so controlling.

my resource asked him to take the care to his shop. all i can tell you is that my resource may be the best 300sl restorer in north america.

the sales guy would not let him drive it. would not let him turn on the abc suspension. nor the radio.

and my resource took pics. not favorable pics. the kind of pics that provoke me to conduct a more exhaustive analysis. borescopes into cylinders for instance. for one.

the dealer did not want that to happen.

this so reminded me of autonation m-b stealers i looked up the ownership. too soon.

i did this because the stealerman said his hands were tied by the ownership, a publicly owned company.

i asked a mbusa friend about the status of that dealership. yes, he said, it is owned by autonation.

i do no business with autonation. they are racketeers.

If you were so horrified by the exterior of the car, why even bother with "exhaustive analysis?"

Sounds like the car was a pile, PASS, move on to the next one. There are plenty of used cars out there that wouldn't pass my personal tests, when I figure that out, I move on.

I do not see why you are quite so upset over this. If I bought every car I looked at, I'd have hundreds of cars right now. By looking at a lot of cars, I periodically stumble across a gem, I see that as the nature of the beast.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

I'm curious. What information could a photograph provide that would bring you to the conclusion that a bore-scope inpection should be the next step???