Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken300D
An hour's drive is nothing really, for a good MB diesel.
|
I agree completely. I like these cars, and I consider it to be well within my "striking distance" for a car described as this one was. That's why I made the trip - cheerfully - twice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken300D
People are forgetful and some have a lot to deal with in other areas, like family, job, etc. Maybe you should give the seller another opportunity for a cold start.
|
The pickup was arranged to be at a date and time agreeable to the seller. If there had appeared to be some sort of genuine misunderstanding about my requirement of seeing a cold start, and if he had offered to reschedule the transaction so that it could be done as planned, I might have taken him up on it. No such misunderstanding was apparent, and he made no such offer.
The lack of a cold start didn't kill the deal immediately. I had come intending to drive it home, and there was still some momentum. However, it turned out that the guy had neglected to get the title from his deposit box at the bank (had a bill of sale ready, but no title). His wife headed off to town to get the title, so I was left with more time on my hands. What was a poor eskimo to do except continue to go over the car to see if he'd missed anything?
More things came to light that caused me to question just how forthcoming the seller was being with me about the condition and historical care of the car. The last straw was a little discussion about engine oil. He claimed to have been taking care of the oil changes himself, and that the car never required any top-up between changes (212k miles on the clock). What oil? 20W-50. The notion of a diesel-rated oil seemed to be completely outside his experience. Why was there a quart of house-brand 10W-40 in the trunk? Oh, yeah, that's just something he used in his lawn mower...
It might be a dandy car; the deal just progressively wandered further outside of my personal comfort zone.