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Old 11-19-2013, 09:58 AM
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dynalow dynalow is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TylerH860 View Post
Every car I have bought out of Florida has come back massively not as described. I'm so jaded, I refuse to buy from any Florida dealer. Close second is in the NE. Every car I have inspected by a third party, and there has to be some bribery going on.

The worst was a 1998 S320 out of Florida. Described as near showroom. Aced a PPI with an independent inspector.

Car arrives and the first thing I notice is the damage all over the outside of the car. Fading on the rear quarter. Rust bubbling around the sunroof. Inside, the headliner is falling down. Drove it and the transmission was junk. A quick inspection showed the head gasket was leaking as well.

He played dumb through the whole thing, pretended not to be the owner at one point, and eventually quit answering the phone.

It took me years to get over it to the point that I can write about it without getting enraged. Never had violent thoughts before, but wanted to go to that POS and make his life miserable. It got to the point where he wouldn't take any calls out of my area code. Had to use out of state area codes. I had friends call and agree to buy his cars, string him along and never pay. Reported him to every agency I could think of.

Now when you google his company you see several complaint sites, F on the BBB rating, as well as a very low google review score with scathing reviews. Also forwarded my complaints and several others to the Florida Attorney General, and the Florida Dealer License Bureau.

Unfortunately, years later, the A-hole is still in business doing the exact same thing. Several more complaints.

Being in the car business, I have so many stories, but this is by far the worst. I do not expect anything to show up as described, and pay accordingly.
Guy's name wasn't Harold Hooper was it? He skinned me for about 3,900 for a VW Jetta about 12 years ago. No car & no money.

OTOH, my 300CE was an Ebay purchase. The seller was a retired salesman from Minnesota. I forget his name now, but the car had been "sold" once on ebay, but the buyer looked at it and passed. So, when it goes back up on ebay I called the seller and I offered him the final bid from the first auction (13k) He said 13.5 & I agreed. Then I conditioned the deal on it passing a PPI from Lokey MB in Tampa. New 2013 - 2014 and Used Mercedes-Benz in Tampa Bay FL - Lokey Motor Company Well, they had a laundry list of stuff, including the leaking head gasket. The guy fixed most of them, including the head gasket, which I picked up a part of.

He told me that he'd pick me up at the airport, let me have the car for a day to drive around in and if I wasn't satisfied he'd take me back to the airport. No questions asked.
The car had a few remaining issues, including the missing passenger seat belt presenter. But, for me, it was love at first sight. This is a photo from the ebay auction in Dec, 1991. What's not to like?



It was a low mileage snowbird's Fla car, which was origially sold by MB Manhattan to a guy in Roslyn NY.
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