Yeah, Tom, that sounds like Rolling Wheels, all right.

You get to talk to the slick salesman, Andy Smith? Or Avi, the boss?

I watched Andy in action. A fellow comes in and wants a specific car. I think it was a black E300D. Fellow states that there are only two of them in the whole Fort Lauderdale area. This one here, and one at Pembroke (some other dealer).

Andy shoots right back: The one at Pembroke is already sold.

This puts the guy right toward the driver's seat of the one out in the lot.

I ask him, after the guy leaves, how would he (Andy) know that the other vehicle is sold?

He calmly says he has no idea if it was sold or not.

But smooooooth. I've got to tell you. Very smooooooth.

Brian, It was slick Andy. Although, he slicked me pretty good. I got a car that he somewhat made over and i'm making it right. Which makes me feel good about myself. I'm learning from my mistakes, like we all do. Just like being in this forum only helps me gain knowledge from all of those who have experieced the most famous car in the world, the MERCEDES-BENZ.

Yeah, Slick Andy. Boy do I know him well. Slicker than snot.

I've sorted about half of my issues that I received from Mr. Slick.

If the actual mileage is anything close to the 103K figure, I came out OK in the whole scheme of things. Both the engine and transmission have ZERO issues, fortunately.

I'll never forget scanning E-Bay and finding my future Black '86 300 SDL. Pictures were a work of art. "Magic Water" on the car. Windows rolled down, lights all on. Scene of the piture was in beautiful green field with nice wooden white fence in the background. Looked like a horse farm of some kind. I fell in love. Thing is I only got about one or two pictures of the inside, about 20 of them were from the outside. Had he taken about 20 of the inside I might not have been so anxious to buy. Course the dyed seats looked very nice at the time.

Don't you just like it when sleezy dealers just take those nice "luxurious" MB's and park them in front of a huge Mansion somewhere? In an effort to sell making you belive that the owner of the car lives in the mansion. lol

I might say that alot of cars are sold with dealers and with E-Bay. I imagine that some are good and some aren't. It's just a gamble I suppose. The more you investigate, go to the site of the car and inspect it the more sure of your decisions.

You must go and view the vehicle, or get an independent determination by a third party. And, until you do this, you must take off the rose colored glasses and assume that everything the dealer tells you is BS.

It is very difficult for most people to do this.

Even people who are somewhat knowledgeable about the vehicle in question (you and I) can fall for the tactics of a slick dealer.

This is why I do not agree with the statement that a vehicle is "worth what a buyer is willing to pay". The vehicle may not be worth anywhere near what the buyer pays for it because the dealer has cleverly maneuvered the buyer into purchasing this vehicle at an inflated price, using a multitude of tactics.
If you doubt this, I wish to bring you to Fort Lauderdale to see "Mr. Slick" in action. Just watching him work is an education. "PUKEFACE"

Tom, pull the cluster and look carefully at the back of the speedometer. See if there are any stickers from "Ft. Lauderdale Speedometer" on the unit.
If they clocked it, they would normally put the mileage, in pen, on the unit, prior to the change. They did this with mine, however, mine was broken at the time.

Brian, I think we need to start a thread about "Buying from Mr. Slick"
a buyer's beware thread of used and new car dealers trying to "slick" a shady car or parts onto potential buyers of this forum and of the general public.

I'm not sure all pick up this thread to understand the importance of knowing the signs in what to look for in buying a decent car.

This would be a bit tricky. There are two parts to this equation.

The first part consists of simply checking out the vehicle thoroughly, either by yourself, or by an independent person. Ignore everthing the dealer says about it until this has been done.

The second part involves human emotion. Every person has excitement when they see a vehicle that they have been looking for. Every person believes that "this vehicle" is "the one" that is meant for them. Every person who sees such a vehicle will immediately put on "rose colored glasses" to view the vehicle. The whole problem with this is obvious. The person cannot make an unbiased judgment on the value of the vehicle, and, the person feels pressure to buy the vehicle because they do not want to "lose" this vehicle. This is why many vehicles are sold for more than they are worth, IMHO.

This sounds all to familer. I know of a used car lot that deals with older European cars. I like the owner he is a nice guy but his salesmen are scum. They will lie to their own mother to sell her a beater. They wouldn't even give me the time of day until I started looking at W210's, all of a sudden they wanted to be nice to me. I will stay away from used car dealers from now on. I will only deal with private people or a few real MB dealers. MB of North Haven and their is one in New London everyone loves. Real MB dealers seem to be the lesser of two evils.

My story goes the same I really wanted an SDL, and my favorite colors are blue and black. What shows up on the back lot of the local Ford dealer? A blue SDL that looked clean and in good shape to the untrained eye. I handed over my $2,900 with a big smile and headed home. Now almost a year and $6k+ later I know what I have! But now I am a salesmans worst nightmare I know exactly what I am looking for and probably know more about the car than him.

Frankly if that E300D is as stated I would offer $13k, clean ones are worth a few bucks.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Thanks to this forum I'm able to ask serious questions to dealers. Here is a question that I posed to an E-bay seller just recently on a 1993 300 SD.

Dear alliedente,
Has the engine on this 1993 300 SD ever had any work done on the engine or had it replaced. This particular model engine has a tendency to bend the connecting rods on occasion. The problem is that you do not realize that the rod has bent until the engine has ovalized the cylinder and is now drinking hugh amounts of oil. The cost to repair the problem is generally 2/3 the value of the vehicle. I'm interested in this particular car and it's very beautiful. If I purchase I want to be able to ejoy this car. It's about a $7000.00 engine to replace.

E-Bay Item # Item Title Listing end date
4503435474 Mercedes-Benz : 300-Series

My answer back was:
hello there,
i have no idea if it was or not. but the car runs great with no problems. thank you and please call me if you need to at 713 806 868

translation "I have no f#$@@$ idea, I will sell to to an easier target"

My favorite is I was looking at a mint 1991 420SEL a few months back. It was at probably one of the worse MB dealers in the US. So I see that it has 130k on the odo and ask the salesman if the timing chain has been done. He says they don't need it only the 380's broke chains. I say well actually I was wrong the chains don't break the plastic chain guides become brittle and break taking the chain with them on start up. Usually only bending one bank of valves.

He didn't like this one bit salesman don't like it when you know to much!

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Your right Hatty, Seems once you know a little and you ask a little you get a little answer or in some cases no answer at all.

Funny you walk up to these guys and they throw this sales pitch on you and all. You start asking questions and then they don't seem to eager to sell you the car. Just the same old common line. " It's a good car", or " you won't find one out there in this good of a condition for this price, these are rare cars."

This is so true. The mentality of a used car salesman demands that he interact with people that are as stupid and ignorant as he is. Once a person with some knowledge and intelligence about the product actually walks into the "showroom", these guys run for the hills.

But this does make sense, think about it used car lots usually only get the junk MB's. Either it was a trade or they picked it up at an auction for a few bucks, they just want to shine it up maybe throw on a new set of tires and flip it. They are looking to make a fast buck someone like one of use starts asking to many questions they don't want to deal with that. They want the "oh honey we can buy a nice shiny MB instead of a Honda" people. Just like ebay think about it why would anyone bother with ebay?

Two reasons:

One they have a rare nice car and want to get the most money for it. Ie 30k mile mint SDL.

Or they can't sell it localy but ebay will help them move it. Thats why my SDL was on ebay the lot didn't want to bother with it and couldn't sell it local.

The best MB's are found either word of mouth, estate auctions, or in the local papers. I think you can get good cars on ebay but their are not many good cars on ebay.

Thats why if a MB dealer has a 9 year old car on their lot it is probably pretty good or they would have sold it at auction. New car dealers don't want to be bothered with anything that is not mint and newer.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200