Guess the questions

In the spirit of the guess the problem/cause threads, I thought I do a Guess the questions thread.

I called about a 308GTB in St.Louis today and these are the answers I got to my questions.

We never, and no good dealer would ever, contact a previous owner about a car. (1-owner car ?? )

We do not have all the records but we are getting them.

OUR mechanic inspected the car and if it needs to be done, we'll fix it. He's been on our staff for 20-years

We did not put new belts on it so it probably does not need them.

The paint and leather are in excellent condition.

Has the tool roll, jack and the one book (Uhm, I thought their was two books for the 308?).

We sell our cars based on reputation. We've been in business for 52 years and were one of the first to open and exotic car shop in the U.S.

I've had mechanics come in here before and I usually throw them out because they generally don't know what they are doing.

We're open M-F 8 to 5. If you want to come Saturday, you'll need a cashiers check in hand and be ready to buy the car.

How sad....but then again, it really is deeply ingrained in a wide segment of the exotic car market that arrogance is the way to sales & riches.

I really don't understand it.

It's not like I didn't ask the right questions. You know, service history, tools/books, condition of paint, original paint, # of owners, VIN #, etc.

We didn't even talk price. I told him I'd been looking for 9-months and I've learned you need to get a compression check and/or leakdown to verify the motor integrity. He got all offended like giving me this "we've been in business 52 years...blah blah, our cars our quality, and too many fly by night mechanics I've thrown out b/c they're idiots" crap.. hello, where did I accuse him of selling crap? I never did. I just wanted a mechanic to look over the car. Hey, guess what, even people who buy used Honda's sometimes get their mechanic to look over the car.

You'd think someone who's been in the business for this long would know people would ask for/expect to do this.

Hey Sean,

He probably had a PPI lose a deal.

I wouldn't buy a car from them on principle alone.

Sean,

You asked the obvious and proper questions any real buyer would ask. Those answers are preposterous.

>>We did not put new belts on it so it probably does not need them.<<

Just plain stupid thing to say.

Chuck's probably right, especially when they say something as dumb as: >>I've had mechanics come in here before and I usually throw them out because they generally don't know what they are doing.<< My experience with cars in general is quite the opposite. It's the damn dealer who doesn't know what they're doing and the other "mechanics" who fix the damn problems or even worse, the problems the dealers create!

Cheers

Sean,
You have great patience....this process can get so frustrating at times...when I was looking for a replacement for my 308, all the 328's I investigated had "stories". There was one that looked promising, but when I suggested a PPI at a local FNA dealer, the owner went on about how "he would never let those clowns touch one of his cars..." then suggests HIS mechanic,...thanks, bye. Another guy had this low miles car that sounded real good, so I asked if he had records, "oh sure" and he sends me page after page...this car had like 10k miles, but had been completely rebuilt(engine, trans, AC)...sounded like a flood car..emailed him and said I didn't want to know any more...I pass.

Dave,

I had a client who felt the same way about a
TestaRossa. (Low miles LOTS of receipts).
Felt the car was a flood car also.
Did more investigating and discovered the owner
would take car in and tell authorized dealer to
take care of whatever was wrong.
The car was in excellent condition.