Answering a multitude of questions from ya'll, here's the story. I think I've shared most of this before.
Surfing Craigs list one night last fall, found a local ad for a 1995 E320, decided to "click on the link" given that an E320 could be sedan, station wagon, coupe, ??? Nothing in the text said convertible or cabriolet but the pictures plainly showed this car, a nice looking convertible. Ad had been up for about a month at that point, apparently very little interest. I think the asking price had already been reduced from $3200 to $2200. I showed SWMBO, she was intrigued, said if I could get it for less than $1k she'd approve. The next day I called the seller - the owner of the tow company - and he told me everything that was wrong and lowered the price to $1k before I even started to begin to negotiate. I made no comment on price but made arrangements to see the car, then called Rich to see if he wanted to tag along (he did). We looked at the car shortly after that, the seller told us the whole story. Apparently the prior owner (let's call him Gary) had left it at a shop for repair, which (the story goes) was diagnosed as a bad fuel pump. Gary never authorized the repair, so it sat at the shop, they left a voice mail or two and then shoved it to the back of their lot, with the driver's window down for some reason. Gary has died in the meanwhile, never responded, the car sat, and then the shop went out of business and had to clear out their lot. They called this tow company to get rid of the car as abandoned property, tow company owner liked the looks and decided he'd fix it up for his wife. He went through the process to get the title, sent a registered letter to the address of the last owner Gary, the daughter of the now-deceased responded and said she'd take the car. She doesn't show up within some legally specified time frame, so tow company gets the title. Daughter gets some notification that the title had been transferred, calls up the tow co. and curses / threatens / etc to which the owner said "Pay the storage fee of $30 / day which adds up to several thousand now, and you can have the car back.". She didn't pay up, meanwhile owner decided he wasn't interested in fixing it up, put it up for sale. Rich and I start looking over the car, and it is ROUGH. Inside all moldy and full of leaves and water, driver's seat looks like a complete loss. Ignition cylinder has been smashed back into the dash by someone trying to steal the car, center console was gently opened up with a pick axe and pry bar to disengage the transmission lock. Top is not fully seated in the rear. The trunk lid is dented up a bit. No coolant at all in the cooling system. No battery, no keys. I just kept walking around making a list of everything I could find wrong, meanwhile Rich is chatting the guy up about some other cars he was selling (Land Rover Discovery - now gone Rich, and a BMW 2002? Or was that an Alfa? Engine-less little sedan from the 60's). Finally I started talking with the guy about all the stuff I found wrong, and he immediately drops the price to $500. I ask if he can throw in storage for six months while I clean out the garage so I can fit the car inside, he counters with "not only will I store it, I'll detail it inside and out before I deliver to your house." Well, I let six months slip by, and we're well into month seven, so I expected him to charge me some storage and didn't ask about the detailing or the tow. Texted him to ask for it to be brought over, that took a couple days set up a time when a driver was available in the evening. He didn't say a word about either the detailing or the storage fee he could have charged me, and the tow was only $30 which I gladly paid. I think the mileage is around 113k miles. The body is very clean with no rust. There's damage to the front bumper from the tow, so I'll need a new bumper cover at some point. I suspect that the engine and transmission are sound, but only time will tell. No idea about the hydraulic top condition, I suspect I'll be getting that all rebuilt (Thanks for the contact Dan). ------------- Max Charleston SC _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
