The outpouring of sympathy warms the cockles of my heart.
Brian On 5/10/07, Zoltan Finks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
We have been looking into an 84 190D recently and trying to work with the shady seller via phone. To his credit? he agreed to take it to a mechanic for inspection on our dime. This English-challenged seller played innocent and noble all the way. The mechanic promptly sent me 10 pics of car, revealing pealing paint, cracking bondo, cracked chrome on wheel, badly unevenly worn tires, shifter console lifting up, bent rear link causing tow-in, steering wheel put on crooked, etc. When the seller finally called my $100 poorer butt back, and I said "do you really want me to go down the list?" and "I'd pay no more than $1500" (the engine and tranny and showed no problems so I figured I could maybe use them), his tone changed from aloof to more urgent and sales-pitchy and the tables had turned. He proceeded to be caught in several lies, changing from inexperienced innocent guy who happened to have the car, to someone very knowledgeable about these cars, able to get a 190E complete for $200 dollars, and swap out parts, and have his mechanics replace anything needed for 1/4 of the price of any other mechanic. Any of you familiar with such an operation? Sounds like he turns these cars around as a business, though he claimed not to be a dealer of any sort. I just wonder if these cars are stolen. One of the things that gets me the most is that these people play the language-barrier card, and the poor immigrant card to exercise their deceit. It makes it hard not to give in to the tendency to hate these people. I really wanted this car and was temporarily naive enough to think we might have found a gem. Brian 83 240D
