I spent the last week or so reading this thread from the beginning, and I'm proud to say, after a long wait, my wife and I finally IOM owners!
We'd planned to buy a 2010 coupe, and after renting a LS for a week in Hawaii 12/10 we were really sold on a new Camaro... but by then we'd heard a convertible was coming in 2011. So we decided to wait and order one in the spring of 2011. Well 2011 was a really bad year for us, medically, financially, emotionally, so the Camaro got put off a couple of years. By the time we'd recovered from all of that, they'd discontinued IOM, so we set out in search of a car fitting all the options we wanted with as few of miles as possible.
Since we weren't able to order it, we really didn't think we'd find the perfect car, so we made a list of must haves, and stuff that we could live without if it came to that, and started searching auto trader. Must haves: V8, RS package, IO interior, Manual tranny, Convertible, within 1000 miles of home. After 3 months of looking at autotrader just about daily, just checking new listings everyday, Feb 15th a new IOM 2SS popped up at a chrysler dealer about 350 miles from our home. I called them and ran through the list of options, every option we would have spec'd if we'd had the chance to order it from the factory was on the car except 2. IO floormats and the painted engine cover. Only 11,355 miles on the odometer, 1 owner and listed $700 under KBB.
It was snowing like crazy that week, so I gave the dealer $1000 deposit over the phone and made him promise not to sell it until I could see it. Finally got a couple nice days on 2/19 and we headed up there. I Found 3 or 4 minor rock chips on the car, a small scratch on a door edge and the drivers seat had some stains on the bottom part that looked like could be cleaned up(adam's leather cleaner took them right off). At that point we'd already shown our hand of how badly we wanted this car and it was priced cheaper than others we'd looked at that were missing options we wanted so I didn't even try to haggle, signed the paperwork and drove it home that evening. Within an hour of getting home I'd bought the IO floor mats and painted engine cover from ebay to finish out the car as we would have ordered it. Its bone stock at the moment, thats what we were looking for, would rather start fresh and make it our own.
We've had 2 really nice days in it and put about 500 miles on it so far. This car is everything we imagined it would be and more, could not be happier with it! To top it off, today is my wife and I's 10th anniversary, so we're getting ready to head out for a cruise in the car (top up unfortunately, its 38 degrees). I think I check the weather about 5 times a day looking for signs of spring!
Sorry for the long winded post.
