Quote:
Originally Posted by R1jamn
Found what appears to be a low mileage (802 miles) summit white ZL1 on Ebay.
I made contact with the seller (3rd owner) and we have come to an agreed sale price.
The listing has ended and I have been doing a lot of research on the vehicle since and been in constant contact with the seller.
The vehicle shows a clean carfax except for not passing an emission test when the vehicle was being registered to the 2nd owner in Massachusetts.
The story was that the battery was disconnected and the O2 sensors needed to relearn. This is factual, sometimes they don't complete all the smog checks in the computer for hundreds of miles or more. If it is so low mi a disconnected or dead batter would almost be expected.
I found a mileage discrepancy when comparing the mileage on carfax against the dealer service report. Again this is with the 2nd owner.
The discrepancy is not much but it did throw a red flag. Sometimes there are errors. I guessed on the mileage when I went to the DMV because I didn't want to wait for hours again and I did messup and put it a hundred mi or something lower than some other documented thing, smog or something. I think that will come up as one of those carfax red flags on mileage now. whatever.
The third and current owner purchased the vehicle with 776 miles on the clock.
It now has 802 miles on the clock. That is 26 miles that he placed on the vehicle in over a year. That's it.
When I asked him about the air conditioning and did it blow ice cold he said it did and that he has driven the vehicle for two summers now. ???????
How do you drive a vehicle in two summers and only put 26 miles on the clock???? If you have a car that you got to keep in the garage thinking the value would skyrocket someday would you drive it much? To the local car show and a few sunny weekends sounds about right. Not so hard to believe given it's low mi and how some people think about Camaro's collectability especially ZL1's or Z28s.
He claimed the vehicle is all stock. The pics clearly showed that the Goodyear F2's are not on the vehicle but now have Toyo proxes 4 plus installed. Yes that could indicate more mi but the original tires are known to be dangerously slippery on cool streets and are usually replaced. I don't know if that makes him so wrong in stock as that usually means engine mods or body add-ons or hacked up for a stereo. Not belts hoses fluids plugs tires. Unless you are trying to do the collector thing again and all those must be oem.
Whenever I bring up a vehicle inspection he gets paranoid. He wants me to take it to his place of work and let his mechanic do the inspection.
When I said I want a body shop to look at it too, again I get resistance. Some hacks would e.g. bend up things putting it on a lift or joyride the car. There are stories here of even GM dealer techs crashing the ZL1's on "test drives" or simply unauthorized joy rides. I'd be hesitant too.
I have a flight booked already. I have a cashiers check for the full amount ready.
I believe I should back out of this one. Something just doesn't seem right.
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I'll offer a possible counter argument in bold.
On the flip side I recently flew to get an ebay car that was in shite condition, and had to buy an expensive on the spot return on-way ticket. That was the second time that happened to me. Total misrepresentation of existing damages (one had a knocking motor with jumping oil pressure gauge,
) Other times I took the P.O.S car and regretted it.
If you want to back out up to you but I don't think without seeing it or having the third party inspection showing indications of odometer rollback or something, that you have a fair claim to your deposit refunded.