IF you buy it, then you will be TOWING it back? If it does not run, your questions will revert to much more basic ones first..... imp
Yes... I drove another vehicle 3 hours to go look at it. I couldn't drive them BOTH back! LOL! So "Dragging" was quite literally what I was going to do.
Anyway. I talked to the lady who was selling it on the phone at length about the thing. She was singing it's praises, telling me what a great truck it was and how they just took it to a mechanic to be checked over and how he gave it a clean bill of health. They were selling it ONLY because their daughter was about to start driving and she couldn't drive a stick.
Convinced that this was what I wanted, I rented a dolly from the local U-haul and set out for Myrtle Beach with cash in hand.
This thing was absolute JUNK! There wasn't one single system on the vehicle that worked like it was supposed to. you let go of the steering wheel and it wanted to make a right turn into the ditch. The engine howled, the wheel bearings growled and the thing didn't have the power to pull it's own shadow down the road. the buttons were broken off of the steering wheel, the shifter had no spring back to center... It just laid over to the side. The shift knob was even missing... Not that a shift knob is a deal breaker, but it seemed to flow with the decor of the rest of the truck... It was RAGGED! I am CONVINCED that this thing spent most of it's 190,000 mile life in Hazzard County with the gas to the floor, jumping over railroad tracks.
It was so bad that instead of driving it a few miles, I turned around in less than 1/2 mile and went back for fear that it would leave me stranded.
The check engine light was on (Which means I can't register it in NC until I get it fixed), the dash was scraped up from one end to the other, the headliner was thrashed from where there had been bikes hauled in it. It was a TOTAL mess... AND, to top it all off, it looked like someone painted it with Rustoleum and a Wagner power painter.
The worst part of it all is that the company this lady works for is also one of my clients. We know a LOT of the same people. Every one of which told me how "uppety" she is, and how she would NEVER let her kids drive junk. One of the other company managers who I am friends with wanted to ride over with me to check it out. They live in an upscale gated community and have a driveway filled with high end exotics... and then this thing.
Needless to say... I came back empty-handed... $150.00 in tow dolly rentals and fuel... and it isn't as if I am too nit-picky. I like things to be a LITTLE rough, but even the crusher would say "No thanks" to this one!
In the end... It is amazing to me that people who sell cars on Craigslist will out and out lie to you about their car. "Maybe he won't notice that it is a total piece of crap..." I understand that there may be problems that the owner doesn't know about - but THIS... This goes beyond "Oh, Really? I didn't know." For someone to let me drive 3+ hours to come and look at a car that they knew I wasn't going to buy... Baffling!
While I REALLY wanted to rip their little heads off, but being the professional that I am, I cordially thanked them for showing it to me and started to walk away. "What?! You aren't even going to make an OFFER?!" she shouted out across the yard as if I had just dumped her on Prom Night... I turned around and said "As I told you on the phone, I am not looking for a 'project', Rather, I am looking for something that my teenage daughter can drive. This thing is completely unsafe and probably not even roadworthy. I wouldn't transport my kids in it, much less let one of them drive it." to which she replied "I can't believe you came all this way to look at it and you aren't even going to make me a reasonable offer!" Again, and as nicely as I knew how to be... I said "Ok. I can go $100.00 for it. Then, I would take it straight to the scrap yard and sell it for the weight of the metal on my way out of town so that I would break even on this trip."
As I walked away, she stood on her lawn shouting "Well!!! That's just FINE!!! We have had LOTS of other calls for this!!! You can leave, THINKING that you are the only one who wanted it, but you're NOT!!! We got a call from another guy this morning begging us to hold it for him!!! Your loss!!!"... Meanwhile, neighbors were starting to appear in front of their homes looking on... NICE! I bet she is trying to get rid of it because the home owner's association is leaning on her over it.
... Craigslist.
