tls630

Has anyone had dealings with Arts or know anything about them? They have a couple nice looking C-2'S but I don't know anything about this outfit. I was hoping some of you had dealt with them or know someone who had.They are located acroos the street from the museum!
Please advise Viet!

Mike Terry

Never had any personal dealings with them but they want to charge you just to come in and look at there cars. Take that for what it is worth. I guess it is to keep the window shoppers that leave the NCM out.

trarback

I've seen some negative feedback on ebay. Is that why you are asking?

vettecityman53

They are a Corvette seller. They put that first and foremost. Cars I've seen in the past are decent, but are always pushing the limits or their values. I don't think, from what I've seen there, that they sell high-end Bloomington and NCRS detailed cars.....there's are more average and driver quality. Just gotta be careful with ANY dealer.......

tls630

You have to be carful with any of these classic and corvette dealers. They have a couple air coupes that look pretty decent,but after hearing that the charge a fee to look, plus the fact that they have negative feed on e-bay I think I will stay away..They will probably change names sometime in the near future!

john m

I have been there several times during NCM visits and have never been charged an admission just to look at the cars...

tls630

john m do you think they are a reputable dealer?

john m

never have dealt with them...the times I looked at the cars there, I thought they were a little on the high side with regard to price....as I recall, the cars are good drivers, not top flight or bloomington gold cars

Robert S. Lawson

I have visited Art's dealership many times and have always been
treated courteously and friendly. Several months ago Art bought
a car from me 65 corvette roadster and paid cash,changed the
title over just as he said he would and did exactly what he said.
Art knows corvettes as well as other vehicles. I don't look for him
to be changing his business name because the last time I visited
his shop summer of 07 his wife told me they were in the process
of enlarging the facility so as to facilitate all his inventory and
get them all under roof. I would not hesitate to deal with Art because
it is each person's decision whether to buy or not. Ask any specific
question about a car you might be interested in and he will
give you a direct and honest answer with documentation if
you require it. Hope this helps.

silverado2005

Been there a couple times. Always treated nice and never charged admisson. Couple years ago he had a 60 with 17" tt on it. I called to find out how they fit, etc.... I was up front that I wasn't buying THAT car and had one already, but just wanted some tire and wheel info. He helped with tire sizes and backspacing. Good in my book.

DONR

I think I needed to share my experience buying a vehicle from Arts with the group. I always realize that when I buy a vehicle I am buying it as-is, but on my deal I was relying on the salesman honesty on this one.

You be the judge and make your own choice if you want to buy from Arts.I will just tell you aboutmy dealings with them.
I was in the area visiting the NCM and stopped by there about closing time. I spotted a decent 66 conv. that I got very interested in. There was not a salesman around, but Art was there in the back working on a car and the secretary was covering things until closing time. I do not think he spends much time on the showroom floor. The secretary opened up the vehicle for me. There were several vevicles behind it since it was closing time so I did not ask to drive it. At that time I did not think I was going to buy the vehicle. I left and flew back home. I got more and more interested in the vehicle. I called the salesman up and asked him if he would drive the car and let me know if the car needed anything mechanically and then report back to me how it drove and the overall condition and I would then decide whether I would persue it. He called me back and told me that he would drive it anywhere and the ride would be the best thing I would like about the car. After that report I tried to find someone in the area to go by and drive the vehicle, but could not find anyone so I decided to go with what the salesman was telling me about the vehicle. I made them an offer. The salesman said he would ask Art if he would take my offer. I was called a couple of days later and was told that Art would not take my offer. I let it ride a few days and then decided to make a counter offer so I called the salesman up again and ask him again if the car had any issues. He assured me that it did not and if I were to buy it I could drive it back to Texas with not a problem. Well I recieved a call a couple of days later and was told that Art would meet me half way with my offer. I decided to buy the vehicle because the salesman had given me a good feeling that the car was in good condition. I knew it was not an NCRS vehicle. I was buying it to drive and enjoy.
I told the salesman that I really did not feel comfortable driving a car cross country if I had not had a chance to check it out myself. I sent them the money and arranged to get the vehicle shipped to my house in an enclosed hauler.
I could hardly wait to get the car back home and take it for a drive. Well I got the vehicle delivered and unloaded so I asked my wife to jump in and we would take it for a quick spin before putting it in the garage.
I started down the highway and got up to about 50 mph and the car shook so bad and walked all over the highway. Boy I thought that salesman must not know anything about corvettes or he did no get it over 40mph when he was driving it. Boy was I in trouble with my wife.
The next day I put it up on my lift to check things out. One of the left outer half shaft u-joint cups was completely missing so the u-joint was just flopping in the flange. The left rear wheel bearing was out. It was so loose I was afaid to drive it 10 more feet. The left front knock-off wheel mounting hub had stripped threads.
I called the salesman up and told him what I found wrong with the vehicle. He said that he would visit with Art and see if he could compensate me somewhat based on what he told me about the vehicles condition. He though maybe he could talk Art into making it right somehow. Art said that he would not pay anything to help get any of the things fixed. I was just trying to get some of the parts paid for and I would pay for the labor. No deal. Art finally came back and said that he would buy the vehicle back. I thought well that is pretty good. Not!! He would not help pay anything on the shipping to get the vehicle back to BG. I would be out $2,000 in shipping cost if I had decided to let him buy the vehicle back. That was just about what it was going to cost to get the issued I described fixed. I decided to learn my lesson and never listen to a salesman again and go ahead and fix the vehicle and drive it.
The problem I have is that Art would not stand behind his salesmans word. He must not have checked the vehicle out at all before trying to sell it. In fact the salesman told me that they had sold it to a guy and the guy brought it back and wanted to trade it for another vehicle. I know why now because the ride was so bad it was not a fun car to drive.
You be the judge about buying from there. I did not have a good experience.

tls630

Thanks for the reply. That does it for me and Art.. Anone who won't stand behind thier products is of no use to me! As it looks now they aren't any better than most of the rest of these so called corvette dealers.. Too bad because they had 2 coupes I thought I was interested in..Thanks again!

DONR

If you can buy the cars for the right price and have a chance to really look over the vehicle and drive and know what yourbuying it you might be ok. I am glad that I went ahead and kept the 66 that I bought from them. It drives good now that I fixed the problems. I would have offered them about $2,000 less than I did if I had known it had the problems that it did. I just was not happy with the salesmans lack of knowledge of not being able to give an honest assesment on how the car drove out. He had to have felt the vibration. It felt like it had 4 square wheels. If half of a u-joint is out there is going to be a major vibration and noice taking off.

tls630

The salesmans lack of knowledge was a big problem. Or was it an out and out lie? Supposedly he talked things over with Art, and Art didn't know that there were problems? I think the outfit is shady from the top down after hearing this story. I would not buy from them. It seems most of these dealers are alike!

427-390

Just a couple of observations:

1. You trusted the word of a car salesman? You stated that you could not find anyone in the area who could check out the car for you? I know for a fact and have used services whose only job is to inspect cars for perspective buyers. The person that would inspect the car would work for YOU. The car salesman in question works for ART. For the thousands of dollars these cars cost nowadays, the $500.00 or whatever they would charge you to check out a car is far better then what happened to you. I hope you wouldn't buy a 40 year old house that you just walked through and liked, but would not have it inspected prior to purchasing it. The same holds true with collector and vintage cars.

2. In all cases, it's "Buyer Beware". This is even more true when dealing with a car dealership. This is not to excuse the salesman's lack of knowledge on the car he sold you, or worse, his deception, but I cannot accept you being so naiive and trusting a car salesman's opinion when purchasing a 40 year old used car and placing all the blame on the owner. What is he supposed to do, tell you the car's a dog and to stay away from it and lose the sale? The salesman probably has mouths to feed and a mortgage to pay. There are countless stories nationally about shady used car salesman. Why should this be an exception?

Again, I am not trying to bash, but I find your experience interesting and hopefully others will learn from it.

tls630

let the buyer beware. But Art the owner was involved with the sale and should have some scruples! It is his name on the bussiness!

trarback

Obviously this man doesn't hold high regard for his own reputation.I have heard your story and I'm glad that I did. For I to have been watching his web site and wondering if he could be trusted. Now I know. In my opinion that car should never have been sold without the necessary repairs being made. Use caution around this guy or better yet stay away altogether.
P.S Poor salesman with hungry mouths to feed???

Vogie

I would like to offer an observation on the life of a car salesperson. These are based on the life of a close acquantance.

First, there is no justification for lying about a vehicle that is not road worthy. I'm glad you were able to make your Vette what it should have been to begin with.

The making of a sale sometimes makes the difference between income and none on a given month for salesmen. The worst of the dealers treat their sales staff like crap, Employment is based on performance whether the inventory is crap or overpriced gems. Hours are awful and days off are rare. Commisions are minimized and are at times equate to less than MacDonald's pay when based on the time with the customer. Bonus incentives are usually all but impossible to attain and when attained are raised. Sales managers are ruthless. There is no retirement and few other benefits. With these motivations, maybe the dealership managers and personal pressure send them over the edge when they need to make a sale. I would bet that the sales person was told by someone in charge that the car was fine and not to waste time driving it; or that they would not use the time to get it out of the showroom - just tell the customer it's a good driver.

This is just another reason to get a third party evaluation of a vehicle if you can't or are not qualified to do it yourself.

DONR

I guess you are just going to have to accept that I am so naiive and trusting of a car salesman's opinion. You know it is not a matter of being naiive and trusting it is about having honesty and having credibility. I know that there are still folks out there that are honest and have credibility. I have friends that have that trait. Some folks must not.

tls630

Don even a used car salesman should have integrity! Honesty is a value that some do not have and that is thier loss! As far as Arts goes if this is his name on the dealership he should have stepped up to the plate and made you a happy customer.Being that he did not has cost him bussines, if that is worth $2000.00 then I geuss he won! But if he continues on this path lets see how long he is around, not long I will bet!Don thanks agian for sharing your story!