So this is basically me just complaining...

I'm in the market for a '68 Convertible and one popped up in Hemmings right near me so I called and went to see the car. The ad stated that it was a NOM L89 with among other options/details the following options: J56 (heavy duty brakes), F41 suspension. The ad stated ground up restored and motor rebuilt. Asking price $32,500. I guess "restored" is open to interpretation. Paint was some sort of pearl white and not done all that well (drips etc)... steering wheel was wrong etc..and not one of the options in the ad is still on the car nor does he have the items. Wrong everything. I know that a not numbers matching but basically correct L89 can still be worth real money but a car with a 454 (correct 68/69 tri-carb intake) and all aftermarket suspension etc isn't. The ad is just a fabrication.

Why do people misrepresent a car? Do they think no one will notice when they see it? To be fair: He was a really nice guy and was very forthcoming with the information that he had and I could have asked questions while on the phone but being just around the corner I just went over to see it.

 

Besides misrepresenting their cars, when I was looking for an 80 3 years ago I came across cars that were just dirty. Not vacuumed. Coffee cups in there. Outside dirty. Wash your car.

 

replace "misrepresent" with "full of bs"

Now the problem is, is the seller trying to find a dolt sucker to cheat and knows they are full of it or are they clueless and this is what they believe is true then the middle ground of a little bit of both, and yes, "restored" means different things to different cats.
But in all due respects, some of the things that turned you to make this post could have been seen in good pictures and all could have been avoided with a email or call....buying and selling any car sucks out loud and worse when it's a car like an old corvette.

A well built restro mod might be worth the same or more than it's stock counterpart...

I was just talking with a buddy the other day who has buyers come and toss jabs in hopes of knocking down the car and price so that door swings both ways.

 

Yep, some do and they sell it. Then the new owner joins a corvette forum and realizes that they may have over paid. Too bad there are a lot of dishonest folks out there.

 

Link to add?

 

This guy knows full well that what he advertised is not what he has and the pictures were poor at best. Being only a few minutes from him it was just easier to drive over but you are certainly correct; I could have asked and had it been any further away I would have.

 

http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/...e/1816119.html

 

Some people think they can deceive the buyer and not get caught when the buyer shows up to look at the car. In other cases the misrepresentation is so obvious when a person looks at the car its really hard to imagine why they'd lie - surely they can't think it would go unnoticed.

I recall many years ago going to look at a Mustang the seller told me on the phone had "absolutely no rust or F-all". I got to the car and it had holes all over the car you could stick your arm through.

 

He may be a crook, or he may just be clueless, but from just one look at the pictures in his ad, it's obvious that the car doesn't have J-56.

Power brakes were part of the J-56 option, and that car doesn't have a booster on it. It also doesn't have the proportioning valve, used on 68 J-56's.

 

Yeah - I'm not that familiar with some of the options to know that right off the bat. He state that the PO had removed the booster - who knows. This car may have been a rare optioned highly desirable car at one point in its life but much like woman that was hot in 1968 -today her parts probably aren't in the same condition or likely in exactly the same places.

 

In college in the late 80's my buddy and I used to buy cars from local public auctions and sell them. Typically all they really needed was a good detail and maybe a small repair.

 

Some of the ads that bug me the most are on Craigslist where they leave no contact info other than the blind reply. They will never respond to your email and without a phone contact you wonder if they even have a car for sale.

 

OMG! A NOM, it should be scrapped for parts...

It may be a nice driver for someone who isn't particularly interested in numbers. Or, if it was an L89 originally, I'd bet someone may install a restamped block, pass it off as an original engine. There's enough money to make it worth someones effort.

Doesn't sound like the fellow means to deceive, maybe he's not as aware of details collectors look for? Could be repeating what the prior owner told him.

 

It's like knowing the difference between a hooker and a ***** = marketing and merchandising in the end you are going to get screwed it's just how the product is presented unfortunately a I think you got the latter .
At least you got to see a Corvette several years ago I wired $2K deposit to a seller of a 67 corvette even had the police go and look at it in a storage place inside ,police said it wasn't stolen and was registered to the person that the seller said it was . his father in law that had passed away ,flew 2k miles only to find out it was a total fraud and I was out couple grand .
Good thing is that there are a lot of nice cars out there just got to keep digging
Good luck
Wes

 

Several years ago I traveled over to Stuttgart, AR to view a matching numbers '69 L71 roadster (per Hemmings ad) that was on consignment at a certain Corvette "dealer/specialist/restoration shop". It had essentially rotted to the ground in their salvage yard, with many parts either missing or laterally in bushel baskets. The out of state owner had never even seen his "investment". So, IMOE people do actually buy crap cars without knowing what they're getting themselves into.

 

Me - " Does the AC Work "

Seller on the phone " The AC Works "

Me & friend - drive 6 hours with trailer

Get there - no belt on AC compressor -

Me - " I thought the AC worked "

Seller - " The AC works when it has a belt and freon "

Me - " can I have my deposit back? "

Seller - well, ok, no ... after a long argument I get it back. Seller goes into house calling us every name in the book.

As we leave my friend who was driving runs his mailbox over.

 

There are many reasons people misrepresent a car from they don't know any better to hoping to find someone who will over pay. Some will tell you on the phone what they think you want to hear just to get you to come to look. Others have no clue with what's wrong. Sometimes you provide an educational experience telling them why you're not interested because of what you found and why the price is too high. Some think that a car just like they have sold for a small fortune so theirs must be worth just as much. Not to be left out the owner who believes their car is an investment and therefore it has to be worth more than what they bought it for. I'm pretty sure just about everybody on this forum has at least one story of going to look at a car and pulling up at the location saying oh this better not be the car in the add.

 

You only just begun my friend. You are going to look at a lot of polished turds.
This is a good training tool so that when you find an honest car you'll be prepared
to move to the negotiation phase.
Allot of sellers bought crap off ebay sight unseen.
After they realize they just been served a turd sandwich they try and pass the car off
on the next up and coming corvette enthusiast in the making.
Even my local district attorney got burned on a red 69 convertible.
What a fiasco that was dealing with interstate commerce laws.
Took him a long time to right the wrong, by that time the car lost its appeal it was supposed to bring mid life.
I looked at a years worth of "rare" cars before I found an honest car.
Pick a year range ie...1968-69, 1970, 1971-72 and become as knowledgeable as you can. Its your money and you need to be an expert and hopefully know more than the seller when standing in front of a potential purchase.
Frames and birdcages are a big issue with corvettes if you do not know that already.
Everybody has a rare has been. If the original motor raced by Paul Newman is no longer in the car its just another NOM car. it was the same thing when I collected military memorabilia. Just because it came from Germany doesn't make it rare.
Study up ask a boat load of ?'s on this forum and hopefully you will find a nice car either here from a forum member or privately.
There are sharks in them waters troll carefully.
Marshal

 

Its amusing just how much BS you can uncover sometimes by just running a VIN and finding ads or other information by previous owners that completely contradict the current seller.

On one car I found an ad with the previous seller's phone number so I called and told him I was interested in a car he used to own. I start asking questions and find out the current owner/seller is lying thru his teeth about the car's original color and a bunch of other stuff. The PO went so far as to tell me the guy he sold it to was a freaking weirdo and that he would not believe anything he said!

 

Great Ending
Marshal