Short Summer Road Trip *cancelled. Thanks Con-Man!

[flyboyx]

Post up his info and we will fuck his shit up r3v style.

In fact, why dont you see if you can find another car he has for sale. Post up his phone number too.

Im looking forward to this actually. Were the hell is patrick (turf1600) when you need him?

[mbonder]

For anyone thinking of buying long distance, you should arrange a pre-purchase inspection at a reputable place. There are tons of Indie shops around Newark that could have done one for you before you decided to send him any money or arrange a flight out to NJ. If he won't do it, then you know it's not a deal worth doing, bottom line.

Or rely on the community. I would have gladly gone and inspected the car in person and given you a detailed description of the car ahead of you pursuing it in any great detail.

Sorry to hear, once you have his info sorted you should post it up. If you are planning to go to small claims you'll be flying back up to NJ for it, hopefully you kept all of the pictures that he sent you and any info that he gave you so you can compare it to the current condition.

[jrossowvue30]

Man, that's really shitty and sorry to hear of it. So many shady people out there, finding trustworthy people to buy and in some cases sell cars to via the internet these days is becoming harder and harder.

I've bought and sold a few cars long distance and had mostly good experiences. I won't do a deal where there is a cash deposit without a simple contract stating that the deposit is refundable if the car being bought or sold isn't up to snuff and as described.

[Vtec?lol]

Yeah, I should've known better however I buy cars from all over the us with paypal and I've rarely had an issue. If I did, the seller was trustworthy and either helped me or refunded my money.

I bought my minty one owner e34 touring from Seattle and I wired the funds. Car got here and had a busted valve cover gasket and a few minor issues. Seller mailed me a check a week later.

I really should've been more careful. $500 in flights and $2k gone. Lesson learned.

[MR E30 325is]

I just sold my E30 to a guy across the country. I didn't ask him for a cent beforehand. I felt that he was taking a huge enough risk flying across the country to look at a car.

I will definitely use your crappy situation as a lesson about deposits and trusting strangers.

Hopefully a few of the R3v detectives will poke out their heads after you post the guys info.

[Vtec?lol]

I'm not sending any deposits ever again lol.

Paypal won't do anything for car purchases. They screwed me a few months ago with a wheel purchase. I more than likely wont be using them again. Piss poor service.

I did get screwed in Philadelphia a few years ago on an e39 540i6 sport. Except I bought the car through ebay, then when I got the car home I had to rebuild the vanos and timing assembly. It was falsely advertised and filthy as hell but after $1800 in repairs and days worth of cleaning it was not too bad. That sucked really bad however not as bad as this lol.

I will be taking him to small claims however I'm having a hard time getting his info. All his personal cars have dealer plates from Florida.

I will post his info in a few days once I have everything figured out.

[rturbo 930]

Phuck!!!!!!!!. Not again!!!!!! I was thinking you had this problem with a 540i a few yrs ago.

That's because he did, and IIRC it was also from this area.

Sucks to hear you got screwed. Small claims court? As someone with bad luck/skill buying cars, I gotta say, you seem to have bad luck buying cars.

[flyboyx]

Phuck!!!!!!!!. Not again!!!!!! I was thinking you had this problem with a 540i a few yrs ago.


Maybe next time only deposit 10-15%.

[jpod999]

Dude that's nuts, I can't believe someone did that to you! I'm surprised he actually picked you up and didn't just ghost you.

[Nesset]

I'd recommend posting this guys info, so no one else on the forum gets taken for a ride.

Was juuuuuuust going to say that.

Paypal should make refunds if an item wasn't described accurately and the final sale fell through. However, dealing with paypal is fucking horrible. Every time I've ever used them they're heavily biased to the seller in my experience. Hopefully they have some decent people working with them and refund you your deposit. That's a crazy story.

[MR E30 325is]

Man, that sucks. What a cocksucker. How crooked do you have to be to straight up lie to someone for hours and hours on the phone?

I'd recommend posting this guys info, so no one else on the forum gets taken for a ride.

[Vtec?lol]

Well this whole trip was the worst Bimmer experience ever.

Took a chance on a car in Jersey. It was supposed to be a mint Hellrot 530iT with a clean 5spd swap. Sounds amazing right? I had him facetime me and take dozens of detailed photo's. Car looked clean and mint. we spent hrs on the phone going over every little details and personal life. Got to know the seller and decided to jump on it.

He was asking $4500 bottom dollar. He explained he would require half down through paypal. I agreed ASSUMING everything on paypal is protected right? WRONG!

So I sent the phucker $2k and bought my $180 ticket to fly up. Fast fwd 2 weeks later and I show up to the Newark airport. He comes flying in and I can see that amazing Hellrot paint from 400 meters away. I was excited, until he got within 20ft. I was instantly cooked inside. My gut muscles were on full flex and I could taste just a wee bit of vomit in my mouth.

He pulls up and I'm like, "No way? this is it?" he laughs without ever looking me in my face, "Yes haha, this is it my friend!"

I get in anyway because I was so curious to see how this car could possibly be the same from the photo's. While he's driving I whip out my phone and start comparing photo to reality. Nothing was the same. Not the paint. Not the interior. Nothing. He mentioned there was just a couple of regular dings however the paint was excellent. The car looked like it was tossed through years worth of brush and gravel. There wasn't a 2cm area of any panel that you couldn't see primer through. He mentioned there was no rust. The bottom seals of the doors were holding on by something imaginary.

Just a few things he didn't mention,
-dented, rusted gas tank held on with rope and zip ties
-ball joints and control arms so severely worn the steering wheel has an entire half turn worth of play. Yes you have to actively rotate the steering wheel by half turns to keep straight.
-Exhaust was held up by hangar wire
-lol the b!tchclip was not existent. The shifter carrier was secured by zip ties
-the rear hatch did not close. It was held shut with a zip tie
-the selector rod did not have the securing clip in. He warned not to twist the shifter when driving home so it wouldn't fall out.
-the headliner.... What headliner? There was a headliner in the facetime video. Wtf did it go?
-Hood had buckles all over it.
-battery had a huge draw when the car was off. The radio and the cluster did not turn off with the key lol
-Sheet rock screws holding the front door tweeter


He took me back to his place of business where they did vinyl car wraps. This is when everything made sense. There was wrap freshly removed in the dumpster. The exact color of the car in the pics. I asked him about it and he denied everything. I laughed and told him to refund my money. He told me "no, it's illegal to refund deposits in the USA." I laughed even harder and then got aggressive while explaining proper business ethics in America. He called his friends and I called paypal.

This is when my blood pressure went through the roof. Paypal explained they would not cover me as this was for the purchase of a car. I screamed at them for at least 2 hrs and finally a US manager got on the phone and told me to phuck off and good luck.

Called Newark police. They said they couldn't do anything and referred me to the cyber police.

To avoid killing anyone I calmly got an Uber back to the airport and had a few drinks. I just got burned out of $2k. It feels so bad. I'm currently fighting it with my credit card company. Not sure what else to do. I think I'm done with BMW's for now. Taking a break from all this.

/rant

[flyboyx]

I'll be alone. :(

But if you insist, then I'm going.

So I basically take Natchez pkwy all the way down to Mississippi? Then take i20 back to Dallas?

i would say at least take it from nashville to jackson, miss. then take 20 across to dallas. if you can find the time to see natchez, and spend a few hours there wandering through the town(have dinner, have a couple beers, check out a few shops, buy the little wife something nice from there), it is worth the trouble to do so.

on the rare occasion i drive to michigan, i usually go out of my way to drive through there. i have done it 3 or 4 times.

[Zeemz]

Go to Deal's Gap and drive the Tail of the Dragon. 318 turns in 11 miles. Roads around there are a blast as well. It is about 1.5 hour detour from Knoxville. Well worth it.

http://tailofthedragon.com/

Depending on how far you are driving, it might be a good place to take a detour and stay the night. We stayed at Fontana Village, when I took my S2000 down with S2ki crew and over 150 other S2000s about 10 years ago. There are tons of bikers and other car clubs there on the regular, so you get to seem some nice cars as well. http://www.killboy.com/ Local photographer/business guy who takes pictures, you should check them out.

Depending on how crazy it is they kind of turn a blind eye to sprinted driving within reason as far as speed limits go. But they will post up and write tickets all day for tires squealing around corners or crossing the double yellow lines, but this keeps everyone safe.

[Vtec?lol]

trust me buddy. its worth it. especially if you have your daughter with you. i don't know how many opportunities you will have to pass through that part of the country, but if you decide to go out of your way, you won't regret it.

I'll be alone. :(

But if you insist, then I'm going.

So I basically take Natchez pkwy all the way down to Mississippi? Then take i20 back to Dallas?