What is your biggest or best "Car Deal Gone Bad" story?

[CORVETTE]

This one was probably the worst deal for me:


When I bought one of my cars, the seller kept the one (CA Black) plate as a souvenir, making the one I have, worthless :wtf:

When I asked for the plate, he said he should have kept BOTH!!! :pain: Maybe I could buy one plate, and personalize it to match :leaving:


Looking forward to hearing yours :waiting:

[Skia]

If that's the worse you're pretty damn luck. (BTW in NC the plates don't follow the car)

I really don't have any bad car deals that I remember. :shrug:

[DukeAllen]

I drove 3 hours to look at a C3. Had some trouble finding the guy's house, called him for the street address (I was less than a block away and he knew I was coming) and the asshat says he just sold it that very minute! And he laughed:kick:

[Bucwheat]

Years ago I found a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner with all original motor ,trans, wheels etc. The guy wanted $2500 for it. It was up on blocks so I told the guy I needed to borrow 4 wheels with tires to get the car on a rollback my brother was bringing .I met my brother who drove two hrs. To get there at a local gas station and we went to the sellers house. When we got there I ask him for thei rims to put on the car,he said his wife didn't want to lend us the wheels,I ask him " how am I going to get it out to the rollback" he said" that ain't my problem".I said " let me guess ,you don't want to sell it either" he nodded. Needless to say we were pissed and I plowed his front lawn with my Bronco while leaving. My brother just knew someone offered more but I drove buy the house a year later and it was still up on blocks.:leaving:

[kingpin]

When I was 18 I had a chance to buy a 1972 Corvette that belonged to my good friends Mother who passed away. It had been sitting in a garage under a tarp for 10 years.
It was at his sisters house.
Went and looked at the car and it looked in okay shape. No rust and minor spider cracks on the rear fenders but like with any car that had been sitting that long it needed a lot of work.
The interior was torn to pieces and it had a 350 crate motor in it.

I made her an offer of $5k which she said she'd think about.
Get a call a couple days later and went and saw her. She accepted the offer. I just had to pick it up and pay her.

It was the start of the work week so I put it off until the weekend and offered to bring her the money right away. She said I can pay when I pick it up.
Waiting those few days to get it ended up being my downfall.
It gave her time to call some shops and see if anyone was interested in it. I didn't know she was shopping it around after we agreed to the deal btw.

It was Friday night and I had arranged for a flat bed to pick up the car.
Then my phone rang. You know when the phone rings but it sounds real different like something is seriously wrong. This is how it sounded to me.
It was her letting me know that she sold the Corvette to her nephew and she was sorry.
I was silent and told her we had a binding verbal contract and that what she was doing wasn't only illegal but morally wrong.
She couldn't care less.
As a last resort I told her I was going to sue her for the car to see if she would change her mind. She just said sorry and hung up the phone.
Her brother told me from the beginning that I would regret dealing with her and this is one of the reasons nobody in the family likes her or invites her anywhere.

I went to see him a couple nights later and we went for a drive to what I thought was downtown. Nope he took me to the outskirts of town to a shop. Behind the fence was the Corvette with a price tag of $12,500 on it. In the exact same crappy shape that it was in when I saw it.

I felt like I had taken a puck to the balls when I saw it there. :(

[Nemesis]

I drove 3 hours to look at a C3. Had some trouble finding the guy's house, called him for the street address (I was less than a block away and he knew I was coming) and the asshat says he just sold it that very minute! And he laughed:kick:

Exact same thing happened to me. 3 hour drive and guy calls sells the car out from under me. Luckily, I worked closeby. Sucks for him, I was willing to pay more than what he said he got for it, and I had cash, too.

[RonC5]

Went and looked at a 71 Vert. Base car with an auto. The car didn't thrill me, but the guy was a Dr and had 3 or 4 Vettes. Said he would take $4K for it. Real money was around low 5s at the time. I told him I would take it, drove the 1.5 miles back to my house to get the checkbook to take him a deposit. I was gone all of 5 minutes and the guy sold it out fromk under me. I was pissed.

[lander]

Bought my first '90 Mustang LX 5.0 on a Friday...traded in a RAM 50 truck for it. Drove the Mustang all weekend, then got a call from the dealership Monday morning that my financing hadn't gone through. What? I already had the car I explained. Doesn't matter, I have to go back in.

So I went back after work and got a song and dance about how I didn't qualify for the financing that they gave me and I needed to cough up $2k. Not happening I told them, I had the signed paperwork for the deal I'd made and whatever their problem is wasn't mine.

Got the "let me talk to my manager" routine and had several different people in telling me how even at $2k down it was still a great deal. I finally threw in the towel, told them I'm not paying anything else and they might as well undo the deal. I'll take my truck, you take your car, and we'll just go our separate ways.

They gave me another song and dance at that point about how the truck was sold (It wasn't, I saw it out on the lot already), they didn't have the tags, yada yada yada.

Finally the salesman left to "talk to his manager" and I saw my tags, truck keys and, for whatever reason, ashtray, sitting on his desk. So I took my plates, keys and ashtray, walked out onto the lot and drove my truck home (I lived literally behind the dealership at the time).

They called all evening and the next day trying to get me to come back and take the car at the original deal and I wouldn't do it.

Ironically, a few months later I went back and bought a different '90 Mustang LX 5.0 from the same salesman!

[BuckyThreadkiller]

Bought an '01 Quicksilver C5 on ebay for 27K. Got a notification that I'd won the auction and went to bed on Sunday night thinking I'd gotten a 25,000 mile car for about $500 under the average Manheim auction price.

The next morning I get an email from the seller in Arlington, telling me they had sold the car prior to the auction and "forgotten" to take it down. Well, Arlington is only a 30 minute drive so I go over there. The car's on the lot. I ask what they are asking for it and the sales guy says $29k. I proceed to get a little perturbed. Haven't been that mad since.

I got nothing but hoarse yelling at the GM there, so I went to ebay and after flamethrowing feedback and contesting them with Square Trade and ebay legal, I got them booted off ebay - at least under that name.

6 months later I found a similar car for $27.5 with 8,000 miles in Chicago. Took a check, flew there and drove it home.

[CORVETTE]

On travel, I found a motorcycle in the suburbs of major city where I was going to be in the next few days. Making contact with the owner (from the CL ad), he said he had the bike, and it's good to hear someone would be coming to look at it (bike had been for sale for 3 mos.).

Got to the house at night, in the rain, looked at the bike, accepted the flaws, shook hands on a price, and said I'd be back the next night after my business meeting. At lunch time, went to the bank, withdrew the cash, then called the guy at the end of the day.

The guy didn't answer the phone. I went to the cycle shop in town (45 min away in traffic) and got there 5 min. late. Paid cash for tie downs and a bar strap (shop had technically closed for the day), then tried to call owner again.

By 7:30, I still didn't reach the guy. By 8:30, I am getting worried. FInally reached the guy and asked if he wanted me to pick up the bike that late, or to come first thing in the AM. It was then, he said he sold the bike for $200 more than I was paying.

Unreal! He had my phone and email, never was going to call me, apparently.

[Fastguy]

Around 1987, a co worker told me her Mom had brought her Chevelle up from GA and wanted to sell it. She said it was a 72, 2 door, 350, automatic and it had no rust or dents but was faded. I agreed on the price and went to buy it sight unseen.
Got to the house, it was a 73, and was a 4 door.
Went there expecting this:

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/7/31/28127317-443-1972-chevrolet-chevelle-malibu.jpg

and saw this instead

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2522/3726234551_62620b04b5.jpg

[FasterTraffic]

Many years ago, I went to a used car dealer and bought a salvage title car. Many months after buying the car, I went on vacation. When I came back, I was informed my car had been hauled away by detectives. Apparently, my car had been stolen in LA County and the VIN altered.

[RED-85-Z51]

Guy had an ad for a 1997 GMC K2500 Sierra, 6.5 Turbo, 6' lift kit, 35" tires, like 200,000 miles on it, he said in the ad, and then over the phone..."Runs like new, daily driver, no drivetrain problems at all, always 100% reliable...had a fe rust bubbles in rear fender arches, wanted like 2700 for it.

He lived about 1.5 hours away..so I got up 2700 bucks, drove there..pull up...look it ove,r cab corners are gone, rear arches are gone, a few bad dents, had 6' stacks in the bed...he cranked it up and the old 6.5 seemed to run good. I was letting it warm up, and....it just shut off, dead.

He cranked, and cranked and cranked...finally it started baack up, but it sounded bad....choppy, surging idle....then it died again..and refused to crank.

He popped the hood and I told him it was probably a bad pump, or pump driver...his son reaches behind the seat and pulls out a couple pump drivers.."Like these?"....uhhh, yeah, like those. Then I look under the hood..it has a stock pump driver in place, and a 2nd pump driver on the fender, a 3rd pump driver on the firewall, and a 4th pump driver and heatsink on the core support...all of them bad apparently.

So I couldnt warm it up, couldnt drive it, and the body was way rough to be a florida truck....he wouldnt budge off the 2700 a dime.

Unreal...

[RED-85-Z51]

Worst Ive heard of though, was locally, guy was selling a triple black, 34,000 mile 1996 SVT cobra vert, on Craigslist.

Looked like new, ran like new, he wanted 8000 for it. After 2-3 months it sold...a week later the new owner was pitching a bitch on CL...that he took the car to get new tires put on it and when on the rack the found that the car had been cut down the middle, and welded up...2 wrecked cobras put together basically. He had pictures put up in the ad, showing the almost unnoticeable weld seam under it.

Car was worthless...100% worthless.