by 82Lebaronconv » Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:35 pm
MyDodgeDip: Thanks for the advice. I agree that it is very risky buying a car long distance, but I'm not having too much luck finding good cars locally. I corresponded with the owner of the T&C and he seemed very honest. He sent additional photos. There is some cracking in the leather seats, particularly on the driver's side and on the center armrest, and there are a few paint issues. The rear bumper will have to be completely refinished and the center rub strip replaced as it is badly scuffed. But the top looks nearly new in the photos and he did tell me that he just replaced the entire cylinder head a few months ago and has driven the car very little since. Also, the air conditioning system was rebuilt with a new compressor. I made him an offer of $2,000 which he has rejected, and in his last e-mail to me, he indicated that he was thinking of keeping the car, so it might not even be available any longer.
I've also been reconsidering the white 1985 Mark Cross that I looked at in your area a few weeks ago (at the Summit, NJ dealership). My concerns about this car were the high price ($4,500) and that the advertised mileage of 25K might not be legitimate, considering how dirty the engine compartment looked. I thought that the digital odometer on these cars only went to 100K, so a car with 25K might actually have 125K. But I recently saw another '85 Mark Cross on the internet that was advertised as having something like 150K and the digital odometer reading did show the 150K. So maybe, I was wrong about this car and should give it a second look. The leather interior had absolutely no sign of any cracking or wear - it really looked brand new, and the undercarriage was very clean as well. I was wondering if you could give it a look and give me your honest opinion as you live in the area. The ad for the car was still on Cars.com as of yesterday, so I'm pretty sure it is still there. Let me know if you could do this - it would really be appreciated. I've gotten burned by too many collector car purchases in the past, mostly because I've made snap decisions to buy if I really liked something about the car and I've often looked past obvious problems. Plus, I'll admit, I'm a really lousy negotiator when it comes to settling on a price. I'm trying to avoid all that with my next purchase. Thanks again if you can help.