| Author: |
| ||||
| Subject: |
| ||||
| Message: | I am not a disinterested party in that I just bought a 74 911 from Victory Motors and expect delivery this Tuesday. I have bought fair number of cars over the internet in the past few years (Ferrari 512TR, BMW E30 M3, BMW 850, BMW 2002, Rx7, Porsche Turbo, Lotus Europa, and an old Ducatti). I have honestly never had a bad experience and will certainly report in here after I take delivery. I spend a lot of time picking a car in the first place just through the pictures and information available. While a good detailer can make an engine bay presentable, any engine bay that is dirty and clearly not cared for means to me that the car isn't anything I'm interested in. Exhaustive documentation from the previoius owners is valuable and given how many great cars can be found on the net -- if you're willing to wait -- you can wait for one with solid documentation. The other criticl thing to me is to be able to talk at length to the owner or if from a dealer from the previous owner who sold it to the dealer. I'm certainly older and fairly worldly-wise, but find certainly I base a good deal of my final decision on what the previous owner says. Now, what I look for in a car may make this different for me. In most instances with collectible driver cars, the most expensive thing to make right is bodywork, paint, upholstery, carpets, rtrim bits... chrome. The engines and drive train are easier and far less expensive to fix. However, since I've been on boards and forums over the years for the different cars that I own, I find there are always these vociferous threads about this or that bad guy. Bad guys need to get identified and put out of business and where that can be done through the net, its great. Around 1999 a guy named Peter Farrell of "Peter Farrell Supercars or PFS", who had had several of his tuner cars in all the magazines, swapped my pristine motor for a really worn, tired, old motor during what was supposed to be an engine upgrade. When I caught him and he wouldn't fix it, I spread the word over the net. He promptly sued me for $4mm and I counter sued fro consumer fraud, etc. Two years and several hundred thousand dollars later, I won everything and he no longer has that business. I'm not sure what happened to him. Now, if Victory Motorcars, or any other dealer, consistently defrauds, cheats, or otherwise bamboozles customers, my experience has been that the market fixes it eventually. Its very hard for me to understand how someone stays in business and grows that business over several decades if they are truly "bad people". In business there are of course some exceptions, but by and large that's what happens. So, why is Victory in business and growing and profitable? Why do they have a "satisfactory" BBB rating after all the purported wrong-doings? Why is their eBay rating perfect? But, to me from 30,000 feet, I come back to why are they doing so well? I spent a lot of time talking to Robert. Like some other "positive" posters, I found him very knowledgeable and thus far very fair. For example, I could see thaqt the interior of the car I was buying had new seat covers and carpets. I could see that the old headliner had aged and turned that yellow it does where it joins the C-pillar. I asked him to replace it with OEM headliner and paid him for it. On a call bak, he told me he wasn't happy with the condition of the dash, which had a crack I couldn't see in the pictures and he said he would replace it with a new dash at his expense. I was 100% comfortable with the condition of the body and interior. Then, I sopke to the previous owner who had nothing but good to say about the car and the drivetrain, which I was especially interested in So, I bought the car and expect to see it Tuesday. I expect it to be what I understand from the process it to be. Again, I would be happy to report back on this transaction on Tuesday or Wednesday. There are many truly bad men in the world doing whatever they can to make money without any regard for ethics. Amoral sociopaths often oblivious to the fact they are evil or doing anything wrong. Church-going family men. Unfortunately, its up to us to avoid them or put them out of business. Equally unfortunately, as I get older, I increasingly feel that our consumer-obssessed society increasingly resorts to "whining" when they don't get exactly what they want when they want it, much like children who have not been properly disciplined. Gordon | ||||
© 1997 -
2008
Jump Internet Inc. All rights reserved.
