How I got completely scammed............

[gmcderm]

Hi all,

New to the e-Bodies forum and to the Mopar scene in general! Just wanted to share my story about getting scammed when buying my first Mopar in the hope that it can help others also not get scammed by the same dealership............

Was scrolling through Ebay one day and found what I thought was my pretty close to my dream car, a Plumb Crazy 1970 Challenger R/T. Sure, it needed some TLC and had 71 RT stripes down the side rather than the 70 style, but price seemed reasonable and I could always fix it up! Couldn't find the original Ebay add, but here the same add on another site:
http://classicvehicleslist.com/dodge/590671-1970-dodge-challenger-rt-hemi-383-cuda-charger-gtx-duster-superbird-coronet-wow.html

Called the low life sharks at KD's Auto Sales (https://www.kdsautosales3.com/) and negotiated the price down to $35k. Had an inspector from Nationwide Arbitrations (https://www.autoinspections.net/) come look at the car and generate a report. They found no significant problems with the car so payed up the money and had it shipped out to me in CA.

It arrived at a local shop where I was going to get work done on the car, we put it up on the hoist and BOOM..... rusted out from head-to-tail. The rust was sooooo bad underneath that it was laughable. Adding to that, the VIN tag was a replica and wasn't even fixed into the dash. Making matters worse was that the cowl VIN had been sanded off, pretty crappy for an apparent 'numbers matching' car. There were so many other things wrong with this car I don't even know where to start.

So straight onto the phone to the inspectors who claim that the car yard hampered their inspection. Next call was to KD's Auto Sales where they pretty much just laughed down the phone at me saying "prove it". They knew all along what a lemon this car was and sold it to me anyway. Ended up with no car or no money back and the shitty car dealership got away with it all! Very big lesson learnt, and now it's back to saving so I can finally get that 70's Challenger one day........

[Chryco Psycho]

Welcome to the site at least .
Not sure what to say , this site has members all over  that can personally go & check out a car for you if needed .
I am sure there is some legal recourse just not sure how to go about it , are you in the US or Aus ?
Even the cost to fly from Aus to check out the car in person would have been a bargain in hindsight .

[gmcderm]

I'm in California but about to move back to Australia. Dream was to import this car back with me....... Wish I had of been part of the forum and gotten some help with the buying process.

[Matt13]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. I learned a long time ago to never, ever, ever buy a car without seeing it in person.
  That said, what happened to the car? I know you didn't get a refund but did you at least keep the car?

[gmcderm]

Ended up posting the car on Craigslist and selling for next to nothing. The person who brought it sent me a video later that night and seemed like the front driver side wheel had come off while he was driving it to a storage yard. Unsure what he did with the car but based on a call from him a few weeks later, think it went somewhere for parts.

[Priesty]

Sorry to hear you got ripped off mate.
When you get home to Oz we have a pretty fair collection of E bodies now, so always someone to help you out, no matter what state you're in. Also a few for sale now & again as well.
Cheers...

[anlauto]

First off...I don't think the problem is with the dealer as much as it is with the company you chose to inspect it. They look professional by their website, but they obviously have no clue what to look for in an antique car. Second, bailing on the car and loosing tons of money was also probably a mistake. In my opinion, any $35K 1970 Challenger is going to need work, maybe this one turned out to be worse then you hoped, and more work then you wanted, but to say it wasn't worth fixing and turn out to be a "parts car" I think is a bit of a stretch.

I'm sorry you got tangled up in this mess.

[torredcuda]

Sucks you got taken, there may have been legal recourse but probably hard to prove and of course would cost a bunch. Best thing you can do is research what to look for, there is info on this site for finding all the vin numbers and such. I`m sure there are good, reputable inspection service companies but as said I would not trust one. Best thing is of course to check it out yourself, worth the cost of a plane ticket. A  lot of great people here that are glad to help you, hopefully you can find your dream car.

[chris NOS]

i m sorry for you , this is a nightmare ! i hope you'll be able to achieve your dream some day .

[captcolour]

The inspection company website appears to offer no guarantee on their inspection.  Just says they do it.  So probably no recourse unless their report explicitly says "no rust" on the frame/underbelly.  Then you might have had a fight.  I would have called the local FBI office as this involves intrastate commerce and likely a federal offense. 

A quick google search found others that say they have specialized services for vintage cars.  Those even mention looking for rust and checking numbers.  Those other companies didn't guarantee their findings either which I guess makes sense.  They still can't commit fraud regardless though.

When I was looking for my e-body 10+ years ago, I came across a fraudulent sale by owner on cars.com perhaps.  The classic "too good to be true" deal.  I eventually found the same pics used in the ad on another forum type site with a watermark which had been cropped.  I strung the seller along for about a week and then turned everything over to the local FBI office in Cincinnati. 

[Cuda Cody]

I hate hearing stories like this.  If you find another car please let us help you.  There's lots of nice cars out there and I'm sure if you stick with it that you will find the right one.  I'm sad you lost so much money.

[ec_co]

truly sucks to hear. please post reviews of both companies on Google, Yelp, Facebook ... wherever you can to help others avoid these guys. tear them to shreds with details and their responses.

[7E-Bodies]

Reading this just hurts. I've never understood not just being truthful with people. I had a guy trying to sell me a 70 Challenger RT convertible a few years back. It was a JS27N0B that he claimed had the "numbers matching" 383 in the local (nationally known) machine shop. I immediately went there and was shown the block. It had a fresh grind/restamp engine vin that was grossly counterfeit. It wasn't even a HP block. The machinist agreed but denied doing it. The seller tried to get me for 70k. I'd like to see @Spikedog08 or @Cuda Cody add another section to the forum called "BUYER BEWARE" for those of us that look at a car and catch scams. My fear to this day is that someone later fell for the butchered POS that was offered to me. I pray you're able to financially recover and I'm sorry it happened to you. If you're ever looking at one in or near Illinois, I'd be glad to look it over for you. There are people here that can vouch that my word holds.

[71383bee]

Wow that sucks!  I'm sorry to hear this. I agree with others that it's too bad you were not aware of this site or others. There is a ton of good info on here and a lot of us are more then happy to check out a car for anyone.   Right off the bat I'm sure a lot on here would tell you that 35k for an FC7 R/T is likely not right and too good to be true.

I've learned over time to steer well clear of the muscle car dealers unless it is consignment. If it's their stock it's likely but together to make a quick inflated sale.

Amazingly I have had good luck on Craigslist and Facebook when dealing with individual owners. Talk to them. Ask lots of questions. If they get pushy or demand cash up front...walk.  I also would post pictures here or moparts on the what's it worth section.   If it adds up then offer to put a small amount down and base that on a visual inspection. That's the trick. You need to drop stuff to make that happen and show you are motivated. Then get eyes that you can trust on it.  Preferably yours or a trusted friend. If it's good as represented then make the deal. Both of my challengers were like this and I can say there still are a lot of people out there who are pretty honest and just are in need to sell their ride.

Good luck and I hope we can help you with your next purchase.


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[6pack]

So sorry for you.  Next time stick to California, Nevada, Arizona.  No big shipping charges to you if your on the west coast, no appreciable rust if it spent its life there and close to inspect yourself.  East coast means probably rust.  See they salt the roads for snow and ice.  When these cars were newer they were driven on the roads all year not babied like now.  Hope things go better next time around.