Dodged a bullet

Back in October when I was shopping for a wagon, I looked at several. One car in particular caught my eye. It was a ’93 Roadmaster Estate in dark blue with woodgrain. The ad photos made the car look beautiful and it looked like a decent sale. The seller claimed in the ad that he was selling his father’s car following his death. The car appeared to be well cared for and had been modified with some pinstriping and his father’s “slogan” across the tailgate. I pondered whether or not I wanted to risk purchasing a car that someone else had customized for some time. After I finally had a suitable amount of cash on hand and had made my decision, I called the seller to go and take a look. When I called, he informed me that the car had just been sold and the buyer drove away only 10 minutes previous to my call (after doing a burnout). The seller proceeded to go on about how he had rebuilt the LT1 (which concerned me a little as the 93 didn’t come with the LT1) and upgraded much of the engine with chrome parts to dress it up and make it a show car. While that was intriguing I was back to not being sure I wanted someone else’s custom car and figured it was for the best.

Here we are now in March and I still prowl some online want-ads looking for parts as well as  to see what’s on the market. Yesterday, that same wagon, so easily identified by the pinstriping and “slogan” on the tailgate, is up for sale again. The current seller claims that the car was very misrepresented and he needs to unload it. Strangely he’s trying to sell it for $500 more than he paid for it when it clearly hasn’t been terribly well cared for.The photos show very clearly that the engine isn’t what it had been claimed by the previous seller, hasn’t been dressed up and doesn’t seem to have been looked after all that well. The seller says now that the rear fenders are rusting out. Not sure how he missed that when he bought it 6 months ago but he’s definitely convinced that he was conned.

For a while I was wondering if that car might have been the one that got away. Seems to me now that perhaps that was a good thing.