Boulder GT3

I unintentionally misrepresented a car I sold and feel bad about it. In 11/06 I bought a C6Z06 with 3000 miles from a friend of mine. He’s about 80 in failing health and part of the reason I bought it was so he wouldn’t have to deal with selling it. He had bought it from a dealer when the cars were impossible to get and it had about 300 miles on it. My friend was beyond fanatical with cars and I had bought a Ferrari from him too. He always drove the cars with white gloves on. You get the drift. I never checked the car before I bought it from him and I’m 100% certain he had never damaged it.

While the car was crazy fast I never liked it. I put it up on EBay and said it had no damage, no rash, never in rain and so on. It looked perfect and had never been run hard by me. I get a call from a guy who lives close to me and his wife wants the car. He comes out and buys it on the spot in 8/07with 5K on it. He never ran a carfax nor did I. He has multiple vettes. He’s delighted to get a great car and I’m glad it’s an easy sale to someone that lives close by. No EBay BS.

He takes the car in last week to get some wheels and exhaust mods from a very good Corvette specialty shop and they notice some overspray and nuts on the underside that have had wrenches on them. It would appear that the entire drivers side had a very good respray on it. I’m pretty good with body work and I never saw it.

The guy who bought it is obviously concerned and is trying to figure out what is going on. He is in no way asking me for money and I don’t believe he thinks I BS’d him about the car. He just wanted to know if my buddy could have had the work done to figure out the extent of the damage. The best guess is that the car was damaged in transit, repaired and sold as new. Maybe it was keyed.

I guess the moral once again supports always getting a PPI although I had the car on my lift. End of confession.

As a side note, I love the modded 996tt I got to replace the Z. So far no sign that my car Karma has been screwed up by the Z.

KPG

For what it is worth, I do transport high end vehicles for a living and have seen some things that are mind boggling. For example, at some of the major East coast ports like Baltimore, Port Newark NJ, Brunswick GA and Charleston SC where most of the overseas vehicles for this half of the country arrive, these facitilities have full body shops and spray booths. I have had to wait days for vehicles getting resprayed from transit damage. Many of these are not vehicles that are going to be sold on a dealers lot initially since they are Auto Show or media vehicles, but they will end up at auction eventually and someone will buy them. When things like overspray and rounded bolts are seen it is easy to point the finger at the previous owner but sometimes they have zero knowledge of any incidents. These fixes at the ports will not show up on any CarFax...

Boulder GT3

Interesting. I got a PM from a member that worked with some high end car companies and he said the same thing. Many have substantial paint work before they are delivered. I never thought about it.

LT1

I looked at a silver 993TT at Sloan's years ago and it had a noticable crease/imperfection on the bumper cover. He told me that these things happen in transit from germany and that people dont get them fixed because they can't say that the car had 'No Paintwork'. I pondered, while holding back the laughter, how someone buying a new $120,000 car would accept this 'imperfection' opon delivery.

adam_

I seem to recall that, depending on where you live, repairs prior to new car sale must be disclosed if they exceed some dollar amount. Hail damage and transport damage are two big ones.

Of course the dealership owners' son taking the new Z06 out and broadsiding something is another option...

A

whiteturbo

I know nothing about the newer corvettes but the older ones were the only car thta GM hand painted at the factory. I do know that was when they used laquer paint and now that they no longer use laquer i don't know how they paint them.

wross996tt

As restitution, Tom, you will have to "loan" me your lambo for 1 month this summer....

TT Surgeon

My 997tt had a damaged bumperette in transit that had been touched up, no record of it anywhere, but it was held up in port a couple of days extra.

MK19

Another possibility: The factory regularly damages cars in transport as do dealers. They'll repair them and sell them new.......typically this is not what anyone would call "collision damage", but is handling damage (dents and scrapes). Everyone can be telling the truth in a case like yours, even the dealer (except the factory could have done a repair)......and I don't think the factory does repair work much different than typical body shops. Moral: when you buy a new car, do a very careful inspection before you take delivery.

atlshaver

On new cars I always require the condition report from the port to verify that there is no damage. As already stated, they routinely respray cars and repair damage from transit.

2fas4u

My indy bought a 07 z06 but before he moved it off the lot he noticed damage. it's in litigation now because they won't give him a fair deal damaged considered. It's not much a scratch but they tried to sell it as new. buyer beware.

MartyB

I expect to pick up a new 997 in 3-4 weeks that will be coming through Brunswick. Will Porsche dealers routinely have access to condition reports at the time of delivery. This is not something I have previously considered asking for, but I would like to see one.

kilrgt

I hate to say it guys, but the damage could have even happened at the factory, I work in the auto industry, manufacturer not sales, and I have toured many plants and I recall at a ford factory I saw 5 or 6 cars off to the side, I asked the gentleman I was with" whats up with those car's" he told me there was minor damage and they go out for repair. Rat bastards!

amfp

When damaged at the ports, it is unlikely even the dealer would know.

seattle_sun

When I was looking at BMW's, I put down the money for a car and was told that it would be at the dealer's w/in a week. They later called and said that the car would be delayed for 3 weeks. When I was persistent why, they told me it was damaged in transit. When I asked what the problem was, they refused to disclose the actual damage. According to them, they didn't have to disclose if it was less than 2% (I think) of the total value of the car.