Post by TheBac on Mar 9, 2014 21:11:39 GMT -6
As my intro thread explained, I've been looking for a nice 01-03 Aurora 4.0 for myself.
While searching Craigslist last week, I found an ad from Indiana that just read "car". Clicking on it, I found the person trying to sell a Final 500 Aurora! From the pics, it looked in pretty good shape, so I made the call. After explaining to the gentleman that I would be driving 200 miles to look at the car and possibly buy it, I asked about every question I could think of to make sure I wasnt wasting my time. His answers jived with the pictures, so we agreed that he'd hold the car until that next Saturday so I could drive down. Carfax checked out ok, service history checked out too.
Fast forward 6 days, my brother-in-law (who's from that area) and I hook the trailer up to the truck and drive on down. I start getting a bad feeling when we turn onto the seller's road and my BIL says, "Uh oh, he lives on this side of town?" I just keep hoping....
We get to the house, and the Aurora is parked under a portico, partially hidden in shadow. The front end looks good, so Im still hopeful. The owner comes out, and I swear to god, he had no front teeth! Dirt everywhere. Trying not to stereotype, I get the keys from him and start to look the car over. All I can think is "Ho-lee sh*t is this car trashed!" The pics must've been from 4 years ago.
What I found:
Exterior panels were ok, but the paint had never been waxed, let alone washed. The rear quarters were wasted. He must've tried to fit the car into a small space, as there were gouges along both sides from the taillights thru the wheelwells. The wheels werent even chrome any more...they were "caked on brake dust brown", and the tires were dry rotted. Just sad. About the only thing nice I can say is the body wasnt rusted at all.
Interior looked like animals had lived in the car. Seats were thrashed, carpet was greasy and muddy, floor mats were long gone, armrests were broken, headliner was sagged, sunroof shade torn up, visors broken, etc.... The back seat had been removed to access the battery, and was as trashed as the front seats. I was so disgusted that I didnt even look to see what # car it was.
Trunk was as dirty as the interior. I swear he used the car to transport greasy auto parts and tools. Spare tire had been used up, it was rusted and worn out.
Engine was greasy and oily and not taken care of. When I asked what services had been done lately, he said, "Nothing". Oh God. It started up ok, but had a CEL. Also had a fault light for the headlights/DRLs, too. Blower fan didnt work. I didnt even bother testing the windows or anything else. Wow.
On the test drive, "service stability" and "low coolant" warnings came up, the trans began slipping during accelerating and clunking between gears. Car was beyond hope.
Went back and simply handed the keys back to the owner and told him, "No sale. You lied to me about the car. I drove 200 miles for a trashed-out car." When pressed about what was wrong with it, I told him everything I found. Sadly, he didnt seem surprised. He even had the gall to ask me to make him an offer. I told him, "Its not worth $1000 to me. It would take $3000 just to make it road worthy". He refused that offer.
We got in the truck and got out of there as fast as we could. At lunch,my BIL told me he knew how disgusted I was from my facial expresions as I looked the car over. We joked we needed tetanus shots after riding in it. He did make the point that I had to come down and look at it, just in case it was a good car. It was just sad to see a beautiful, rare Aurora turned into a parts runner for a hillbilly.
So anyone looking on Craigslist at the Final 500 in Anderson, IN...beware. The car has already got 2 tires in the junkyard. It would be good for the engine and body emblems, but thats about it.
While searching Craigslist last week, I found an ad from Indiana that just read "car". Clicking on it, I found the person trying to sell a Final 500 Aurora! From the pics, it looked in pretty good shape, so I made the call. After explaining to the gentleman that I would be driving 200 miles to look at the car and possibly buy it, I asked about every question I could think of to make sure I wasnt wasting my time. His answers jived with the pictures, so we agreed that he'd hold the car until that next Saturday so I could drive down. Carfax checked out ok, service history checked out too.
Fast forward 6 days, my brother-in-law (who's from that area) and I hook the trailer up to the truck and drive on down. I start getting a bad feeling when we turn onto the seller's road and my BIL says, "Uh oh, he lives on this side of town?" I just keep hoping....
We get to the house, and the Aurora is parked under a portico, partially hidden in shadow. The front end looks good, so Im still hopeful. The owner comes out, and I swear to god, he had no front teeth! Dirt everywhere. Trying not to stereotype, I get the keys from him and start to look the car over. All I can think is "Ho-lee sh*t is this car trashed!" The pics must've been from 4 years ago.
What I found:
Exterior panels were ok, but the paint had never been waxed, let alone washed. The rear quarters were wasted. He must've tried to fit the car into a small space, as there were gouges along both sides from the taillights thru the wheelwells. The wheels werent even chrome any more...they were "caked on brake dust brown", and the tires were dry rotted. Just sad. About the only thing nice I can say is the body wasnt rusted at all.
Interior looked like animals had lived in the car. Seats were thrashed, carpet was greasy and muddy, floor mats were long gone, armrests were broken, headliner was sagged, sunroof shade torn up, visors broken, etc.... The back seat had been removed to access the battery, and was as trashed as the front seats. I was so disgusted that I didnt even look to see what # car it was.
Trunk was as dirty as the interior. I swear he used the car to transport greasy auto parts and tools. Spare tire had been used up, it was rusted and worn out.
Engine was greasy and oily and not taken care of. When I asked what services had been done lately, he said, "Nothing". Oh God. It started up ok, but had a CEL. Also had a fault light for the headlights/DRLs, too. Blower fan didnt work. I didnt even bother testing the windows or anything else. Wow.
On the test drive, "service stability" and "low coolant" warnings came up, the trans began slipping during accelerating and clunking between gears. Car was beyond hope.
Went back and simply handed the keys back to the owner and told him, "No sale. You lied to me about the car. I drove 200 miles for a trashed-out car." When pressed about what was wrong with it, I told him everything I found. Sadly, he didnt seem surprised. He even had the gall to ask me to make him an offer. I told him, "Its not worth $1000 to me. It would take $3000 just to make it road worthy". He refused that offer.
We got in the truck and got out of there as fast as we could. At lunch,my BIL told me he knew how disgusted I was from my facial expresions as I looked the car over. We joked we needed tetanus shots after riding in it. He did make the point that I had to come down and look at it, just in case it was a good car. It was just sad to see a beautiful, rare Aurora turned into a parts runner for a hillbilly.
So anyone looking on Craigslist at the Final 500 in Anderson, IN...beware. The car has already got 2 tires in the junkyard. It would be good for the engine and body emblems, but thats about it.
