Little update.
Oh well, it's still an ongoing saga with the overheating Lotus Excel.
I was being given the over-optimistic 'It will be fine by the weekend Chris' response to emails sent to the dealer through the week.
Was put off from going yesterday by him and suggested to come in today.
Was trying to ring in the morning but no answer.
So I decided to trek down there anyway and on my arrival I was given a rather feeble apology for not being able to get through to them by phone. Short-staffed on Sundays apparently.
The car was up on a ramp with what I can only describe as an Airfix kit-like mess on the ground around it. All the coolant plumbing and ancillaries detached and in bits. The rad nowhere to be seen and a rather worryingly-sized pool of oil on the ground directly below the engine.
Dealer: 'We gave it an oil change Chris'.
Me: 'Er, what? You did that the week before last?'
Dealer: 'Er, no we didn't have time, so we did it today.'
Me: 'But you told me yourself you did an oil change the week before last.....?'
Dealer: '...Anyway, so we're still busy with the cooling system. The radiator is being cleaned. We ordered some new hoses and some other things.'
At this point 2 things hit me. He's literally lied to me about the oil-change and he's been hedging all week about it being ready and it still isn't. He could have just told me it's not ready and we could have delayed another week if necessary.
Weird.
Oh wait, there's more; it transpires it's not even part of his dealer inventory. He's selling it 'on behalf of a friend'. I was never told this until today when I started asking about a warranty. I'd already negotiated it away but now it seems it would have never had one in the first place.
I'm 99% inclined to walk away from this now. I'm beginning to get the impression that they don't really know what they're doing and that they've just been waiting for an over-enthusiastic mug to come along and fall for it.
So it's good to set firm boundaries and acceptance criteria right at the beginning of any deal. Especially when you're dealing with cars of this age and reputation.
I haven't paid a bean for anything in this deal and I'm not committed from a legal standpoint so I have nothing to lose.
I'd love it to be a different story. I knew it needing some small jobs and issues sorting out and it would make an excellent little project car, but I really wanted something I could drive away from the seller. Not something I'd be worrying about it letting go and going pop-fizz from the get go.
Thoughts?
Stick with it, or cut and run?
Oh well, it's still an ongoing saga with the overheating Lotus Excel.
I was being given the over-optimistic 'It will be fine by the weekend Chris' response to emails sent to the dealer through the week.
Was put off from going yesterday by him and suggested to come in today.
Was trying to ring in the morning but no answer.
So I decided to trek down there anyway and on my arrival I was given a rather feeble apology for not being able to get through to them by phone. Short-staffed on Sundays apparently.
The car was up on a ramp with what I can only describe as an Airfix kit-like mess on the ground around it. All the coolant plumbing and ancillaries detached and in bits. The rad nowhere to be seen and a rather worryingly-sized pool of oil on the ground directly below the engine.
Dealer: 'We gave it an oil change Chris'.
Me: 'Er, what? You did that the week before last?'
Dealer: 'Er, no we didn't have time, so we did it today.'
Me: 'But you told me yourself you did an oil change the week before last.....?'
Dealer: '...Anyway, so we're still busy with the cooling system. The radiator is being cleaned. We ordered some new hoses and some other things.'
At this point 2 things hit me. He's literally lied to me about the oil-change and he's been hedging all week about it being ready and it still isn't. He could have just told me it's not ready and we could have delayed another week if necessary.
Weird.
Oh wait, there's more; it transpires it's not even part of his dealer inventory. He's selling it 'on behalf of a friend'. I was never told this until today when I started asking about a warranty. I'd already negotiated it away but now it seems it would have never had one in the first place.
I'm 99% inclined to walk away from this now. I'm beginning to get the impression that they don't really know what they're doing and that they've just been waiting for an over-enthusiastic mug to come along and fall for it.
So it's good to set firm boundaries and acceptance criteria right at the beginning of any deal. Especially when you're dealing with cars of this age and reputation.
I haven't paid a bean for anything in this deal and I'm not committed from a legal standpoint so I have nothing to lose.
I'd love it to be a different story. I knew it needing some small jobs and issues sorting out and it would make an excellent little project car, but I really wanted something I could drive away from the seller. Not something I'd be worrying about it letting go and going pop-fizz from the get go.
Thoughts?
Stick with it, or cut and run?
