Well, to satisfy the 914 void in my life, or I should say "drivable" 914 void, I decided to check out the cars on Ebay. I came across this one that didn't seem too bad. It supposedly runs good and has "no rust". Minor mechanical problems don't scare me but I'm a bonofide rustophobic!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=2479082632

The guy didn't have but two pics of the car, so I emailed him:


Hello,
>
> I'm interested the the 914 you have for sale, would it be possible to get some
pics of the front and rear trunks with the carpets out, a couple of pics of the
engine compartment, and the area below and forward of the battery?
>
> Do you know which engine (1.7, 1.8, 2.0)it has?
> Is it fuel injected or carbed?
> Do you think it runs well enough to make a trip to St. Louis?
>
> Thanks!!
>
> Kevin


His response was:

KEVIN, I WILL TRY AND PUT MORE PICTURES ON IN THE MORNING, THE CAR HAS NO RUST AND
IT RUNS WELL. I WILL GET THE REST OF THE INFO. IN THE MORNING. THANK YOU. VTWIN...........OUT.........


So, with the assurance that there's NO RUST on this particular car I bid on it and win
I Paypal the $200.00 deposit to him and wait for his response. The next day he writes back and acknowledges receiving the deposit and gave me his ph# and address so I can "Yahoo Map" my way down to his house.

I call him up and he seems like a pretty nice guy, so I fire a few questions like engine size (didn't know), fuel injected VS Carbs (didn't know), interior condition, fair (no biggy, I've got plenty of extra interior parts), "So how's the area underneath the battery?" He tells me the battery is mounted in the rear trunk ...He appearantly doesn't know shit about 914's, so I talk him through an inspection of the areas of most concern on a 914. I explain where the battery is supposed to be located, and ask him if there's any rust there, he replies "Oh yeah, hell I can see the tire . He goes on to tell me that there are a couple of rusted through spots in the front trunk, but he could fabricate me a patch to weld in if I wanted him too , and tells me he'll try to get the pictures to me tomorrow...

Okay, I haven't even seen any of the pics yet and I'm wanting to cancel this deal. That's all I need is more rust!! Since he totally misrepresented (twice in writing) this car, what should be my recourse? All he's got (or will ever get) is my $200.00 deposit.

i wouldn't worry too much about it. i think ebay has posted rules for these situations. you may also have protection thru your credit card and paypal. check out ebays website about misrepresented auctions. make sur eyou saved your correspondence.

is that really a 73????

he owes you your $200.00.....car was misrepresented, plain and simple

Oh, I've saved ALL of the emails, and printed them just in case. I guess I need to do some research on Egay and Paypal....It just bums me out!

I'm so f'ing tired of people that totally mis-represent their items for sale on EvilBay. I got HOSED last year when I purchased what was described to be 914 seats in "great" condition and in the picture they looked AWESOME!!! $200.00 and two weeks later I get my "great" seats. I open the box with the UPS driver watching me. He's been delivering here for years... 914 parts - of course. When I pulled the seats out of the box they were in really poor shape. Dry, cracked, torn, missing foam, so I returned them. The seller says "buyer beware" you should have asked more questions, blah, blah, blah -. Wanted another $100.- to ship them to ebay for their evaluation. Fuck me once, shame on you. Fuck me twice??? Your gonna have to buy me flowers & dinner. I got fucked by the seller AND Ebay. I'll never do that again. Maybe $20.- $30.- if it looks really good, but no amount that I can't affort to lose or chock up to 914 fever. Ebay SUCKZ. If I can't buy it local, I must not need it. If I were you, and because you bought a WHOLE "RUST FREE" CAR, I'd take the SOB to small claims court. But you knew there was no-such-thing as a rust free 914, didn't you???
Best of Luck!!!

The zero feedback would have had me a little worried. You should be able to get your money back though. I had a guy in Phoenix do the same thing to me on a BMW except after my deposit, he sold the car to someone else. I had made the mistake of giving him my credit card over the phone and the next day my card company was on the phone with me asking if I was in Phoenix running up the card with adult entertainment. I had the guy thrown in jail and my credit card company refunded my money without question.

"good investment for a PORSCHE and for economy too" . how much is your $200 worth? sorry about the hosing. ebay cars scare me to death.

kevin

Kevin,

If you're really looking for a solid rust-free car in the area, give Brad Mayeur a call at 309-694-1797.

When I was looking to replace my '74 with a solid chasis,
Brad was able to give me two local owners who were both thinking of selling their cars. After searching on line for a month, looking at cars from Indiana, Colorado and CA,
I found my "new" 72 in St. Louis. I looked at two cars here, in fact, one was 10 minutes from my house.

Brad has a wide customer base and could possibly lead you in the right direction. Tell him I told you to call.

Thanks guys, I'm just pissed because I went to look at a 914 in the St. Louis Post Dispatch that was "rust free" last week. A little metallic green beauty that looked great from the road and a quick walk around on the way to work. Left the guy a note telling him I be back for a test drive....popped the engine compartment and what do you suppose I saw....the curb. Appearantly, if you can't see the rust from the outside, it's a rust-free car

As for Brad Mayeur, I've got a set of his long stiffeners on my '73...very substantial support there He would definitely know something about the fabled "NO RUSTERS", maybe I'll give him a call and save myself the grief of another let down.

Hey Kevin, you're not alone on the "rust free" scam. I spent a pre-eBay year driving all over Southern New England looking for / at "rust free" 914's (OK, in retrospect, that was pretty naive for this part of the country).

Lost a little faith in my fellow citizens, and almost gave up on the idea altogether. Finally found a legitimately rust free example in Northern New Jersey (refugee from CA). I paid a little more, but it has been worth every penny.

Keep the faith, and follow Ronny Reagan's advice: "trust, but verify". Blind faith and eBay don't mix.

Rule number 1: There is no such thing as a rust free 914 unless its an Arizona car that has been sitting in a garage for the past twenty years.

Rule number 2: make people take pictures of both trunks and area around battery shelf.

Rule number 3: If you dont follow rule number 1 or 2 make sure the guy selling has a good reputation in the Porsche community.

I think you have an open and shut case to get your money back. He misrepresented the car.

I have been quite fortunate with my online purchases. My 914 was cleaner than the guy described. I did get some real cheap Audi RS4 replicas where the guy didnt include the center caps that were in all pictures. Always best to force seller to take pictures if in doubt.

just as a general rule of thum on cars.i never buy a car with out bieng able to take look at it.ive insulted some people cause "i wouldnt take there word for it "dont take there word for it. i dont care who it is. look at the if you dont youre askin for trouble.shouldnt be that way but,alot of times it is

Kevin,
E-bay won't do shit, they have several million auctions going and this guy has no history, it takes many complaints for them to act.
Is the car to far away from you to go and look for yourself and decide if you could recover your money if you follow through with the transaction?
The guy will probably not return your money and short of taking him to small claims court I wouldn't expect a refund.


Bummer guy...

I bought my 914 on ebay. But, I went and pre inspected it, decided I could live with its faults, and I have no regrets. Course I'm selling it now, so maybe I'm the tard here.

I'd buy another car from ebay. If it wasn't someplace close for me to check it out, I'd ask for a PPI from someone on the board close to it.

The fact of the matter is alot of people selling cars don't know shit about cars. I went to see a 72 911 S as advertised locally. I got out of the car and was walking towards it when I had to break it to the guy it wasn't a 72. Itturned out it was a 74. He related he'd owned the car for 5 YEARS. How do you own a car for 5 years without knowing its damned age? Jesus Christ.

After a little research it appears that Paypal has an automatic $200.00 buyer protection for dumbasses , so if the guy absolutely refuses to give up the deposit I'll try that route. Unfortunately, the car is a little bit of a drive from here...Alabama. That's about an 8 hour drive one way. It was going to be a fun little road trip for me and the boy (17) this weekend, but that went south after talking to the seller. I'm just glad I didn't get all of the way down there and find out about this shit . I'll definitely post the pics when he sends them to me so you guys can check out the "Kein Rost" 914.

open your claim soon, as soon as he removes his money from his pay pal account, they'll only remove what is left in his account and return it to you in 10 days. I got ripped off and pay pal was only able to recover $20 of a $60 transaction

Some pics of the alleged "No Rust" 914....

Engine compartment (Duh)...

Guess I'd better get busy drafting the "No F*ckin' way I'm buying that" letter. Well, I'll be tactful in the first one (since he's a Ebay Newbie) and explain that you have to give accurate descriptions of the items you're selling. Hopefully he's reasonable and refunds my $200....if not

Holy shit...
Can you imagine what the inner rockers and the hell hole look like

I don't want to think about it. I'm eating dinner soon

Sorry man... Try to keep you dinner down.

Looks like it's been popped pretty good in the front too. I hope you get your money back. If not at least you didn't pay it all up front. $200 is nothing compared to what it would take to de-rust that thing!

Have a and chalk one up to bad luck on e-bay...

That's for sure!

On the bright side, I've got one lined up to pick up this weekend (Friday) up in Downers Grove, Ill. (Chicago Burb). The owner knows his car, and sent me a bunch of pics of the important stuff.

So...St. Louis guys, whens the next get-together

Really? Cool! You will be driving right past me on 55. I don't know of one in DG. So lets see some pics! What year?

Okay...But promise you won't laugh at the passenger door (I've got a nice shiny red one at home waiting for it)


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...DME:B:EOAB:US:6

He says that he has a set of (5) Pedrinis that he'll let me have for $150...think it's worth it?

Oh yeah I saw that one. Hey a 2.0 for $2650 is a good deal. Looks fine to me. $150 would be a good deal if the Peds are straight. They might have a better offset than the EMPIs so you could get a wider tire on them. I wonder what color it used to be... looks like Chrome Yellow maybe? (under the front trunk)

Yep...originally a yellow car, so you know it's FAST

I've demolished 914's with less rust. Good luck on your 914. If he don't give you your money back, at least neg feedback will hurt him more than it will hurt you.


Hiedi

Well, middle of last week I sent an email to the seller of the "no rust" 914 alerting him of my intention to void the transaction, and requested my $200.00 deposit be returned. Several days went by with no response to my email, and I began to expect the worst. I figured that if I hadn't received any response by the time I returned from Chicago (to get the red '74) that I'd contact him by phone. Got home, checked my email, and there it was. The guy was VERY apologetic and assured me that he would be sending me a money order for the deposit first thing Tuesday.

Even though the car was not as described, I think that he deserves good feedback for doing the right thing, and wish him luck on his future auctions.

The ride home from Chicago is another story...

I think we have all seen something like this. When I bought my racecar from ebay, I thought it would be a simple 6 cylinder swap, but later found 14-16 feet of aluminum tape covered by heavy coats of Rust Oleum, Boy to say that I was pissed does not cover the half of it. The guy did respond by sending me 700.00 to cover the repair, but the cost to repair was over 1500. With most of my labor. Makes me wish I just started with a new tub. I think the days of "rust free" 914's are getting slim.


Erik

I echo the sentiment of "trust no one." I called a guy in Phoenix, AZ about a "rust free" 914. I had him do an inspection over the phone with me for like 30-45 minutes as I asked him to look at and describe certain areas. I asked particularly about the metal below the front windshield, under the car, and the other places. I asked him if it would make it to San Diego, CA rom there with out incedent, "oh ya, I would drive this thing cross country right now!" he said. Ok, I was sold. I had him on the phone when I was buying the one way ticket and gave hime several oppertunities to alert me as I was saying, "ok, I am purchasing the ticket." No backing out. I flew to Phoenix and met the guy at the airport with the car. The first thing I see is a large hole just below the front wind shield. WTF! I said, " you said there was no rust, what the hell is that hole!?" He said, "there aint no rust in that there hole." If he wasn't 6'5" and about 320# I would have kicked the shit out of him. I also found a boxed end wrench that someone used to put the fuel lines on with...it was still on the line as the line was going through it, but he said that it had always been there. The seats were falling through the floor....yadda, yadda, yadda. I was there 20 min before I got a flight home.
On the bright side he refunded me the cost of my ticket on the spot less $30 because he didnt have it on him. He offered to get my address and send it to me, but I figured that I would chalk it up to a lesson learned.
The only savvy, honest 914 people that I have met have been here.

Rant over.

Hey Kevin,

That's great news, both your new 74 and the refund.

Let me know when you get it home and we can discuss a
914 outing.

Glad to have some faith in eBay sellers restored. I was very tempted to buy a 914 deal on eBay yesterday but with no email response from the seller and no pics, it was an obvious decision.
Felix

Yep, it was a BIG relief to me, wife was none to happy about the whole situation.

Kevin,
Its good to hear that things are / might be working out, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you on the return of your deposit.
I'm glad your new 914 is looking good. we will be needing pictures ya know...

Looks like the guy put it back up for auction, with a better description.

Seems like an honest guy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...2480571551&rd=1

Two Bad, Misrepresented, Ebay Car purchases of various types for daily driving needs (thought the first one was a fluke); both far away.
I have two new prerequisites when shopping for cars:
#1. Ebay is for entertainment purposes only!
#2. I will re-institute my "Eye , Try it, Buy it" method.

Or how about a nationwide club for pre purchase inspections to try and stop all of these uninformed knuckleheads selling these "gems?"

I feel better.
Rich

That's not a bad idea Rich! We've got enough people scattered around the US in this club that it's feasible

Might save a lot of disappointment at the receiving end of an ebay sale.