"Star European" in Costa Mesa: Unethical

Lmao my thoughts too. I'll order wings and talk cars in my garage if you want. We can even put the car up on my lift and you can look around. Hahaha

 

A few years ago i bought an e46 m3 in las vegas , before driving it home across the country , i made an appoinment at desert bmw for an oil change and rear diff fluid change , every one there was so nice , nice comfy chiairs , nice big tv in the lounge , brought me some real nice pastries , catered to my every need , called me sir , held doors open for me ,made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside,then hit me with a bill for $ 870.00 , oil change , rear diff fluid change !!!!!


1994 ferrari 348 spider , third owner purchased may 2013 w/ 27804 miles

 

Lmao, I had a similar story from a BMW dealer in palm beach fl. A 750 was stuck in limp mode from a bad pan gasket, if you know that zf 6 SPD it is exteremly common...gasket 30 bucks and maybe two hours max. We just picked it up from a Manheim run and it had to be fixed , total bill $1550. At least the service advisor was hot??? Hahaha

 

Damn , buy round trip and only use one way , its cheaper . Lol


1994 ferrari 348 spider , third owner purchased may 2013 w/ 27804 miles

 

Lol ! I knew i was in trouble when i saw the spread of pastries and the biggest flat screen tv i've ever seen. At least they could have asked if i need some vaseline before handing me the bill .





1994 ferrari 348 spider , third owner purchased may 2013 w/ 27804 miles

 

You deal with it? Really?

If a PPI compression test shows a problem in one or two cylinders that a EVERYONE concurs is indicative of at leest a top end rebuild and possibly a bottom end job as well, this is an unnecessary step in buying one if these cars?

That fix will run 10k on the low end and pick a number on the high end.

I walked from a car with exactly the scenario I just described and the ppi cost me 550.

That's why you do CC minimally on these cars before you buy them to say otherwise is bad advice.

 

Dealer had a buyer, in his place, ready to buy.

You were shopping, thinking about it, getting a PPI the next day, then MAYBE buying the car.

Lemme think . . .

Hmm . . .

Maybe a sale vs. a real sale right now.

And you're surprised he sold the car?

I'd call that naive, nothing more or less. If you see a car you want, and it's a limited supply market, you have to act on it, not think about it, which is exactly what the guy who is driving "Your car" did.

Unethical? Hardly. Unfair? Nope. Unreasonable - no. I can't think of any un, except unsurprising, that would apply to this one.

Sorry you lost the deal, but I can't imagine why you're surprised.

D

 

Don't even begin to ask what servicing a McLaren Mercedes SLR cost! I could have bought a pastry shop!

 

Hey Bob, yes you deal with it if it happens, well at least i would myself. I agree you can try to reduce unknowns with a PPI that is no doubt. But a lot of these cars sit, I even recall from the compression videos you shared (very interesting and informative BTW) that the tech thought the numbers could have been low from valve seat corrosion and sitting.


If a car has ripped up headers/smoking burning oil of course you should investigate deeper. But if the car is running great there is simply no need in my opinion. I have purchased 2 355 and never considered a compression test .

There was also a member on the forum who was all in for under 5000 doing valve guides himself. That wouldn't break the deal for me if it ever happened. These engines go down fast when they do, and it sure can be expensive
A zero compression or low cyl WILL misfire, take out cats from unburned fuel, burn headers etc, not neccesarily in order but if you have a good set of ears one would probably hear an uneven engine and eliminate that car without wasting 550 on a PPI.

Again this is my opinion and experience with 355 and I do all my work in house headers belts you name it. The 355 is easy and fun to work on.

 

Real world scenario with actual facts, that is not the case. The $550 spared me owning a car that needed at least a top end rebuild. Speculating on what the cause was is silly because the fix was the same. Had the PPI not been done I would be holding that bag.

Money well spent.

I was not spending 30K on that car so for the money I was spending it was prudent and I would suggest that anyone else buying one of these do at least a CC.

 

If it is an expensive car do whatever it is to justify the purchase. How do we know the car really needed a top end rebuild however if the numbers were slightly off. That is an assumption, the tech even seemed to think it was from sitting


Sure it was money well spent because you got another car with better numbers. If you check your numbers today they will probably be different ? I never cc so I don't know the answer. I will if my car drops a cylinder and idles like a dump truck. Lol

 

Money Talks. The rest walks.

If you did not start the paperwork process or leave a deposit, it is the dealers to sell.
Talk of inspections and such is one way for shoppers to leave the discussion.

 

If you listen to the whole dialog it is all in there. The fix was a top end rebuild and that is what was quoted by Algar to the selling dealer. Estimate 15-25K.

The tech also suggested not buying the car because of this. That's in the vid as well.

He said in there that more Italian tune up would not fix it and the Sales manager asked in the vid as well if running some cleaning tsuff through it would fix it and the answer was no.

This is the kind of information you can get by doing a CC before purchase and then decide for yourself if you can live with the results.

 

May I take a small step OT? What does a leak-down test reveal vs. a compression check?

 

You would do a leak down on cylinders that have suspect compression. The compression test registers the pressure generated by the combustion chamber using the piston itself to generate the pressure.

In a leak down you are introducing air into the suspect combustion chamber and quantifying the percentage that is leaking out.

As 288 said, one should be able to hear where the air id leaking from. Intake valves, exhaust valves or piston rings.

 

I posted a few times in this forum warning about dealing with this "BO" character. He is "THAT" nightmare car salesman. I have met and dealt with him in person. He likes to play hard to get to make you feel like he has the car you want and it is worth every penny of his asking price. Years ago, he was trying to sell a silver 1999 manual Berlinetta that had major front end damage causing the hood and headlights to align improperly. I saw it. It was an eyesore. However, he said the carfax only indicated a reae bumper accident occured at a stop sign, which is totally false. He did admit the entire car was repainted (red flag). The car was known to have compression issues noted by forum members , however, he never mentions it and only says , "the car had had its 30k service and is good to go." He never started the car. He pushed the car out of his garage. He said it was his "personal" car and no longer had time to drive it. His asking price at the time was 70k. He would only budge a few thousand on the price in person. I didnt research the car before i went to see it. When asked where the service was performed, his response was "i have my own mechanic who deals with all my cars." Bottom line is, he buys distraught cars, performs a half ass service on them, probably cutting mutliple corners and tries to sell them at a premium. A month later he calls me maybe 3-4 times asking if i was still interested in the car if the price was 55k. I tell him I already bought another car. He ends up selling to a guy in FL. He probably bought the car unseen. 2 months later... The car is back on ebay asking 70k by its new owner. I already knew why.

 

Star European Inc. // Used BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Trade-ins in Orange County

This 95 red on black berlinetta, i assume, is the car you guys were interested in?

Larry at Ferrari Technologies is legit. I'm sure "Bo Knows" The last thing he would want is a REAL mechanic doing a PPI on his car, which is probably the main reason he rushed to sell to a buyer who was willing to take a risk without a PPI. He might have even used that against a prospective buyer to push the price up further. If the car is clean and truely has a clean title, i would set aside another 10-15k on top of the 70k asking price buying a car from Bo. That would put the car at 80-85k, which i still think is a good price for such a rare color combo and a 95. That's probably why someone was willing to pay 70k or more without a ppi. I personally think if this car was serviced properly and had main issues taken cared of, its a 90k + car.

 

Pay up sucka

That what deposits are for.

 

FYI, I've watched the videos again for completeness, (I thought I may have missed something because I only watched a clip of it originally) and the tech states over and over that he does not feel the car has bad guides - he feels that the car was sitting and has pitted or rusty seats. He even states how the numbers improved after running it hard. He states "the car runs well".

How does this equate to the car needing a 15-25k service? I just don't understand the logic in tearing apart a motor that runs well? But I am not a mechanic nor do I pretend to be, so I am open for any insight here

Can we have the vin so we can look up who bought it. I want to ask them if they tore that motor apart!!!!!!

 

I posted the vin in the original thread.

The tech, who happens to be one of few master Ferrari techs in the US, specifically and personally advised me not to buy that car. It's in the vid.

He postulated on what caused the problem but as I said , the fix is the same regardless of whether it's corroded valve and seats or guides. Minimal top end rebuild.

 

Not really on topic of the thread , but i've seen cars sit for 20 years and not suffer from " pitted valves " . But surely a " master mechanic " would have a video scope . It would be easy to put it down the intake and see the backside of the valve , before dropping that kind of money ( with someone who makes his living by convincing you this condition exists ) i'd say " can you show me " ( a snap-on video scope costs about 500 bucks , a master machanic would have one )


1994 ferrari 348 spider , third owner purchased may 2013 w/ 27804 miles

 

He had one and it is in the videos as well. There is a discussion of its use in the dialog.

Unfortunately that instrument does not have an attachment that makes a 180 degree turn so you can put it in a spark plug hole and view the valves. It didn't matter because in order to fix the problem the heads needed to be removed. Even if the corrosion was clarified visually I wasn't buying the car based on his assessment.

I didn't own the car so I was there to clarify the results of the CC and LD tests which were done twice at two separate visits with an Italian tune up done as well. He wasn't selling a repair to me or the seller.

 

This is peculiar, because over and over the tech states that he thinks the car sat too long and has pitted or rust seats. He even says one track day would probably clear it up. This contradicts the above, however, I understand you spoke to him in addition to the video provided. If you bought this car without the CC test, one would probably not notice any difference lol.

Also, it is great that this was a master renowned tech that did this inspection, but I question why we have never heard of this "pitted" valve seat problems on a 355 before. We always hear about valve guides right? I get that you avoided the car and it was not for you, but I am just saying, like John above, wouldn't a master tech have verified this by looking in the cylinders. I sure wouldn't plop money down like that on speculation. 25k buys 3/4 of a driver f355. lol.

Either way, do a compression test if it makes ya happy I know we took the thread off topic, sorry about that OP!!!

 

Everyone understands that dealers are in it to make money, right?

So take your pick. The sales guy that can take hours and hours to close a deal and has the luxury to wait and delay to accommodate a potential buyer probably has a bigger margin in that car than the dealer that sells at low margins and just wants to get rid of the car as fast as he can.

You get what you pay for in this instance.


Kai