The story is too long for me to give ALL of the details. But I'll give you the Cliffs Notes...

Polo Green 96 Camaro SS #1750 (VIN: 2G1FP22P6T2158365)
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...standard=false

I just drove from St. Louis, MO to Denver, CO to see this car. I spoke with the dealer last week and exchanged emails with a sales person and the New Car Manager. I also called SLP to verify its options and get the build number. A quick google search on the build number returned this...

Copy of ad from 07 where the car was listed on eBay...
http://slpregistry.com/car/3201.html

More pictures from the eBay ad...
http://slpregistry.com/gallery/v/camaross/1996/1750

In my emails with the dealer, I sent them pictures of the car from those links. I told them I expected the car to be in the shape depicted in those pictures. There are flaws shown in pictures and the price was negotiated appropriately. I mentioned the car has 19k more miles on it... so a scratch here and there wasn't a deal breaker. They took my deposit and my father and I drove 13 hours to Denver.

We got to Denver before the dealership opened, but the car was stored in a parking garage that we couldn't access. When our salesman showed up, he pulled the car out into the daylight. At first glance, the car looked just like the pictures... that is... until I walked around the driver's side. The car had been wrecked (doesn't show up on Carfax or Autocheck) and repaired poorly. When I started to point out flaws, and piece things together, the self-proclaimed "car guy" of a salesman tried to tell me they were flaws from the factory. It never ceases to amaze me the bull**** that comes out of used car salesman.

Here is what is wrong with the car that the pictures don't show...

The car was hit somewhere on the driver's side. The impact affected the rocker (full length) and the front part of the quarter. The rocker must have been hit pretty hard where the quarter and rocker meet, because the factory spot welds were gone and the quarter was reformed to fit the rocker. The body shop that did the work cut a few corners. The quarter panel was rusting from the bottom of the repair. I'm not talking about surface rust, it was rusting *through*. It was so bad, that part of the quarter would have to be cut out and a piece of a new quarter patched in. I'm not sure that quarter/rocker would ever look "factory" again.

The body shop also repainted the outside of the door and quarter. They decided not to remove the belt molding on the door... but just tape it off. This led to the clear coat pulling back (peeling) the entire length of the door. The quarter had a visible tape line below the roof hoop which was also peeling back. The seam inside the water channel under the hatch looked OEM, so it appears the repair was isolated to the side of the vehicle.

The rear bumper was also repainted. It had a large sag in the clear at the bottom of the bumper with several drips hanging off the bottom edge.

The car has 68k miles on it, so I expected for there to be a surprise here and there. In fact, if it were just the clear coat peeling and the sag in the rear bumper, I would have at least made another offer on the car. The damage to the quarter and the shoddy repair was a deal breaker for me.

The car mechanically is a 9.5 out of 10 from what I could tell without getting under it. The engine bay was clean and all of the clips/wires/etc. seemed to be in the right places. The underside of the hood was pretty rough (gouges, black, spotty, etc.). The paint from 10-20 feet away was probably a 9 (so it looks good in pictures). However, when you get up close, every panel has a blemish and the driver's side is a mess. So I'd give it a 4 out of 10 after further inspection.

In my estimation, that car is actually worth about half of their asking price. The body/metal damage is significant and will require a skilled metal worker to repair it back to OEM (remember, there is factory seam and welds to mimic). For that reason, I decided not to make another offer on the car. The dealer refunded my deposit and we left promptly.

 

While 68k is relatively low miles but even unwrecked it seems the car would have a hard time bringing half of what its listed for? Ive seen quite few listed on the boards and none in this price range, even LS1 SS Camaros are scarcely worth $11k+....

 

It would be interesting to get a hold of the original owner to find out what happened. I could bet he lost control and slid sideways into something, but yeah that's got to be frustrating driving all that way to see something in that condition. Car dealerships that are honest are not to be found anymore.

 

The LT1 SSs are still holding their value pretty well. Most of the $6,000 cars have 100k miles on them. However, most of them don't have the problems mentioned above.

The price I negotiated was significantly less than the $11,500 asking price. I'd have still needed several thousand more off to consider buying it. Even then... I'm not sure it's worth the trouble to "save" a 68k mile car.