That really sucks you had to travel so far. He should have known the rims were bent or at least been upfront with you. I myself have any car I'm selling inspected BEFORE I list it or have somebody come look at it.

I hope you at least had a good 4th of July

 

cl interior contains hemp which is the "marijuana smell" your referring to

 

I was just made aware of this thread by a (former) potential buyer of my cl65. I am the guy in CT who is being trampled here. One of a few things that Dave did not mention is that he has travelled the country 3 or 4 other times to see cl's with under 10,000 miles, and none have met his standards. Now that is his decision to do that, but to trample an honest person is not OK because Dave is a little quirky. I am not sure if anyone really cares, but I feel that both sides need to be heard here.

Dave did not mention that he test drove my car at over 130MPH and absolutely fell in love with it. Never mentioned a vibration (let alone a "heinous" vibration as he described it one of his posts. Once driving with the tech at the dealership, he then mentioned a vibration.

I never tried to force Dave away from the dealership, but I did ask if he wanted to go for a ride with me back to my shop rather then sitting at the dealership all day. Him coming for a ride with me and Daves Uncle (Who was a fantastic, guy and very generous to bring me 40 miles back to work since my ride was the CL in the dealership) would not have changed the results of the inspection. I know that technicians and service writers much prefer not to be stared at and questioned while doing their job, especially throughout a 9 to10 hour inspection.

Also not mentioned by Dave was the fact that he paid Mercedes over $500 for the same inspection that Mercedes does to certify a car and everything else was perfect and passed with flying colors (less a few odds and ends that were covered under warranty such as moisture in one of the blinker lites, a couple of stripped screws that hold on a heat shield and the like.

As far as the rims go, the reason I didn't go back to the dealer to see them immediately when Dave was there was not because I didn't care, it was because I was in the middle of a diner banquet at a golf tournament and couldn't sneak away. I did go the next day to pick up the car and was made aware of the situation. Its true I did not know about the "road force machine", I actually called around to a few dealerships (not mercedes) and none of them knew of it either. It seems to be used mostly by Mercedes. This machine did say that 2 rims were slightly out of range by a very small margin, yet when put on a spin balancer, the tires and rims needed less that a quarter of an ounce of weight to balance, that combined with the fact that the car was driven at 130 MPH with no shimmy at all would make anyone doubt the Road Force machine, but I still had the rims looked at by an alloy rim repair company that I had used once or twice to fix Curb Rash on my truck, and my wifes E320 wagon. He did tell me the rims were not perfect, but he said that they were still better then most new alloy rims that come new on vehicles. I had him get them as close to true as possible to the tune of $465, so now the car has near perfect rims (all 4) for $465 instead of the $4000 for rims that may or may not have been as true.

The tires being nearly worn as Dave put it is ridiculous, the car had 4700 miles on it, the tires are like new, and even the dealer reported this.

As far as the mariuana smell, Dave needs to realize that I didn't make the interior (or smoke in it for that matter) it is just the way it smells.

All this being said, it is pretty disturbing that a somewhat quirky, strange fellow from Miami can blow a sale for me and turn so many high class Mercedes owners against an honest guy. It is true I sell computers on ebay and for those of you who know ebay, my rating is almost 2000 with a 99.9 % percentage of positive feedback. If I was dishonest and a ****** and a "twatwaffle" as dave so politely calls me in his post, how can I achieve such a rating.

If any of you out there are really interested in this whole transaction, or possibly interested in the car, Dave has posted my phone # in one of the posts. Please feel free to call.

By the way, I would am looking for an sl55 AMG to buy outright or possibly trade for this cl.

Thanks for reading, I sure hope that it makes a difference in everyones opinion of me and my car.

By the way, I would be happy to send pics and the dealers certification report to anyone interested in buying, trading or just interested.

Be Well

Brian (aka twatwaffle) in CT

 

One last thing on Daves post, the fact that I was not comfortable taking a check for almost $90,000.00 should not surprise anyone. It was certainly not a distraction tactic (most of the time while I was on the phone Dave was outside looking at the car anyway, so if anything it was the opposite, it gave him more time alonr to look at the car, what does he think i was trying to distract him from?) it was simply protecting myself and my families best interests. I spent almost an hour on the phone with his bank to confirm funds. I don't think there is really anything wrong or distracting about that.

Even after talking with the bank, I was still worried as they said there was a 10 day period where the funds can be withdrawn. This is an awful lot of money to have snatched from your account on top of not having the car any longer. So I suggested he wire the money from his account to mine. He was with me in CT when I suggested he do this, once the wire would have been completes he would have been driving off in the car. It wasn't like I was fleeing. I did also suggest a wire transfer as a possible form of paytment when we first spoke or emailed as well, but thought the bank check would be OK, but did get nervous once hearing about the possibility of the funds being pulled.

Just thought I would clarify this point as well.

Thanks for reading once again

Brian in CT

 

Brian, I know what you mean about a check being able to be cancelled within ten days.
I had a 2001 SLK320 that i was trying to sell to a guy this last December. I told him I wanted a certified bank check or cash, not a personal check or cashiers check. He agreed to the certified check. When he showed up with a cashiers check I said no deal. He really wanted the car and went to three different branches of his bank and finally got the cash after several hours. He called from the second bank and said he couldn't get any more money in time (it was a Saturday morning). I said no deal then. Well, he got the money, so he got the car.

Point is - it is your car and if they don't like the terms you have set too-bad.
What if it got wrecked after he drove off. He could cancel the check and you would be out cold.

 

One last thing (I really will try to stop posting on this). After his day at the dealership, MiamiDave offered to buy the car less the cost of 2 rims, I refused. If he was so repulsed by my "tactics" and as he profoundly stated "if he lies 20%, why wouldn't he lie 100%?". Then why would he have still tried to convince me to sell it less the cost of the rims, obviously he did have a lot of confidence in the car and also because the dealer told him the car was like new other than the rims being slightly out of their parameters.

OK, I think I am done now.
I really have to stop rereading this, as I keep finding more and more that is inaccurate.

Thanks again for reading!!!

B