Buying an SL60 and/or R129 Pano Roof - Strange sellers or strange buyer (me!!!)

[rockits]

Asking for the info you did is hardly OTT and if I were buying it would make me pretty suspicious too. If I'm selling a car I will go to great lengths to get things right, but with some buyers there is a point where you say enough is enough.

The pano swap though I can understand him negotiating - people always have different perceptions of values, but if you don't try you don't get. I recently needed to find some cloth for my old BMW to repair a bolster. I couldn't find any at all, except a dealer I knew had a car for sale with a roll of cloth as an inducement. I asked him if he'd sell me some cloth for a sensible price, which he happily did.

Thanks Charles......I'm not completely mental then.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Model of rationality when you came to look at my C55. It didn't meet your requirements, you said so after a run and you didn't waste my time.

 

[d w124]

I don't disagree that standard hard tops aren't worth too much. That is not really my point.

If you had that car, wanted to sell it and I was offered £1k plus a standard hardtop would you take it? I would no problem at all. I would be 25% way to selling my car for the £4k I wanted. I wouldn't see the car as worth £1600 more because it has a pano roof....would you? Cheap car at £3800 with a standard hardtop is it not?

I totally I understand your point but as I said,I would act the same way as the seller did

129 pano roofs are selling north of £1500,wether it has less value to others is another story but they are selling at such price

 

[Abb]

I would have to agree with your comments OP. I do not think you were being unreasonable in your requests for a few more pics of the SL nor some verification on the service history. As for comments on people being time wasters oppose to genuine interested potential purchasers, am afraid MOST sellers know thats what they are buying into when advertising on eBay.
I too have bought and sold many items on eBay and do all I can when asked for extra pics, politely decline when I get low ball offers, and accept that I will occasionally gets messed about or given the runaround.

In regards to what in essence is a part ex plus £1k cash for the hardtop, again a perfectly reasonable request and if it were me, I would have snapped your hands off! Put it into perspective, getting almost a quarter of the value of the car and still having the car to sell would have been a no brainer for me, as I don't believe nigh on half the value of the car is in that pan roof!

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I did and I thank any posters for their opinion. Just goes to prove what I thought. I live on a different planet to most people on this place we call Earth

Know the feeling.

 

[andy27168]

Given the seller is being quite cagey and the inaccuracies in the advert, something doesn't sit quite right.

Full AMG body kit - apart from the front and rear bumpers, and side skirts that is. No idea whether the exhaust is there either.
Launch control - errr...no.
No shots of the engine bay.
Blue car should have a blue roof, not black.
"ORIGINAL badges" - was Klaus p*ssed when he put them on then?

Also to add to the inaccuracies, it has either been re-listed or the listing been edited but it originally said that it was a V12 as well.

 

[rockits]

Also to add to the inaccuracies, it has either been re-listed or the listing been edited but it originally said that it was a V12 as well.

That was me too! This was my first question to the seller (there has only been 3 in total!) to ask if the car was an SL60 or an SL600 as the SL60 was a V8 and not a V12. The seller replied and said it was an SL60 with V8 and changed the ad

 

[rockits]

Model of rationality when you came to look at my C55. It didn't meet your requirements, you said so after a run and you didn't waste my time.

Thanks Charles. Likewise yourself as the seller.

Yes, sorry I didn't buy it As we discussed at the time the suspension mods really improved the cars handling but was a little too harsh for me at the time. Not sure what I bought in the end. Maybe my RRS SC came at that point. Not sure it was quite some time ago now I guess.

 

[rockits]

I would have to agree with your comments OP. I do not think you were being unreasonable in your requests for a few more pics of the SL nor some verification on the service history. As for comments on people being time wasters oppose to genuine interested potential purchasers, am afraid MOST sellers know thats what they are buying into when advertising on eBay.
I too have bought and sold many items on eBay and do all I can when asked for extra pics, politely decline when I get low ball offers, and accept that I will occasionally gets messed about or given the runaround.

In regards to what in essence is a part ex plus £1k cash for the hardtop, again a perfectly reasonable request and if it were me, I would have snapped your hands off! Put it into perspective, getting almost a quarter of the value of the car and still having the car to sell would have been a no brainer for me, as I don't believe nigh on half the value of the car is in that pan roof!

Aha there is a face of reason....at last someone on the same planet. I will cancel the appt to the shrink!

 

[E55BOF]

Maybe I should phone him up and buy it over the phone and take punt. What is the worst that can happen

"Bought an R129 unseen - a Cautionary Tale..." posted on 21 October 2015 will give you a few ideas!

 

[rockits]

"Bought an R129 unseen - a Cautionary Tale..." posted on 21 October 2015 will give you a few ideas!

LOL...I remember reading all that. I was only joking and more of a tongue in cheek comment. I would never buy a 20 year old SL60 blind that is for sure.

 

[oldguy57]

Thanks for you reply. I need to look in the mirror then I guess. I didn't think asking for a few pics and an outline service history was too much too ask or so I thought. I guess it is. I am looking to buy a 20 year old £100k car for £18k so maybe my demands are unreasonable.

Maybe I should phone him up and buy it over the phone and take punt. What is the worst that can happen

Never suggested buy it over the phone - nobody in their right mind would do that. IF it is that rare and I was looking for one all I meant was that the first thing I would have done would have been to go look. If there are plenty about that is a different matter. Just shows that people have a different approach to buying/selling. How is daughter by the way?

 

[rockits]

I would go and look at it but don't think this one is for me. Combination of seller, it being a pre facelift and don't think I could live with the blue interior. It is one of my pet dislikes.

I have actually grown to like that old school pre facelift look with the ducktail & split rims though.

Daughter is good thanks. Most of the stitches have gone and she is over it bar a few bits. Has a broken adult tooth that can't be fixed but we had a cover/cap fitted. Just will need removing and replacing every 3-5 years. There is some scaring to the lower lip edge/underside and the front upper baby teeth are dark now until the adult teeth come through. A bumpy lip that will need some cosmetic surgery in 1-2 years but on the whole pretty good considering. Until the next disaster!

 

[Doodle]

I have actually grown to like that old school pre facelift look with the ducktail & split rims though.

A little something to whet your whistle

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Seller may have had bad experiences of professional time wasters and as such now struggles to separate them from genuine buyers.

In my experience of buying and selling privately many cars over the past few years, I would say the ratio is 10:1, this ratio goes up to 20:1 when selling something fast.

Buying and selling on forums is generally good though, MattC who bought the E270 was an absolute pleasure to deal with, knew what he was buying, didn't expect brand new, asked all the right questions and I gave him as much info as possible. On the other hand, when I was selling the E55K with Brabus brakes (did I ever mention them?) I had a forum member ask the most questions I've ever been asked about a car, I answered them all the best I could, he then asked even more questions to which I replied then his last email was that he wouldn't be taking it any further because it was silver and he didn't want silver!!!!

 

[rockits]

A little something to whet your whistle

Awesome thanks...very nice.

 

[rockits]

A little something to whet your whistle

Are those wide arches?

 

[rockits]

LOL...very funny Lee. I guess you have to keep your sense of humour in that case. You should have asked what colour he wanted @ wrapped it for him

 

[texasjohn]

If he hasn't got the time or inclination to alter it or spend time preparing the car for sale then selling it then they are not the seller for me. I have bought cars blind without even seeing them so I am not a time waster or someone who looks at cars and doesn't buy them. Maybe that is why I have 6!

If it was £5k or less then fair enough. However it is a £100k car new and still a £100k car now so much to be wrong with it and much risk. With any car like this many parts are end of life and you need to prepare to have very deep pockets should the worst happen. A car is often most people's single biggest purchase in life second to a house. Why not spend some time getting it as right as it can be.

My first SL60 was from North Wales. Olly @ PCS kindly did an on-site inspection for me before I even saw the car. Then I went to see it, we talked, we did a deal and I bought it. That was not far off half the cost of this one.

If I were young free and single I can see your point. However I have a wife, 2 kids and a stack of jobs on my list constantly. I cannot afford to waste time looking at cars if they are not right. I know what I want and know what is right. If the car has a 5 year hole in the service history I want to know about it before I waste my time as it won't be for me. I am being open, honest and upfront trying not to waste both seller and buyers times.

I thought it was not too much to ask for a few more pics and a simple list of the dates, services and miles on services completed. It seems I am the unreasonable one though. I would have no issue doing this for a potential buyer. In fact I did this recently.

I sold my E55K to a thoroughly nice chap on here. I tried to do all I could to be as nice as possible and do as much as I could to satisfy the buyer's request. I canned in the Service Book and invoices and e-mailed them over. I even took his Focus ST-3 in part ex against it. I never even saw the Focus and bought it in.

Maybe I worry too much and work too hard. Maybe I should bother less but that is just the way I am....I care.

I would cut and paste this and send it to the seller of the SL60. He might see where you are coming from now you've explained things from your perspective.

As someone above said, some enquirers ask for lots of information, pics, details etc and then you hear nothing more from them.

 

[rockits]

I do agree. Although I do seem to rattle on a bit. Shame I type quite well & fast as you can type a ton of words quickly!

I think I have moved on from this one now. I use my gut feeling a lot now and prefer to deal with similar like minded people. I like it to be natural & organic. If you have to work too hard at something maybe it is not right or meant to be. I'm not going to lose any sleep.