[nadir]

so we saw this sweet 3rd gen... really clean, i test drove it and all. My parents were going later during the day to seal the deal... well my dad calls him half hour before the appointment like the guy had asked us to do and now he said the alternator went bad and he wants to replace it before he sells it.....

okay, so the car has been sittin on the side of the street all week. He lets me drive it on the freeway and roads and the car started up fine and no problem. He doesn't even drive the car anymore because he had his own car... now all of a sudden the alternator died? freakin if he wants to hold off or sell it to someone else, why can't people just say it. Not like he's ever gonna see us again. So frustrating!

 

[nadir]

yeah, looks like i am the asshole after all. The guy called back and asked us to come take a look at the car again. He showed me the bad alternator and the one that's in there. We test drove it again and it was okay. Got the car for 4500 (96 LE I4, 112k miles, really clean condition).


The car isn't for me... for my brother. BUT, like every other car i can get my hands on, it's time to mod this one lol.


here's a pic of it. I need to run my polishes and orbital on it to get the paint back to it's full potential and it should be good to go for my brother. I plan to jump on some deals with clear corners, clear bumpers, front strut bar, red-out tails, and new audio. Glad to see such a great forum packed with good info.

 

[nadir]

haha yeah lenses.

okay guys, so help this noob out... dunno much about the aftermarket support for the camrys. My brother said he doesn't want to touch the engine so looks like it's simple cosmetics. I am surprised at how cheap these stuff go on ebay. Perhaps someone could point me to a more trusted vendor (e-store or private seller?). Just for quality sake... don't want to be stuck with APC crap.

I'm thinking of finding an OEM spoiler that's already painted that color. That's a long shot but we'll see... dunno what else to make this camry nicer. It is the LE, it has power locks and windows, but that's about it.

 

[nadir]

good observation! Actually i did notice the lack of bumper holes. I inspected the engine bay and everything looked okay. At the bottom of the bumper (that grill area) there seems to be some paint that was peeling away. I was going to touch it up since that area isn't visible anyways. thanks!

 

[nadir]

okay well, i think we may not be ending up with the car afterall... here's the story.

Last night, we went over there and negotiated a price for the car. Since he gave us the alternator story, we figured he wasn't interested in selling the car so my dad didn't bother withdrawing $5k from the bank (we weren't planning to pay any more than that). He called us at 7PM and told us to come down there and take a look at the car... well, the bank is closed by then. So what we did was we gave him a $200 deposit and he drove the car to our place and left it on the driveway... he kept the paperwork and keys. The next morning (today) we planned on meeting up with him at DMV to do the title transfer and give him the rest of of the money.


Well, here's when the situation gets sticky. We get there, we have the money, he has the paperwork, that's fine. We get called up to go to the counter and he presents the paper. Well, like he had mentioned before, he wasn't the owner of the car. It is his father-in-law's and mother-in-laws car (their names are on the title). He didn't have the pinkslip with him either but he had some transfer papers with his father -in-laws signature. The DMV lady told him he should go get the mother-in-law's signature too since her name is on the title. OKAY, he leaves pissed off to go get the singature. FUnny thing is, he mentioned to us last night that his in-laws lived like 45 minutes away but he told us that he would run and get the signature in 15-20 min and to wait for him at the DMV. we waited... as we were waiting, my parents are suspicious so they go and talk to the DMV lady. Apparently, the DMV lady thought he was the title owner of the car and she said that he needs a written/signed/notary authorization from the in-laws so that he could make the sale and transfer the title.

We call him back and tell him that we need a paper for that. And he says NO. wtf? we tell him we're not buying the car unless we have that for legal purposes. He then says he's picking up the car and keeping our deposit. We then tell him over the phone that we'll have to call the cops if he decides to do that. He then says he'll cal his in-laws and calls us back sayin that he will return our deposit, pick up the car, and that he had decided to sell the car to his friend.

whatever. We remind him again at that moment that we still want to get the car, we just want everything legal. Actually, i don't even think DMV would have even let him exchange the title without that info. I dunno, it got too shadey so now my brother is sittin at home watching the car to make sure he doesn't come outta no where and just drive away with it.

Goddamnit!

 

[nadir]

yeah haha i was plannin that last night actually just in case anything happens, but can't get into the car or engine unless i decide to unlock the car with a wired hanger. maybe i should jack the car up and take the front 2 wheels off. oh well, hopefully he decides otherwise and just get the right paperwork. we really like the car.

 

[nadir]

I wasn't there when all of this happened... just got whatever info my brother told me. I just finished talking to my dad.

My parents feel that there's something fishy going... like as if he's selling the car to us without the in-laws knowledge. Now, if the title is transferred at DMV and whatnot, would we be held responsible later on?

I told my dad when the guy calls back to pickup the car, to let him know it's not that we're trying to be annoying and that we're asking him for extra paperwork... just make sure that he understand sthat he NEEDS that authorization paper if he wants it to sell to anyone. I think there was a bit of miscommunication going on here, but whatever it is, i'll keep you guys posted. By tonight, we'll know if we're keeping it or not.

 

[nadir]

update:

so my brother called me now and told me what happened.. the dude came back to our place with a friend who is a dealer (i think for cars?). Alot of arguing was exchanged, but the dealer guy was tryin to be cool and calm and play as the middle man...

basically, the guy refused to give us back our $200 and was about to drive off with the car. However, we were like, if he's not going to give us the $200, we will just go to DMV tomorrow with him and see if they approve of the title exchange. If they do, fine, we have the car.

Gotta block the car definately tonite... it's on the driveway so i will park both cars parallel to the driveway curb so he cant come at night and drive off with it. damn i hate this shadey business!

most likely, we are keeping the car.

 

[nadir]

So let's say DMV approves it... end of story, right? Not like his father-in-law can come back and try to claim the car or take it away from us.

 

[nadir]

we just called him but he didn't pick up. Immediately, we got a call back from his older brother (or whoever he is that came by today with him) and told us that the guy is not going to be involved anymore...

he said that he was going to take the responsibility and that we should'nt worry. He claims that he has the power of attorney and everything will be handled properly.

 

[nadir]

okay, here's what happened. The asshole didn't even show up to DMV today. We tried callin him from there and he never picked up. FInally, when DMV closed (waited an hour), my parents went home and called him from a blocked number line and the dude finally picked up. He told me that the original guy that we were dealing with has called it off and that they are going to pick up the car this evening and not return our deposit.

WTF. So they're not even going to try to go through DMV and see if the papers transfer over? what the hell is that. So then we call him back and the asshole is refusing to pickup and we left him a message. Basically, we told him that we are going to call the cops and to have the original guy whom we were dealing with call us back. He called us back and gave a number to contact him because he was not in town. We call this guy up and he says that he wasn't updated on what was going on and he sounded surprised that the dude didn't even show up. We then told him we don't want to deal with this bullshit anymore and to come get their car off our driveway and give us back our 200 bucks or we're going to take legal action. He said to get the legal action because that's what he wants...

fine, but our local PD doesn't take reports after 6PM so now we have to wait till tomorrow morning.. at this point, we've blocked the car off so he doesn't come in at night and take it away. I wanted to get the car towed off our property but we're going to wait in the morning. We even had good faith by calling him and giving him a warning about it before we called and got it towed. We'll see what happens.. i tried calling him right now and see if we can sort this out because at this point, no way we're buying the car, we just want our money back without going through the police but this guy is not willing to communicate so what can we do.