Country Classic Does It Again

Well just came back from the shop to try and help out a friend. He bought a convertible from country cl***ics in Ill. They put one over on him thats for sure. There have been threads on here about them before. Well here is another.
It is definitely my friends fault for buying the car unseen. That is a bad move and I'm sure many people have been burned that way before. Country cl***ic sent photos of the car and it is a decent looking car. It's a twenty footer. Which is fine. It is what my friend expected but, when I put it on the lift to check it out I couldn't belive it. The frame is completely rotted out. Not just a little spot you could patch up. The frame is practically non existent. You could see numerous places where it was patched.
I don't know what my buddy is going to do. He says he will try to call him tomorow to see if he will take it back. I doubt he is going to without a fight. Does any one know if Illinois has a lemon law. The man that owns country cl***ic must be some cl*** act.
I guess thats my warning to any one thinking of buying a car from them. Be very careful. This is not the only thread on here about them and I am sure it won't be the last.

 

Did your friend ask about the frame, or did he get pictures of the underside when they sent him the pics?

 

I'm not sure if he asked about the frame or not. I know he said he didn't get any pics of the frame.
I will be the first to say he should have paid some one to look at the car for him (it's about 1000 miles away ) or go youreself, but this I feel is some thing a reputable car dealer shuold have told him. The car is dangerous to drive. Country cl***ics told him the car was in good shape. My buddy was definitely not expecting a show car just a driver. He was happy when the car showed up with the way it looked and ran. When he saw the shape of the frame he just couldn't believe it.

 

I'm a used car dealer in Wisconsin. Lemon laws only apply to new cars. WI dealers have to disclose any frame damage or repair, but I don't know about Il. I would check with the Illinois DOT or attorny general. Don't let your buddy just roll over on an issue like this!

 

To answer your question, Illinois does have a lemon law but I believe it only applies to new vehicles and those sold with a warranty.

If he bought the car sight unseen and "As-Is" I'm betting that the law won't be of much help. He should contact the Illinois Secretary of State and ask about any recourse he may have.

Sorry to hear that your pal got screwed but it kinda sounds like he set himself up for it as well.

And for what its worth, I am being sympathetic. I've done the same thing but not with the firm in question. I bought a '48 Plymouth from New Jersey without the benefit of trusted eyes looking at it and I got a good old fashioned screwing too.

 

Anyone buying a car sight unseen is possibly making a horrible mistake....unless a trusted person does a full inspection of the car for the buyer. I will never buy a car without laying my own eyes on it or having someone I know and trust look at it for me.

A good example...my Father just bought a '63 Thunderbird Sports Roadster (a real one) off eBay. But he made arraingements before hand to go look at the car before the transaction was complete. He is in NY, the car was in AZ. He flew out and it was what the seller said so he bought the car. If a seller balks at that idea, take your money else where. Something is probably shady.

Pictures tell a thousand lies....

 

I dealt with them and would not do it again. I was told the car i was buying ran and drove well. When the guy shows up with the carrier, I find the following,
* right front brake dragging (swelled front brake hose)
* car started off a jug with hose (bad gas in tank, all they had to do was change it, and there was a drain plug on the tank)
* broken shift collar (was able to shift by hand)
* gummed up carb (needed extra choke to keep running)
* bad original battery cable (c'mon cheap new ones are less than $20)
* bad starter solenoid (started with channellocks)
* dragging muffler (tore it off and ran straight pipe)

All these things pointed to a car that had been sitting a long while. There was a little surface rust that was definitely not in the pictures. And to boot the carrier told me, "they had a helluva time getting that car running". I had paid in full 2 weeks before he picked it up. All they had to do was put in a little effort and I would have been happy. But instead they lied about the condition, posted old pictures to the web and did only the minimum necessary to load the car. In hind sight I would not do business with them again. All in all the car was a good driver, worth the price, and with almost no rust. But a little honesty goes a long way. I would say if you are close enough to travel there in person, you might be able to keep them honest. Otherwise, steer clear and be aware that their cars may have been sitting there a long time. He told me that my car was previously on the road. When I got the ***le, after the delivery, I realized that it was 8 years since it was on the road.

 

As was said. A little honesty. It appears country cl***ics just doesn't care. If we didn't put the car on the lift he would just be driving it and it is a dangerous vehicle. He could have hurt himself and other people. The frame is that bad.
He is going to call tomorow and see if they can work this out. I seriously doubt it's gonna be easy getting this guy to take the car back. I spoke to a buddy from chicago and he says they have pretty strict lemon laws there. We will see if it pertains to used cars.

 

I'll put this to you straight, your buddy is screwed. Unless he can convince the guy to give him back his money the car is his.

I do frame rust repair here in IL. There is a lot here in town that had a toyota pickup with a rotted frame. That truck was brought by my place 3 different times to see if I could fix the frame, which I couldn't with out replacing almost the whole thing. Those first 3 brought it by before they bought it. The dealer told the last guy that I could fix the frame "no problem" so he bought it without checking. When he came by my place he was pretty nasty because I told him the deal and wasn't going to fix the truck. He went back to the dealer and the guy told him "Tough ****! Should have checked before, you bought it as is." Tell your buddy good luck. Gene

 

if the frame is as bad as you say it is, forget the lemon law and file an attempted murder charge against the business/owner. Get the district attorney involved. Seems like the dealer was attempting to kill your friend. Years ago a good friend of mine bought his kid a car, where the seller 'doctored' the frame. My buddy went this way, and satisfaction was achieved quickly.

 

A dishonest used car dealer?

NO WAY!!!!

Lessons (unfortunately) are usually learned the hard way. Sounds like your friend just learned a pretty expensive lesson.

Next time tell him to spend the $125 to have a local appraiser check it out. I almost bought a 65 Impala SS conv from a guy in Detroit once. The guy couldn't speak English, so I was dealing with his wife, who told me it was in BRAND NEW condition, and e-mailed me some pics. The car looked great in the pics, but I noticed some of the people in the background wearing some very dated clothing, so I paid an appraiser to look at it. He sent me some recent pics, as opposed to the pictures from the EARLY 80's that the wife sent me (and told me they were just taken within the last year). Needless to say, sitting outside in Detroit for 20 plus years made the car look a little, uhhh, "different". That $125 saved me from paying 12 grand for a car that was worth about 2. Luckily I'd already learned my lesson in this department, and lost a lot less money than I would have lost on that SS.

The one thing a lot of car guys can't seem to figure out is that not all car guys are honest. Most of us get ripped off once or twice before we learn the game.

According to what I've read here over the years, this is pretty much standard operating procedure with this guy, and he's been doing it for quite awhile now. I'd say your friend probably has very little recourse. He bought an old used car sight unseen. Like they say - "let the buyer beware".

 

There aren't any frame shots on any of the cars (that I looked at just now) on his website.

There is a very busy paint shop somewhere nearby. Buffers running 24/7 probably...

Looks like a warehouse of e-bay nightmares!

 

Oh ther definitely is some busy buffers. The car has nice rims that were put on with decent tires. It makes the car look very presentable and probably very nice in the pics.
It just ****s that this guy keeps getting people over and over. I have even read he is real nasty in person.If you want to go and look at his stuff he wants to charge you to get in . Like it is some sort of museum. From what I have heard it's more like a s**** yard.
I

 

I wouldn't define it as a s****yard. He has a lot of nice looking cars (emphasis on "looking"); some average; some poor; & some total re-do/parts cars. He puts a fairly high to very high value on all of them. My guess is, judging by the cars themselves, and the number of "new paint" listings, is that they do a lot of superficial restos.

There are some cars there truly in good shape. My guess is that they don't really get into anything mechanical beyond making sure the engine runs- brakes halfway function, at least once- steering wheel is connected. All that is fine, so long as the buyer is aware & prepared. Not the way I would want to run my business....but, whoever said that everyone's honest? Judging by what I have seen & heard I would not recommend anyone ever buy a car from them (or anyone, really) sight unseen. As was said some months ago in Joe's thread...inspect carefully & take another knowledgeable person with you....

The lot has, at a guess, some 250 vintage cars/trucks on it, & is prominently located next to an extremely well-traveled Interstate. My understanding is that they charge admission to cut down on the tire-kickers...which I sort of understand in a way...but it seems that if you are in that business, with cl***ic cars for sale, you would have to accept a LOT of lookers as a fact of life.

Stoink, I hope the car at least has a full frame, not a unibody...so if your friend ends up taking a hit he can at least repair it a little more easily. My other suggestion would be to file complaints with the BBB, Illinois Attorney General, and, if he purchased it via or involving the Internet...http://www.ic3.gov the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. They are very good & reasonably quick about directing your story to the appropriate state office. Do***ent everything- e-mails, on-line listings, sent pictures, CCC's statements about the car's condition, etc. Get a local shop/mechanic to inspect it and give an "unsafe for driving" written statement; estimates for repair; lots of pictures of patches/scabby welds & so forth. Be PREPARED (I know, I know...)

 

Why does Greater Dakota Cl***ics come to mind when I read this?

 

Buying "cl***ic cars" from dealers is risky at best.Its better if you buy from a private seller and spend all day going over the car.A friend of mine just restored a 66 gto that the customer bought from a "cl***ics dealer" for 15,000 dollars that had chicken wire & bondo holding the frame together.! 20,000dollars later he now has a nice restored 66 gto . BEWARE! Mike

 

A few years back, my brother and I flew from Houston to Fresno to buy a '54 Ford convertible custom from a dealer... we planned to drive it back via Route 66. Had several good talks on the phone with the seller... mailed pics... looked great... swore up/down that the only problem was the small ding in the grill that showed in one pic. He picked us up at the airport and drove us to dealership to look at the car... it was OK, but not nearly as nice as he made it out to be. Dings, scratches, missing hardware, etc. Definitely not worth the money he wanted for it.

Twenty minutes later, he was driving us back to Fresno airport... and the whole time he's giving ME **** about flying all the way out there and NOT buying his car!

We had the foresight to buy round trip tix, so when he dropped us back at the airport we pushed the return flight out from Sat to Mon, rented a car, and spent the weekend driving around Cali visiting friends in LA and Frisco. Turned out to be one helluva fun weekend.

Still, it was REAL tough to walk away from the deal after weeks of being so pumped about buying and driving that car.

 

i hate that place, mainly because my brother bought a car from them. it had a $4,000 price tag, had a 30/20 paint job, it run ok, we drove it & i told him not to buy the 1st thing he saw. sadly he didnt listen to me Because when got it to my place & really was able to go threw it, i found it needed a complete front end rebuild, complete brake system rebuild, complete tuneup, all the hoses, all the fuels lines, the carb rebuilt. at least i can say he was able to drive it for at least 3yrs & put about 30,000 miles on it after i fixed that **** untill the rearend deside to start to leak & groan so thats next on the list to fix.

personally i wouldnt buy DIRT from them unless i saw it first & then loaded it myself. yes they do have some(i use that term lightly) decent cars there inside the pole barns but they are worth about 1/2 thier asking price & 95% of the stuff out side are "parts cars" & some of those aren't worth taking parts off of. they had a 60's Lincoln 4dr rusted so ****ing bad that the doors aligned like this /\ and what was left of the floorpan was on the ground &&& the shocker was they want something like $3500 for that piece of ****.

if it would make your friend feel any better about the car put a gun in his back so at least he could say he was held up when he bought the car..joe

 

Seems to me that for the amount of money you could easily waste on an over priced, misrepresented piece of **** you could buy a plane ticket or a tank of gas and be sure its a good one. That plane fare would be dirt cheap if your $15,000 dream car turns out to need $20,000 worth of repair work!

 

i'm pretty sure that most of the cars there are on consignment. i'm not defending them at all, but a lot of those claims may be from the owners of the cars. bottom line, though, don't gamble more than you can afford to lose...

 

I think alot of them are on consignment, but one things for sure. Even if the cars not a piece of **** you are gonna pay WAY too much

 

I figured I would give a quick update. My buddy spoke to someone at country cl***ic cars. He told them the problem with the car. My buddy is trying to be civil at this point and not screaming and making threats. Country cl***ic says they will find him a frame. My buddy is cool with that as long as they plan on kicking him back some money on the price of the car. It has not been discussed as of yet but, he is planning on calling country cl***ics back tomorow.
In the meantime any one know of or have a frame for a 67 ford galaxie convertible. By the way what do you figure it might cost to swap frames. My buddy is asking me to do it. I don't have a problem with it but, I cant figure the amount of hours to get everything rigt and running.

 

That depends on how hard you wanna work and how fast. Providing everything is close it really can be done in a day if you have the stuff to lift the body slide the frame out and slide the new one in...... Hourly and a pal.. 35.00 an hour 25.00 an hour .. beer and pizza..?????
Dave

 

a little o/t , but that is a funny *** screen name , lol.............

 

Damn I was figuring at least 40 hours. I am thinking the worst. I would still have to get it to drive out of my garage. Swap drive train, probably run some new brake lines. Who knows how the frame will come if it will even have a suspension.

A few people on the Jockey were complaining about my previous screen name so I changed it. It seemed two people can't have the same knick name in life . The other guy was semi famous for being on one of the monster garage episodes. So I changed it.

 

Make sure you know the difference between convertible frames and regular frames or you will NOT be happy.

Good luck,
Cosmo

 

I don't know the reason, but 65-68 Ford convertable frames are notorious for rusting & rotting out. Must be a lot of areas for moisture/water to get into.

 

Actually, it's all Galaxie/LTD frames in general from those years...the torque boxes are marvelous collectors of both water AND moisture-holding debris. Sort of similar to C3 Corvette frames. The center rail sections usually have heavy rust, when they have any rust at all. First thing to look at when buying one, even before the quarters.

My dad had a '66 Galaxie and the frame literally broke in half in 1980 one day when it was jacked up. Apparently Dad wasn't too fond of inspecting the bottom of his cars for potential problems.

 

can't be too careful buying "sight unseen" had a friend that purchased one which the guy outright lied about.confronted the guy ended up ***aulting the guy,spent 90 days in jail,never got his money for the car back but during that process meets a woman thats getting divorced. guess who's wife it was? the guy that had burned him on the car they got married(that was 20 years ago) and enjoyed 1/2 of his kingdom,the box and the bucks!

 

Share your experience with Il. Attorney General and stop Country Cl***ic Cars from ripping people off !!!

https://ccformsubmission.ilattorneygeneral.net/