Kind of tired of for sale ads on CarBuying being presented as truthful

"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
03/22/2015 at 16:41 • Filed to: easy money

"Airbags DID NOT DEPLOY!"

Well if a seller says so, it must be true!

Good job, hudsonvalley, for doing a small but seemingly obvious amount of research before posting...

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

DISCUSSION (42)

aberson Bresident of the FullyAssed Committe > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 16:43

well i mean it is a gm product, so the airbags probably didn't deploy

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 16:49

Tavarish is also insisting that there isn't frame damage when there clearly is soooo....

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 16:52

Meh those articles are always really really daft, they're just for entertainment value/ so people can suggest to relatives who just need to buy a reliable A-B car that they should get a 2002 S Class instead of a nearly new Fiesta.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
03/22/2015 at 16:54

Yeah I saw that too. Not to mention the user who posted the Carfax.

"Well Carfax isn't always accurate"

True, but after hudsonvalley dug up the above photo, we have silence from the author

ranwhenparked > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 16:54

Oh, that's just a side airbag. You don't really need to replace that, if you're just trying to make the car into a driver for yourself.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
03/22/2015 at 17:00

Those are actually within his realm of expertise as least... These ones about wrecked corvettes and 911s are completely unfeasible and typically dishonest.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:03

what is all that stuff on the interior? Looks almost like snow....

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:04

Well expertise =/= owning one or two luxury cars some for short periods of time, but I see what you're saying. The wrecked car ones are more dishonest, that said I doubt someone would take on that kind of project without further research. The second hand luxury car articles might actually influence someone to make a really bad financial decision.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder!
03/22/2015 at 17:05

It IS snow haha

promoted by the color red > ranwhenparked
03/22/2015 at 17:12

That's just exhibit A. Somebody found the link to the original listing showing that the car was crashed pretty hard.

Kinja'd!!!

http://www.usaautomarket.com/details.aspx?i…

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > promoted by the color red
03/22/2015 at 17:14

Looks like someone got halfway through the repair and realised there was something much bigger wrong.

lonestranger > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:14

For those who haven't seen it, here's a link to one of the ad s showing the airbag deployment and extensive damage.

Kinja'd!!!

lonestranger > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder!
03/22/2015 at 17:15

Kinja'd!!!

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
03/22/2015 at 17:18

Good theory.

Or even more disturbing: repair it up the point where it looks like a believable, smaller accident so it looks like a good deal and less likely to be challenged.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > lonestranger
03/22/2015 at 17:20

four-wheeling steering yo

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:20

Yeah that's possible too. It's really strange that the door and bumper have been refitted since the auction though. Wonder what the deal is there.

lonestranger > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:21

He did respond to one of the many replies exposing the car's true damage, but he brushed it off without acknowledging how deceptive and erroneous the ad (or his article) are.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > lonestranger
03/22/2015 at 17:31

This puts his post about the suspicious S-class with a missing center cap to shame haha

vwbeamer > lonestranger
03/22/2015 at 17:33

I don't think Tavarish is purposely being dishonest. The ebay seller definatly is. he refit the orginal door and rear bumper cover, I have no problem with that. But saying the bag didn't deploy, when it's clear that it did, is dishonest. He should also have shown the post wreck pictures and disclose that he already started the repair.

Bird > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
03/22/2015 at 17:43

Why is there clearly frame damage? I'm not seeing it from the pics that have been posted...suspension yes, but frame damage is entirely different. As Tavarish said, it needs to be checked out.

It's quite common for a 'rebuildables' reseller to buy from auction, fix a few things, and then sell it on. Swapping a subframe is easy, body work is more labor intensive. It adds value to their flip.

Pitchblende > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:44

Kinja'd!!!

The airbags might have deployed, but we were doing too much coke to notice.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Bird
03/22/2015 at 17:45

Look at the panel gaps on the left side vs the right side. The frame is bent. To make matters worse, it's aluminum, which means that it will forever be compromised and will be four times the cost to bend back into shape, if it can be done at all.

MarcusBrody > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:46

I think this is much more on an apparently fraudulent seller than on Tavarish. That car has been clearly gussied up since the auction and it's being passed off as if it hadn't. Anyone actually planning on buying such a car should obviously do as much research as possible (and it's great we have a community here that does such things because we think it's fun), but when I click on a "Car Buying" post, I'm not necessarily expecting the author to have gone back through Carfax and old auction listings to determine the veracity of a claim. I'm more just using it as a fun "If this is how it's described, is it a good buy?" discussion and then watching what people say they'd look for to see if the seller was being upfront.

MarcusBrody > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:47

This is what I was thinking. But I tend to believe the worst of people selling things.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Pitchblende
03/22/2015 at 17:48

You, good sir, have won the internet.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:53

very funny thing.. My grandma lives 5 minutes from the dealer selling the Corvette... I've driven by it so many times and wondered why the car a are so cheap... They downplay the damage so much of every thing on the lot making it seem like nothing happened

Bird > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
03/22/2015 at 17:54

The body panels on the left, and the front and back bumpers are just hung on for the photo. Again, very common practice. They had the parts, or got them cheap, so they hung them for the photo. That doesn't indicate frame damage. That's body work...I've been to plenty of rebuildable dealers, and owned salvage before...all this stuff is par for the course.

Jayhawk Jake > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 17:58

Tavarish said something inaccurate and brushed off people pointing it out?

Tell me something new...

Unbearable Pain > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 18:01

While I respect Tav and think his mentality of "Why buy this new when you can get this for the same/half-price!" has its place, I'm not buying a Corvette that looks like that under any circumstances. I'd rather save up and get a brand new one. I don't trust online ads like that. Clearly if he's selling it for so cheap he knows there's much more than superficial damage to the car.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Bird
03/22/2015 at 18:15

Yeah, but they're all consistently tight on one side and consistently loose on the other. It's not like they're all over the place. If you want to take a chance on it, go ahead, but as has been shown, the sellers are flat out lying about this car as it is.

Alex B > lonestranger
03/22/2015 at 18:22

Rekt.

Bird > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
03/22/2015 at 18:26

If they just hung the panels for the picture, they wouldn't be tight...Saying the bags haven't deployed could be an oversight about the side...could be a big deal, might not. All I'm saying is it may not have a damaged frame. It's not something you can tell from the pictures.

Dsscats > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/22/2015 at 18:42

I hate to say this, but Tavrish's non Art of the Flip articles tend to be pretty awful. They're mostly terribly unreliable cars with very questionable histories and expensive parts, nut he just always says "if you can wrench on your own car, it'll be fine."

soundman98 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
03/22/2015 at 19:07

i bet they thought it was all cosmetic damage, so they started putting back together and then realized the frame was way tweaked..

vwbeamer > Unbearable Pain
03/22/2015 at 20:49

On most cars I would not have a problem, but I'm not sure if all the damage on a carbon fiber frame can be detected. That's my guess why it's totaled.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/24/2015 at 01:37

The amount of research to find this information probably would just be a VIN search, right? I'll admit that I get clickbaited by Tavarish's articles fairly frequently, but I can never make it past the author once I see who it is anymore.

Tohru > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
03/24/2015 at 01:46

Tavarish DD's an early 00's Mercedes SL600 with the V12.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Tohru
03/24/2015 at 06:49

I thought he had an s500 with the v8. He flipped a v12 s600.

Tohru > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
03/24/2015 at 09:03

You might be right, he's had a lot of cars.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/24/2015 at 15:54

Finally updated after I called them out on the journalistic integrity post.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
03/24/2015 at 21:01

"There may be more damage than stated."

I guess photos aren't worth a thousand words after all.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Dsscats
05/24/2015 at 19:05

You have just better embodied my feelings for his work in fewer words than I ever could.