Caveat Emptor -> Black S54 on eBay

Howdy... There's a black S54 coupe in Maine on eBay, and I thought I'd give y'all a heads up, it has a salvage title... Makes me angry just looking at it, because the first owner wrecked it at 1200 miles.. such a rare car, so sad.

Anyway, it was registered in Michigan and then registered in Maine by a new owner, so this guy is third owner -- it's possible he doesn't even know it has a salvage title. It should say it on the title, but I was the victim of a scam once.. bought a salvaged VW with an Oregon title, didn't notice until I had paid... registered it in Washington, and there was no note on the title anywhere saying it had been salvage... so this guy really might not know.

I figured I'd at least warn you guys, if nothing else... we might want to contact the seller only, or buyers, or.. who knows.

Reply » Caveat Emptor -> Black S54 on eBay

how do u know about it?

Reply » Caveat Emptor -> Black S54 on eBay

I'm shopping for an M Coupe, so I signed up with autocheck.com. I was considering bidding on this car in the hopes of getting an S54 cheap, so I checked the VIN and saw it had a salvage title. If you were considering bidding I can send you the results.

Reply » Caveat Emptor -> Black S54 on eBay

Have you told the seller? Can also tell EBAY and maybe get the seller to change the description.....

Salvaged titled cars aren't the bad deal some may think. If it is mechanically sound and the price is right.... I'd expect a 30-50% price reduction on a salvage title compared with a comperable, clean titled car. The range accounting for the quality of the re-build. From the pics, this one looks like a pretty good job. I'd still want to crawl all over it prior to bidding. or have somebody that knows Coupes do it for me.

$20k is on the upper end of the price though. The re-build will need to be very good. Does have a nice list of mods though.

With so few s54s built, don't be suprised if more start to show up as re-built.

Reply » Caveat Emptor -> Black S54 on eBay

Quote:

Have you told the seller? Can also tell EBAY and maybe get the seller to change the description.....

I was a little worried about having the guy flip out at me.. But found that ebay has a way to send notices without revealing your email address, so I'm happy with that. Of course, my ebay ID is pretty much my email address. Oh well... seemed like the right thing to do, offered to send him a copy of the Autocheck.

This is horrible either way though.. either he knows and is lying and might get all pissy, or he DOESN'T know, and he has to find out from someone as he's trying to sell a car that he thinks is worth more money than it is...

Reply » Caveat Emptor -> Black S54 on eBay

There is no way he doesn't know. Anyone who buys an S54 M Coupe has to know what he's doing. Its a specialty car and most people get very familiar with the car before they buy one.

BTW, slavaged cars are what they are, salvaged. If the suspension was damaged, don't expect it to ever drive the same. These cars have little to no adjustments. Expect to replace everything, including the subframe to fix the suspension right.

Haveing owned a few salvaged cars (parents bought them for me) and wrecking my own M3, salvaged cars are not worth even touching with a 10 ft pole.

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