WARNING: S&J Auto in Stanton, CA Pushing is Pushing a Suspect '93 SE-R

[nobbie]

You may recall this post of mine seeking advice on what to look for with a 1993 SE-R: zerothread/296610

Here's the Craigslist listing for it:



I called on it and discovered it was a dealer. Loud and boisterous, he claimed to know nothing about it. Feigning confusion over the model.."SE-what did you say?" Ugh. Kept talking about all the kids with no money showing up trying to put the car on layaway. Telling me the guy who traded it in (a friend, he claimed) told him you could spend $1500 for a turbo and blow away Corvettes.

Told me it was in great shape. Never been in an accident. Drives great. A/C blows cold. (He mentioned the A/C like five times.) Told me he was asking $3999, but if I came a wrote a check he'd knocl $500 off it.

Well, we got down there and discovered a lot of things wrong with the car.

First, the entire body was covered with dents. Small ones. Not just dings. But bumps as well. Like it had been belted with baseballs and punched from the inside. The interior was a mess. The seats and door panels looked good. But were missing screws and didn't match the headliner.



The rear trunk was misaligned and shifted on it hinge when opened. We pulled the trunk mat up and found the whole trunk floor covered with water.

But the scariest thing was this on the doorjam:



You tell me what that means. To me, it says I've done some questionable things to this car and don't want you to know what I've done.

THEN, I decided to tell the dealer I talked to that I had to think about the car and he put the hard sell on me. He started to insult me by asking why I drove 30 miles for a stupid $3000 car and not even buy it. He was trying to bully me into buying the piece of crap and I wasn't going for it. He then said he'd give me the number of the guy who traded in the car so I could ask more questions. Had me follow him into his office. He then called teh guy on the speakerphone and said, "Ask away!" to me.

WTF?

I asked the guy if I could get his number and call him later. The dealer was getting all blustery telling me to just ask the questions. So, I started to ask questions. Hard questions. And the guy on the phone started to get abusive. The dealer chimed in.

By this time, I had had enough. Perhaps I was taking it too personally. But don't keep talking about how stupid I am for driving down to see a car and not even buy it, let alone take it for a test drive. I said, "This discussion is over. I don't need to be spoken to like this." And left.

The guy was still yelling at me as I walked out and got into my car.

It's S&J Auto Sales on Beach Blvd in Stanton, CA. Joe is the owner that thought he could bully me into paying for his Katrina-mobile.

Flag the scumbag's CL ad here: http://orangecounty.craigslist....html

[nametakennow]

Interesting. I would have popped the hood and looked for an SR. Since that sticker was a mess, I wonder if it even was an SE-R.

Anyway, definitely not worth anything near the asking price. Good call on steering clear.

[nobbie]

I did pop the hood and the motor appeared to be an SR. But, the sticker was obviously scratched away with a fingernail where the data indicating what came with that body were.

The trunklid was missing the SE-R markings, but I did see a faint outline of it. The car as a whole was just too messed up and out of sorts everywhere to be viable or worth anywhere near the asking price.

I might have to give up on finding a decent SE-R of the 1991 - 1993 vintage for fear of abuse.

[nametakennow]

They're getting rare. They've all rusted out, been crashed, been molested, or are in the hands of someone who knows what they've got.

If I had some spare cash and time and a place to put it, I'd be looking for one myself as a project... though I'm not sure I'd ever decide whether to DET or VE.

[RED_DET]

They're getting rare. They've all rusted out, been crashed, been molested, or are in the hands of someone who knows what they've got.

From the pics, that is a SE-R, just a abused one. Worth about $1000 @ most. If you are really interested in a SE-R, don't forget to keep an eye out for the NX2000 as well.