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Pre purchase inspection - San Jose

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Old 05-04-2011, 03:42 PM
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Aren't most stealerships shady? Lol! Yeah I'm on pretty high alert on my purchase. Thanks for the advice!
Old 05-04-2011, 03:44 PM
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Originally Posted by chViETnk
ive heard stevens creek dealers are pretty shady, ive also had bad experiences with them when i was looking for a car, they wouldnt even let me test drive a car on the lot.

i would check the car in and out, make sure all the original vin# are there, nothing fishy going on, everything is lined up correctly, etc etc. even if carfax says its clean, not everything is documented in carfax. personally, id like to look at the car myself before purchase so you won't be disappointed.
I live very close to Steven's Creek Honda. I was going to say I could drop by and take a look, but they've turned me away from test drives a few times so I figured this time isn't any different. I even showed up once with cash in hand when I was looking for an AP2 S2000 and they told me I could not test drive it that day, but if I came back the next day, they'd let me drive it. .. Weird.
Old 05-04-2011, 04:20 PM
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So this dealership I should stay away from then huh? Seems like karma if you ask me
Old 05-04-2011, 05:03 PM
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stevens creek honda let me test drive plus take the car for a few hours to do pre-purchase inspection at Blacktrax. however i didn't like their price so i purchased from socal instead.
Old 05-04-2011, 07:23 PM
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That's more than I would sell my CR for, but I'm not selling.
Old 05-05-2011, 07:01 AM
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I'm sure I could get it OTD for $25.5 or $26k
Old 05-05-2011, 07:53 AM
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Originally Posted by blah5
I'm sure I could get it OTD for $25.5 or $26k
Be stubborn and try to get the price you want try to get 23-24 out the door. Thats what I did, I sat at the dealership for 2 hours trying to negotiate the price that I wanted.It all depends on how much your putting down.
Old 05-05-2011, 10:08 AM
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Originally Posted by lilazngrl4o8
What are you looking for exactly? Just an overall lookover of the exterior and interior for imperfections? Test drive to see if it drives like a normal regular s2k w/o any funky noises? I had someone do the same for me when I bought my s2k out in So Cal so I'll pay it forward.

If it's something like that, I can do it for you. If you're looking for compression test and something down that road, that i can't do.
I would go with this member, she has a keen eye for things and would trust her to look at a car I was going to buy
Old 05-14-2011, 12:17 PM
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Just got back from checking out the car. Overall, PASS.

The Bad:
- Front bumper, passenger fender, rear bumper and soft top has been replaced. All 3 of those pieces are missing VIN and the soft top has non Honda glass and the stitchings are white instead of black.
- Scratch on front bumper
- Knick on driver door edge
- Front bumper doesn't fit correctly around headlights
- Rust on 2 front bumpers
- Rear bumper doesn't fit correctly around tail lights
- 2 small plastic pieces in the rear by the trunk have been repainted and are chipping at the top where it meets the soft top black seal
- Replaced body panels don't match OEM panels
- Rust on suspension pieces. I don't know what it's called, but see pic.
- Random scratches throughout the sides of the car
- Idles really loud. Almost like a slapping noise. Not as rapid sounding as a bad TCT, just has a loud slap sound to it. I had the sales guy fire up another S on the lot (also a PASS), and the other S was a lot quieter.

Didn't bother test driving the car since I knew something was different with the way it sounded when it was started and figured if you're anywhere near as meticulous as I am, you would pass on the car.

I took a bunch of pics, mostly of the imperfections.

Front bumper missing VIN


Rear bumper missing VIN


Driver fender with VIN


Passenger fender missing VIN


Hood VIN


Trunk VIN


Passenger door VIN

Old 05-14-2011, 12:18 PM
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Driver door VIN




Soft top replaced. non oem glass and white stitching



Rear bumper doesn't line up correctly and paint chipping at the top where it meets the rear qtr panel



Front bumper with rusted bolt. There's 2 of them.


Scratch on front bumper


2 plastic pieces near the trunk that have been repainted (don't match the OEM color) and are chipping at the top where it meets the seal to the soft top



Chip on driver door edge


Front bumper fitment on passenger side



Front bumper fitment on driver side


Rust on suspension parts



Driver side bolster


Engine bay



Unmatch paint. Not sure if you can really tell or if this is an accurate depiction, but there's a difference between the bumper (replaced) and the driver fender (oem). Bumper is like 2 shades darker than the fender.


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