When Bring a Trailer purchases go awry
2022 ж. 3 Ақп.
45 078 Рет қаралды
Online auctions are great, just make sure you have a realistic expectation and a specialist available to help you sort through your new acquisition (or buy from a specialist in the first place). This video tours some issues that didn't come out in the auction commentary for a BaT Bugeyes that came to us for sorting, after purchase and before delivery to their new owner.
I’m a BMW 2002 specialist and gave up commenting on BaT cars due to kickback from others who don’t understand why I would tear cars apart that looked decent to them, but I could see beneath the nail polish. I also got fed up with having to explain myself every time, my background, my literal life long experience with those cars. Thank you for daring to post this video!
I need to send you my rusty e10
I am one of the victims or fools from bring a trailer on an MG TF. I was sold a bill of goods by the seller that ended up being totally false. A car that was a supposed regular driver and semi show car had the engine coolant passages so full of fix a leak it could not have run in years. I ended up with a total rebuild on the engine in the many many thousands of dollars. If you can't see it and drive it get an expert to do it for you otherwise DONT BUY IT.
David, great information delivered very diplomatically and professionally. This helps all of us! Thanks and have a great weekend.
Many thanks for that nice comment, and ultimately, we are all in this together in the quest to keep the cars alive!
😊 That is why buying a classic car from a very good dealer is a must (no names as there are many). 👍 I am 62 and want to relive my 20's and be happy with my favorite classic car, the top end dealers will do all of the inspections and will usually give some sort of warranty. 😎 Sure you will pay a little extra, but it is well worth it when you are spending 30k to 70k on your dream ride hotrod.
So used car sellers are not always fully forthcoming in their descriptions of their offerings? Must be societal decay because it wasn't that way back in the day when I bought my first used car that was only driven to church on Sundays by a little old lady from Pasadena.
I was never curious about bugeyes, nor do I have any desire to own one. But I find this kind of technical analysis fascinating. Great video. Keep up the good work!
I have worked on , restored and judged many Rolls and Bentley cars. Whenever I point out all the problems on BAT, I always get criticized for picking on such a nice car! I have called myself the Voice of reason and finally I have stopped. I also have done Chevelles, Corvettes, many many Willys, Deloreans and Panteras plus more. I now just watch and say little as folks don't seem to care. I recently watched a Cab over willy's truck that on any good day might be worth 18K bring over 43K . I only buy for myself and have no customers since I'm long retired. So now I'm more of a watcher and Laugher! Thanks for pointing out what others have missed.
Bring a Trailer was so much easier when it was filled “project” cars and sellers not looking for top dollar in an auction.
I just found your channel and it's a refreshing look at the classic/vintage car insanity. After spending half my 66 years working as a mechanic involving mostly European and British cars , I feel somewhat qualified to comment. I'm sure the Bug Eyes featured went for top dollar and were represented as the finest in the land. The terms "restoration" and "rebuilt" are red flags in my experience as proven in your video. I've seen my share of both and have had to deal with some very unhappy buyers. They didn't do the basic homework and were dazzled by the shiny paint and endless hype about classic cars. Buy a car unseen and cruise happily into the sunset. BaT has become the go to venue for a lot of people with lots of money and very little common sense or basic knowledge. I have commented on BaT but only if I have direct and useful experience with the vehicle in question. I have seen nice shiny restorations that reveal shoddy work and shortcuts if you know where to look. Many are obvious but totally lost in the general comments made about the vehicle. I wonder how many of these auction vehicles actually go through a PPI? The idea of having to ship my very expensive new purchase to your shop to correct the flaws and poor workmanship is really a sad statement but hey, it keeps you busy.
Great video! I bought one car online, even had an "independent expert" (haha) inspect it. After pouring thousands of dollars into it, I was just worn out and hated it. I will never again buy a car without personally inspecting it inch by inch with one of my mechanic car buddies. Even big in-person auctions don't allow that depth of inspection. Bottom line: whatever you buy online or at an auction, figure spending another ten to twenty percent of the purchase price to fix everything and often to just make it safe.
Great presentation. Feel like I've learned something about BaT, bug eyes, and human nature.
You guys do such good work and know these cars down to the DNA level. Well done! If I ever get one, I'll buy from you for sure,
It is likely that many of the cheerleaders in the comments section over at BaT are primarily interested in driving up the values of those vehicles that they themselves already own.
Just stumbled upon your channel. Excellent presentation and I'll have to check out your other videos! Thanks for sharing the information you have acquired over the years.
Well done. As mentioned by others, this is not a BAT problem, it is universal to include private sales. An example would be my latest acquisition, a 1963 MG.. replacing my 1964 sold last year. I knew the owner.. a former M Benz dealership mechanic when I was an M-B USA factory District Manager in the 80s. I understand stuff wears out, I do not understand deliberate butchery and attempted hiding of same, and out and out lying. This was not as prevalent when I started buying/restoring Brit cars in the 60s. Auctions are the bane of car ( and many other items) collecting.. it artificially drives up car prices ( not value). Buyer beware.. as with guitars ( my other hole in the water where your money goes) Play before you Pay. Trust no one. Which includes the seller of my current car . IMNSHO he should never touch another Brit ( or any other) car. Thanks for the video. PS I miss my 1958 Bugeye bought in 1970 for the princely sum of $50.. yes fifty. ,
Exactly....like they expect an off the show room floor condition. The thing is like over 40 years old!
Cool Video! Yes always get an inspection before buying. We encourage that.
Love to hear mark experts clearly demonstrate their knowledge - this was great!
Great job, Dave. You're doin' great. Miss seeing you around at the shows, but some day......
My friend in HS bought his bugeye for 85$ ...he haggled...but it didn't run. He was pretty good with cars so 10$ carb rebuild kit it ran great. Took it to get gas filled it up for less than 3$. What's funny is how expensive we thought the carb kit cost
This channel popped up so I had a look. A really good presentation. Very tight-it's a pain when someone (as often happens) takes much longer than necessary to make their points. Even though I won't be able to have one of these cars it was still fascinating to learn a bit more about them. And buyer beware...
I bought an Audi TT on BaT. It wasn't listed as perfect and had 75k miles on the clock. I only payed $5500 for it, and put that into it over the next year. I assumed when I bought it that it that any 14 year old sports car with 75k miles will need maintenance. If anyone is buying a car on line and expecting a 90+ point car, they should have it inspected before they bid. I've owned bugeye's, midgets and triumphs, and they weren't that good when brand new. I would gladly buy one on BaT, but if I were expecting it to be a restored 100 point car and especially if I were paying a premium price, I'd pay the extra $$ to have it checked out by a guy like Dave first. Having a 50 year old $50K car show up on your doorstep sight unseen is foolhardy for me. For some, no big deal, I guess.
Very informative video.. Just came across your channel. Thumbs up.
Good job on finding the issues. I misspent a lot of time working on old cars including Sprites. My take is 9 out of 10 mechanics would not have found any issue with the car on the lift that was not readily apparent. I remember taking my old Sprite to a number of known good mechanics and not a one could figure out why it was shaking at speed. I talked to an old Indy mechanic and he sent me to an old guy who raced Sprites. He drove it around a bit and said - loose nut on the pinion and sure enough that was it.
Very important lesson here. I get really tired of hearing people say "it's worth it" whenever they see a BaT auction price. How could they even possibly know? Lol
BIG fan. Love your fundamental, "don't blame" the uninformed, attitude.
Many thanks, one of my favorite social media comments I have ever seen, thank you for this acknowledgement, too much blaming, generally... we are all in this together. Thanks for writing!
Certainly eye opening! If the first one was the Cornwall Sprite then I must say I’m glad I dodged that bullet because I was seriously intending to buy it on BAT. a few weeks ago. Thanks.
I am the guy that points out every thing I see wrong on a car on BAT...and people get mad at me.
Interesting video! There's no substitute for having lots of experience with specific moels.
As this was shipped without brake lines, it must have been sold as a "project" car on Bat. I'm not a huge fan of BaT (though it's not a bad auction site), but the cars are labeled accordingly, and it's quite easy to ask very specific questions, to request additional pictures and documentation (etc.) of the seller before bidding (in the threaded discussion area). As with any other car purchase, if the answers to questions and requests aren't immediately and satisfactorily forthcoming, move on to the next car.
I do a fair amount of PPI on vintage cars and the BaT model doesn’t help the buyers.
Worked a few years at a hot rod shop, saw so, so many basket case cars brought in that someone "got a good deal on" .....
Wow! Never seen a car so,shiny underneath!
David, very good video. I understand your point of view. Look at it this way. Its a car. Every car that is used is going to have an issue. Over the years and miles many many things happen. We all know the statement is "buyer beware". I do not think its a "Bring a trailer issue, it is an Shi# happens issue and we car guys all know that nothing is perfect. You look hard enough at any vehicle no matter where it was purchased and your going to find some little something that is not right. It presents itself as an opportunity for someone like yourself to fix it! So the cars are the ones taking care of us! Sorry if I stepped on any toe's but in this world we live in nothing is perfect for long. We are on a rock in space moving at 67000 miles per hour around a fireball, Its a freaking miracle that we even have the ability to communicate as we do and that cars exist at all!
Nice haha
I left my body once and went to a sun star or whatever you want to call it , very crazy but it was the source of everything and I found the key to life than I was sucked back into my body and forgot the magic that was coming from it . I will tell you 🌟 are more than just fireballs 🤙
Great info thanks
Very impressed.
Good review and repairs of the red car; it must have driven terribly. Buyer must be disappointed with the BaT auction. Buyer might be upset by a large repair bill but will have a properly driving car afterwards.
Dad bought a Porsche and i was always a suspect of Bring A Trailer. My dad was driving it and he noticed the back taillight wasnt lighting up the passenger side tail light wasnt even fully screwed in. Thankfully he has tools and the lightbulb for it to make it an easy fix
Well said!
This is teriffic information! I've been into MK 2 Sprites / MK 1 Midgets for a long time. (Same suspension. ) Are you saying that the hand made spring plate was basically welded in too far forward? (I know it's common for the 1/4 Elliptical spring sockets to rust out.) How would you make sure it's in the correct place the first time around?
Hence , I say old chap , your real!
David...what every buyer needs to do is find an expert like yourself who has the knowledge to correct any problems with that particular make of car. BaT is great for finding rare, low-miliage cars and possibly from orignial owners.
Having gone through the British car phase in my younger days (74 in a few days), I can say I've never purchased a British car, in any condition, and kid myself it wouldn't need something fixed no matter how well it looked and drove. It just comes with the territory A wake up call for most I'm sure.
does BaT stand for Buy a Turd?
Hoovie bought a Superbird off BAT and was sold a misrepresented car he got the commission money back so buyer beware
Nice logo I like the sprite mki or I think that’s what is its
The main advice that this video is missing to do before any car purchase is to have a professional pre-purchase inspection performed. Obviously if you are going to buy on an unique car located far way by using an online auction, arranging a pre-purchase inspection is not an easy task to do, but it can be done if you're willing to put in the time and effort. Whether you're buy the car in person or online, the purchasing due diligence is the buyers responsibility, so identifying Bring a Trailer as being part of the car's problems with this purchase is simply not fair since these same missed problems could have occurred in any purchase without a professional pre-purchase inspection.
I agree that it seems to make no sense for the bleeder to be on the bottom of the clutch slave cylinder but for some reason that was the way the factory intended it to be. The system on the Jaguar E-Type was exactly the same from the factory. At least having the bleeder on the bottom makes is easier to get at to open it. I intended to change the piping on my E-Type but even after having the car for over thirty years I never did do that. It never seemed to make a difference really.
After bleeding more than 400 Bugeyes, we've found that it is easier to bleed with air going up and out, and moreover, this one, when it arrived, had air in the clutch, and didn't actuate properly. We moved the bleeder up and it now works great. We've found that the rear wheel cylinders have a similar issue, and we prefer the later type which are also easier to bleed since the air has a chance of finding it's way out...
@@bugeyeguydotcom certainly air going up makes more sense. Sometimes things that the factory did made no sense. I have had a GT6+ for over 47 years. I know every part of that car. A restoration book that I bought from a reputable restorer made fun of someone for putting a bolt in the grease fitting hole on the front uprights just above the trunnions. trunnions. The factory put bolts in there and the bolts were to be removed when gear oil was to be pumped in and then put back in place. Restorers just assumed that grease nipples were supposed to be in there.
So what you are telling me is that buying a car without seeing it first is fraught with problems. Who knew?
I got to see a Bring A Trailer purchased Mercedes Benz 560 SEC that looked great in pictures but not so great in person. The seller flat out lied lied lied. Many do. Lies of omission are still lies. The buyer had to spend many thousands fixing undisclosed problems. BE CAREFUL!!
Shiny paint jobs sell everytime 🙂
If you think BAT cars are bad, you should see what my customers have brought me from ebay. Have your cars inspected by a pro, or, plan on work to be done.. I always allow $2000 for after purchase repairs, but, it looks like more towards 4-5000 lately
The radius arm thing was hack work.
max willson built a nice one
Sexist comment to follow...When the paint quality dominates the condition discussion, it is akin to putting too much make-up on a woman. Great video guys, thanks
I very much do not like buying a car sight unseen, or even through an auction, but, bat is a very good site, and listing place, with very responsive and knowledgeable people. And their mods (ig idk what to call them) aren't afraid to take down listings and ban people for doing shit. And, when you do buy a essential lemon from them, (very rarely) they'll actually refund money, usually what they'd get from their profits from that listing and occasionally ban the seller if the car is just not at all right, and completely wrong.
Clutch bleed valve is just fine if not better where it is! I pressure bleed from the bottom up thru the master cylinder. This way ALL air is out of the system…
Maybe, but in this particular case, when we got the car, take -up was way too rapid, air was in system, and it needed to be fixed, hence the call out... Now, with the new line and the bleeder on top, the system works flawlessly. I'm sure the builders thought the clutch was supposed to feel the way it did, but it feels a lot better now and is easier to drive and shift.
Older British sports cars were always problematic. That is why they are no longer made. So rather than taking the view that a no-inspection online purchase of a two generation old British sports car has issues that were not exposed, I would say it is nice there is somebody familiar enough to diagnose and have modern fixes for those issues.
yoy should pay for inspection
I remember my last British car...
On line auctions are for the most part, a joke. Unless you have hawk eyes on a vehicle, you're going to need to do some follow up work once the vehicle is in your possession. The peanut gallery on most auctions can be quiet loud, not to mention fan boys! lol
Never buy a vehicle w/ out a in-person inspection by someone knowledgeable that is of your own choosing, that is accountable to you…. Stupid buyer behavior not protecting their own interests - it’s not the auction platform’s responsibility to do the buyers due diligence
Always PPI every car it's worth the money.
Relatively minor issues for an auction bought car. Beware of BAT though it's full of schill bidding,market manipulation,and professional write ups that skim over anything negative. Expect to spend several thousands extra on anything you buy.
The BAT crowd, namely those commenting on auctions, are often times dangerous. “Greatly sold, greatly bought” comment comes out WAY too much. So many people commenting on how great a car looks when in fact there are some blatantly obvious flaws in full sight. Bubbles, drips, and swirls indicating obvious body work and not very well done body work are met with comments of “beautiful example!”. Comments like these hurt the would be buyers and tarnish BAT in general.
Good job calling out online auctions. Risky business for sure. Nice shop.
I bought a motorcycle on BaT and the seller was a liar and cheat. BaT has no recourse for unscrupulous sellers. Buyer beware.
It's wrong of course but reverse pressure bleeding it would work satisfactorily.
Tons of different ways to bleed, but this one, however, didn't actuate properly when we got it, so help was needed, and now she has a new clutch line with the bleeder on the top
There's a million percent more vetting on BAT than meeting a private seller off of craigslist, it's not a flipping new car!
These buyers are stating their "misrepresented car" experience.
That speedometer is a hideous install
My thoughts exactly. No doubt they know what they're doing but... I'll blame it on what the customer wants.
Our GPS Sprit speedo fixes a multitude of problems. We created a gauge that looks a whole lot like the original, but for people who prefer the actual mechanical gauges, we have those too, rebuilt. But most of our clients have chosen to have the superior reliability of the new generation of gauges.
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Moral of the Story; Steer Clear of British Sports Cars!
Exactly ☺️
Been a multiple corvette owner for the past 35 years....I can’t believe the prices of these cars and the prices of most cars on BAT.....I mean stupid prices people are paying for cars on that site .... What Guarantee if any does a high priced car come with on BAT ? I know most are cars that have practically no mileage but even still cars that sit for a long time have there issues...
Your really nit picking. Unless someone regularly restored these cars people wont know these details. Nothing wrong with BAT.
Nobody sorts vintage british cars correctly..ever..even at the pissing contest its a pissing contest..nothing to do w BaT
way to picky
Too
Abolish BaT.