Just an update on the 1987 GN I thought I was buying. It has been said here that the only way to buy one of these cars, or any car for that matter, is to see it in person. With that in mind, I will stay close to home in the Colorado Front Range area from now on. I flew to Grand Rapids Michigan yesterday morning, with cash in hand, to buy a 1987 Grand National I had found using the AutoTempest website that searches several sites at once, including craigslist.
The car was owned by an older man (75?) that listed had it on craigslist. In phone conversations with him, I mentioned that I wanted either a T-Top or Astroroof car. His response was his car had the Astroroof, the listing indicated "sunroof." I felt very comfortable with him, the description, pictures and ultimately the GN so, I took the next step and flew out to see it while completely expecting to buy it.
It NEVER entered my mind that someone would take a hardtop GN, cut a hole in the roof and stick in a cheesy aftermarket flip-up sunroof. It NEVER occurred to me the owner would neglect to mention this if it had been done. This little mistake cost me about $670. It could have been much worse. I came oh so close to having it shipped. I've had several negative experiences, one guy in Portland that would not divulge any information and now another that gave a wealth of information that turned out to be worthless.
I was going to have the car inspected and that would only have added to the cash I threw in the trash can. An inspector would have been looking for problems but, unless the inspector was well versed in the Buick Grand National, nothing would have been mentioned about a aftermarket sunroof unless it leaked or had obvious problems.
One thing I did notice while looking at the car in total disgust, the pieces added that make up the spoiler system, appeared to have been added poorly. I can't imagine Buick put these on like this because they weren't lined up. The front airdam had been modified when the Kirban Ram Air system was added. I've seen close up pictures of these and they looked pretty nice. This one did not appear to fit well due to a gap between the air dam and the intake behind it. The best word to describe it was shoddy.
The seller said the car did not have any dings or scratches. While I didn't see any dings, it had scratches in the fender and driver door, I quit looking at that point because of the sunroof. The paint had water psots so I couldn't really tell the condition of the paint because of the lighting in the parking garage.
This car is listed on craigslist in Reed City MI. I do not recommend this car. The listing price was $15,995 and agreed sale price was $14,800. The seller did agree to deliver the car to me at the Grand Rapids airport so that I could hit the road heading for home. He also agreed for me to use his plates. While we were looking over the car, he said nobody ever told him anything about the "sunroof." During phone conversations, he indicated several people had come to look at the car, commenting how clean the undercarriage was. While I can appreciate that, I believe someone would have mentioned the sunroof as being aftermarket; he had to know. Buyer beware certainly comes to mind.
At any rate, I'll try and be patient and wait for one to show up along the front range near the Denver-Colorado Springs area. It is far too expensive to look outside the region when sellers represent their cars so poorly. Unles they list them like the seller of the GNX "Recreation" did, with awesome pictures and description, I won't take anymore chances.
, and go from there.
