My first purchase from Matt at European was a 5K mile Porsche 911 Turbo. Some dealers wouldn't give me the time of day when I was looking at $90,000 cars, because I'm a young guy, but Matt went above and beyond. Pre-sale, he was honest and to the point. I asked him if the car had been in any accidents, and he said "no, but the plastic front bumper was scratched in a parking lot, and we just sent it out to be resprayed. I can send you a picture of the scratch if you want to see exactly what was wrong." I told him that I would like to do a pre purchase inspection and told him which mechanic I wanted to use. The mechanic was close enough to his office where he didn't have a problem, but there was never any confusion that I would be paying for the inspection. (To me that wasn't even a question, but some people make some silly assumptions, I suppose.) The car got to my mechanic, a Porsche specialist, who called me and said that the car was perfect, and all it needed were some fluids changed. I called Matt, negotiated a deal over the phone, and messengered over a deposit. I told him about the service needs, which he said he'd cover, but I said I wanted my mechanic to do it. My mechanic likes to charge the "Porsche Tax", so it was obviously more expensive. Matt offered to split the service with me, including a brake flush which was by no means needed, but I was taking the car to a High Performance Driving Event and they require such a flush within 30 days of the event. Anyway, I was a happy customer. A few weeks later my girlfriend stepped on some gum, and got it stuck to my mat without me seeing it. The gum really set in there after a few weeks in the sun, so I needed new mats. I called the local Porsche dealer for a price, and it was silly. I went online and checked a bunch of sites, but they were all still expensive. On a whim, I called Matt on a Saturday night, I think I heard him having dinner with his family, to see if he had a source for me. He told me to go to the dealer and pick up the mats on Monday, and they'd "take care of me." I walked up to the Parts counter, asked for the mats, and the guy said "oh yeah. Matt called for you this morning. It'll be $X." This was lower than the Internet prices, and probably half of what I was quoted over the phone by who I think was the same parts guy. Fast forward a few years and I was looking for a new daily driver. I was looking at all kinds of different cars, and stumbled upon a listing of Matt's for an Audi S4. It was described as mechanically sound, but "a little rough on the outside." He had close-ups of the damaged areas in his listing, which few dealers do. I called to ask a few questions and got a pretty detailed description. There were deep scratches in certain places that would need to be repainted if I wanted them fixed, medium scratches that would probably come out with a wet sand by a good detailer, and light scratches that would come out with their standard clean up that they do before delivery. I went to go check the car out, and it was exactly as described. I also brought my friend who wholesales cars, so he could look the car's paint over. He agreed with everything that Matt had said, and used some gizmo to check paint thickness to see if any bodywork had been done. There was none. With that, I bought the car. To be clear, this was not a perfect car, but it was priced for exactly what it was. If you pay for a scratched car, don't get upset that your car has scratches. When buying a used car, people need to recognize that they're buying a used car, and have a crystal clear agreement over how imperfect items will be handled. Assuming that a dealer will make things perfect, unless you have discussed this with them, is just silly. If you expect a perfect car, you need to pay for a perfect car, or buy a less than perfect car and pay to have it brought to the level that they want. I don't know what happened with the Mercedes buyer, and it seems like he may have been looking for a perfect car at a firesale price, but my experience was the exact opposite. read more
