Bought my first TGP off eBay, but where is it????

[RareGMFan]

Well, guys.  As some of you may know, I joined this forum a while back because I wanted info for my engine swap.  I'm planning on dropping the TGP motor into one of my '89 Pontiac 6000 STE/All Wheel Drives.  I have the motor already and I parted out the rest of the car with a few odds and ends left over.

But, I was tempted a to pick up a Turbo STE that came up on eBay a while back.  It was supposedly in near mint shape with 119K on the clock and a starting bid of only $1,000.  I figured what the hell?  Let's keep an eye on it.  So when it was nearly over and hadn't really gotten much more than the starting price, I couldn't resist.  I jumped all over it with one proxy bid in the last 10 seconds and won it!  I was extremely excited.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2418128094&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:6

However, here we are nearly 2 months after the auction ended with nothing to show for it.  I paid this dealer $600 a month and a half ago to ship the thing to me in Illinois from Virginia.  He's had nothing but one excuse after another as to why it isn't ready to go yet.  Apparently, in VA a car has to pass state inspection before it can be given to the customer and he's run into a bunch of complications.  Fine, I'd expect that.  Especially with a TGP.  But 2 months???  COME ON!!  That's rediculous!  I sent him an email threatening to call my attorney, notify my bank (for mail fraud), and let eBay get involved on this matter.  He apologitically replyed within an hour of me sending the email and said it was ready to go and would be shipped out Monday.  Well, here we are Wednesday and once again, I haven't gotten any notification from the shipping company that it's on its way.  Time to get the lawyer in on this.  I want the TGP bad and I'd hate to miss out on it, but I'm not about to get ripped off either.

[Chris A]

I don't know about the inspection thing. I've bought cars in VA before, and if its not going to be titled in VA, I don't think it has to be inspected. Thats how it is in MD.

Chris

[no1kicker]

I remember that one.  Hope it finds its way to you soon, looks like a nice car.

[waskie]

That's a nice looking STE.

[RareGMFan]

Well, it's here.  No thanks to the shipping company who didn't notify me of it's arrival.  I happened to call them today, and they told me it got here yesterday!  Thanks, retards at DAS!

In spite of this set back, I was still very excited to pick the car up finally!  But, that excitement quickly dissappointment when I found several little oversights not listed in the auction.  Like the fact that the headliner is pinned up, the driver's side door panel speaker grill is cracked along with all the courtesy light lenses on the doors, the ABS is still not working despite the supposed repair of this being one of the seller's reasons for the hold up, center counsole lid and insert are broken, etc.  

As I left the terminal and made my way back out to the highway, my friend who dropped me off and was following me called me on the cell to tell me I was blowing out massive amounts of blueish black smoke from the exhaust.  He had me freaking out.  I said let's just keep going and try to get it home.  I had to find the nearest gas station (because the cheap skate only left a drop in the tank).  I filled her up with 93 octane (I always do on all my cars) and my friend walked over and said it looked ok now.  That was a major relief to me.  I gave it a little throttle on the way to the gas station, and it sure as hell didn't feel like anything signifacant was wrong.  I was in awe of it's power over my NA 3.1 in the AWD 6000.  Little did I know she was just getting warmed up.  The trip home was basically me getting aquanted with how much more powerfull this engine was than the standard 60 degree motors.

I was impressed with how smooth it was idling and how well the tranny was shifting.  The brakes felt decent too for having problems.  I beat the living piss out of this looser 16 year old in an older Ford Taurus.  Something tells me the fun is just beginning, but I do have many issues to take care of before I go nuts.  Like the smell of burning oil and the light smoke that was rising from under the hood.  I'll get a better look at her tomorrow.  Not to mention I think this guy owes me some money for all this trouble.  These problems should have been taken care of BEFORE the auction was even listed not to mention all the stuff he didnt mention that was wrong with the car.

[R Dubya]

Hey, I shipped my mom's truck with DAS and they won't take it unless there is less than a 1/4 tank of gas for safety and weight reasons.  I can imagine you still felt cheated though.  Good luck with it man!

[RareGMFan]

Well, a 1/4 tank wouldn't have been bad at all.  But this thing was flat out riding on E.  It's not that I felt cheated, I just literally didn't think I was going to make it to a gas station.