Jeff,
BigPop summed it up pretty well in his response but I've got to second his comments on never buying a car sight unseen. Like you, I wanted a GTO really bad and read everything I could get my hands on and spent hours researching and checking classifieds. My major handicap was never having owned a Pontiac before and I will forever be in debt to my local Pontiac club members for keeping me from making a very expensive mistake. I found a '66 convertible at a N.J. dealer who 'specialized' in GTOs and swore this car was a '#1 show car'. From my own research I detected some inconsistencies between the photos and his statements about the car but I was nearly hooked. Fortunately, I also found a similar car owned privately in the same area and the owner emailed all the photos, PHS, answered every question honestly without 'pushing' the car and even sent me a video which really kept me interested. I almost sent a deposit for the convertible but decided to fly up and personally see both cars before deciding. That might sound extreme but it kept me from making a $36000 mistake. The convertible that the dealer said was a 'show car' was a rust bucket that had clearly been cobbled together and looked good from about 20 feet but clearly did not measure up to the advertising. I went to see the privately owned car (a hardtop) and breathed a huge sigh of relief that I didn't get sucked in by the dealer's hype. I wound up with a much, much nicer original, numbers matching car that I bought from an owner who truly appreciated the car and represented it honestly and didn't try to shove it down my throat. I'm sure there are honest dealers out there but you owe it to yourself to do your homework first. Evaluate each car first for what it is, NOT what you want it to be. Take advantage of the free advice of this board from other owners who really love to OWN and drive these cars rather than sell them. Good luck!!
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