E320 Wagon Listing was just withdrawn by HAT:
Bid for the chance to own a No Reserve: Japanese-Market 1995 Mercedes-Benz E320 Wagon at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #43,275.
bringatrailer.com
....
We agree that the best thing to do here is withdraw the car for now so that the seller can verify the engine displacement and mileage. We have been in discussion with him for the last few days, and we hope to re-list the car once some of the question marks have been addressed.
.....
BAT is truly cowering out here and as
@ace10 had pointed out earlier in this thread, it is clearly always only about the $$ now - yea most businesses are sure, but some have more scruples than others.
If an individual buyer flakes out on a deal, they are banned for life, yet in this case a seller clearly misrepresented the most basic things about a car (model and mileage) and they were gross misrepresentations. I can't say if they were intentional or not and wanted to give seller benefit of the doubt. I was trying to give the seller the benefit of the doubt throughout, even with his snarky comment about the AMG stickers and VIN matching. Regardless if he was a clueless as he represented himself then it is on BAT to hold sellers to a basic standard.
Alternatively, if he knowingly did this (either mileage or model falsehoods) he should be banned from BAT, just as a buyer who flakes on a deal is.
It's clear BAT is being 10x more forgiving to sellers who regularly sell there.
I was going to post the below on the BAT thread on this car after I saw their response, but at this point, I am not sure BAT would do the right thing.
It can take BAT 3 secs to know if the seller was just clueless or if he lying throughout this and playing dumb:
- This seller has imported multiple cars from Japan and sold them on BAT - he is no novice
- BAT should request
CBP-7501 form from the seller for this car. It's one of the forms you must have to import a car to pass Customs.
-
It will call out make and model of the car.
- The "
I switched my phone and a all docs are lost on my WhatsApp" won't fly in this case for a simple reason:
CBP-7501 is a paper form (not electronic) and the importer MUST have the stamped original form in his possession to Title & Register the car in the U.S. (copies are not accepted, not is electronic form)
- The post I put up there clearly shows the official Japanese Auction & Export docs show this car was exported as an 3.2L E320 with over 128K miles
- The CBP-7501 will likely show it was the same thing on the US Customs form (otherwise it will be flagged and they can/will seize cars for misrepresentation)
- The
seller has to have this paperwork to both clear US Customs and to title the car in the U.S. and it is only on paper - copies and/or electronic forms are not accepted
- Net:
The seller is sitting on a doc that tells exactly what this car is and the "dog ate my homework" (aka phone issue) can't apply there
I am not going to post this on the BAT thread. It seemed to take a bunch of commenters to get BAT to even acknowledge the obvious.
If someone here feels differently, feel free to copy any all parts of this to put up there if you want - I don't mind.
Again, I want to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but that "relist" comment by BAT is a "don't ask don't tell" type of mentality by them that will cause that site to devolve into craigslist or ebay. They showing that they are willing to expose buyers to unscrupulous or clueless sellers, yet immediately bounce individual buyers if they flake (that last part is usually a good thing)
bringatrailer.com
. I see plenty of crappy-condition 55K mile late model 911s and late model Porsche SUVs everywhere! In my own neighborhood! Street parked, used, banged up, etc. 
