With a quick look it was easy to see the car had well over the stated miles. The shift lever had a groove worn into it about 1/16 inch deep where it rubbed against the 2nd gear part of the shift gate. That same shift gate had the chrome worn off it and metal finger worn down on side. Drivers seat bolster worn and torn, back tires worn bare on inside, and many other signs. I brought this to the Auctioneers attention at Vanderbrink and asked to view the documents on the car. They pulled the file and we looked at the Florida title. Back in 1977 a vehicles miles were not put on titles. The very next page in their file was a Bill of Sale from 1977 where the second owner bought the car from a dealer. It clearly stated that in 1977 the car ( THPNMY04524 ) had 32,357 miles. I asked if I could take a quick photo of the Bill of Sale and pointed out the miles. The auctioneer said they would make a correction announcement at the time of the auction, which they did not do. Since they promoted the car heavily with 3,800 miles their way of correcting the situation was to "disallow and dismiss" the Bill of Sale. Their solution was to make the Bill of Sale "go away". Some one please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe a Bill of Sale that is signed is a legal document.
I confess that I did bid on the car even though I knew the miles to be incorrect and I even tried to warn the winning bidder of the miles.
I later learned that the winning bidder (who seems like a real nice guy) is planning on passing the car on to or may have even been bidding on behalf of Richard Rawlings from Gas Monkey Garage.
I hate to see anyone get burned, yea I know, even Richard Rawlings, hey I enjoy his show so shoot me
I am however seriously considering contacting the Auction licensing board as I believe Vanderbrinks actions may be boarding fraud.
BTW: winning bid was $48,000 plus 5% buyers fee.
Here is a pic of the car
