I’ve had this story hanging over my head for a while. For the longest time, I just didn’t want to even think about it, and the car has sat for the past two years. Then as time went by, the importance of telling the story seemed to fade…the money’s gone and I’ve just sort of chalked it up to experience. But because the seller has been such a prick about the whole thing, and because he works on these cars for other people and has endless possibilities to screw others, I figured I should post up the story and let people make their own decisions. It’s fairly long, as I think if you are going to call out people here, you should be able to prove you have a reason. We have a right to know if someone is likely to screw us on a deal. But the he said she said around here for guys like Brian Weaver and others without any real proof is sort of pointless in my opinion.
I’m posting this in the Lounge so that more people can see it, and because these sorts of tales usually find their way in here. If the Mods want to move it elsewhere, so be it. On with the show…
The Backstory
Brian Lorenz and I had been friends for many years, although we had never met. I think it probably started when I contacted him years ago with an interest in buying his Sage Limited. It wasn’t for sale, but in hindsight I think offering GNX money for that Limited probably set the wheels in motion for the events that followed. At any rate, we enjoyed discussing TRs in general and Limiteds in particular. We stayed in touch occasionally over a period of five years or so. I would contact him from time to time when I was looking for a nice Limited as he is plunked in the hot bed for these cars, and I am about as far away as you can be on this continent. He was also my single best source of information when I was compiling the Limited Registry. Everything was good until he told me he had found me a car…
The Deal
I guess I contacted Brian sometime in the spring or early Summer of 2012. I’m not sure exactly why I had called him, but I mentioned as usual that I was still looking for a nice Limited (Brian knew how picky I was from our previous conversations. He knew I was looking for a show car). He mentioned that he had come into possession of a Limited he used to own, but had previously sold to a local fellow. This fellow was quite into the Buick scene for a brief period of time, but had lost interest and offered the car back to Brian. Brian explained to me that he had done some mods to the car with the owner, but it they were minor mods and the car could easily be returned to stock. Brian sent me the pictures in the link below, explained to me how well it fit what I was looking for as a show car with a few mods, and offered to me for $18,000USD.
http://albertan.smugmug.com/Cars/My-1987-Buick-Turbo-Regal/24455386_JR5qDp#!i=1994857637&k=9QQK2vc
Now I’m going to say right now, I took Brian 100% at his word and let down my guard big time, basically abandoning the due diligence I have taken with the dozen or so other cars I have imported from the US. We had many conversations at length about what sort of car I was looking for. And over the years he had picked apart so many other cars I was considering that I know in hindsight were much nicer than this white Limited. So when he told me this car was “The One”, I just didn’t think I had any reason to doubt the guy I considered a friend and an authority on these cars as he stood in front of it extolling its virtues to me on the phone. Because it takes weeks for an international cheque to clear, and because I wasn’t sure if I was going to pick the car up or have it shipped to me, I had to send the money to Brian before I ever saw the car in person. $18,000USD…the most paid for a Limited in recent recollection. This car should have been…ummm…nicer.
The Pickup
My oldest daughter was on an athletic scholarship playing Division I hockey in Erie, PA at the time, a couple of hours from Brian’s house. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make the 2400 mile trip (one way) to pick the car up in person and take my daughter back to school. During the trip, board member rafael vasquez put me onto another Limited in Michigan (Thanks Raf) and I made a rather substantial detour to go look at this car. I wound up spending several hours with the original owner talking to him about his car, taking a couple hundred photos of the car, and even taking it out for a test drive. This is the car I had been looking for…
http://albertan.smugmug.com/Cars/TRL018/24648924_tt9nj7#!i=2014788171&k=5z7sgZp
I reluctantly left Michigan with an empty trailer, not because I didn’t think Brian would give me my money back (he wouldn’t have, as you’ll see in a bit), but because I felt I had made a commitment to take the car, and I honor my word. I called Brian to tell him about my delay and reschedule a time to come to his place the following day. He works nights, and as I was due to arrive at his place at 2am, he took the night off. 2am is not the time to be looking at cars. But I was in the middle of a 5,000 mile journey and didn’t think there was anything to worry about. I mean this is Brian Lorenz right?
I took one look at the car in his garage and knew it was a flip. I was tired and disappointed, but I didn’t say anything. We spent more time just BS’ing and going over the pictures of the red D84 car (which of course he quickly dismissed as not worth anywhere near the same money as his white Limited. All in all it was a good visit. I enjoyed seeing the sage car in person (another big let down to be honest) and the brown D84 car which remains one of the nicest TRs I have seen.
I came back later in the morning to go with Brian to the title office. I was kind of surprised that he didn’t have the title already. But the whole American title thing is a needlessly complex issue I’ve never understood. We got back to his place and proceeded to load the car up. I think the car stalled twice getting it in the trailer. Hmmmmm. Then as I got out and prepared to strap it down, Brian mentioned “Oh, by the way, don’t ever put it in low gear while you’re moving.” Are you kidding me?!? This thing has a trans brake in it. ^&%#. I never said anything because 1) I am the stereotypical polite Canadian, and 2) My LB7 Duramax was smoking and I knew the factory injectors were about to let go any time (they did shortly after I got home thank God), so I had asked Brian if I could leave the trailer at his place and pick it up on the way back from PA. So off I went 2000+ miles home with the wrong car in the trailer. If only I had known then just how wrong it was…
I’m posting this in the Lounge so that more people can see it, and because these sorts of tales usually find their way in here. If the Mods want to move it elsewhere, so be it. On with the show…
The Backstory
Brian Lorenz and I had been friends for many years, although we had never met. I think it probably started when I contacted him years ago with an interest in buying his Sage Limited. It wasn’t for sale, but in hindsight I think offering GNX money for that Limited probably set the wheels in motion for the events that followed. At any rate, we enjoyed discussing TRs in general and Limiteds in particular. We stayed in touch occasionally over a period of five years or so. I would contact him from time to time when I was looking for a nice Limited as he is plunked in the hot bed for these cars, and I am about as far away as you can be on this continent. He was also my single best source of information when I was compiling the Limited Registry. Everything was good until he told me he had found me a car…
The Deal
I guess I contacted Brian sometime in the spring or early Summer of 2012. I’m not sure exactly why I had called him, but I mentioned as usual that I was still looking for a nice Limited (Brian knew how picky I was from our previous conversations. He knew I was looking for a show car). He mentioned that he had come into possession of a Limited he used to own, but had previously sold to a local fellow. This fellow was quite into the Buick scene for a brief period of time, but had lost interest and offered the car back to Brian. Brian explained to me that he had done some mods to the car with the owner, but it they were minor mods and the car could easily be returned to stock. Brian sent me the pictures in the link below, explained to me how well it fit what I was looking for as a show car with a few mods, and offered to me for $18,000USD.
http://albertan.smugmug.com/Cars/My-1987-Buick-Turbo-Regal/24455386_JR5qDp#!i=1994857637&k=9QQK2vc
Now I’m going to say right now, I took Brian 100% at his word and let down my guard big time, basically abandoning the due diligence I have taken with the dozen or so other cars I have imported from the US. We had many conversations at length about what sort of car I was looking for. And over the years he had picked apart so many other cars I was considering that I know in hindsight were much nicer than this white Limited. So when he told me this car was “The One”, I just didn’t think I had any reason to doubt the guy I considered a friend and an authority on these cars as he stood in front of it extolling its virtues to me on the phone. Because it takes weeks for an international cheque to clear, and because I wasn’t sure if I was going to pick the car up or have it shipped to me, I had to send the money to Brian before I ever saw the car in person. $18,000USD…the most paid for a Limited in recent recollection. This car should have been…ummm…nicer.
The Pickup
My oldest daughter was on an athletic scholarship playing Division I hockey in Erie, PA at the time, a couple of hours from Brian’s house. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make the 2400 mile trip (one way) to pick the car up in person and take my daughter back to school. During the trip, board member rafael vasquez put me onto another Limited in Michigan (Thanks Raf) and I made a rather substantial detour to go look at this car. I wound up spending several hours with the original owner talking to him about his car, taking a couple hundred photos of the car, and even taking it out for a test drive. This is the car I had been looking for…
http://albertan.smugmug.com/Cars/TRL018/24648924_tt9nj7#!i=2014788171&k=5z7sgZp
I reluctantly left Michigan with an empty trailer, not because I didn’t think Brian would give me my money back (he wouldn’t have, as you’ll see in a bit), but because I felt I had made a commitment to take the car, and I honor my word. I called Brian to tell him about my delay and reschedule a time to come to his place the following day. He works nights, and as I was due to arrive at his place at 2am, he took the night off. 2am is not the time to be looking at cars. But I was in the middle of a 5,000 mile journey and didn’t think there was anything to worry about. I mean this is Brian Lorenz right?
I took one look at the car in his garage and knew it was a flip. I was tired and disappointed, but I didn’t say anything. We spent more time just BS’ing and going over the pictures of the red D84 car (which of course he quickly dismissed as not worth anywhere near the same money as his white Limited. All in all it was a good visit. I enjoyed seeing the sage car in person (another big let down to be honest) and the brown D84 car which remains one of the nicest TRs I have seen.
I came back later in the morning to go with Brian to the title office. I was kind of surprised that he didn’t have the title already. But the whole American title thing is a needlessly complex issue I’ve never understood. We got back to his place and proceeded to load the car up. I think the car stalled twice getting it in the trailer. Hmmmmm. Then as I got out and prepared to strap it down, Brian mentioned “Oh, by the way, don’t ever put it in low gear while you’re moving.” Are you kidding me?!? This thing has a trans brake in it. ^&%#. I never said anything because 1) I am the stereotypical polite Canadian, and 2) My LB7 Duramax was smoking and I knew the factory injectors were about to let go any time (they did shortly after I got home thank God), so I had asked Brian if I could leave the trailer at his place and pick it up on the way back from PA. So off I went 2000+ miles home with the wrong car in the trailer. If only I had known then just how wrong it was…