Hi Pete!
I AM NOT starting a war - only telling you of my experience. I got my 109
from Skytop and since I live about an hour from him I got to look it over
pretty good. At the time I didn't know much about series trucks but knew
enough to look for rust on the frame and bulkhead.
In my case I went to look at an 88 that he had and when I saw it I passes
but just for the hell of it drove the 109. The truck is a FFR so I knew
going in that it had a lot more hours on the engine than the 8000+ miles
indicated AND I knew that I would have to put hardened seats in the head.
The frame was perfect and the bulkhead had two pin holes on the upper
outside corners which was easily and cheaply fixed. I now have all the
parts needed to do a valve job and that is my next project. Honestly, I am
very hopeful that the bottom end is OK but as the compression on 3 of the
cylinders is great - the forth is due to a burnt valve - I suspect that the
block and bores are fine - however I don't really know yet.
I have had a problem with the charging system and Gabor has promised to get
me replacement generator equipment. - So this is the only "surprise" - not a
LOT on a 25 year old vehicle!
Would I do it again - honestly probably not as recently I have gotten pretty
good contacts in England and will make my next project a kit car from over
there in a year or two.
I have bought several used cars/trucks in the USA that I have had a LOT more
problems with (from dealers and private parties) so I therefore think that I
got a pretty good deal from Gabor. I have never bought a car over the phone
or by mail from another part of the country so I can't address that issue -
I will always either want to see the vehicle myself first OR trust a GOOD
knowledgeable friend to check it out for me first....
Lee
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-lro@works.team.net [mailto:owner-lro@works.team.net]On
Behalf Of Hope Peter
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2001 11:37 PM
To: lro@works.team.net
Subject: LRO: Re: RE: Re: ser3 importers? skytop? Others?
> You are right! BUT you forgot to add the thousand (airfare, hotel, food,
> car rental, etc.) to go to England to find the truck you want and the cost
> of finding the right "trustworthy" dealer to use to get the truck in the
> first place.
>
> I guess if you travel all over and know the import/export rules in each
> country AND have the time and contacts to do it yourself - you CAN save
the
> odd thousand!
So dealers in the US are trustworthy? Believe that's why the question was
asked, to see what people thought about this particular dealer. Unless
someone lives in the same area of the country, how is this any different?
Skytop ships their rovers all over the country as to many of the other
ex-Mod importers. True, traveling to a US dealer and hand picking a vehicle
will be cheeper then flying to the UK, but then this amount needs to be
added to the cost. But if you are making the purchase through phone and
mail, if you are going to trust a US dealer, then why not deal directly with
the source? There are a number of places in England that will handle
everything for getting the vehicle to arrive at the docks in the US. Then,
however you plan on getting the Rover from PA, use the same method to get it
from Baltimore.
Not saying this method is the easiest, but it is straight forward, and I am
talking about saving 3-4k. ST is selling military surplus vehicles that I
just don't see being worth the 7-8k listed, so I offered another option.
I have had great experiances dealing with a couple of parts suppliers in the
UK, both new and used. True not a vehicle, but I have been ripped off
getting used parts in the US, and sometimes from one of the big names in the
US, no such problems from the UK yet.
Pete
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