As ya'll know, my MM has been on the block and I've been negotiating with Jay from Yonkers about the car - our schedules have not been able to mesh.
On Friday Jay and a buddy flew in to Detroit to check out the MM and, hopefully, drive it home. Jay even brought CD's to crank up on the ride back.
It looked as if the deal were done until Jay checked the VIN stickers on the fenders, doors, and trunk.
They don't match the VIN number of the car. At least, the right side fender, doors, and trunk deck don't - the left side does.
Off the the selling dealer we went - it's a one owner car and I ain't been doin' no parts swappin'.
After some amount of round around (which Jay will probably detail) the dealer located the "missing" parts to my MM - on a police interceptor in Utah!
Apparently someone on the production line got the stickers in the wrong order, and the numbers were swapped.
It occurs to me that it may have been just these two vehicles. Dealer, Jay, and Jerry (Jay's buddy, who has forgotten more about cars than I'll ever know) all say that they've never heard of such a thing. Maybe but maybe not - these might not be the only cars; suppose the fella working the left side of the line started off the day wrong and stayed wrong all day long?????
Build was 5/02.
Jay couldn't accept the deal (for which I don't blame him a bit!) because the NY authorities are much more tuned to mismatched VIN stickers than here in Detroit. The dealer wasn't willing to certify a letter that the car was legit, he prefers to let Mercury handle it (again, for which I don't blame him a bit, except since he's the selling dealer he's already pretty much involved) and Mercury won't have anything concrete before Tuesday. Jay had to get back to NY, so the deal was DOA.
Lessons learned - check the visibible stickers on the fenders (under the hood, quite visible), doors and trunk - making sure numbers match VIN (they won't match the whole VIN, but the numbers will be the last digits in the VIN sequence).
If Jay and I had communicated better I could have checked the numbers before he flew in, delayed the deal until Mercury solves the issue, and saved Jay a wasted trip and a bunch of $$$ on airline tickets. It just never occured to Jay to ask, since the VIN numbers are never wrong out of the factory. Except when they are. It never occured to me to look - I supplied Jay with the VIN for him to check out before he came, and figured that was all we need do, since the car was new when I bought it.
I felt terrible for Jay - who laughed it off, apparently Jay and Jerry had been on more adventures on road trips before than they could relate (but I know he can't be laughing about the air fare!).
So the sale of the car will be on hold until Mercury comes up with something (like new stickers????); I don't want someone else to go through this.
Jay had a good point, too - if I had sold the car in Detroit most likely no one would have thought to check the numbers. In ten years, assuming these things appreciate in value, the owner might have a difficult time proving the provenance of the car!
All in all, a horrible day. Jay and Jerry went back to a hotel to wait for their morning flight, I went home and put on Sinatra and opened the Scotch.
I hope all of your VIN's match!
Jim
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