Originally Posted by Bladecutter
Why in the world are you so concerned with DIRT?
If the car is in perfect mechanical condition, and is dirty, just wash the blasted thing.
I think you're way too picky about certain things in life.
You might need to relax your standards a bit.
Unwind, loosen the shirt collar, and enjoy life for a while.
BC.
Yeah, but there's a difference between a car that's simply dirty and one that has been neglected. All cars get dirty, but none should be neglected. I'm always concerned about a car that is badly neglected cosmetically - it's a whole lot easier to just run a car through a car wash once a month than to take it in for regular service. If an owner can't do the easy part I don't trust that they did the (only slightly) harder stuff.
As for the Oyster Gold coupe on Craigslist with an asking price of $9600 with only 5000 miles on it - run. It sounds like one of those scams we see too often. Call and ask if you can drive it. Wanna bet it's "not at the house right now because my uncle thought he had a buyer for it upstate" or some such nonsense? Of course, if you wire a deposit they'll deliver the car to you.