Hello all.
I'm afraid now I've made a huge error. Last year, in September the local BMW dealer here in Vancouver, B.C. Canada was selling a 2001 Z8, with 22,000kms, (13,000 miles) on the clock. It was an Original Ontario car bought new from a gentleman in Vancouver and shipped west. (Or so the salesman told me, so who knows really...) As soon as they posted it for sale I went in to check it out. They had it in the showroom, clean and looking great. I looked the car over and checked for any major signs of 'decay' but to my eye, it looked good.
I am a BMW M enthusiast, but my main focus is picking up cars that I grew up loving - I never them new only second hand, because that is what I can afford. After having an awesome summer in business I thought I would 'invest' in something that maybe has the potential to rise in value. So, I layed down a deposit and told them I would have the check ready in a week.
I knew nothing about the Z8's 'shady' history and potential problems. I found this site and did the research. Immediately upon discovering there were frame issues I contacted my salesperson and asked them straight out if this car had any frame damage whatsoever. He called within a couple days and reassured me the Z8 had no frame deficiencies at all. He also stated that if the car were to have issues they would 'not be able to sell it'.
Reassured I dropped the check off, checked the car over once more and asked them to put it into storage for me. 3 months later I had it at home and tucked in for the winter. During the delivery process I noticed something not right with the dash, it was all bunched up in a very wavy pattern - alas, dash delamination. Not knowing anything about this issue upon looking at it, to be honest I didn't truly pay it the attention it clearly deserved. I was more concerned with scratches of the ebrake handle and shift knob - also the door pulls and aluminum kick plates - I asked them to replace all these parts which they did. All the while overlooking this terrible dash problem.
Now, upon further review I've freaked out over the potential frame issue. I did the coin test on the hood creases and they remain consistent all the way from the windshield to the headlights, BUT, on the passenger side the headlight casing stick up slightly over the hood closure, thus it is not 'flush' with the hood when closed. Have any of you had this problem? Is this caused by the frame bulging underneath? The car had a front end respray before the dealer listed it for sale, I'm thinking maybe they took the headlights out for this and did not replace them properly? (I'm hoping anyway...)
Sadly, I've never spent this much money on a car before and was buying it a) because it's completely awesome and I love it, and b) because of the potential for an increase in value over the next 25 years.
Please tell me that I have not made a huge mistake... I'm ok with having the dash fixed, it was own my stupidity on this issue. From what I can gather the fix is around $2300.00?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.