A couple of weeks ago I read a thread about "you don't really know what you want until you have actually owned one". I read this thread from the beginning to the end several times, which I almost never do. Something about the thread really bothered me and I just wasn't sure at the time what it was? Now I realize that what bothered me was that I had been planning to buy a new car and put a lot of money into it, but I had never even owned one or really driven one my only ride was as a passenger once.
Then I saw a thread about the IM hardtop and WOW I loved it. I talked to a couple of people about it and it really was something that I would like to have when I order my car.
A week later my automatic search for used speedsters popped up a 1993 IM with, can you believe it, a hardtop and softtop. WOW this car really called to me. The problem was the owner wouldn't call me and wouldn't answer any of the questions about the car. What I know now is that he really didn't know the answers to the detailed questions because he was selling for another person and they didn't know that much about the car either.
I wanted the car and I really was willing to pay good money for the car, but since I had little information the bid was going to assume all the worst things could be wrong with the car. The person selling the car did finally email me with the details he had found out about the car.....Intermeccanica, with air-conditioning, a 1600 engine, 4 speed and it has heat but he doesn't know which kind? Ok at this point I'm thinking he is really naive or playing me somehow and I started to get very nervous. After asking several SO members for help and getting information from Henry at IM I started to believe this wasn't a scam.
I bid on the car assuming the engine was bad, because when I told the guy that if I won the bid I was going to drive the car from Seattle to Iowa. He responded that he didn't think it would make it until it was worked on because the engine was missing a little. Usually in selling a car that is code for "engine is going to need to be replaced". So now I believe I know why no one was bidding on the car. He also told me the car had only driven 1k in the last few years (it was 6 years). Now I know that this car is going to need a lot of refreshing with this much sitting and the problems that causes. I won the auction by 50 dollars and now own a used IM.
Now let me tell you the last 5 days I had been really nervous about the car getting sold out from under me or it being a real peace of crap. So I finally get airlines out to see the car (spring break on the airlines is a nightmare), and it is absolutely beautiful interior and exterior. The carbs are all screwed up which is what I figured the problem would be after sitting so long, and the gauges are all out of calibration, but I did drive it 30 miles south of Seattle and gave it to the shipper to send it via enclosed trailer to Iowa. I had only owned the car for about 30 minutes when while driving the car down the interstate to the shipper the engine quit....no worry it was just out of gas. In my excitement I didn't really look at the fuel gauge and it wouldn't matter if I did because it still read a quarter of a tank. I pushed the car about a mile and put gas in it and it started. I'm glad that car is so light!! And the car ran a lot better with new gas in it, but will need a little work.
I want to thank all of you for answering all my questions and putting up with my fence sitting for the last year now. A special thank you to Dale for his help, and Ron who would have inspected car for me, but couldn't because he was out of town and we only had two days left. Pictures are below and the car is actually an Ivory color, but very hard to get a picture to show how beautiful of a color it really is.
