Country Classic Cars Staunton Illinois

Has anyone here had any dealings with these blokes, good or bad? Have a mate here in Oz interested in a car they have for sale. Their prices seem on the low side.

Any feedback appreciated.

Cheers
J

 

The prices are low because the cars ned alot of work i would have a car closely looked at before u buy. Just my 2 cents

 

The cars that these people sell, generally need a lot of work. There is no way I would buy a car from them without someone inspecting it. Their place is located in the heart of the rust belt here in the US. I'm sure most of their inventory consists of cars that have lived in the area. Buyer beware!

 

Jimbob,

I looked at quite a few of their cars before I bought my Buick (through E-Bay from a private seller). I found that most of their cars were cheaper than most sellers, including private sellers but they all needed a fair amount of work (why the price difference.

Again, as 76ironhead said, only my .02 worth.

 

I would want someone to look over the vehicle very carefully..I was eyeing one they had for sale for a loOOOONg time..It needed plenty of work and although the price did not seem too bad you would have to consider there was plenty room for negotiation.. They sure do have a large selection,,,I think you should pop in,,,you'd appreciate the weather in Illinois this time of year.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139050&highlight=country+classic+cars

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70935&highlight=country+classic+cars

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=191365&highlight=country+classic+cars

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176028&highlight=country+classic+cars

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41379&highlight=country+classic+cars

a search will get you all the info you need.

 

why search when we have Zman ?

 

I would be very very careful B4 dealing with these people.

 

They also have a selection of finished rods and customs.You have to go there to see them.What they show on the website are projects at best.People used to take them there for sale with a extremly high price,when winter was over they would go get them and not have to pay storage.They have wised up and no longer do it that way.Still lots of interesting projects .

 

I have stopped and looked at their stock a number of times. Some of them are in pretty good shape and some need lots of work. Pretty much what you get anytime you are looking for a car/project. If your friend is thinking of buying from them have him ask a lot of questions and then, if he is still interested, there are lots of us in the area that would go look and give him an opinion.

 

They're fine for project cars. Most of the folks nowadays don't seem to want them so that's why you get dolled up Maaco paint jobs and spray bomb underhood detail work. If you're looking for a decent, cheap and sometimes rare old project then give them a shot. I pass by there literally once a month to visit in-laws and friends in St. Louis area. If you'd like I can swing by and take pictures and send them off.

Australia is a long way for shipping a pile of rust so its worth it to have a look beforehand. But they aren't all that bad. I've seen some rare iron go through that place over the last 10 years and if I had some more coin & a place to store them, a few would have come home with me. They included a solid '56 Lincoln Premiere coupe for about 7K, 2 door Edsel Villager wagon for CHEAP, and a clean 49 Pontiac business coupe with the straight 8 and decent original paint for $5500. You aren't going to find those every day.

 

I'm close to that place and if your interested in something they have there I would be willing to go look at it for you.

I should warn you though, they have a less than stellar reputation.

 

Thanks blokes, the response is pretty much what I expected. He's looking for a 4 door Hudson or Mercury, and doesn't want to ship a pile of rust. We will be stateside in August so will continue the search.

Cheers all.

 

I guess my story is not the norm. I bought a really nice 56 4dr about 6 years ago, great car, easy dealing. I did hire an appraiser. The worst part was paying for and waiting on the shipping.

 

Buyer Beware.

Imagine your childhood dream car just waiting for you at a classic car shop, owned by some small town car guys on old Route 66, in the middle of the cornfields of Illinois, that just love the hobby and are able to make an honest living doing what they love. Kind of clouds your judgement doesn't it. Well it did for me, and probably more than a handful of other guys that are to embarrassed to admit they put a little too much faith in their imagination and gave their prudence the slip.

I bought an '87 Chevy Silverado 4x4 from those clowns last year. I really wanted a low mileage, older pickup and had come to believe that Country Classics was reputable.

I emailed and talked on the phone with them about the truck that was advertised as a solid, apparently original 51,000 mile truck, with original paint and interior. I had them send pictures, and I faxed them an Intent To Purchase figuring if it was in as good a shape as they said I would pay them $8,000 for it, and would fly out and drive it back to NH.

When I arrived in Staunton, I found out that the truck had obviously been resprayed, with overspray on the moldings. It had a cheap undercoating that was flaking off of the frame. The cab corners had been bondoed. One inner rocker panel had been replaced with a crappy rivet on replacement. The dashboard had been recovered.

I told them that this truck was in a lot worse shape than I was lead to believe, and they offered to drop $500. Maybe I cared too much about my pride to catch a flight home. Big mistake. I decided to buy it anyways, thinking all these items were more or less cosmetic problems that I could iron out, and still walk away with a low mileage truck.

Shortly after leaving the dealer in my new old truck, the gas tanks began leaking. When I was about to reach NJ the transmission totally went out. I needed a full rebuild and had to catch a series of buses and trains to NH. One month and $3,300 later, I went to NJ to pick up my truck and complete my trip. When is the last time you heard of a 51,000 mile truck blowing its transmission?

I emailed the guys at Country Classics, and told them that I know they are not obligated to provide me a rebate, but that if they did not offer me any compensation, I would sure as heck do my best to tell everyone my story. They said they were sorry to hear about my luck, but would not refund me any of my money. They told me while I was there that most of their business, comes from people that never see the car and have them shipped to them. Take it from me, do not trust these weasels.

Not only did they cheat me, they also cheated themselves. If I had been given an honest description of the truck, and been dealt with fairly, I would have been back several times in the future spending thousands of dollars with them. And because there are more old car guys here in NH than there are rust free old cars, there's a good chance several of my friends would have made the trip to Staunton.
And now I'm telling everybody online, what snakes these guys are, so, hopefully, they've cheated themselves out of your money, too.

By the way, I hardly ever rant online, but I really can't stand these guys taking advantage of car guys. Let's put the sharks out of business and give the real car guys our hard-earned dollars.

 

Jimbob I live 5 miles away from Country classics. If you need me to look at a car for you I would and send you every detail about it with pics. I never bought from them but I have bought cars from Gateway Classic cars . They are closer to St. Louis ,Missouri. For the most part gateway has very high quality cars. In fact there was a Hudson 4 door for sale in the area also by a private seller. I'll see if I can contact that seller too. Just let me know.

 

I live real close to these guys and me and my brother go over there several times a year to look at their cars. And every time we come home feeling a lot better about the cars we have! Don't ever buy without looking first! Especially under neath!

 

Prices are rediculous on biggest part of their cars. Most are sitting on flat tires. They could at least go around and air tires once in a while.

 

Run away....Run FAR FAR away from these guys.
I've walked their lot once. Junk.
The second time I visited they wanted to charge me money to LOOK at their junk.
Calling them weasels is not fair to the weasel population.

 

jimbob what year merc is he looking for? ive got a slick 69 for sale. as stated above i would stay far away from those jokers at country crackhead cars.

 

I don't understand why you'd travel over 1000 miles and spend $8000 to buy a dime a dozen Chevy truck you should be able to buy anywhere. The state auction I went to last month, a low milage K2500 diesel with no rust sold for a whopping $1400, running and driving. Was a former Army truck. You aught to be able to take a couple of classified papers, hang them on the wall, have someone blindfold you, throw a few darts, and one of those darts will hit an ad for an 81-87 Chevy pickup.

I suppose if you headed south, it would make sense, the stuff I saw people had junked when I was in South Carolina put the van I drove down there in to shame. No real rust on anything unless it was 30-40 years old.

 

This is a 10 month old thread ...he's probably found a car by now.

 

My wife found her dream car there I am guessing 13 years ago.. I called them and asked them about 200 specific questions I had written in a notebook and wrote the answers down. Told them I was going to compare when we flew out there.
Looked at the car.... it was okay... but nowhere near what they described, and a lot of the specific questions like = does the fan motor blow... is the heater hooked up.... do the windshield wipers work..... do all the light work..... the way the front clip was welded on... quality of the paint.... the horn.. Well you get the idea... and more... they lied about all of these things.

When I showed my list to the owner and lady.. the old guy just looked me in the eye and said, "are you going to talk turkey or buy the car"?

I sucked it up, we bought the car for the sake of the adventure and fun. I repaired it / limped it the whole way back across the country. We had a great trip, lots of great times and fun. I didn't let that jerk ruin it. Fixed the car over the years a bunch, repainted.. etc.. I made it into a real car. My wife had that car for 7 fun years as a daily driver.

What an arrogant, cold, dishonest, lying, self important jerk. Ruler of his junkyard.

Ask me how I really feel.

 

If they would just give honest descriptions of the cars they sold, and not be jerks when you politely ask them about things that are different than they specifically described, it would be a cool place and business.

They obviously were not raised right.

 

I can't believe that anyone buys from them!! I was there one day and they had a car loaded on a truck to take it for a cheap Maaco paint job. I looked under neath and the brake lines were held to the frame with PLASTIC WIRE TIES! Anyone who walked by the car could see it. They still have the car. The majority of cars have been sitting there for a long time!!

 

I've been down to their lot once when we were clay shooting in Sparta...most of the cars were in serious need of help. as project cars go, over-priced junk... the better cars were over-priced, and still would need work... The day we were there the guys working were not doing a whole hell of a lot....
Never been back....

 

I live about a mile away from the place. I go over every couple of months to look around and have a laugh. They used to keep a lot of the cars outside and they quickly deteriorated to piles of rusty junk. In the last year they have cleaned up most of what was left of the junkers and have moved most of the cars inside. They have some nice cars, but they are grossly overpriced. Many others are total projects commanding restored prices. I was looking at a 52 Plymouth convertible last time I was there. Asked the guy how solid it was. Almost rust free was the answer. I went back to look, as I had noticed what I thought was the usual rust (floors, rockers) peeping through the faded black paint. They park the cars so close together in the warehouses it's almost impossible to get a decent look at them. One of the kids who worked there volunteered to crawl under the car and take pictures with his cell phone. The result was what I expected - rust everywhere. The inner rockers were not just rusty, they were gone. The body was resting on the frame on the floor only, the inner rockers and body mounts rusted away. They were asking 13 grand for the car. I went back to the office and pointed out the rust problems and the amount of work needed just to get the car in drivable condition. He "graciously" offered to lower the price to 11,500, commenting these were really rare cars. I pointed out that I had gotten my much rared 50 Dodge Wayfarer convertible - in similar shape - for $2,500 and had paid too much for it. That ended that conversation.

As I said, they have some nice cars there, but a lot of sedans and 70s convertibles. Not much rod or custom material. And all at ridiculous prices.

 

Please don't confuse the Illinois Country Classics with Country Classics in Remsen ,Iowa ! Stan and Jan have several hundred project cars that date from the 20's to the late 60's. They are located on a farm that you have to get to on gravel roads. He farms and the car part sorta started as hobby that turned into a business .

 

You have to pay $1 just to get on the lot! I refuse to pay (even a dollar) to look at a car I want to buy. As with anywhere, some good deals, some not so good. It's kinda like a junkyard turned carshow


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old post i know, but has the op been informed to look at craigslist? some good decent rides there along with the usual hucksters and buck turners. but at least a different avenue to look at as well.

my .02, stay away from them.