Let The Buyer Beware - Oliver Henry

I recently had a very unpleasant experience with Dean Shady of North Cedar Repair. I had been in touch with Mr Shady for several month anticipating the purchase of a Vixen. In December, I called and asked if he had any for sale. He said he had a very good one. "One owner, 30,000 miles, a sweet one." He emailed me photos and a description of a 1987 TD, VIN 345, which said, in part, "always garaged, mirror finish, new radiator core, new Onan generator with 19 hours... ". Mr Shady quoted me $28,000 for the Vixen. The price definitely seemed on the high end but from Mr Shady’s description of the vehicle, and the fact that I would be purchasing it from the reported expert on Vixens, I trusted it to be in top-notch condition. After some negotiation, we agreed on a price of $27,000. We arranged to meet in Omaha. Since I was planning to drive the Vixen back to Colorado from there, and Mr Shady could not run a credit card until he returned to his shop in Iowa, I gave him my American Express card number. Since I had read such positive things about him in Fox Prints, I had no reason to mistrust Mr Shady. In Omaha, I found a Vixen which looked very much the worse for wear. There was a puddle of antifreeze under the radiator, the vehicle had faded and chipped black trim, the white paint had poorly covered stone chips on the front and bubbles in the fiberglass under the paint on the driver’s side, the rear lens was sprung and faded. The interior smelled of mildew and diesel fuel. There was broken passenger door lock, hinges and fittings covered with rust, interior trim gasketing shrunken and cracked, driver side speaker grill missing, gouges in the wood trim, black silicone roughly applied to the passenger side windshield, and the head liner over the driver wrinkled and grease stained. It was greasy and dirty under the front hood and there was no generator of any kind. By way of comparison, we own a 1986 VW Westfalia with 115,000 miles that is in much better condition than the Vixen I saw. Additionally, the Vixen was not a one owner vehicle as Mr Shady repeatedly stated. The Vixen had been owned by a person in Idaho who purchased it from someone in California. Mr Shady much have known this because he had advertised it in September with a North Cedar address while it was in Idaho, but told me it came from California. In that ad, he also stated it was "well cared for". I told Mr Shady I did not want to purchase the vehicle, as it had been misrepresented, and he said, "Fine, I will take you back to the airport and go back and credit your American Express account". On the way to the airport, I asked, "Is this one of best Vixens you have seen for a while?" He said, "No, this one really hasn’t been taken care of the way it should have." Mysteriously, the Vixen had transformed from a "well cared for" "sweet one", before I spent considerable time and money to look at it, to one that "hasn’t really been taken care of the way it should have", after I questioned his representation of it. I flew back to Denver on a second, costly, one-way ticket, and became concerned when my credit card had not been credited three days later as Mr Shady had promised. When I emailed Mr Shady, asking him to issue the credit, I received a terse email response followed two days later by a certified letter which enclosed an invoice for $2,029 for Mr Shady’s time and expenses to show the Vixen. There had never been any mention of delivery charges before, and it was Mr Shady’s suggestion to meet in Omaha. The letter stated the amount would be deducted from the American Express card credit, and threatened legal action if I did not "comply". I contacted American Express and they opened an investigation of the matter. About six weeks later I received a credit for only $13,000. I re-contacted American Express, they re-opened the investigation, and finally in late March, I received the remaining credit of $14,000. Since Mr Shady had no claim whatsoever to the $14,000 he withheld, I can only think he was trying to make the matter as troublesome as possible for me. It took three months and about $900 in travel and other expenses to bring this interaction to closure. Needless to say, I was surprised Mr Shady chose to do business this way. I would warn anyone contemplating purchase of a vehicle from Mr Shady, or doing any other business with him, to be very careful. At this point, in spite of my dealings with Mr Shady, I still think the Vixen is a great design and a great vehicle. Does anyone know if it is possible to own a Vixen and have to deal with Dean Shady? Is there any other source of parts and service?