Busch Foreign Cars?

[blee]

Busch Foreign Cars is a small shop/dealer in Herndon. They seem to be mainly a shop, but they always have a handful of cars for sale on their lot.

Based purely on appearance, this place could be one of those "diamonds in the rough" or just another sketchy place. Does anyone have experience with them? Would anyone recommend I buy a car from them or take one in for work, or should I stay away?

[hoyabmw]

Never purchased anything from them. At one time they had a decent looking E30 that I was interested in as a second car, but wanted WAY too much money for it, and wouldn't consider bargaining (even after I knew it had been on the lot for over a year.)

A friend did used to use them for maintenance work on her old Mercedes Diesel, and they did fine work.

[blee]

I was over at their lot a few days ago and saw a newer 318i for $1980ish. It sounded like a lot of money for the car, but I didn't look very closely at it. no idea how many miles or anything. I'm kind of fixated on buying an E30 for daily driving (and ditching my current car), but concerned with finding one in good mechanical condition that won't make this a money-losing deal.

[bantonid]

I actually have the unfortunate distinction to have bought a car from Busch Foreign Cars. I bought a 1994 Saab 900 v6 from them in 2000. They are overpriced and all the cars seem to have something not right with them. I test drove a 1993 325i and ran out of gas less then 3 miles away (the gauge had read 1/4 tank when we left the lot). The Saab I ended up buying there had a leaking A/C compressor, bent rims, mismatched tires, and developed a transmission problem within a year.

Also, they had a "Lingenfelter 500 hp" zr1 corvette for sale at the time. I was interested in it since a similar car had been featured in a C&D Supercar Challenge 2 years before. I had the corvette checked out by a family friend. Let's just say that vette was in very poor shape. 6 out 8 cylinders firing, had a Lingenfelter manifold, but was definately not 500 hp. Also needed to have the steering column rebuilt as it vibrated violently at 60 mph. The radio had obviously been replaced with an aftermarket head unit that was too big so the plastic had been cut to fit it, but the stock radio had been replaced and didn't work. To top it off the tires were worn and rotors were covered in fine cracks.

I ended up having my Saab for 4 years before finally getting rid of it for my fantastic 2001 330i. And that time I went to the BMW dealer to get it. Oh yeah, and I had taken out an extended warantee when I bought the Saab. The warantee only would have covered a used transmission and $45 an hour for labor. Just my 2 cents, but I'd shop elsewhere.