ToFi

The reason it was not my first post was because Roy had requested that I not post anything negative about the car to the forums. I made a promise and kept it. After Roy had decided all the speculation was worse than the actual flaws, he asked me to go ahead and post the flaws. I was trying to behave honorably, because I believed that Roy had behaved honorably. Quid pro quo. However, recent events on other boards have led me to believe in the other saying "no good deed goes unpunished."

I am glad at least some people managed to understand the point of my post. As for everyone else, I spoke to Roy about his feelings on this matter and he assured me that this matter is closed. Neither he nor I misunderstood the point of my post, however, because of all claims made by those who believe something is being hidden here, Roy has given me the go ahead to talk freely on my personal reasons for rejecting this car. I feel that is a very generous offer, once again by a person who has nothing to hide, and now neither do I so I shall indeed take up the offer to speak freely. And from this I hope you will see that there was nothing going on that I should have informed anyone about, and perhaps everyone can go back to life as normal. The thing about me and cars is I purchase a lot of cars, all the time, and the one thing I always look out for is cars which have the cleanest possible condition. I live in Arizona, and have never bought an East Coast car before. However I have been looking for a convertible G for a long time, therefore, when I saw the beautiful pictures of a lovely Red Spyder, I was naturally intrigued. A hasty call to Roy later and I was assured that the car would be a 9.9/10. Roy said that the car couldn't possibly be a 10/10, but the defects were very minor and that he would fix everything prior to the car being delivered. Part of the deal was the entire front bumper was to be repainted and the clear bra re-applied. We went through the exact details of the paint, interior, etc... Even so I was skeptical. It was Roy who assured me "I want you to love the car, and I believe you will be very happy with it. But if you are not happy I am not happy, so if you do not fall in love with the car, I will take it back, no questions asked." This assurance was what put me over the top and I decided to go for it. Like I said in my original post, my error was to take this as a reason to buy the car sight unseen. I have been extremely busy over the last weeks with property inspections and purchases in Phoenix, so I was not able to be home most of the time. My laziness led me to take word of many who posted on this and other forums that "they would buy a car from Roy sight unseen." My stupidity. They never said that *I* should buy a car from Roy sight unseen, only that they would. Now was the car misrepresented? Well no. The car was straight body, had no dents, no structural damages, and the only body work damage was the usual missing piece off that stupid lower piece of plastic under the front fender (I don't know what that is called, but I suspect 90% of Lamborghinis have that thing broken off, and its not worth repairing). So why did I not take possession of it? It comes down to how I rate cars I suppose. Those who have seen my car(s), know that I personally have the highest standards. I have a 2006 Gallardo which is my pride and joy and suffice it to say I maintain it very very well. When I describe my car as flawless, I actually mean what I say. It isn't quite flawless of course, and I can point out every flaw in the car, but from any paritcular inspection I would say my car is probably a 9.9/10. And for this reason, I was naturally excited to hear that Roy had in his possession, a 9.9/10 Red Spyder. Perfect car to replace my outgoing G. However, I was not satisfied with the overall impression of the Red Gallardo. And because I knew that my standards were sometimes unreasonably high, I had two experts in the field look over the car with me. Together with what they said, I realized this would not be the car for me. The car had minor cosmetic blemishes all throughout the front bumper, under the clear bra. This was a paint issue. The driver's side was scratched under the front bumper - which is slightly puzzling considering the whole front bumper was repainted. It could possibly be that the paint job was not a "bumper off" restoration so the underside was missed, or the scratch marks occured after the painting. I want to say to be fair you cannot see these scratches unless you look under the car, but the area scratched was extensive, as you might expect from driving up or down a steep incling or going over a speed bump with the nose lowered. The A-pillars had minor scuff marks throughout on the outside. The interior was very clean for the most part. The rear diffuser had a minor scuff mark on the passengers side from probably backing up into another curb. It was the impression of Richard, my body shop guy, that the car had been driven hard at some point in its life. The marks on the tires showed some wear unique to hard cornering, and the rear wheel wells had burned rubber. The rear tires were pretty worn although they had been described as being replace only 2000 miles ago. The exterior paint was good - no chips and only minor scratches, but there were holograms from bad detailing. These could of course be removed through wet-sanding. The appraiser suggested that the front bumper color also did not exactly match the rest of the body, but he conceded this might be due to the material the front bumper was made of and not necessarily a color mismatch due to the paint. So if we had to conclude what the condition of the car was, for a 2007 car I would say its probably an 8.5/10. The appraiser agreed, an 8 or a 9 he said. But we both agreed it was nowhere near a 10. And a 10 (or close) was what I had wanted. I probably judge cars differently from a lot of people, but for me a 10 is a 10. And a 9.9 is a 10 with a few rock chips. Anyone who has seen my cars will know exactly what I am talking about, I maintain my cars that way and those are the cars that I buy. Contrary to common belief these cars exist, and every car I own is testament to this fact. I was advised by Roy that the fact that I am used to owning cars from California and AZ have also raised my expectations somewhat and that it is not reasonable to expect cars from the midwest to have the same level of paint quality over time - a fact that I was unaware of. Roy did offer to reimburse me $1000 to take care of everything, however, I decided against it because the overall "feel" of the car wasn't right at this point. It is something that I have learned that if a car has a specific defect, it is easy to fix (if you hit a curb with your front bumper, you can have the front bumper repaired and resprayed to look like new). But if a car looks worn without having any definite problem point, it is very hard, maybe impossible, to bring up to a "like new" appearance. So I called and told Roy "Hey, you know I think the Spyder is pretty nice, its mostly straight and clean throughout, but I notice x, y, and z wrong with it and I have to say I'm not entirely in love with the car." Roy replied that he could offer whatever to fix the problems but if I didn't love the car, that he couldn't make me fall in love with it and so he would take it back as per our agreement. I felt Roy had behaved honorably throughout this negotiation. He said he would take the car back if I didn't love it, and he did. I felt therefore obliged to post about my happy dealings with Roy even if it did not end up with my dream car. I also felt that since there were no major defects to the red Lambo, to leave out the minor issues that had led me to reject the car. I felt that for the right person, it would be an excellent car - it certainly has an excellent price. And for another person, this might very well be a 10/10 car. But as an experienced Lambo owner and fanatical car collector, I simply did not think this car was the right fit for me. And that is how this whole thing went down. A very simple transaction, a very simple agreement, and nothing at all "wrong" with the car, except I did not fall in love with it. I hope this clears everything up and stops all the speculation and suspicion. And I apologize for taking this long to reply, as I've mentioned I have been in Phoenix recently on business matters.

I realize all these attempts to make me "spill the beans" on why I did not accept the car, however, I made a promise and I am keeping it. The only thing that I will do, if asked privately, is I will go through a detailed description of the car from a third party objective point of view. If you are actually interested in the car and not just wasting time, then feel free to PM me and I will be glad to speak to you in PM or on the phone. Otherwise, take this post as its meant to be - a review of Roy Cats and his company, and not a review of the car itself.

To answer the question of repair damage, no there was no accident repair damage on the car although the front bumper had been repainted. This was by request to fix the usual rock chips and road rash that driving 10,000 miles over Chicago roads might be expected to do. My purpose of posting here was to account for a recent buying experience rather than to go into specifics about what I did or did not like about a specific car, and why I told Roy that the search for a replacement for my current Gallardo goes on. However if anyone is really that interested to know what I am looking for, then do feel free to PM me.

For those of you who just want the condensed version, I want to say that I experienced excellent service from Roy, and that he was as disappointed as I was that this deal did not go through the way we wanted, but that I would definitely do business with him again, and would recommend him to anyone looking for an exotic car. ================ Now the details. The car was a Rosso Andromeda Gallardo Spyder that caught my eye. It was priced remarkably well, and I had always wanted to upgrade to a Spyder so it seemed to fit the bill very nicely. Roy was pleasant and communicative throughout the buying process. He joked about his own Lamborghini collection, and it was clear to me throughout the deal making that Roy was not just another salesman pushing a product. Here was someone who knew Lamborghinis and loved the car as much as I do (maybe more). This was a first time experience for me in a few ways. First time dealing with Roy, but also first time buying a car sight unseen over the Internet. On reflection, in my future dealings, I would probably decide to spend the time and effort to actually go see the car in person. I have always claimed that I do due diligence throughout the buying process but in this case, I concede that I had failed in this duty. I want to emphasize right here and now, that the car that Roy sold to me was a great car, just not the right one for me. Having failed to do my due diligence before purchase, I was determined to do it after. I took the car to two people whom I know have better eyes than I do. The first was the general manager at a local body shop who has worked on my old Ferrari and my current Lamborghini. He has a lot of experience in dealing with cars not just from his body shop experience. He is a complete gear head - just the sort of person you want looking a car you might end up owning. He builds choppers from the ground up and restores antique cars in his spare time. He also knows me very well so he understands exactly what I look for in a car. He took his best painter and the two of them walked around the car and did a very detailed examination. I spent almost 2 hrs with him, and to cut a long story short, he said the car was beautiful but he knew it would not be the car for me. I won't go into details here, but in this case it is like a hand not fitting a glove. Doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the glove, but that it needed to go on another hand. I then brought the car to a local appraiser. My town is sufficiently small that unfortunately I could not obtain a Lamborghini specialist, however, this guy has great experience in appraising other highline vehicles. We did all the relevant checks and told me, "I can tell you this - you are definitely getting a good deal on this buy, if you decide to keep it. The car needs a good detail, otherwise I'd give it a 8-9 out of 10. And even a new car is not a 10. For the price I don't think you could do any better." With this information, I decided to spend some time thinking about my purchase. In the end, I had to agree with what Roy told me from the beginning. "You got to love the car." I realized I liked many things about it but it was not the car for me, and that if I wasn't happy with it now, I wasn't ever going to be. I do not know a dealer in the world who is not happy when he makes a sale to a satisfied customer. The true test of a dealer is when things do not go as planned. How that person treats his customers when he no longer stands to gain is far more telling than how he treats someone when he is obviously coming out ahead. Roy was friendly and professional throughout the 2 weeks that I had dealt with him right up to the very end. And he stood by his word. The only time I detected disappointment in his attitude was when he realized that I was not in love with the car. I felt that he really wanted me to love the car. When I told him that this deal was not to be, he kept his word and took the car back, and promised that he would find the right car for me someday. I certainly hope so. Roy, thank you for making this experience a pleasant one despite not everything working out as planned. You have my gratitude and I will be more than happy to provide recommendations in the future. Also, thank Kevin for the smooth handling of all the paperwork and transactions for me, please. One thing that I got out of this experience though - I had my first chance to drive a stick-shift Lamborghini, and I have to say I loved it. I finally understand why some people sing such high praises of the gated shifter! Now the only thing left for me to ponder is how I am going to explain what happened to the guys I promised at Cars and Coffee with the red convertible I was bragging about all last two weeks!

Actually Top Gear did a few episodes with the Veyron. I remember the jet one, but the episode I was specifically referring to was the one somewhere in the middle east (I think UAE) where they raced a Veyron with a Zonda.

They did this in Top Gear last season. I think the conclusion from that show was "wow you proved that the Bugatti Veyron, the fastest car in the world, is faster than some other car." And here they did it again.

Er where are those pics? Edit: nm

In my Gallardo, always some variation of why I should have bought a Murcielago (the Gallardo is not a real Lamborghini, or the Gallardo is an over priced Volkswagen, or real Lambos have scissor doors, etc...) Often by people who drive up in clunkers that are barely holding on together btw. And my friends who continually send me photos of the same color Lambo only a Murcielago ("you should've bought this one"). Once a guy came up and same "that's one expensive fiero".

Well the car should be arriving next Sunday, and believe me nobody wants it here more than I do! However for now, I can post a link to the site where the car was advertised, that will have to do until I can get my own photos. Edit: I do not know how to enter URLs in this forum, or perhaps its against forum rules. So instead, I will just wait until the car arrives. Those of you who are resourceful it shouldn't be hard to find. Roy sold a 2007 Red Gallardo Spyder to me, so it's a pretty good guess the one that says "Sold" on his website would be it, lol.

I want to thank everyone for the wealth of replies that I have received. I always like to think I do my due diligence when making a purchase, especially a large one like this, over the Internet. There is an element of risk for a first-time buyer. Had I been buying from the local authorized dealer, I would never have bothered to make this post. Now that being said, I can see that there are two sides to an argument here, and that is good. The integrity of a forum like this is based on everyone being able to voice their views and experiences. I am always highly skeptical of boards where only one side of an argument is heard, and any dissent is quickly shot down. That being said I have decided to go ahead with my purchase of a 2007 Gallardo Spyder from Roy. This is my first dealing with him, and I have decided to trust him for reasons I will detail below. No doubt, the satisfaction of this experience will determine future purchases. As for the reason I have decided to go with Roy, well let's just say that the testimony I have heard from various people have all said that Roy is a upstanding broker of Lamborghinis and that he will stand by his cars. I have spoke to the following people: - Brian Cavitt, owner of Supercar Specialists, and my Lamborghini mechanic. In him I have great faith. - Jeff Decious, sales person at Scottsdale Bentley-Lamborghini, who sold me the car I am trading in. I have known Jeff for over a year and he is very upfront with matters. - Kam Bamdad of Lamborghini Newport Beach, who was trying to sell me his Murcielago, until I regretfully informed him that I was going with the Red Gallardo. Believe me, if he had something bad to say about Roy, he most definitely would have as Roy is his direct competitor for my business! - The general sales manager (I forget his name) at Lamborghini Bellavue. In the words of Peter Lynch, there is no better way to find out the strengths and weaknesses of a company than by asking their direct competitor. - The Lamborghini Club members of Scottsdale - Several other people who have posted on this and other Lamborghini forums on the Internet The replies have been 100% positive, all stating they have heard nothing bad about Roy. Admittedly, this board has been an exception to the consensus, and had there been any more bad feedback, especially from people whom I've known and dealt with in actual person, the deal might not have gone through. The car was described as a 9.9/10. Roy and I spent some time going down the list of things that might go wrong with a used Lamborghini, from the convertible operating mechanism, paint, clutch, electricals, etc... I have similarly disclosed the condition of the trade. I like to keep everything on the up and up as I think life has enough to worry about without going through needless strife. At this time I am confident the car will be as described, and I will certainly keep everyone informed of how things turn out in the end. I am actually very excited to be getting this car - I am in love with the color scheme and the fact that it is a convertible. No roof = closer to the sound of the wonderful V10 (okay, someone will tell me about the extra weight. Totally worth it IMHO!) I can't wait to see it in person.

I have a request from this board, if anyone has dealt with a company based in Everett, Washington State, known as Cat's Exotics, and would not mind speaking on the phone for a few minutes, could you please send me a private message? I won't take up much of your time, and would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Bought one, therefore no longer in the market.

As the title says, if anyone has a spare LOC exhaust for a 2006 Gallardo (or can point me to one) for significantly less than brand new, please let me know. Thank you.