Almost bought a 2018 SS with "minor front end work" and I'm so glad I didn't just take the seller's word for it
Wanted to share something that happened to me this week because honestly I'm still kind of shaking my head at how close I came to making a really dumb decision. There's this gorgeous red hot 2018 Camaro SS that popped up near Dubai Silicon Oasis, priced about eight grand under what similar ones are going for, and the seller was super upfront about it having had some "cosmetic repair" done to the front bumper after a parking lot scuff and I figured hey that's fine I can live with a bit of paintwork if it saves me some cash. But my gut kept nagging at me because the panel gaps around the hood looked a little off in the photos and when I drove it there was this weird shimmy under braking that the seller blamed on warped rotors from sitting too long. Long story short I ended up booking a Dubai Camaro Pre Purchase Car Check just to be safe and the report came back showing that the front impact had actually been way more serious than just a bumper respray, the radiator support was slightly out of alignment and there was evidence that the frame rail had been pulled back into spec but not perfectly, plus the brake shudder was actually a warped hub from the same incident. The seller got defensive when I showed him the report and stopped returning my calls which tells me everything I need to know honestly. Just putting this out there for anyone else tempted by a deal that seems a little too sweet on one of these cars, a couple hundred dirhams for a proper look underneath is a whole lot cheaper than discovering you bought something that'll never track straight again.
