> most people aren’t gonna bother making their own alcohol, apart from those people with home breweries or those that make wine

Maybe if it were pristine or a low-miler. It is neither, though it appears to have been well loved.

>It looked like the ignored entry from communist Russia.

I invested a few minutes in the URL listed in the ad. It is a rebate that Pacific Gas & Electric, the power company for most of northern and central California, offers to their residential electricity customers.

I actually have the skillset for a chance at successfully fixing such a thing without reducing myself to a smoldering pair of boots. But if I wanted to spend $4000 to take on someone else’s obscure techno-hobby, I’d want a less careworn example of something more sustainable in the US and, to be brutally honest, with…

There are indications that the owner may be a local flipper not actually selling his personal cars:

Price is a bit dear for what it is, and the mileage; but with a used car you’re also buying ownership history, and if I still lived in the area and wanted such a car, I’d take a test drive and have a look at those dealer service records.

That, and “not actual miles,” and a price $2k above one in Good condition in the tough Hagerty grading scheme, all tip it to ND. A similar unit in Fair condition (“Has flaws visible to the naked eye”) only commands half that price.

Ah, yes, the glory days of “promotional consideration.” From Goldfinger introducing the Mustang through Cannon’s Lincolns and McGarrett’s Mercuries on Hawaii 5-0, nobody was as considerate as Ford.

He put all his money and effort into the engine and now wants to get it back when someone else takes over the rest of the project, which is okay as-is for a rat rod, but if restoration is your goal, needs something hard to do or hard to source everywhere you look.

Very handy little cars (I’ve had two of that generation), but the price, like the seller’s claim that it is “rare,” is somewhere between aspirational and downright delusional for this car as found. Even garage-kept and in showroom condition, I’d be reluctant to pay eight large.

Took the words out of my mouth. I think that in California (where CNG was once pretty big in fleet service—think Crown Vics, not Civics), it’s a visual inspection every three years or 36,000 miles, after any accident above some threshold, and after any vehicle fire... and when the manufacturer’s nameplate  lifetime…

>student mechanic

Yeah, unless they’re Japanese stickers, or the dealer/importer bought it back from a previous US owner after considerable use, they’re probably just (literally) window dressing.

If* this truck is as good as described and the seller is reasonable to deal with, I am amazed that it has languished on the market 28 days at that ask in a metro area of 18 million.

I’m hearing different advice whispered into each ear:

It’s also a breach of trust! You take care of a thing and then it breaks down on you??? “KHAAAAAA(n)!!!!

Government attorneys can and do file civil actions, not just criminal ones.

Since it’s in the hands of a dealer, I’m surprised the asking price isn’t 2-3x that in search of a nostalgia market.

A couple of decades ago, when living in the Bay Area, I used to see fruitwood fireplace wood advertised all the time. Perhaps increasing constraints on fireplace use in urban areas reduced this market?