messiah,
I think the former was your case. in all cases put your dreams aside and examine what you are buying. look t the seatbelts for one. do the dates match do they retract fully and easily. crawl under it nd look for marks. have a fridge magnet handy (think about this one.) and run it along the car. in all you are putting a lot of $$ down buy wisely. I have seen shitboxes scrub up new and the end user wouldn't know.
my 2c.