Craigslist Crapshoot

Welcome to Craigslist Crapshoot, our weekly search for the most bizarre, awesome, and/or terrible vehicles that the online classifieds has to offer.
Scammers are always trying to separate you from your money, and one of their primary trolling grounds is Craigslist. Last week we went trolling for the trolls and came up with some good fodder for fun. We’ll see the pie in the sky in just a sec, but first we have to discuss this week’s special edition quest.
If you think the concept of the fancy pickup truck is a modern conceit then look up the 1955 – 1958 Chevrolet Cameo, which offered car-like features and style in what was otherwise a work truck. Special editions of pickups, whether fancy or functional (evidence the Ford Ranger Sasquatch) have ever since been de rigueur, and that’s what we want this week: the most special special edition pickups we can find. 
As always, we want your finds to go down in infamy and not in the site’s spam filter. Since we’ve changed commenting systems, you may need to update your commenter account. Make sure you have a Disqus account – they’re free and easy to get – and then comment away.
Got that? Good, now let’s see some scams!
A few years back my father in law sought to replace his older Jag XJ-S with its more modern analog, an XK8. He was still looking at the used market, and as such he came across what’s one of the most common scams phony-baloney sellers pull. That was the offer of a temptingly priced XK8 that was said to be in Denver, and demanding a quick sale because the owner was being deployed to the Middle East and didn’t have anywhere to store the car. Boo hoo, right?
My Father in Law offered to fly to Denver to view the car, and if all was as promised in the ad, he’d buy it and drive it back to LA. Ah, but that didn’t work for the seller. Instead, he wanted to have the car shipped to LA for viewing, and all my wife’s dad had to do was put the asking price in an escrow account for the seller’s security. When I got involved I showed my father in law that the pictures in the ad were from another ad, and that the escrow business the seller was proposing was shadier than a prison tat.
If you’re not careful, you can get scammed and sometimes we let our excitement overcome our better judgement. In the end, my Father in Law bought a car in California from a seller that was happy to meet and display the car as needed. Hopefully people looking for cars like the Dodge Dakota found by ptschett will be so lucky. Similarly, those looking for an Escalade like the one offered by Alff (already flagged for removal) will have better opportunities elsewhere. Harry Callahan gave us a sketchy “theft recovery” BMW 335i with a salvage title, and mrh1965 offered up a Ferrari 458 that if its ad is to be believed could be driven off for only $99 down. Yeah, okay.
Instead of picking out one scam over the others, I’d like to take the opportunity to anoint you all winners this week, and I am confident that none of us will be taken in by such crooks as you are all expert detectives in spotting the scams. Now, let’s go get us some specials.