Aircraft Ownership Solutions

I purchased my aircraft from Aircraft Ownership Solutions in January 2012. I talked with Keith, who made me feel at ease, and I opted to place a purchase order for the airplane. I arranged to have it inspected by a company that Keith recommended and one that had good reviews. Little did I know (and would come to find out later from their delivery pilot), AOS does a good bit of business with this particular mechanic, and the prebuy was basically useless for identifying the problems I later had.
The aircraft was described as having a «Good Maintenance History» and being in «Great Mechanical Shape» (their words). They claimed that «our pilot flew this plane back from Harningen, Texas without incident. The engine started great and ran smoothly. No significant deficiencies were noted.»
Sadly, this airplane has been nothing but deficiencies since delivery.
Their delivery pilot delivered the aircraft with less than 5 quarts of (very dirty) oil in the engine; the alternator belt was fraying and had to be immediately replaced. The engine mounts were leaking and completely worn out (hello $ 600 bill). The transponder never worked from the day I got the plane (thus grounding it inside the DC SFRA until my avionics replacement). The #1 indicator was completely broken, and the #1 radio had to be adjusted (hello second $ 600 bill) in order to get it to properly identify a VOR (I don’t know how this plane was flown IFR, because it clearly wasn’t in the legal requirements). The autopilot was completely inop (how this «deficiency» wasn’t noted is beyond me, as it’s the first thing I noticed as soon as the plane was legal to fly).
Come time for my first annual, and the A&P shows me that I have two dead cylinders. It turns out the plane had sat for so long before I bought it that corrosion had destroyed two cylinders and was destroying the others. It wouldn’t show up until the plane ran for a while (and I flew it for 60 hours); thus, the corrosion was present when I bought the plane even though the compressions were «good» at the time. $ 8,000 later for annual and a top overhaul, the airplane was finally airworthy.
I’m not expecting that every airplane that is 45 years old to be perfect or have no maintenance needs. What I did expect, and apparently was too much to ask for, was an airworthy airplane that wouldn’t need an immediate top overhaul and have major avionics problems. Still, I’ve learned my lesson and won’t ever buy an airplane from these folks again. I advise you to learn from my experience and do the same.