The guy doesn't know what he's talking about. There were 30 Budget Saleens made in 1996 (of which mine is #07B), and 88 made in 1997. He has the wrong number of cars produced. I'd verify the VIN with Liz at Saleen. However, since the number isn't over 88 and it has a "B" after it, it probably is one. He most likely didn't know for sure how many there were.
Just looking at it, it appears it may be a Budget. All Budgets came with the Magnesium wheel upgrade, which the car has. He mentions lots of curb rash, which is a common complaint given it was a "rental" and they didn't take much care when they changed out tires. It has a lightbar, which was also included on all Budgets (I think it was on all convertibles though). It is also an automatic, which many of them were for obvious reasons (of course, mine isn't). I didn't see a bumper number on it, so I'm assuming he got the "B" off of the engine bay plaque (unfortunately, they didn't take a pic of it). It will have a 97073B stamped on it if you want to ask them. It probably doesn't have the interior plaque as they were supposedly mailed to the owners of the cars after they were auctioned off. Many of them either didn't get it, or didn't bother to put it on. You will have to order a duplicate from Saleen if you want it.
When I was considering buying mine I did some research on the closest thing to a Budget Saleen, which was a Hertz Shelby GT350. They are going for roughly double what a normal GT350 sells for. As far as I can tell, that's mainly due to the fact that it is a limited production inside a limited production. The kicker is, there were thousands of them made as opposed to 118 Budget Saleens. I combined this info with the fact that mine is one of 2 Violet Budgets (the other one is an automatic) and one of only 19 Saleens ever produced in that color and decided to purchase it. Made it sound more rare then most...
I probably gave you more information then you were looking for, but now you pretty much know what I do about the series. Hope this helps...