When Buying A Car

[Moby 0]

A few weeks ago I decided to buy another 205 but a Mi16. So saw one advertised as a bargain. Mails exchanged , he only showed pics of the roof where it had been relaquered needed respraying, and a wheel which needed attention ok acceptable. Hid the fact there was a big scrape on the side a couple of dings on the other side, no jack or spanner as I was goin to drive it back from Essex to Manchester. But did tell me it had no spare tyre so I took a spare with me. The inerior had bits missing didn't mention. Now the engine, he claimed never needed to top up oil.

I got to Essex he took me for a little drive seemed ok. We stopped and there was a bit of smoke coming out from the side of the head I asked what that was and he said he sprayed som WD40 earlier and it must have been that. I bought the car in good faith taking his word and luckily got home without any problem. Now 4 weeks later and about 500 miles after I just thout I'd check the oil and it's down right to the minimum.It still smokes and there's oil around the seal where the head is.

I'm not going to name and shame him. I've yet to find out if it's just a seal or the head gasket., just want to advise myself first that" better the devil you know than the one you don't know."

Rant over. !!!

[dumbiron 0]

I have suffered from the "its complete" description, yeah complete including the the broken bits just wedged in, held in by silicon or missing completely.

[Moby 0]

I have suffered from the "its complete" description, yeah complete including the the broken bits just wedged in, held in by silicon or missing completely.

 

I wouldn't really mind if he had mentioned or pointed out the faults. Then if you buy or not you can decide once you know. But deception not kool Especially if your probally going to be coming back to the forum again.

[Moby 0]

Oh yeh forgot to mention the badly leaking sunroof !

[omega 82]

A few weeks ago I decided to buy another 205 but a Mi16. So saw one advertised as a bargain. Mails exchanged , he only showed pics of the roof where it had been relaquered needed respraying, and a wheel which needed attention ok acceptable. Hid the fact there was a big scrape on the side a couple of dings on the other side, no jack or spanner as I was goin to drive it back from Essex to Manchester. But did tell me it had no spare tyre so I took a spare with me. The inerior had bits missing didn't mention. Now the engine, he claimed never needed to top up oil.

I got to Essex he took me for a little drive seemed ok. We stopped and there was a bit of smoke coming out from the side of the head I asked what that was and he said he sprayed som WD40 earlier and it must have been that. I bought the car in good faith taking his word and luckily got home without any problem. Now 4 weeks later and about 500 miles after I just thout I'd check the oil and it's down right to the minimum.It still smokes and there's oil around the seal where the head is.

I'm not going to name and shame him. I've yet to find out if it's just a seal or the head gasket., just want to advise myself first that" better the devil you know than the one you don't know."

Rant over. !!!

 

hi

i feel your pain ,but is some of it self inflicted?

you saw a bargain and rushed in there to get it before someone else did and in so doing so forgot to ask all the questions you would normaly ask.

if you asked for some pics of the inside and side of the car you might have had a better idea of what you were buying and that would have made you look deeper.

this isnt having a go at you as ive done the same,but you live and learn.

[blessed6383 0]

i know what you mean i bought something from a menber on here and guessed it was complete as it would be no good otherwise but when recieving realised it was not and then contacted menber only to getno reply or offer to refund some of the money but like said i guess you live and learn not everyone is as honest

[Baz 421]

Caveat emptor.

[Moby 0]

@ Omega true say , I did do that. But still , I'm selling my car and I've put all pics of the rust ,the seat where the stitches come undone, without anyone asking. So it's better to put a clearer picture of what bargain someone's gonna get. U live n learn ....

[harryskid 193]

Been there too, my worst one been taken in by a cowboy mechanic, cost me loads.

[muddatrucker 125]

Sadly, I reckon you've gotta find these things out for yourself, if its a trusted forum member then its a bit different though.

[BusEngineer 7]

Caveat emptor.

 

^^ Very true ^^

 

Still annoying though especially when buying through a community like this, but unfortunately thats life

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

Not right but sold as seen IMHO. Depending on what you paid for it, I would have walked away with bits missing and dents you didn't know about.

[Moby 0]

Not right but sold as seen IMHO. Depending on what you paid for it, I would have walked away with bits missing and dents you didn't know about.

 

It was a long walk bak home ! I'm goin to show it a mechanic tday to see whether it's the head or ??? I don't like the creamy stuff in the engine oil cap. I'm hoping it's not what I think it is !

Edited November 23, 2010 by Moby

[Moby 0]

Just discovered it's the head. So looking at around £500+ head gasket, skim, timing belt water pump, full service : plugs, oil, filters the lot. From bretz in Cheadle. Wish I never bought it now. But there again if I have all this work done at least I'll know the engine rather than getting another lump put in.

[omega 82]

dont know if it helps but danpug has a free head in the for sale section ,he might post it for a few beer tokens if you ask him.

[CaptainK 11]

Just out of interest, the sellers forum user name didn't start with "Jonnie" and end with "205" did it ?

[Moby 0]

Just out of interest, the sellers forum user name didn't start with "Jonnie" and end with "205" did it ?

 

No it's not him.

[Moby 0]

dont know if it helps but danpug has a free head in the for sale section ,he might post it for a few beer tokens if you ask him.

 

Cheers. Wil ask him

[mainline 2 1 Cars]

Sorry to hear this mate, but you live and learn, sometimes the hard way.

 

Always be suspcious about anything which looks like a bargain, and to be honest, if there is smoke coming out of the side of the head, and you are about to part with your hard earned, then be really suspicous about it. Why would anyone spray WD40 on the side of the head? How can you trust what the seller is saying if you have already noticed other little bits that are wrong / not as described. Your bulls*it detector must have switched off temporarily.

 

We've all done it, I bought a Volvo S40 that had almost certainly been clocked because I was being too nice. Its an easy trap to fall into, probably because, like me, you are always totally honest when you sell your cars.

 

Better look next time, hope you get the head fixed economically.

[dcc 855]

£500 seems a bit steep to me.

 

headgasket, bolts, belt, tensioner, oils, fluids, plugs, leads should all come in less than £200. that leaves £300 for you to buy some tools and have a go at it your self. that way you learn about the engine, and that you should not really buy a budget french car.

 

what extent of damage is there to the head?

 

I am sure you could spend some time fixing the car up and thoroughly enjoy her, but dont forget that the engine/car are both prob. the best part of 20 years old.

[Moby 0]

£500 seems a bit steep to me.

 

headgasket, bolts, belt, tensioner, oils, fluids, plugs, leads should all come in less than £200. that leaves £300 for you to buy some tools and have a go at it your self. that way you learn about the engine, and that you should not really buy a budget french car.

 

what extent of damage is there to the head?

 

I am sure you could spend some time fixing the car up and thoroughly enjoy her, but dont forget that the engine/car are both prob. the best part of 20 years old.

 

I'm thinking of putting a thicker gasket which gonna cost more too. The rest your probally right. The extent of damage unknown yet till next week. I havn't got a garage or anywhere I could work on it, I'm working 6days. Plus if i tried to start working on it I'd cock it up and end up spending twice much more on it. It's my daily driver. My wife needs her car so can't always take that.

[Anthony 1,003]

I suspect that this won't be well received and sound like I'm sticking the boot in, but I can't help but think that you put yourself in the position that you're now in, and can't work out if you're now shouting and screaming about it out of frustration knowing that to be the case, or because you're looking for someone to blame. If I've understood you correctly...

• You've agreed to buy a car at the other end of the country from someone you don't know, by the sounds of things without asking enough questions or obtaining enough pictures
  
• You've then gone down there to collect with no easy way of getting back home you don't buy the car
  
• You've spotted various problems and damage that wasn't mentioned and should have triggered the alarm bells, but decided to buy the car regardless
  
• You've sold your other car, so you're now relying on this 20 odd year old car you've just collected with known issues to get to work without any fallback or chance to rectify the faults or give it a full service/check over.
  
• You've discovered that it has a suspect failed headgasket, and that it is losing oil after only checking after 4 weeks of use
  
• You've probably burnt your bridges and any chance of help from the seller with this thread
  

If there was ever a list of "silly things to do when buying a car" then surely that little lot would all be in there. You did HPI check it and confirm that the V5 details tallied up, didn't you? If not it would probably be worth doing before spending any money fixing it.

 

The seller should have been more forthcoming about the issues particularly if they're a forum member and knew you were travelling a distance, but ultimately from where I'm sat and your description of events, you've made some dangerously optimistic assumptions in a rush to get a "bargain" and not given yourself any backout plan if there was any problems.

 

Also, worth remembering that the seller is selling the car, and as such should be considered as any other salesman and assumed to be not entirely forthcoming with the truth and any issues the car might have. If it was a part that you'd bought in good faith and been couriered to you then I'd have sympathy, but the fact that you inspected it first and bought it regardless despite the obvious warning signs having put yourself in a silly position, means that you've only got yourself to blame for this one.

 

I'll be kind and assume that you were just a little naive in your rush to buy, but when buying any car, regardless of what you think you know about it or who it is being sold by, it's always a case of "caveat emptor".

[harryskid 193]

I suspect that this won't be well received and sound like I'm sticking the boot in, but I can't help but think that you put yourself in the position that you're now in, and can't work out if you're now shouting and screaming about it out of frustration knowing that to be the case, or because you're looking for someone to blame. If I've understood you correctly...

• You've agreed to buy a car at the other end of the country from someone you don't know, by the sounds of things without asking enough questions or obtaining enough pictures
  
• You've then gone down there to collect with no easy way of getting back home you don't buy the car
  
• You've spotted various problems and damage that wasn't mentioned and should have triggered the alarm bells, but decided to buy the car regardless
  
• You've sold your other car, so you're now relying on this 20 odd year old car you've just collected with known issues to get to work without any fallback or chance to rectify the faults or give it a full service/check over.
  
• You've discovered that it has a suspect failed headgasket, and that it is losing oil after only checking after 4 weeks of use
  
• You've probably burnt your bridges and any chance of help from the seller with this thread
  

If there was ever a list of "silly things to do when buying a car" then surely that little lot would all be in there. You did HPI check it and confirm that the V5 details tallied up, didn't you? If not it would probably be worth doing before spending any money fixing it.

 

The seller should have been more forthcoming about the issues particularly if they're a forum member and knew you were travelling a distance, but ultimately from where I'm sat and your description of events, you've made some dangerously optimistic assumptions in a rush to get a "bargain" and not given yourself any backout plan if there was any problems.

 

Also, worth remembering that the seller is selling the car, and as such should be considered as any other salesman and assumed to be not entirely forthcoming with the truth and any issues the car might have. If it was a part that you'd bought in good faith and been couriered to you then I'd have sympathy, but the fact that you inspected it first and bought it regardless despite the obvious warning signs having put yourself in a silly position, means that you've only got yourself to blame for this one.

 

I'll be kind and assume that you were just a little naive in your rush to buy, but when buying any car, regardless of what you think you know about it or who it is being sold by, it's always a case of "caveat emptor".

 

I know what you say is right but the poor guy has learnt this the hard way. Should not the scumbag that sold him this be named and shamed and not be let on the forum?

[welshpug 1,657]

why? not as if the buyer bought something unseen?

[harryskid 193]

why? not as if the buyer bought something unseen?

 

The seller told him a lie about the smoke from the engine though when he most likely knew the real reason. Not an honest sort of bloke was he?