Car viewings / purchases that go wrong...

[Rusty]

Went to collect a car today and thought I had all bases covered - water, petrol, oil & jump leads... Then it wouldn't start due to an electrical fault bit of a pita having swapped my insurance over and travelled 20 mins to get there... Wait and see what the garage say...

Who else has had a breakdown / issue on a test drive or on the way home from collection?

[Nimz]

My cabriolet broke down and pissed all the water out the radiator when I was on my way with Tonks to fetch my S2 I bought from Quattro Dan a couple of years ago. Had to get a mate to pick Tonks up and take him to fetch the S2 while I waited for the AA lol


Nimz - Pearlescent white 1992 S2

[johne]

I bought an E type off a guy in El Paso which was a 120 mile drive from where I was. Collected it off him on his wedding day. Future Mrs. had demanded that the car went

Bare in mind this is SW of the US so it's v hot and facilities few and far between.

First problem is that the car has serious clutch slip so 45mph is top speed where clutch slip = wind resistance.

Second problem is that oil pressure drops to b***er all when hot - later found out that oil filter had been fitted the wrong way round and the thrust bearings had broken up ruining mains and big ends.

Third problem, there's no rubber pipe between the bodywork mounted fuel cap and the actual fuel tank.

75 miles outside El Paso in the middle of nowhere, I pull into a gas (petrol) station. Out comes the female gas station attendant whom I ask to "fill her up". As she's doing that I grab a coke from the machine. Turning round whilst enjoying the cold coke, I notice petrol runing out of the bottom of the car and across the forecourt. Walking over to the girl I redirect how she's holding the nozel so it points directly into the tank despite the missing hose and tell her to carry on. She carries on pumping but is still concerned as excess petrol pours out onto the forecourt. Fortunately it's over 100 degrees and petrol is very cheap in the US so the car was filled up, I paid and drove away.

Still couldn't do more than 45mph until I replaced the clutch but that's another story involving a fork lift truck at the side of a railway..................

John

[Cottis]

"but that's another story involving a fork lift truck at the side of a railway.................." - Ha ha, brilliant

I have been very lucky so far (touch wood) although I have walked away from many viewings in disgust at the people who rate their cars highly and ask for over inflated prices for what I deem almost scrap.

I recall viewing an old French car years back. The owner came outside with the keys, but couldn't gain access to the vehicle. The locks wouldn't work and he seemed unhappy that I wasn't willing to climb in through the boot! Said I had wasted his afternoon. Oh the irony!

[re2500]

I bought my current mk2 golf from a "lovely" chap down in southampton. I viewed it, it looked OK, obviously it had been tarted up fairly recently. But the engine 1.8 16v had also freshly been rebuilt, lots of receipts to prove parts etc. A test drive round the block went well, drove really nice.
Paid my money, started the drive home, got on the motorway towards home and about 25 miles into my journey, the oil pressure light flickered instantly followed by a lovely percussion symphony of big ends, I tried to limp it back to the guys house, but failed and had to get it recovered. The guy refused to refund but promised to get it repaired. He never did and i had to recover the car on a trailer 3 weeks later, and build a new 2.0 16v engine for her. I learned a lot about viewing cars after that...

[Ross]

Not quite a purchase of a new car but after my Quattronics engine build, i made a sedate drive home, then took her out the next morning. I got 15 miles down the M4 before a bigend failure resulted in rod cap failure and a snapped rod putting a hole in the block, writing off the engine.

I also had a south-west USA incident but after bailing out from the purchase of a few real crap-boxes i test drove, i borrowed an old jeep from a mate. All well and good until it got low on oil - noted by the tappety whine that was developing. After stopping on the side of the I15 at 2am trying to find some oil, i decided to go another 10 miles to a stop. After 7 miles the oil warning flashed and the engine noise increased - i clutched in and pulled to the shoulder - before i could turn the ignition she siezed. In hindsight the pressure drop idling it for that last 5 seconds probably sealed the fate. Fortunately the small flames coming up from the engine bay went out and after a while i got back in and waited till i was rescued a few hours later.

[simon20vq]

Bought my Audi 90 2.3E down south so went down on the train.
Driving home car started to act funny pulled in for fuel because it was low went to start it and battery was flat so bumped it as garage was on a slight slop.
Driving down the a303 it stalls two more times at traffic lights luckily I'm fit it rolls easy and bump it again.
Now fourth time stalls again but don't want to start and now know hill, some golf driver gives me a push and off again 200yards up the road I pull into a garage 'hi mate do you sell batteries' 'no but the scrap yard behind does'! Yippee. 20 quid later new batter gets me home.
My mates say if I fell in you know what I would come out smelling of roses.
Strip reg on alternator and problem solved.
Best old car I had that 90.

[bluequattro]

A gt I bought from Manchester was a bargain at £100 with tax n test
Owner said it occasionally had running problems and he. Given up after throwing £300 at it at the dealers
I drove it 200 yards up his drive and it promptly stopped
Me n mate and owner did usual battery cable waggling, sucking through teeth etc and rang th AA
Owner had been messing(ex mechanic) and had knocked the king lead off dizzy, but enough to still run th car until it went over a pot hole, then lead fell off
My mate bought it from me after getting home as he needed a car
Promised he d give it me when it failed MOT
I had to wait near enough 2 years!

[s2driveruk]

sure buried away on here is the fun i had with some :corey: from ebay with a pug 306 i went to collect only to find it was a bag of sh&te and totally not as described...

[Error404]

Who else wants to hear John's story about the forklift clutch replacement?

[AndyP]

Who else wants to hear John's story about the forklift clutch replacement?

Too right!

[K Simmonds]

Who else wants to hear John's story about the forklift clutch replacement?

Me too

[AndyP]

Me and Bry bought an accident damged S2 from Manchester about 10years ago. This was in the days when Autotrader came out on a Thursday, Bry spotted it and rang me to see if I wanted to go halves on it. He then drove over to Manchester straight after work ( dark and raining! ) and put a deposit on it. We both went over the following eveing and collected it. Well, it ran like a bag of s**t and was smoking like a chimney! Bry drove it back through the Manchester rush hour with me following in the James Bond-esque smoke screen! When we got it back home we had a quick look at the cambelt!



Anyway, the seller mentioned that he had another coupe quattro that we could have as part of the deal, but it was in Wrexham and we had to fetch it. So, the next weekend we drove over to have a look at it. It was parked outside an empty house and had obviousley been there years, blocked it with 2 huge bags of sand! We decided we still wanted it ( must have been mad!! ) so came back the following weekend with my Range Rover. After dragging the sand out of the way, we dug the car out and dragged that onto the trailer. We then drove it back to Mansfield and put it in storage.

After a good wash it came up alright, so we put it up for sale as a 'restoration project'. The first guy that came to see it found that the VIN plate had been tampered with and reported us to the police for selling a stolen car! Also went on all the Audi forums and slagged us off, which was nice. We got in touch with Nottingham traffic division and explained the situation and they sent out a vehicle examiner to take a look. He found that the car was not stolen and the VIN plate was OK.

We sold the car the next day to a breaker and it was never seen again

You live and learn!

[UrS4boy]

...The first guy that came to see it found that the VIN plate had been tampered with and reported us to the police for selling a stolen car! Also went on all the Audi forums and slagged us off, which was nice. We got in touch with Nottingham traffic division and explained the situation and they sent out a vehicle examiner to take a look. He found that the car was not stolen and the VIN plate was OK. We sold the car the next day to a breaker and it was never seen again You live and learn!

Too bad that episode put you off and the coupe went to a breakers. It looked good and seemded to be a rare(ish) colour.

The VIN plate and the VIN stamped into the edge of the scuttle could have been quickly matched when the @r$ehole viewed the coupe.

That photo of the cracked cam belt is going into my cam belt post(s). Yikes.

Live and learn? Yup. I add "Too soon old, too late smart".

Dave F.

[UrS4boy]

The fellow that bought the red mazda in this video story is either lucky or disappointed or both:

http://www.complexmag.ca/rides/2013/09/truck-hauling-80000-pounds-sand-flattens-mazda