Hi folks, thought I would post this up here so you can all have a laugh on my mates behalf....
He's just been proper conned.
He needed a new cheap motor as his old faithful toyota corolla died a few weeks before christmas. He never serviced it and said it had been knocking terrifyingly badly for the last 10miles of its life. I suspected the bid ends on at least 1 cylinder. I pulled the sump and head off and found this:
One of the big end nuts had made a break for freedom and chewed up the bearing and crank journal. Bye bye toyota.
Now, hes a fairly mechanical bloke, hes had a Lotus elan for the last 30 years, and hes played a major part in having it rebuilt twice, minus the bodywork.
So today he went to look at a golf 3 1.9D cl. 95N neg. 65000 miles, fsh, lady owner blah blah. He saw it for sale at the side of a road with a sign in it.... £695.
He went on a test drive and got speaking to the bloke who said he was from South Croydon, about 15 miles from where the car was being sold (nr. westerham), he said he was selling it for his sister, who lives in Hailsham, a good hour away. WTF!
My friend said he was a little suspicious at this point, but carried on anyway. He noticed something on the window on the drivers side too, as the seller was driving he asked what it was, he replyed just a leaf. After a closer look, sure enough it was a leaf, but he didnt bother wiping it away with the wipers.
He noticed some rattling but the seller said it was just the keys, and also a rumbling wheel bearing, and slightly spongy brake pedal. The outside of the car is pretty tidy, apart from the bonnet which looks like its had a bump, the seller saying his sister had hit a gate in a car park. Fair enough.
The bloke said he would drop it to £650 due to the above.
So he hands over the money, and signs the old sytle V5 etc etc, the bloke drives off.
My friend gets in the car and notices that the odometer reads TAL instead of TOTAL.
The cheeky fecker has put a bit of card over the first digits, which actually read 165xxxmiles!! And the leaf on the window had been GLUED ON to cover a pretty hefty chip.
Furious, he drives back here and tells me the story, so with it sounding a bit fishy I had a good look around.
Had a look through the service book first, tippex galore, and lots of numbers scratched out or altered.
MOT certificate, same again, the 1 at the start of the mileage has been scratched out to read 65xxx.
Onto the car itself, the bump on the bonnet is actually a sheet load of filler all along the front covering up some terrible rust, possibly from a previous accident. We both noticed a starnge smell with the bonnet up and the engine running, the engine sounds fine btw, apart from sounding quite laboured at rest.
Anyway, it was pretty dark but my friend has a torch with him, shining it about the place, I noticed a strange glow coming from the back of one of the radiator fans, unplug the connector suspecting it has seized and the glow stops. Brilliant, seized radiator fan to add to the list, amazed it hadnt blown the fuse as the coils were glowing red through the casing on the fan motor. Probably stuck a bit of wire in the fuseholder or something, didnt bother to check. Engine sounds much more comfortable with the plug undone, so it was pulling a lot of load from the alternator. Quick peek at the temp cage and its climbing just past the 90mark towards the next line. Turned it off just to be sure, warned him to do the same if he gets stuck in traffic.
He said the brakes were a bit spongy too, quick look at the visible brake lines and two of them are weeping slightly at the unions, oh dear.
On the plus side, It does have a new oil filter on there, along with 4 new glow plugs, so hopefully its had some care in its life.
So to sum up, hes been right royally had. He didnt get the blokes address and hes not answering his phone, suprise suprise.
The car was still sellable, but at a huge discount, at least half what he paid for it, so he's fuming, and I'm pretty sure he doesnt have a leg to stand on regards trading tandards etc as it was a private sale, and he didnt get a reciept or anything, just the new keeper slip. I hope he gets a log book in a few weeks.
I ran a history check which came back clean, which cheered him up slightly, but hes still pretty bummed.
Moral of the story, if it dont feel right, dont buy it unless you get a huge pricecut.!
End of essay/rant.
He's just been proper conned.
He needed a new cheap motor as his old faithful toyota corolla died a few weeks before christmas. He never serviced it and said it had been knocking terrifyingly badly for the last 10miles of its life. I suspected the bid ends on at least 1 cylinder. I pulled the sump and head off and found this:
One of the big end nuts had made a break for freedom and chewed up the bearing and crank journal. Bye bye toyota.
Now, hes a fairly mechanical bloke, hes had a Lotus elan for the last 30 years, and hes played a major part in having it rebuilt twice, minus the bodywork.
So today he went to look at a golf 3 1.9D cl. 95N neg. 65000 miles, fsh, lady owner blah blah. He saw it for sale at the side of a road with a sign in it.... £695.
He went on a test drive and got speaking to the bloke who said he was from South Croydon, about 15 miles from where the car was being sold (nr. westerham), he said he was selling it for his sister, who lives in Hailsham, a good hour away. WTF!
My friend said he was a little suspicious at this point, but carried on anyway. He noticed something on the window on the drivers side too, as the seller was driving he asked what it was, he replyed just a leaf. After a closer look, sure enough it was a leaf, but he didnt bother wiping it away with the wipers.He noticed some rattling but the seller said it was just the keys, and also a rumbling wheel bearing, and slightly spongy brake pedal. The outside of the car is pretty tidy, apart from the bonnet which looks like its had a bump, the seller saying his sister had hit a gate in a car park. Fair enough.
The bloke said he would drop it to £650 due to the above.
So he hands over the money, and signs the old sytle V5 etc etc, the bloke drives off.
My friend gets in the car and notices that the odometer reads TAL instead of TOTAL.
The cheeky fecker has put a bit of card over the first digits, which actually read 165xxxmiles!! And the leaf on the window had been GLUED ON to cover a pretty hefty chip.
Furious, he drives back here and tells me the story, so with it sounding a bit fishy I had a good look around.
Had a look through the service book first, tippex galore, and lots of numbers scratched out or altered.
MOT certificate, same again, the 1 at the start of the mileage has been scratched out to read 65xxx.
Onto the car itself, the bump on the bonnet is actually a sheet load of filler all along the front covering up some terrible rust, possibly from a previous accident. We both noticed a starnge smell with the bonnet up and the engine running, the engine sounds fine btw, apart from sounding quite laboured at rest.
Anyway, it was pretty dark but my friend has a torch with him, shining it about the place, I noticed a strange glow coming from the back of one of the radiator fans, unplug the connector suspecting it has seized and the glow stops. Brilliant, seized radiator fan to add to the list, amazed it hadnt blown the fuse as the coils were glowing red through the casing on the fan motor. Probably stuck a bit of wire in the fuseholder or something, didnt bother to check. Engine sounds much more comfortable with the plug undone, so it was pulling a lot of load from the alternator. Quick peek at the temp cage and its climbing just past the 90mark towards the next line. Turned it off just to be sure, warned him to do the same if he gets stuck in traffic.
He said the brakes were a bit spongy too, quick look at the visible brake lines and two of them are weeping slightly at the unions, oh dear.
On the plus side, It does have a new oil filter on there, along with 4 new glow plugs, so hopefully its had some care in its life.
So to sum up, hes been right royally had. He didnt get the blokes address and hes not answering his phone, suprise suprise.
The car was still sellable, but at a huge discount, at least half what he paid for it, so he's fuming, and I'm pretty sure he doesnt have a leg to stand on regards trading tandards etc as it was a private sale, and he didnt get a reciept or anything, just the new keeper slip. I hope he gets a log book in a few weeks.
I ran a history check which came back clean, which cheered him up slightly, but hes still pretty bummed.
Moral of the story, if it dont feel right, dont buy it unless you get a huge pricecut.!
End of essay/rant.
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