Anyone owning up to having bought a lemon?
Discussion
Obviously, we’re all experts here when it comes to buying cars and mechanical knowledge. But would anyone fess up to buying any lemons?
Through luck more than judgement, I’ve never bought a total dud – but the worst would have been my first car, an 11 year old MG Metro.
I bought in in a hurry as needed a car to get to my new job. Coupled with having no experience of buying cars and only a smattering of mechanical knowledge, I must have been a buyers’ dream.
Within a month of ownership, surface rust started appearing; I seem to recall taking it to the jet wash only to find flakes of paint were washed off it!. It also had a bit of a thirst for oil. Despite all the usual service items and a ‘crypto tune’ (remember them?) it never quite seemed to run right.
I kept it for about 9 months and put a fair new miles on in during that time. It actually proved reasonably reliable - apart from the usual consumables it needed a new exhaust, battery, and water pump. I part-exchanged it before it’s MOT as the rust underneath looked serious and it was also requiring more and more top ups of oil. The clutch was also on borrowed time.
It certainly gave be a baptism of fire in terms of mechanical knowledge!
From memory, I think I lost about £500 on it when I came to chop it. Still have fond memories if it!
Through luck more than judgement, I’ve never bought a total dud – but the worst would have been my first car, an 11 year old MG Metro.
I bought in in a hurry as needed a car to get to my new job. Coupled with having no experience of buying cars and only a smattering of mechanical knowledge, I must have been a buyers’ dream.
Within a month of ownership, surface rust started appearing; I seem to recall taking it to the jet wash only to find flakes of paint were washed off it!. It also had a bit of a thirst for oil. Despite all the usual service items and a ‘crypto tune’ (remember them?) it never quite seemed to run right.
I kept it for about 9 months and put a fair new miles on in during that time. It actually proved reasonably reliable - apart from the usual consumables it needed a new exhaust, battery, and water pump. I part-exchanged it before it’s MOT as the rust underneath looked serious and it was also requiring more and more top ups of oil. The clutch was also on borrowed time.
It certainly gave be a baptism of fire in terms of mechanical knowledge!
From memory, I think I lost about £500 on it when I came to chop it. Still have fond memories if it!
Not quite there yet, but it does sometimes feel like it...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Yup I sure have, I part exchanged my immaculate 328i touring + £1000 towards a dog of a CL500, I should have seen all the clear warning signs, crap photos, vague advert and description and the fact that the seller did all negotiations via text message.
After a long drive from Cheshire to Staines I arrived on some shady council estate only to be flagged down my group of foreign looking hoodies who were loitering around several high performance cars (c63, M3, s4 etc) at this point I should have carried on driving past and swiftly drove home.
To cut a long story short I went on a two minute test drive and shook hands with an unnamed hoodie who's main vocabulary was bruv and fam and made my way home.
I eventually got home after coming to a standstill several times on the journey due to loosing all power, I thought this was a dead battery but turned out the battery connections were finger tight.
I few days later I started to notice that one of the rear shocks was leaking and the whole car didn't sit right... got a quote on a new shock which was over £1500! At that pointed I decided to drive the car into the ground and start looking for a decent replacement. There must have been something seriously wrong with the fuelling as the mpg used to be anything between 3.5mpg and 7.5mpg.
I only owned this car for 4 weeks and in that time spent over £1200 on fuel...
I traded it in against a e92 335D for a PX figure of £500.
EPIC FAIL
After a long drive from Cheshire to Staines I arrived on some shady council estate only to be flagged down my group of foreign looking hoodies who were loitering around several high performance cars (c63, M3, s4 etc) at this point I should have carried on driving past and swiftly drove home.
To cut a long story short I went on a two minute test drive and shook hands with an unnamed hoodie who's main vocabulary was bruv and fam and made my way home.
I eventually got home after coming to a standstill several times on the journey due to loosing all power, I thought this was a dead battery but turned out the battery connections were finger tight.
I few days later I started to notice that one of the rear shocks was leaking and the whole car didn't sit right... got a quote on a new shock which was over £1500! At that pointed I decided to drive the car into the ground and start looking for a decent replacement. There must have been something seriously wrong with the fuelling as the mpg used to be anything between 3.5mpg and 7.5mpg.
I only owned this car for 4 weeks and in that time spent over £1200 on fuel...
I traded it in against a e92 335D for a PX figure of £500.
EPIC FAIL
I've owned my fair share of lemons over the years but to be fair I've never spent much on cars, been living the ebay life.
Lowlights include a 10 year old Ford KA bought for the girlfriend back in the day, looked good on top and thought how bad can it be, but was rotbox, severly rusted underneath, sold for spares/repairs when it failed it's MOT.
I've also had a fair number of old Jag's so all sympathy welcome. Had mostly XJ40's but the worst of the lot was a X300 XJR, all and sundry broke on that thing, hardly ever drove it...
Lowlights include a 10 year old Ford KA bought for the girlfriend back in the day, looked good on top and thought how bad can it be, but was rotbox, severly rusted underneath, sold for spares/repairs when it failed it's MOT.
I've also had a fair number of old Jag's so all sympathy welcome. Had mostly XJ40's but the worst of the lot was a X300 XJR, all and sundry broke on that thing, hardly ever drove it...
CL500 from Stains is going to be hard to beat.
My personal lemon was this: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=125...
My personal lemon was this: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=125...
Yeah, had a few...
Probably the worst was an LPG-converted Jeep Cherokee 4.0, which I travelled down to the south coast to collect (2 hour train journey). Got down there, did the deal, drove off in the car. Got less than five miles before the engine started making some very strange noises, followed swiftly by a loud BANG, loss of power and dashboard lighting up like a Christmas tree. Nursed it to the hard shoulder of the M5, and called the seller.
He and his father turned up, shined a torch in the engine bay, and immediately spotted the problem... A fist-sized hole in the engine block. The supposedly "bulletproof" Jeep straight six had grenaded itself.
Fair play to the owner, he gave me a full refund, and his Dad drove me to the nearest train station.
That was the loneliest train ride home I ever took.
Probably the worst was an LPG-converted Jeep Cherokee 4.0, which I travelled down to the south coast to collect (2 hour train journey). Got down there, did the deal, drove off in the car. Got less than five miles before the engine started making some very strange noises, followed swiftly by a loud BANG, loss of power and dashboard lighting up like a Christmas tree. Nursed it to the hard shoulder of the M5, and called the seller.
He and his father turned up, shined a torch in the engine bay, and immediately spotted the problem... A fist-sized hole in the engine block. The supposedly "bulletproof" Jeep straight six had grenaded itself.
Fair play to the owner, he gave me a full refund, and his Dad drove me to the nearest train station.
That was the loneliest train ride home I ever took.
You live and learn I guess!
I'm only been driving 18 months (I'm 30 now) so felt I had lots of catching up to do and wanted to scratch the V8 itch I had.
I've had a fair few cars in this time namely e36, CL500, Stage 2 335D and currently stage 2+ Golf R.
I've now learnt to not rush in to things and do my homework when making a purchase.
I'm only been driving 18 months (I'm 30 now) so felt I had lots of catching up to do and wanted to scratch the V8 itch I had.
I've had a fair few cars in this time namely e36, CL500, Stage 2 335D and currently stage 2+ Golf R.
I've now learnt to not rush in to things and do my homework when making a purchase.
I had a lovely EP3 civic type R a couple of years ago that for some reason I decided to swap for an E36 cabriolet which was heavily modified. It had a hard top on but I soon found out that the soft top underneath was utterly f
ked so if I wanted to drive it with the roof off I had to pray it didn't rain. Air suspension was great fun for a couple of weeks until a hose wore through and it dumped all the air out of the front at 50mph and started dragging the subframe along the floor. Getting that onto a recovery truck wasn't fun and involved the front bumper getting pulled off and the radiator dragged along the floor.
Should have either fixed it or broken it for parts but I'd had enough so ended up selling it as it was for £1500.
ked so if I wanted to drive it with the roof off I had to pray it didn't rain. Air suspension was great fun for a couple of weeks until a hose wore through and it dumped all the air out of the front at 50mph and started dragging the subframe along the floor. Getting that onto a recovery truck wasn't fun and involved the front bumper getting pulled off and the radiator dragged along the floor. Should have either fixed it or broken it for parts but I'd had enough so ended up selling it as it was for £1500.
I sold my perfectly good reliable first car (Vauxhall chevette) for a shiny TR7. After 6 months of headlights not popping up, window falling into the door, gearbox going pop and needing a new cylinder head I cut my losses and got rid. The shiny paint also started to bubble up by the front valance and I squeezed a large bubble of water out. Terrible car
Working for a well known F1 team in the early 90's, I sold my Mk 1 Golf and bought a Lancia Beta HPE to keep the interesting car park theme going. Cam belt snapped not long after, which
earned a dealer engine repair under warranty thank god. Electrics were completely useless, closely followed by shocking reliability. Managed to keep it going for
a year, then just scrapped it. My brother then obliged by getting a driving ban, supplying me with a cheap Renault 5......
earned a dealer engine repair under warranty thank god. Electrics were completely useless, closely followed by shocking reliability. Managed to keep it going for
a year, then just scrapped it. My brother then obliged by getting a driving ban, supplying me with a cheap Renault 5......
Lost money on an s max pretty quickly (about £2k in four months). Was ok at the start but after a couple of months starting got bad and after checking it turned out the fuel pump was eating itself, repair bill estimated at £2k plus. Given that it is my wifes car and I didn't want her stranded at the side of the road with the children (for their safety, and mine 
) I decided to swap it for a newer one.
Only other car was a Orion that I bought when I was 17 (1.6i Ghia
), that lasted about 4 months, did 10k miles (with little mechanical sympathy) and died with head gasket failure
) I decided to swap it for a newer one.Only other car was a Orion that I bought when I was 17 (1.6i Ghia
), that lasted about 4 months, did 10k miles (with little mechanical sympathy) and died with head gasket failureI bought a BMW 523 - the reality that I might have made a mistake too longer than it should have to sink in.
2 years and £3k later I still have it, and I'm hopefully slowly turning the lemon into and Orange (it could never be a Peach).
Story in Reader's Cars here
2 years and £3k later I still have it, and I'm hopefully slowly turning the lemon into and Orange (it could never be a Peach).
Story in Reader's Cars here
I once cancelled my order for a new Impreza WRX estate as I had bought an ex-demo Evo VIII from the local Ralliart dealer. 4 weeks into ownership when left in Heathrow car park for a week two of the brake pads had bound themselves to the discs. Managed to free them off, which destroyed 2 of the pads. Gingerly drove home to ring the dealer. They said they couldn't look at it for 3 days, ridiculous, so I just parked in front of their service bay and left the keys. When they finally looked at it they claimed I must have done something, but were willing to replace the pads and have the discs skimmed as a gesture of goodwill. It would take a further week though, as they didn't keep the pads in stock!
Meanwhile I'm passing the Subaru dealer and "my" car is in stock. Out of interest I ask him to call the Mitsu dealer to see what they would give me for the car I purchased 5 weeks before. The Mitsu dealer offered £7.5K less than I paid, with the quote that he "would rather bite his own arm off than have it back". After some choice words on the phone to the sales manager there I never saw the car again, the Scooby dealer arranging to pick up the VIII and sell it at auction.
The WRX went on to give me 2 blissful years without so much as a bulb going wrong.
Meanwhile I'm passing the Subaru dealer and "my" car is in stock. Out of interest I ask him to call the Mitsu dealer to see what they would give me for the car I purchased 5 weeks before. The Mitsu dealer offered £7.5K less than I paid, with the quote that he "would rather bite his own arm off than have it back". After some choice words on the phone to the sales manager there I never saw the car again, the Scooby dealer arranging to pick up the VIII and sell it at auction.
The WRX went on to give me 2 blissful years without so much as a bulb going wrong.
Worst car I have ever owned was also the first I bought. A 1972 Renault 5.
It had holes in the floor, hidden by rubber mats.
It probably started life with about 45HP. Most had long since escaped.
Horrible gear change sticking out of dashboard.
Knackered drive shafts.
No compression.
Would have been ghastly even when new and was a total lemon. Ran for perhaps 1 year and then spent 2 years outside the house rotting away.
An MG Metro was a vastly superior proposition!
It had holes in the floor, hidden by rubber mats.
It probably started life with about 45HP. Most had long since escaped.
Horrible gear change sticking out of dashboard.
Knackered drive shafts.
No compression.
Would have been ghastly even when new and was a total lemon. Ran for perhaps 1 year and then spent 2 years outside the house rotting away.
An MG Metro was a vastly superior proposition!
Some great stories.
One of my mates, on buying his first car and in trying to come across as knowledgeable, asked the trader to open the bonnet. The seller obliged, but asked my mate what he was looking for, to which he replied he didn’t know! He went on to buy the car (ancient old Peugeot 309) which transpired to be a total dog…
One of my mates, on buying his first car and in trying to come across as knowledgeable, asked the trader to open the bonnet. The seller obliged, but asked my mate what he was looking for, to which he replied he didn’t know! He went on to buy the car (ancient old Peugeot 309) which transpired to be a total dog…
BMW 335i E92.
Bought approved used with 40k on the clock. Was on my list to own for a long time so hoped I would have a good experience going approved used.
Was back at the dealers constantly for the six months I had it. In the end, dealer agreed to refund the full amount.
Good result in the end but so disappointed as I loved the car when it worked.
Has put me off BMWs which is maybe a little short-sighted.
Bought approved used with 40k on the clock. Was on my list to own for a long time so hoped I would have a good experience going approved used.
Was back at the dealers constantly for the six months I had it. In the end, dealer agreed to refund the full amount.
Good result in the end but so disappointed as I loved the car when it worked.
Has put me off BMWs which is maybe a little short-sighted.
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