Have you ever sold a dodgy motor? Explain here!
Discussion
I bought a lovely Audi A4 many years ago that I bought at an auction. Looked well but when i got it home I discovered it had been extensively damaged at the back and had had a new rear quarter panel fitted. I ran it for six months but was constantly addressing water ingress into the boot. I got fed up and entered the car back into the auction i had bought it at where it sold for more than I paid for it! Several years later it passed my on the motorway at considerably more than the speed limit!
Eek, I've never sold a lemon privately, and wouldn't, but...
I did trade an merc E250 with undiagnosed gearbox issues. Went to WWAC, It may have just needed gear oil change but I just couldnt afford to open the can of worms. Lost £5k on that car so they got what they paid for.
Slightly worse than that was a Celica VVTLI, traded in to a garage, it had a dodgy head gasket, it overhheated all time. It spent a lot of time in the garage and never got resolved it so it had to go. Baby number 1 was on the way at that time. It also had an LPG conversion that never worked properly. All undisclosed. It did continue to soldier on for another 40k miles according to the MOT history then suddenly it must have popped for good.
The Celica's replacement eventually got traded too, a Saab 9-3, it had a dodgy clutch at 100k miles but again it did another 50k miles according to MOT and is still going!
Every car I've sold privately has been mint so I dont feel too bad.
I did trade an merc E250 with undiagnosed gearbox issues. Went to WWAC, It may have just needed gear oil change but I just couldnt afford to open the can of worms. Lost £5k on that car so they got what they paid for.
Slightly worse than that was a Celica VVTLI, traded in to a garage, it had a dodgy head gasket, it overhheated all time. It spent a lot of time in the garage and never got resolved it so it had to go. Baby number 1 was on the way at that time. It also had an LPG conversion that never worked properly. All undisclosed. It did continue to soldier on for another 40k miles according to the MOT history then suddenly it must have popped for good.
The Celica's replacement eventually got traded too, a Saab 9-3, it had a dodgy clutch at 100k miles but again it did another 50k miles according to MOT and is still going!
Every car I've sold privately has been mint so I dont feel too bad.
SurferManDan said:
Eek, I've never sold a lemon privately, and wouldn't, but...
I did trade an merc E250 with undiagnosed gearbox issues. Went to WWAC, It may have just needed gear oil change but I just couldnt afford to open the can of worms. Lost £5k on that car so they got what they paid for.
Slightly worse than that was a Celica VVTLI, traded in to a garage, it had a dodgy head gasket, it overhheated all time. It spent a lot of time in the garage and never got resolved it so it had to go. Baby number 1 was on the way at that time. It also had an LPG conversion that never worked properly. All undisclosed. It did continue to soldier on for another 40k miles according to the MOT history then suddenly it must have popped for good.
The Celica's replacement eventually got traded too, a Saab 9-3, it had a dodgy clutch at 100k miles but again it did another 50k miles according to MOT and is still going!
Every car I've sold privately has been mint so I dont feel too bad.
Surprised about the Celica, those VVTLI engines are bulletproofI did trade an merc E250 with undiagnosed gearbox issues. Went to WWAC, It may have just needed gear oil change but I just couldnt afford to open the can of worms. Lost £5k on that car so they got what they paid for.
Slightly worse than that was a Celica VVTLI, traded in to a garage, it had a dodgy head gasket, it overhheated all time. It spent a lot of time in the garage and never got resolved it so it had to go. Baby number 1 was on the way at that time. It also had an LPG conversion that never worked properly. All undisclosed. It did continue to soldier on for another 40k miles according to the MOT history then suddenly it must have popped for good.
The Celica's replacement eventually got traded too, a Saab 9-3, it had a dodgy clutch at 100k miles but again it did another 50k miles according to MOT and is still going!
Every car I've sold privately has been mint so I dont feel too bad.
Sort of. I had a 1996 Golf GTi 16v that had a month's MOT left on it and I'd been told by 'the man' that it was going to fail spectacularly and I'd be best off getting rid of it. I chopped it in at a main Ford dealer in Worcester for a god awful Fiesta diesel and when asked if it was a good car said 'yeah, brilliant I just need a more economical car'
10 years later it was still going!
10 years later it was still going!
I've traded two in , one that was breathing heavily (Micra) , possibly crankcase vent issue, possibly broken ring and another that was consuming oil at an alarming rate (Audi 90)
There was a third just out of warranty that developed a known issue, I told the dealer about when I traded it in , they were confident manufacturer would cover it so were not concerned.
There was a third just out of warranty that developed a known issue, I told the dealer about when I traded it in , they were confident manufacturer would cover it so were not concerned.
I'd never knowingly sell privately with known issues not highlighted from the outset however....my last car was sold to a Ford main dealer as p/x with dodgy ABS/brakes...likely they sold via an auction I guess but looking at the gov mot history failed it's next MOT after I sold with the abs one of a host of major defects..ahem.
Given the main dealer gave me peanuts for the p/x (IMO of course) then I don't feel so bad about it...and I signed up to their finance and paid off within a day with the dealers blessing so I think we both got a good deal lol
Given the main dealer gave me peanuts for the p/x (IMO of course) then I don't feel so bad about it...and I signed up to their finance and paid off within a day with the dealers blessing so I think we both got a good deal lol
The down side of being a car enthusiast is that we'll put up with all kind of problems whilst we are running them but fix them before we sell.
The only way I will sell a car with a fault is if I couldn't fix it or it wasn't worth fixing and then I disclose it.
In fact when I sell a car, I will often measure tyre depth, brake thickness etc to be able to tell a would be buyer.
The only way I will sell a car with a fault is if I couldn't fix it or it wasn't worth fixing and then I disclose it.
In fact when I sell a car, I will often measure tyre depth, brake thickness etc to be able to tell a would be buyer.
Leylandeye said:
The down side of being a car enthusiast is that we'll put up with all kind of problems whilst we are running them but fix them before we sell.
The only way I will sell a car with a fault is if I couldn't fix it or it wasn't worth fixing and then I disclose it.
In fact when I sell a car, I will often measure tyre depth, brake thickness etc to be able to tell a would be buyer.
Yeah we dont tend to trash our cars. The only way I will sell a car with a fault is if I couldn't fix it or it wasn't worth fixing and then I disclose it.
In fact when I sell a car, I will often measure tyre depth, brake thickness etc to be able to tell a would be buyer.
I had a BMW 320i which had a common fault of wiring loom going through the estate boot hatch being worn due to the opening and closing of the door wearing the wires. I did repair it by resoldering some wires and insulating the whole lot again so technically it was fine when I traded it in against the wife's current car, all worked fine but it was a bit of a bodge repair and no idea if it would last a month or years.
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff