Dealing With Being Conned

[AutoConned]

a said:

Sounds like you're still quite early on in your car ownership "journey".

Fear not, in the future you will buy decent cars from decent dealers that will cost you a lot more in unplanned expenses

This tickled me! I did like the look of a Golf GTI with a DSG, but the potential cost of a 5k car, then reading online the cost of the DSG controllers and it being a turbo which equals more components to go wrong adding up I could see the servicing taking it to another level of cost. If I bought the golf, money would have been seriously tight so id be gambling if i could truly afford the running costs and other curve balls life throws at you, such as a fall with broken bones meaning I'm paying out of my arse for public transport.

So I bought a Cat C car instead.. hahaha. What a lemon

[AutoConned]

designforlife said:

And projects that spiral wildly out of control....if it makes you feel any better, i bought a rare older car for £850, spent around £6k on it, and sold it for £2k. It was an awesome car, but not an awesome display of financial sense.

I can only imagine the mrs asking why suddenly I'm a few grand short and trying to explain to her how my rare car that is so awesome its worth putting 6k into for me but someone is willing to only buy it for 2k.

makes for a good story in the pub and I bet you enjoyed it while it lasted!

[rich12]

Is that V5 legit?
I've never seen that written on it going into detail about it being a write off..

[AutoConned]

rich12 said:

Is that V5 legit?
I've never seen that written on it going into detail about it being a write off..

This is my 4th car now ( I've only bought 2) and it arrived in the same official brown envelop all my others have and everything is in order (I think)
it has all of the right fonts and certificate numbers. I think its in his best interests the lemon is in my name not his anyway!

[cbmotorsport]

Olivergt said:

I'm calling troll on this one. Will continue to read with interest, but I'm out as far as commenting goes.

Says the provocative poster, fresh to PH with only 2 posts.... Ummm...

[designforlife]

AutoConned said:

designforlife said:

And projects that spiral wildly out of control....if it makes you feel any better, i bought a rare older car for £850, spent around £6k on it, and sold it for £2k. It was an awesome car, but not an awesome display of financial sense.

I can only imagine the mrs asking why suddenly I'm a few grand short and trying to explain to her how my rare car that is so awesome its worth putting 6k into for me but someone is willing to only buy it for 2k.

makes for a good story in the pub and I bet you enjoyed it while it lasted!

There are only 5 of them in the UK, it was a proper Gran Turismo 1 era piece of JDM retro cool.

I got shot of it as I bought an Integra DC5...which has been fantastic mechanically, but has still needed about £1800 of work since buying, mostly because the alarm and immobiliser were fitted by stevie wonder and had to be ripped out and replaced, along with the battery replaced as the dodgy alarm drained it to death...along with the usual niggles you end up putting right when buying a used car.

All cars are a roll of the dice, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

[MOBB]

Assuming the car is safe etc and not a deathtrap, just use it until it dies.

It might last a few years, minimising your anguish?

[AutoConned]

designforlife said:

There are only 5 of them in the UK, it was a proper Gran Turismo 1 era piece of JDM retro cool.

I got shot of it as I bought an Integra DC5...which has been fantastic mechanically, but has still needed about £1800 of work since buying, mostly because the alarm and immobiliser were fitted by stevie wonder and had to be ripped out and replaced, along with the battery replaced as the dodgy alarm drained it to death...along with the usual niggles you end up putting right when buying a used car.

All cars are a roll of the dice, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

Wow, I can totally see the appeal of this deal. I hope to one day move onto some high revving JDM goodness.

The irony of this being posted in this thread but I was scared off from EP3s with too many being owned by people that used the full RPM range a lot of the time, EK9s and s200s are collectors cars now, DC5s are too expensive for me from the low volume compared to the others.

[synXero]

If it's not too bold—it's sounds like this is a major heartache for you, and that you don't really have the tenacity/savageness to deal with it in a way that's going to rebalance everything. Which is no bad thing. Some people are like that, some people aren't, and it's not worth trying to be the one you're not.

If I were you, I would simply accept you made a mistake, and forget about it. You're £1700 worse off, but you won't be forever, and it's not the last £1700 you'll ever have. Enjoy the car in whatever way you can—maybe polish it up, maybe drive it a little, maybe donate it to charity, maybe sell it for what you can get. Any positive you can take out of a painful situation will get you closer to forgetting the sttyness of it all.

Once you've done that, just look forward to the next one, IMO.

Good luck & don't dwell on the mistake any longer

[designforlife]

AutoConned said:

designforlife said:

There are only 5 of them in the UK, it was a proper Gran Turismo 1 era piece of JDM retro cool.

I got shot of it as I bought an Integra DC5...which has been fantastic mechanically, but has still needed about £1800 of work since buying, mostly because the alarm and immobiliser were fitted by stevie wonder and had to be ripped out and replaced, along with the battery replaced as the dodgy alarm drained it to death...along with the usual niggles you end up putting right when buying a used car.

All cars are a roll of the dice, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

Wow, I can totally see the appeal of this deal. I hope to one day move onto some high revving JDM goodness.

The irony of this being posted in this thread but I was scared off from EP3s with too many being owned by people that used the full RPM range a lot of the time, EK9s and s200s are collectors cars now, DC5s are too expensive for me from the low volume compared to the others.

tbh i would more than trust the K20 engine to put up with plenty of abuse, it was what they were designed for, and are pretty bulletproof...get one that doesn't smoke on vtec and doesn't use too much oil and you're laughing.

The main issue with the older jap cars is rust rather than reliability.

values of some JDM marques have been going crazy the last few years, if you jump on at the bottom of the depreciation curve then it can make for some pretty financially attractive motoring.

[cbmotorsport]

Drive it. Scrap it when it won't go anymore. .if you get 2 years out of it, it'll have cost you £70/month....not so bad.

[Ransoman]

So what? At the end of the day you still have exactly what you paid for, a 15 year old car with 10 months MOT. For £1700 that's not bad.

Don't worry about it, drive it and enjoy it. In 10 months time chuck it in for an MOT and see how bad it is. You might get lucky and it only needs a tyre.

You never know, it may turn out to be the best car you have ever owned.

I have bought a lot of lemons over the years and strangely I am more fond of them that the good ones.

[AutoConned]

synXero said:

If it's not too bold—it's sounds like this is a major heartache for you, and that you don't really have the tenacity/savageness to deal with it in a way that's going to rebalance everything. Which is no bad thing. Some people are like that, some people aren't, and it's not worth trying to be the one you're not.

If I were you, I would simply accept you made a mistake, and forget about it. You're £1700 worse off, but you won't be forever, and it's not the last £1700 you'll ever have. Enjoy the car in whatever way you can—maybe polish it up, maybe drive it a little, maybe donate it to charity, maybe sell it for what you can get. Any positive you can take out of a painful situation will get you closer to forgetting the sttyness of it all.

Once you've done that, just look forward to the next one, IMO.

Good luck & don't dwell on the mistake any longer

Cheers, I'm always trying to better myself and I always get the feedback that I'm a bit too nice.

Savageness isn't me and I appreciate you being honest with me, I'll mentally say savage next time I'm buying a car and offer them 50% of the value of the car and include 12 months warranty

The Charity thing is a good idea actually. Do Mission Motorsport need a drift missile in April? hahaha.

[mickthemechanic]

MOBB said:

Assuming the car is safe etc and not a deathtrap, just use it until it dies.

It might last a few years, minimising your anguish?

OP this is the best advice you have had .

Edited by mickthemechanic on Wednesday 19th July 17:00

[anonymous-user]

Don't beat yourself up over it. Everyone makes mistakes.

Either run it for a year or so, and get some value out of it, or, if it pisses you off just to look at it, let alone drive it, shift it on for whatever you can get now, chalk it up to experience and move on.

[AutoConned]

Spumfry said:

Don't beat yourself up over it. Everyone makes mistakes.

Either run it for a year or so, and get some value out of it, or, if it pisses you off just to look at it, let alone drive it, shift it on for whatever you can get now, chalk it up to experience and move on.

Cheers mate.

[LandRoverManiac]

Just one or two notes of advice - having bought a Cat C X-Trail (which I knew to be written off - so not quite the same situation.)

Airbag light - may be worth seeing if you can get an SRS module/airbag module off of Ebay. If it was involved in a 'crump' - then the airbag sensors may have registered the impact and 'triggered' the module. It's often cheaper to swap out said module with another used example that hasn't been 'triggered' and this can remove an SRS light if that is the issue.

My car came with an airbag light on (one of the side seat airbags had fired in it's mishap but none of the others) and I bought a module for £20.00. It took about 30 minutes to swap over and problem was solved. (Disconnect the battery before touching anything to do with it however). Prior to spending any money - just check the under-seat connections as well - could be a loose connector and you'd kick yourself if that's all it turned out to be.

Secondly, a Lexus is a pretty solid and well-engineered lump - they are generally well regarded for living long and being reliable in that time. I'd rather have a Lexus that had been in a crump than a damaged Kia or Ford of the same age. As others have said, if the car is otherwise useable and works - then use it and enjoy it.

Most of us have been in a similar situation - either by buying something that doesn't turn out to be everything it appears or by being on the receiving end of someone who views honest business practices as an optional extra - you haven't been the first and won't be the last to have automotive heartache!

[ZX10R NIN]

It's probably been written off due to the cost of parts & not necessarily because of major damage, just run it until it drops & chalk it up to experience.

[Integroo]

Demand a refund under the CRA 2015.

[johnwilliams77]

This is a very minor cost in car ownership, get value from it or try and punt it..

Don't worry about it!