Car I wish I'd never bought !!

[MR DVD]

Thought i'd post this as it was a few years ago now and a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Once upon a time I bought a used car from a dealership in Plymouth. It was a 1989 ford sierra gls with 50,000 on the clock (this was a few years ago ) walked away from the garage feeling pretty pleased with myself and proceeded to run the car for approx 12 months with no problem.

Then one day I noticed a lot of smoke blowing out the back end and thought I'd better get it looked at, Mr garageman thought I needed a new engine but how could that be after 60,000 miles I said , reply from mr garageman your engine is fcuked mate.

Unfortunately the warranty had long run out and after talking to the main man at that garage he was not interested whatsoever. When I bought the car it had a full service history from the main ford dealership (found out later it was fake stamped by the person they sold it on to) down the road so I thought I would give them a ring and see if they could shed any light on this. The answer I got was Oh sorry sir but we cannot tell you who the car has been sold to but we bought it from an antiques dealer would you like his number ??
Well of course I would like his number you numpty and I gave him a ring. Mr antiques dealer had flogged it to the ford dealership with 130,000 miles on the clock !!
OK I thought lets ring the trading standards people and see what they have to say. They duly came around to see me and took a full statemant of the events and was told they would be in touch..
I thought in the meantime I would give the garage a ring where I bought the car and told them what I was doing , they obviously did'nt like this and offered me a car of the same description as the car I bought with the correct mileage on it the same day.
OK I said and waited for them to turn up at my home, couple of hours later they did turn up with a 1989 ford sierra but it was hanging, basically told him to do one and said I would wait for the trade desciption people to talk to you.
He said OK I dont want any hassle I will give you a full refund and I'll bring the cash around tommorrow night at 5:00pm.
5:00pm came and went and no cash, phoned the next day and he said I'll come around tonight same time.
5:00pm came and went again , 11:30 me and fiance decided to go to bed but as I was getting into bed the sky outside became a bright orange colour, looked out of the window and there was my car , outside my house , like a mini bonfire...
Fire and police turned up etc but basically said there is nothing they can do and said you will have to arrange through your insurance company to take the shell of your once beloved car away.

The upshot of this tale is the car was sold by the ford main dealership to a muppet who wound the clock back and flogged it to the garage where I bought it.The garage panicked and thought by torching it this would get rid of any evidence, speedometer etc. Trade description did'nt do much about it although he said he had another 6 cases on the go from the same dealership.

I ended up well out of pocket - the insurance co. saw the police report and re-imbursed me for a car that had done the 130,000 miles not the 60,000 -and obviously I was more than a bit pi***d off.

So please anyone buying a used car do the obvious thing and ring the previous owner. As I said this was more than a few years ago and happily I can say I have no bad experiences like this again.

Has anyone else had a similar experience ?????

[Tabs]

I had to replace some dash bulbs on a Sierra a few years ago. On the back of the speedo was a piece of masking tape with, 'Oh no, not again!' written on it!

[flasher]

Well, after this happened to a mate of mine with a dodgy Escort years back, I always check the log book and get the previous owners details or the garage it was last serviced at. Trust no-one. Just sad that some poor sod has to learn the hard way before everyone sits up and takes notice.

Basic rules:-
1. 99% of all second hand car dealers are shysters. Don't trust any of 'em and you won't go far wrong.
2. Always ring the previous owner and/or service agent that has looked after it.
3. Never, ever buy a car without a service history.

Just annoys me that this still goes on and the government do nothing about it...

[clanger]

flasher said:

99% of all second hand car dealers are shysters.

You're not suggesting that 1% of them are honest