What an experience!
 

So heres a story.

Foolishly I bough this car yesterday.

https://www.scoobynet.com/subaru-444...-4-type-r.html

I travelled from Devon to Birmingham via a mixture of hire car and train.

Car seemed fine at first look. The bodywork is actually in very good condition, its not 100% spotless as the seller described, but it is very good for its age.

But things are about to get worse.

Took the car for a test drive, engine seemed fine, pulls ok. More about the engine later in this post.

But I noticed a very pronounced steering wheel wobble at low speeds, reducing as speed increased.

Seller informs me that this is due to the fact that the tracking needs doing. I was not convinced at first and thought that it could be balancing or a deformed tyre. I tried to persuade the seller for us to go to a local tyre shop to get the wheels balanced and tracking done to see if that cured the problem before completing the sale, he seemed very reluctant and then announced that the locking wheel nut remover was in fact snapped, sheared off. Making is difficult to get the wheels off.

So me being the fool that I am and too trusting of people, I decided to do the deal on the car and paid a nice £8,500 for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

Payment took two hours to get to the sellers account due to an issue with my bank, so I had to wait around for two hours before making my 200 mile journey back home! Left home at 7am and didnt arrive back home until 1:30am. Not ideal.

The money transferred into his account and I was handed the keys.

But out of curiosity, I stopped at a very good tyre place in Birmingham to see of they could fix the steering wheel wobble as I did not fancy driving all the way back to Devon with it the way it was.

Things soon took a real bad turn for the worse.

Not only were the two front wheels unbalanced, they were also buckled, seriously buckled. And this is due to which ever idiot put these wheels on used spigot rings that were not needed!!! So of course the rear of the wheels surface was not mating up to the hub face correctly.

But further inspection of the wheels shows that the car had either been sat for a long time without moving, or the wheels had been in storage for some time and put on the car ready for sale. Spider nests in two of them.

But it gets worse, much much worse!!!

One of the spokes the drivers side rear wheel has a crack in it, I am not talking about a hairline crack, I am talking about a proper crack where the spoke has actually become detached from the spoke. This crack was discovered by one of the guys at the tyre shop. The crack was covered up with something to disguise it.

The seller sold me this car knowing that there was a serious crack in one of the spokes and I am extremely upset that somebody would actually allow someone to drive 200 miles down the motorway with a potentially dangerous alloy wheel.

I also believe the wheels to be fakes, I cant see genuine Volk wheels having cracks like that in them and to buckle in such a way. Might be wrong but doubt it!

I am currently seeking advice from my solicitors about this to see if there is anything I can do, its not about the money, couldn't give two monkeys about that, in fact if it costs me money to sue the *******, I dont care, what its about is if this idiot does this on a regular basis, its only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or even worse, killed.

But thats not all! The engine seems to have an issue, car will idle fine, but if driving along and the clutch is pressed, the revs will drop and five times out of ten the engine will stall. Also there seems to be some hesitation on part throttle from the engine in low to mid revs, but no hesitation when at WOT. But in general the engine seems fine at the moment, but I am sure that with the luck I have already had with this car, it will only be a matter of time before something more serious happens!

And a lot of the interior items that this idiot said were included with the are actually not, no mid range and tweeters by Focal, and certainly no Focal 6x9's on the rear shelf, the gauges in the gauge pod are not wired in.

I know what your all thinking, yes, I am a complete an utter idiot for buying this car, I am kicking myself about it, but its done now and there is naff all I can do about it apart from get new wheels, and of course sort this engine issue out.

Cars history does check out, did a HPI check before purchase and nothing came up. So at least thats legit.

Of course tried to contact the seller, but surprise surprise, phone not on, probably a throw away SIM card anyway. this person saw me coming and pulled out all the stops to be as convincing as possible. And me being me, believed every last word that came out of his mouth.

Lesson learned, you really cant trust anyone, thats it for me, never again will I buy a car without getting it throughly checked out by someone who knows what to look for.

Oh dear. Not the best sale.

Not always a lot you can do and best thing in my eyes is to make the car what it was sold to you as and do the work required to make it 100%

Its a hobby/Drug the impreza game and once hooked money soon disapears :).

Thats a joke and a real cxnt move to sell a car with knackered wheels!

I see you showed interest in it too, luckily I snapped it up first, when I say luckily, I mean for you, not me. But then your probably not a mug like me!

Dont I know it, this is Subaru number 15 for me, so I know the score!

I know, thats what has really pi$$ed me off, engine can be sorted, but letting me drive knowing about the wheels is a different matter.

Just dont know how people like that sleep at night, really is beyond me.

have you been back in contact with the seller to discuss?

Defo a **** one this.

Cant get in contact, phone is off, messages not delivered, and has not logged into this site since the 22nd.

Like I said above, probably a throw away SIM card.

Anyway, its a private sale, nothing I can really do apart from make the car what it should be.

Just looking at wheel options now, once they are on I will drive to EngineTuner in Plymouth and see what can be done about the car stalling and the strange behaviour under part throttle.

Mate im sorry to be reading this , I viewed this car 2 weeks ago . Alarm bells rang soon as we checked the oil it was double what it should of been on the dipstick , after 10 minutes of running it we could hear the bottom end knocking which he was trying to convince us it was a tensioner pulley but i took a mate who knows alot about subarus and rebuilds his own engines . we didnt even test drive it and the only problem he told me what was wrong was the so called tracking issue

Such a shame that there are people around like that. Hopefully karma will pay him a visit. With abit of luck the repair bill to get it sorted won't be to big. Good luck.

Really not what I wanted to hear, not at all.

Could you describe what a bottom end knock sounds like?

I cant help but feel if someone viewed it and found these issues with it then it would have been good to put a warning for other sellers on the thread!

If this was me and I just handed over £8500 I would be going back to their door with the car and getting my money back (one way or another), its one thing hiding a little issue here or there but a dangerous car with a knackered engine is taking the mick, yes you shouldn't have purchased (always trust your gut instinct) , at the very least the seller should take some responsibility and assist with any unforeseen costs, its top money you paid for NOT a top motor!

Im not mechanic myself but sounds like a tapping sound coming from bottom end of engine but you could still hear it stood at the back of car , wish you had commented on his sale advert first and i would of messaged you about it , which i did for phil555 but i take it you private message the seller direct ?

I know, but what can I do, hes all the way up in Birmingham and I am in Devon, ive got no chance of getting my money back, none at all.

The wheels situation is a simple fix, OK, not cheap but an easy fix.

But if the engine is knocking then thats a different matter altogether!!!

Really dont know what to do now, there is nobody local to me that knows about these cars that I know of. Closest is EngineTuner in Plymouth, but of course, to get the car there safely I would need to put some new wheels on there.

But if I buy new wheels and the engine is knackered, im at a loss, just spent all the money I had on this bloody car!!

Yeah, directly.

Was it just one wheel damaged? could you not buy a cheapo one wheel jobby just to get you to a decent garage for a check?

Just the one wheel has a crack, but I know that both fronts are very badly buckled.

I contacted seller through a gumtree advert not through this site , only noticed the car for sale on here after someone commented on it which i private messaged about the issues and forgetting to comment on the tread

What was the guy's name?

I can post his name, well at least the name he gave me, and his full address.

But what good would that do?

It would stop someone else having the same issues. Name and shame.

You aren't talking about a few pennies get the car back up there and get your money back. Don't be an pussy about it.

if i see any car with a HKS mushroom filter I usually avoid it straight away

So I go to the expense of getting the car back up to an address that may or may not be the true residency of this person on the back of a low loader.

Turn up with the car and demand my money back.

Not being a pussy at all mate, just being realistic in knowing that I have no legal grounds to ask for my money back and this guy has probably given me false details.

And resorting to violence is not my style, not a pussy, in fact a 2nd Dan in Aikido, I can look after myself if the need arise, but to use force to get my money back is out of the question!

If that makes me a pussy then fine, I am the biggest pussy you will ever meet!

I made a mistake in buying the car, I admit that.

But heres an offer for you, if you can get my money back by taking the car back to this guy and using what ever means you feel comfortable with, then I will give you two grand! No joke!

Heres the guys details.

SAHILL MAHMOOD
436 FOX HOLLIES ROAD
HALL GREEN
BIRMINGHAM
B28 8RN

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Gang-...ail/story.html

Shahill Mahmood, fox hollies road?!

once again snet investigators on scene !

Oh dear.

Something just never looked right about that car im really sorry about your issues with it hope it gets sorted out for you.

Sorry to hear this mate,hope you get a positive outcome will little cost to yourself.
All the best for the future,hopefully you will end up with a nice safe car to call your pride and joy :thumb:

I hope you get it sorted mate