700 mile round trip wasted to view car
 

So tired of looking at crap cars from less than honest sellers..

1 taxi, 2 buses and 10, yes 10 trains up to Scotland and back to see tat...

I don't know what i can and can't say on the forum, or if I can post pics..anyway.... i saw what i thought was a decent classic Type R in blue steel (my fave colour) online and contacted the buyer. We spoke numerous times and he was very obliging and sent numerous pics for me...He seemed 100%...

After viewing the pics i was concerned about the colour match..In certain pics the boot looked much darker than the rear quarters, the two halves of the spoiler seemed to look different, then in another they looked ok...the wings seemed lighter than the bonnet, then they looked darker etc..I looked at pics of other blue steel cars and they seemed ok...i sent him a couple of texts about my worries and eventually phoned and asked him directly about the colour..he said the boot sometimes looked darker and offered to send me the auction inspection report..which he did..The boot had 'XX' meaning that it had been replaced.
We spoke again and he gave me his absolute assurance that the paint was perfect apart from the darker boot...
So i booked the tickets to get up to Scotland...leaving at 5am a few days later..

When i saw the car i was gutted..and lied to..Apart from failing to mention the cracked headlight and broken aerial he also failed to mention that every panel was a different shade and texture...Also i noticed IMMEDIATELY that there was a seam of top coat missing and a straight line (where masking tape had been removed) about 5mm below the passenger door weather strip..The unlacquered paint beneath had rust spots and was dull..It was so obvious but he denied all knowledge..
The mirror backs were dark but the mounts almost faded to silver. there was overspray in loads of places..The scoop was dark, the bonnet light, the grill surround looked to be painted with a rattle can..It just went on and on..
It was literally a patchwork of shades, fades, different amounts of gloss, different textures..Even the spoiler was several shades..The top was paler than the inside and the two halves (top and bottom pieces that fit together) were totally different.
It was a kalaidoscope...
I had a 30 minute window to run for the next train so i didn't mess around..I was very polite but straight with him and said it wasn't for me..
I bet I wasn't there for no more than 10 minutes..I didn't even sit in it properly...it was that bad..it simply required no extra thought..absolute crap.
I was within my rights to be very, very pissed off but i was more concerned about getting home and not being stranded... i HAD to get back home for personal reasons...

He was asking north of £10k, and whilst the interior was ok the paint was tatty..£10k is an absolute joke.

It had badly faded and appeared to have several different spray jobs on different panels at different times by different people...

This week alone i have been to Stocksfield in Newcastle to see a nail, the Wales and now this..I'm tired of sellers being economical with the truth and over selling and overpricing...

All of the cars are over £10k, the dearest was £15k..It's a joke... I had this last year and got sick of it...

If i'm allowed i will post pics but i don't want to get kicked from the forum...

I've wasted £200 in travel and been travelling for almost 19 hours, running around or waiting for trains, buses and a taxi....I also missed the return train and then had to get another from Kilmarnock to Glasgow..Then the fun started as I tried to get home....

This Subaru thing used to be alright but I've been away for 5 years and it looks like it's become full of chancers trying to make a few quid selling ****e to idiots.

I didn't have anything like the marathon you had but I did have a wasted five-hour round trip to look at a complete shed of a WRX a couple of weeks ago. The original advert said: "cosmetically is in decent enough condition considering its age and mileage but does feature some imperfections here and there." Most of the panels were scratched, there was mould on the screen surround and wipers, the interior was terrible, the list goes on. The dealer was busy when I arrived so I looked round the car on my own. It was so bad that I left without even speaking to him. The advert has since been changed to reflect a lot of what was wrong with it and the price has been dropped by a huge margin so I'm guessing I wasn't the only one who was unimpressed by the original ad. :lol1:

I feel your frustration. The markets awash with neglected trashed Subaru's, unfortunately imprezas attract a special kind of idiot.


I did a 200 round mile trip to find a car that was umpteen different shades of silver, wheel arch liners missing, bumpers held on with zip ties and every visible nut and bolt rounded off. It was described as 350 bhp, vgc and fresh MOT.
After telling him that I wouldn't allow my dogs to travel in the car let alone my family. My son pulled me away as I called him a waster wannabe car dealer. Keep trying you will find a good un eventually.

This was more shades of grey than a mucky book.

I've noticed a trend either for stylised photos ie: taken at a whacky angle on an industrial estate or showing urban decay, and given a whizz through photoshop..or, like the blue in Stocksfield, has been been recoloured, altered contrast etc..then you get there and it looks like a rattle can respray done by Banksie, at night, in a storm...

The Robertson's Golly hasn't seen as much orange peel as i have this week.

looks quite good doesn't it..?

This is a slightly better representation of the colour..bearing in mind that this picture is very flattering the difference in colours between the bonnet scoop, wings, grille, bumper are all visible.

Initially i thought that it was shadows, but it wasn't..the panels really ARE numerous shades..It looks MUCH WORSE i person, and the photos do not show the dullness of the paint, the texture or the different levels of shine..
in pic 1 you can see the difference between the scoop (although it looks reasonable here), the difference between the bonnet and wing and bumper..even the spot light cover is different.

pic2: Notice the spoiler? Light on top, dark at the bottom...See how the inside of the spoiler is the other way around? Notice the boot is very dark, as is the roof. The rear quarter is almost silver in person. The bumper looks bluey/grey..Even the skirt was a different colour

pic3: Notice the dark mirrors, dark grille, pale bonnet, pale upper bumper..The pics make this look 100% better than it really is.

pic4: You can see the boot and the reversing of shades on the spoiler.

pic5: Dark mirror with pale bracket..this is the door that has no clear coat along the weather strip and has raw paint beneath the mirror..

If it looks 'a bit patchy' on the pics, then trust me, it looks crazy in person.

i don't know how old these photos are but the n/s/f headlight isn't cracked..

I would suggest a reputable Importer like Torque GT or Brave Auto.

This one was brought in by a so-called reputable importer albeit not either of those listed above..I would've rejected it and gone home..which, thinking about it, is actually what i did.:)

I'm getting sick of looking tbh..i gave up last year and concentrated on getting planning permission for an extension and getting the finances together..as it was dragging so long i thought it would be nice to get back into a classic, this time a Type R, but there just seems to be nothing but over priced, over hyped junk out there..much as it was the last time i looked...

I've about had enough of it...I grew tired of it last year and decided to stop looking but it's the same old story this year..Also people keep insisting that the value of these cars are going up and up, creating a false bubble...People are simply asking silly money for crap..Sure, a few idiots will pay £10k for a heap, but i won't...I looked at so many cars last year that i simply lost interest...This year it's more of the same..The prices haven't changed since last year but there are more type R's and RA's for sale because i think people are trying to make a quick buck..Great assuming that the cars aren't crap, which they almost are..
Here's what i've seen again and again, even on cars at £15k

Overspray, orange peel and poor spray jobs, paint fade, lacquer peel, perished rubber seals, ill fitting seals, side skirts hanging off/repaired poorly.....cracked headlights, odd coloured lenses, drill holes on interior door cards, peeling dashboards, knackered seats (usually the foam beneath the bolster has collapsed and lumpy), crap accessories..electrical faults and gauges not working.
Poorly fitted interior trim..The Stockfield car had a poorly fitted 4 door new gen interior (minus dash) so that meant every panel was a horrendous fit...Horrible.

I'd rather buy a ****ter and rebuild it.
Engine leaks, general filth, rounded bolts..

Finding this myself, and as for round trips, i'm currently living in Spain haha.

Been looking for a classic type r for a while now. Too many Fast Tony's about these days.

when i sold my classic about 5 years ago i had to practically give it away. I would honestly have described it as 'excellent'..that means no rust, no panel damage, no scratches of any significance, no welding, everything working, no significant wear to the interior, loads of paperwork etc etc...
Years later I've still yet to see one that is a patch on my last one...even at £15k they are a million miles away in terms of condition..
As i said, they're pretty much all crap...That's fine if the price is right and it's going to be a labour of love..
The patchwork quilt Type R i saw was a solid example and presumably rust free, but to get it to an acceptable standard meant a full respray..A proper one, not fish eyes, over spray and orange peel like 2 of the last 3...Not to mention all of the trim hanging off...
One of nails i saw (currently still for sale) i'm 100% certain has photos that are several years old..They have certainly been recoloured in photoshop.
The car is described as 'pristine' (which is how it looks i the pics)..In the flesh though, all of the wheels are badly kerbed, the skirts are twisted and don't fit (even the rubber gaskets can be pulled out)..The skirts were not prepped prior to painting so you can see the shoddy surface beneath..then there's the overspray every..misaligned panels..it goes on..The £15k had over spray everywhere, badly kerbed wheels that had been painted over, burn marks in the paint from a rotary polisher, stone chipping..It was highly modified but had presicely zero paperwork to back anything up..
Like i said, just crap.

My advice, don't bother. If you're staying in Spain I'd buy a local (domestic) car...Assuming you can find one with any lacquer left on.

You do wonder what kind of person they are and whats going on in their heads :cuckoo: a polished turd is still a turd.

Your trying to sell a specialist car to someone who usually knows what it should look and run like for the price that for sale at!. are they just thick or hoping some gullible buyer comes along and just pays the going price.

Like you i,m probabley to honest when selling, but then i have scruples and like to think what goes around comes around...........

I had the same issue and ended up importing direct.
The problem with anything recently imported is the sale price in Japan. There are very few grade 4 cars now for sale and the ones that are fetch upwards of 1.5 million yen.
Making any grade 4 car on the road in the Uk £16k or more.
If you find any for sale as a recent import for 10k it is 100% a grade r car.
Even a STI will be close to 10k now. There are way too many people importing and inflating the prices and demand is out stripping supply.
Good ones occasionally come up for sale already in the Uk but sell quickly, All the s**t ones stay around for sale for months

If that is indeed correct, and i suspect that it isn't a million miles away, then I'd rather go down a different route with £16k+

This is what happens when you have cheap and easy credit, devaluing the true worth of money, leading to asset price bubbles which drag the cost (NOT the value) of everything up, even the ****ters.

The sellers know that some feckless moron with a cheap loan will come along and pay stupid money for it.

The price of them here is insane. Even non turbos with STI parts on demand crazy money. Even average condition big eyes and hawkeyes fetch more than 30k. And for a classic, well check this out

https://www.milanuncios.com/subaru-d...-267739841.htm

:cuckoo:

it's nonsense.

Did you suggest that it needs a complete respray and offer him £7k?

i suggested it needed a complete respray and offered him £8k

A lot of dreamers about I'm afraid. They see mint cars coming in from Japan and thinks theirs is worth the same because it's the same model/year. Maybe they should try running their cars through an auction and see what they are really worth - they may get a reality check then.

"Everyone seems to think they have a minter these days and the truth is they dont half the time."



just about sums up my search for a Scooby. :Suspiciou

i'm pretty much at the point of losing interest to be honest and forgetting about it for the time being.

Sadly you can roll a turd in glitter and make it look good.........................but inside it is still a turd.

Don't give up, they are out there and as I suggested previously give Torque GT or Brave Auto a ring.

Buying or selling is always a nightmare I blame certain auction site

Im in the opposite boat as want to sell but cant face the hassle of no hopers and wannabe test drivers that have no actual interest in buying just a fun day out in a Scooby

Last time I tried A so called potential buyer turn up took it for a drive and all his giggling mate did was film him on his phone from the back seat surprise surprise no further communication from them was not amused