AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Following on from the "how many bought the first Impreza they viewed" thread - we've all had the test drive that leaves us with a stupid grin and a hole in the wallet, but how about those cars that turn out to be such utter crap you can't get out quick enough?

I drove one this evening...

When I sold my STI last year I suspected I'd miss having a scooby and end up wanting another one - and now, I do. It no longer has to be my main car, just a weekend toy, so when I spotted a '97, 1 owner STI with 90k on the clock just a few miles from home I thought I'd take a look.

From the outside it looked a little scruffy - the driver's door didn't fit and the rear wheelarches are starting to rust. But, under the bonnet it looks standard, the oil on the dipstick is clean and so is the coolant. I can't get the oil filler cap off, though - a trick that I know some unscrupulous garages use to disguise a build up of sludge under it. No service history either.

Still, I'm there with the keys in my hand, so it seems silly not to take it for a spin. The engine starts first time, there's no smoke and it sounds lovely. I set off down the road to gently warm it up and check that things like the aircon work OK. So far, so good.

The car rides and handles beautifully, though the engine seems a bit hesitant and the brakes are crap. After a couple of miles I pull over, turn around and decide to give it some beans.

Second gear, foot to the floor.

<burble... vroom...>
<*CLUNK* pops out of gear>
<vroom... cough...>
<CEL comes on>

Back into gear...

<burble...>
<struggles to maintain 40mph>

So, at this point I back off and limp back to the seller. As I get out of the car I can smell burning.

I like to think that you get what you pay for, and there's no denying the car is cheap at under £3k. But after the gearbox rebuild plus who knows what engine work, and the 90k service that only an idiot would skip in the absence of proof that it had been done, I'd be surprised if the car ended up costing less than five grand - which, of course, buys a perfectly decent car in the first place.

Anyone else have any "run away!" stories?

[edit: actually the bl**dy car turned out to be a WRX, not an STI at all...]

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

HEHE, good story....shame about the car.

pslewis

Many, many years ago I was looking for a car for the wife.

A Fiat Panda appeared in the local paper - I rang up and some Irishman answered the phone (he sounded drunk, but they ALL do, don't they?)

Anyway, it was a 'MINTER' he said .... I arranged to visit it 30 minutes.

I arrived at his council house - the car was parked in a field opposite - "The kids had been playing wif it"

The bloke was as pissed as anyone I have ever seen, he was about 50 years old with his breakfast all down the front of his off-white string vest

Anyway, I looked at the car - HAND PAINTED with DULUX Black Gloss Paint!!!

I touched the windscreen pillar and my fingers fell through the painted over rust!!

"She goes fantastic, jump in and I'll run the car back to the house"

Stupidly, I sat in the passenger seat as the drunk Irishman touched 2 wires under the dashboard ......... off we went at a hell of a pace across this field!!!

We hit the kerb and took off - all 4 wheels off the ground .... I could see the wifes face pass by the sill as we passed my parked car ............

He took me on the ride of my life!!!!! Never in the history of mankind has anyone suffered so much in the name of buying a used car!!!

After a couple of circuits of the Council Estate he fell asleep at the wheel doing about 50 MPH I yanked the handbrake which did fooook all as it was siezed up At this point he woke and hit the brakes to show me an emergency stop ........ the car veered to the left into the hedge and my face was imprinted on the inside of the windscreen!!!!! I jumped out and legged it back to my car ... he came running after me yelling that I had better foooking buy it or he's going to smash my head in!!

Terrifying!!

Jamjar

I once went to test drive a Williams Clio and the owner took me out for a test drive, anyway we got out onto a bypass and he decided to give it some to show me what it was like, anyway he accelerates in 3rd then goes to change gear and theres this thump then all these pinging sounds and he can't change gear, anyway we coast to a halt and pull into an entrance to what looks like a field get out and see bits clutch hanging under the car, anyway owner calls the AA then all these pikeys appear it turns out we're sat in the entrance to there camp, cue a very nervous half hour waiting for the AA man whilst these pikeys circling round us and shouting incohorrant sentences, wisely when the aa man got they're he decided to get the car towed away asap.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Another clio williams here to. Owner decided to throw it fast into the 1st corner we came to, it understeered like a dog n smacked into the kerb, then got sideways n also smacked the rear into the kerb. Result was 2 bent alloys, and all the left suspension was bent. I think he paid well over a grand to get it sorted in the end, tosser

Gutmann pug

Excellent story Pete

scousefly

drove a rover 220 turbo local to work on a sat afternoon, guy in garage said 'its a lovely runner' so gets the keys and off I pop. Goes to Parkway in sheffield which is dual carriageway leading to junc 33 of the M1 and get it up to 70 steering wheel starts shaking like a ****ting dog , so I thinks ok maybe wheel balance. Anyway lets go of steering wheel to check tracking it veers to the right then the left I quickly grap the wheel again

So I turns round at the end and give it some again only for a pidgeon to land in front of me as I hit 70 again now I hate pidgeons so I would usually just shred the little flying rat but after one putting a hole in my rad once I decides theres no one behind me so I yanks on the anchors
I then proceed to do a 360 turn and somehow manage to miss the central reservation I drive carefully back to dealer who asks what I think were I say to him 'Thats the biggest pile of crap I have ever had the misfortune to drive, its a death trap'. He replies I obviously dont know a thing about driving

No wonder they nicknamed these cars 'The widowmaker'

Abdabz

I took a job 2 years ago which involved a 110 mile a day commute To keep the miles of the scooby, I decided to buy a £1k+ runround - a micra or similar.
I saw an advert for a burgundy 51 plate micra, 35000 miles, 1 owner, 10mths ticket, 6 months tax for sale at £1200 in wigan.
I phoned up and arranged a viewing that afternoon. I drove up alone in the Scooby onto this newbuild estate and there it was, looking pristine.
The fella took me over to the car the bodywork was excellent, popped the bonnet, clean oil, all fluids full and I was thinking this is the one.
I asked the guy if I could take it for a spin and he insisted he "drove me off the estate"
"OK" I thought, we get off the newbuild estate onto the main road and off towards open country when I notice the tax disc is missing. I enquire and he says it's in the house I then look over to the dashboard to see that even though were motoring along at about 40, the speedo is saying were not moving at all
I ask about it and he tells me it was fine before and must be a loose wire. Worried he might try to kill me if I tell him it's obvious I am in a stolen/clocked car I tell him it runs lovely like and that I neednt drive it, he can just run me back.
Once back, I cheekily enquire about the MOT and tax disc and he goes off into the house for 5 mins "looking for them" before returning empty handed claiming he will find them later.

I thank him for his time and say I'll be back later that afternoon so my brother can take a look with me as he knows more about cars than I do "but is on duty this morning"...

Sweet lord

wrxsti280

iTrader: (6)

once test drove a mitsubishi fto, pulled off the car park of the garage, the car ground to a halt in the middle of the road, and a peugeot 206 piled into the back of me and wrote the fto off.

they never did find out what went wrong with the car to make it stop as it did

ScoobyDoo555

Test drove an RSR-specc'd WRX (classic) a few years ago whilst looking for my first Scooby.
Arrived at the dealers. All was fine. They got the car out. It looked AMAZING!! :ccol: Very good condition. Price? About £10K (goes to show how long ago that was!! )

Anyhoo, I'd come out with my heavily pregnant wife and my inlaws, of whom my F.I.L had a broken leg. Just to see how practical the car was going to be, we loaded up all but the mother in law and set off with the salesman.

Now, I'd been out in a Scoob before, so knew what to expect, but Wifey hadn't, so she was given the keys.
Headed out on to the back roads, and the salesman was egging her on to "boot it" etc, but she was a little bit cautious (she does boot it now, by no stretch of the imagination!!)

We pulled over, and the salesman grew a pair of very large b@lls. "I'll show you what an Impreza can do!"...........

He booted from a stand-still (full-beans launch), then made the fatal mistake at a tight left-hand corner.....

Approached it too fast (80mph for a 30mph)

In the corner, lifted off......

The back over took the front. We bounced of both verges and came to a standstill in the middle of the road.

10 seconds later a car came the other way - how I thank my lucky stars to this day about that.

The car actually started, and we could drive home, despite there being nearly £3K of damage to the front.

I can actually remember thinking how safe I felt as we span around

Cheeky bugger asked if I was prepared to buy the car once the damage was fixed. I said he should be thankful I don't report him for dangerous driving!

Needless to say, we didn't buy that one, but it only confirmed my thoughts about buying one later though!!

Dan

[Davey]

Some of you may know of this story... In 98 A friend of mine imported a brand new STi TypeR, he had it for a bout a year or so then PX'ed it at a dealer in bucks for a Skyline GTR... Anyway few weeks later there was a story in the paper about two guys dying on a test drive after crashing into a tree at about 80mph; it was only his old bloody car! Thats got to be the worst test drive EVER!

Gilesdwrc

We were looking for our current car and called in at a dealer in the midlands, the sales-guy is busy so sends us out with his brother.

He drives us out of town and I take over all OK, I do all the usual tests and pull over to let my wife to be have a drive as she's never driven a scooby before, she pulls away and drives back the way we came.

Completely ignores a stop line on a corner junction (near miss with oncoming car) and doesn't even back off for a 90deg right straight after, then within 50yds has to go "grass trimming" on the verge to avoid an oncoming van. Car behaves faultlessly, any other car would have spun out on the corner or dug in on the verge. Fiance pulls over says "well it handles nice." and gets out to swap back. to this day I don't know how the guy in back kept a straight face.

Still didn't buy the car.

Shark Man

After My polo got shunted at 40mph by a dozing Taxi doing 60mph before realisiing I was staitionary turning right and hitting the brakes too late. I went to get another Polo.

Anyway, I thought, what better idea that to get another one and use the crashed Polo as a doner for spares.

Cue a nice looking 1989 Polo with 140K miles, sourced by the same guy who got me the last one. Little spot rust here and there, but straight enough. Apprantly it was ina bit of a state inside so it had been steam cleaned. So first thing I get was a damp **** as soon as I sat in it...doh!

He let me take it down the road so I could get it on the ramp and have a good look over it.

For starters, the wipers were stuck on, ok no biggy.

Then the clutch pedal was extremely heavy, and bit like a full race clutch; on or off, Lots of slip, or no slip, or stall. So I pull away doing bunny hops.

Engine went well enough. Handling felt good, tighter than my last Polo, but brakes were well squidgy, not good on a car without power assisted brakes (as one reaches for the handbrake as the junction got worryingly closer)

Got to my desination, looked under the bonnet, all good, oil okish. Then put it on teh ramp.....OMG! no wonder this car had little rust...the whole underside was caked in black sludge from a huge oil leak that had been left for a very long time, The crankcase vent pipe has been detached, as the PCV had stuck so it allowed oil to spew out - normally this would go into the air inlet, but the pipe was disconnected to stop that - thus rust proofing the car instead

Both CV gaiters were split, wheel bearings had play, rusty brake lines, holes drilled in the foot wells to drain out water.

So, after realising that pretty much all the mechanical fro my old Polo would be needed to sort this one, I binned the idea and took it back.

OK, the car was £150, but for the same money from the same guy I had a Nissan Sunny instead with nothing wrong with it, well, at the time...6 months on rocker shaft wasn't torqued properly, which resulted it comming loose and left me with a 2 cylinder engine and a top end that clattered like a diesel Easily fixed though

kgt

iTrader: (1)

Went to a local specialist car dealer a few years ago to test drive one of two Z3's they had on display (I know, I know...) The guys in the show room looked at me like a tart / pauper as it was the cheapest car on the site, even at £20k.

I went out with the sales guy and couldnt resist giving it a bit of a hoof.
OK, I was a little nervous at first, it was a bit nippy compared to my Rover 600, but after a while I appreciated the rear wheel push and the sound of the thing was awesome.

As it was a Sunday, every numbnut weekend driver was on the road and I had to negotiate a number of situations causing some concern to the sales guy. He mentioned that I obviously "wasnt used to driving decents cars" and that I "had a lot to learn", he practically shoved me out the driver side and insisted he drove it back to the garage.

He then proceded to demonstrate his "driver skills training" on the way back, more like "complete disregard for life" if you ask me, but I grinned and stayed quiet. The main thing he seemed keen to get across was the safety features of the car. ABS, Driver Assist, Traction Control, multiple air bags blah blah blah...

On reaching the forecourt he booted past the showroom windows waving to his mates inside....unfortunately he misjudged turning into the space he'd left and slid the car down the side of a gleaming new Ferarri 360. Trying to make him feel better, I asked if one of the many safety features had failed him...he didnt seem to take this the right way and told me to "ferk off"

As I pulled off the forecourt in my car he was still sitting in the beemer, with the showroom manager going purple and gesturing at him through the window. Probably not one of his more successful test drives.

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

I went to look at an old Mini when buying my first car, got there and the paintwork was wet from a very recent respray (to hide the rust) and the inside stank of petrol. I didn't even start the engine.

AlexJReid

Not so much a bad test drive but about a year ago I drove a Starlet GT Turbo from a dodgier than dodgy used car lot. Car was OK but stupidly overpriced at £4K. Got back, decided it was OK but wanted to drive a couple of others.
Ended up held hostage in the car with the salesman refusing to take 'no' for an answer. In the end he gets his boss on the phone going "OK I'll do it for £3K right now!" etc etc.
At the time the only way out I could think of was to offer them £2K for it which more or less got chased off the forecourt, with the salesman f-ing and blinding at us. If I'd have been 'allowed' to go and come back I probably would have gone back and considered it.

EddScott

Well mine isn't quite a worst test drive because the car in question was so bad I didn't even want to drive it.

Found an MY00 STI RA in Cardiff. Drove the 2 hours to go view the car.

Even before I got out of mine, my heart sank. I could see from a few yards there was something wrong with the front wing.

Chap very friendly and handed over keys for me to have a look. Interior not too bad. Started it up, didn't sound too bad either.

NS front wing was bowed out. OS front wing didn't line up anywhere and was acually visibly bent downwards.

OS front wing where it bolts to shell by bottom of front door hinge - 4 washers between bolt and shell to make it line up. OS front door hinge paint flaking off (sonic blue) to show original white paint underneath.

OS door rubber must be from car originally as it still showed damaged where the door had hit the B pillar and yes the B pillar was bent!!!

Turbo was a VF24 so that wasn't right either. And looking at the slam panel it had been put on by someone with no welding experience and had "pigeon ****" welding marks. TBH I wanted to walk before I even looked at the car but had visions similar to the above posters experience and didn't want to get into an argument.

I handed to keys and said I'll leave it. The guy didn't even question it. We both knew the car was shagged and it pissed me off so much to think some people will still try it on.

GazTheHat

16v Clio.

Test drove. The pedals were that small and so close together, kept pressing the brake and was just awful to drive. The guy blamed it on having fat skate pumps on. No other cars have been affected.

It was the same guy who was advertising at £1000 and left the auction receipt in the history folder showing purchase two weeks earlier for £650.

Hol

iTrader: (1)

Ive had people buy a car off me, without even driving it , but only really had one dodgy experience (That I was not expecting- that is).


Back in Mid 90's the wife wanted an Escort Turbo Diesel.

We saw a really cheap one, 4 years old with 40k advertised miles.

Got there, pilkeyville, and the cars looks ok.

Ask for paperwork/history and the guy says the kids have played with the service book and ripped all the pages out. (looking at book, they are clever kids as its only the ones to do with servicing).

As this was the first we looked at, i decided that although I would not buy it, I would test drive it to compare with others on our viewing list that day.

Im sat in the car, ready to go and notice the mileage:

04623.3 or some such, to which i say, I thought this car has done 40K mate?

Oh thats Forty six thousand, two hunder and thirty three miles mate.

Knowing he is talking bobbins I, just keep quiet and drive for about 4 miles (drove quite well for 104627 miles and return (The wife telling me to not make a scene!).

Not for me mate, but its great on derv, I did 40 miles and the needle never moved.

I don't think he got the joke, but I doubt he ever sold it with such blatant lies.

orbix

I've bought 2 cars to date without driving them.

I hate smart arsed salesmen I hope you kept making little comments to him until you got into your own car.

I've never had a bad test drive experience yet but a long time ago I viewed a fiesta 1.3 sport.
I had seen it for sale parked outside the a shop every saturday for the last 6 weeks.
First thing the seller said was it's only been for sale for 2 weeks!
It was white and was covered in body filler repair jobs someone had done as it looked like a golf ball.
The seller was a woman in her 50's and apparently it was her car although on the test drive she found it difficult to get it into gear.
After the test drive I just wanted to go so I offered her a low price for it knowing she wouldn't accept it. She then got out a photocopy of a parkers guide for the car which had the dates tippex out.
And try and convince me it was worth more than her sale price. Freak!!