I really liked the car but I was a little bit worried about the fluid drip you claimed to know nothing about it. It didn’t appear serious so I bought the car. The leak became worse immediately. I referred to your ad, and sure enough the pics show the leak had ruined your driveway, so you damn well knew about it. I assume when you had the car MVI’d, the shop told you your transmission needed costly repair immediately. I really wish you’d told me before all five litres of AT fluid spilled out. Transmissions don’t need fluid, right? I hope you feel good about yourself. —Go To Hell
This article appears in Aug 22-28, 2013.
All I can say to prospective car buyers…CAVEAT EMPTOR
Some reason you didn’t take it to a mechanic before you bought it?
A car is just too huge an investment not to do some serious homework and legwork on prior to purchase. If you notice anything at all off about the car on the lot, that’s a huge red flag. Car dealers do everything they can to get their vehicles to “look” like they’re ready to drive so if anything is leaking or making a funny sound it’s probably a defect they feel is too expensive to fix as per the value of the car.
I might have asked them to fix that leak before I would purchase the vehicle and always take the vehicle to an independent mechanic prior to purchase if it’s preowned. Might want to check the internet for reviews of that particular model of car as well.
Live and learn OP.
Buddy was a douche, but OB is a moron.
Takes a couple hours and maybe $100 to have a car checked over before buying ; or as you know- after buying.
Seller was a crook for doing that; but you’ve got to blame yourself on this.
sounds like a private sale over kiwiwi. at the least OP, should have polled your friends etc to get someone more knowledgeable about cars to look with you.
BECOMING MORE VIRTUOUS
Or, of course, you could have just forgotten the car and bought a bike. In addition to becoming more environmentally aware, you could have become more virtuous, just like The Virtuous Cyclist! Come, feel the virtue!
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Unfortunately that’s the risk with private sales; there’s no recourse and no cooling off period. (I assume this was a private sale). I’ve actually heard of people mixing strawberry jam in with ATF to hide leaks.
S&W you beat me to the punch. Why would anyone buy a car without having their mechanic look at it first? And if it cost under $2,000 be prepared to put another $2,000 or more into it.
or a lot more BT, I paid $3,000 for a car and then had to put $6,000 more into it.. was too late when I realized that…would have paid the equivalent for another car… que sera sera.
car shopping for the molly gang this weekend. santa fe is starting to hiccup. nickel and diming me now but the ‘new’ nickel is $500.00. my repair guy did the last one for 60$ and a case of beer but it involved disabling some brake parts. lol. don’t drive in front of me going downhill.
bought it private, researched the heck out of santa fe beforehand so knew it would 99% need a new timing belt so knocked 800 off the asking price which was exact price to replace the crumbling old thing. I love this beast and it’s served me well, but time to donate it. prob get another one.
There are dishonest car sellers? Who knew?!
And why would you think leaking fluid would be a concern? Who knew?!
And when the 5 litres of fluid spills out, why would you think that may be an issue? Who knew?!
Bad old car seller!
Can’t mention names but one comes to my mind pretty quick. You’re right Mister M. a lot of dishonest car sellers and dealers out there.
I assumed this was a dealership, seems it was a private sale. If his/her ad has a pics of the car which shows results of leakage and they said they had no prior knowledge of any leak you possibly could have a case for small claims court.
Otherwise again lesson learned.
EVERY NEW CAR SHOULD IMMEDIATELY BE INSPECTED BEFORE PURCHASE. The inspection date is very clearly available in all cars and even if it was inspected a month before, get it done again.
Did you see when the car was last inspected??
My dad taught me this when i was 16.
Want to know another thing my dad taught me when i was around the same age? If a car is making weird noises, leaking shit everywhere, smoking or rusted ANYWHERE on the body of the car, it isn’t worth buying.
I’m not defending a crooked seller – perhaps he didn’t even realize because he’s as ignorant as you are about basic auto care. But come on op. You’ve got access to google.. you can’t walk away from this playing a victim.. not really.
Op. I have a piece of advice for you. Go to princess auto and buy a code reader.. they’re usually about 50 bucks. For every car you test drive, run a code scan on the car. It will tell you everything (if anything) that is wrong with a vehicle you’re about to drop a few thou on.
Every code scanner has excellent documentation that will tell you exactly what you have to do. And if a buyer doesn’t want you to do it, DO NOT BUY THIS CAR.
Seriously..
how does that code scanner work? how can it tell what’s wrong with the car? is it like carfax that lists insurance claims?
Every code scanner has excellent documentation?
False, especially the ones for fifty bucks.
Can the average consumer figure this out: ALDL, OBD-1, OBD-1.5, OBD-II, EOBD, EOBD2, JOBD, ADR and countless other diagnostic systems for foreign made vehicles. Then you’d also need a diagnostic connector and the knowledge of how to proceed with fault codes which again, isn’t an easy task for the average consumer.
You can also gain control to a vehicles interface quite easily to alter the readouts as desired. These systems are not designed with security in mind.
Mechanics generally go to school for a reason. They don’t just spend 50 bucks at the equivilent of a Canadian Tire dollar store.
Up next- Engine Control Units (ECU’s)
My bike has a built-in self diagnostic program that kicks up codes. And luckily, the internet hides little tidbits on how to operate the program and read those code (ie. motor’s running lean, etc…)
Kinda like marrying a dude without fucking him …… yeah, you are stuck with that dud until divorce 🙁
Koda, and vice versa.
My dad bought an old volvo. Cost $1000. He put another $1000 into it.
Runs like new.
2k for an awesome ride? Yes plz.
s&w for the win. end the thread there.
OB, you knew the car had problems, backed down from the seedy dealer and are now suffering from your own buyer’s remorse. You probably believe it when people fart in an elevator and tell you that you’re the one who actually farted.
Y U BUY CAR WITH FLUID DRIP???????
Dummy.
Folks, just because a car passes a SAFETY INSPECTION doesn’t mean it’s not a lemon. The inspections deals with things like glass, lights, seat belts, etc, not if the engine and transmission runs well. Again get it MECHANICALLY INSPECTED.
Heard a story other day of a person having car towed away after Veh Insp. looked over it, just had new MVI sticker…moral of this, maybe new MVI sticker…still not safe
i have mixed feelings about this one. I have empathy for anyone that ends up with a POS car if the seller omited or lied.
However, in this case, OB suggests that he was aware of a drip. I don’t feel sorry for OB, he should have followed up on the drip, or he should have adjusted his purchase price accordingly until he was comfortable with the risk.
Sorry Nukka.. i didn’t have any trouble figuring mine out but i neglected to mention the caveat that everyone’s ability to use these sorts of things are different.
Seriously op, it’s like gail benoit’s kijiji account and someone with no internet or access to google had a baby and named it this exact situation.