Funny things you hear when buying a car

Supercell

Wondering what the oddest/strange/wacky/crazy thing you ever heard someone say to you when looking to buy a car from them?

I'll start off..

Went to look at a Mondeo today and the guy selling it was in a country area so met me at the main road and I drove him back to the house.

He hops in my current car and looks around and says "wow you keep it very clean!!".
At this point I had a sinking feeling..and wasnt disappointed two minutes later, the car he was selling was in rag order!

Anyone else had similar experience that made you think..'jebus I've wasted my time coming here'?

Seth Brundle

I wouldn't say its funny!
Anyhow, I recall speaking to a car salesman near Rathfarnam about an E39. He said that it was immaculate and had a full service history. I drove over to him and saw a piece of crap sitting there. Went up to the dealer and he went and got the keys. As we walked to the car I asked again about the FSH and was told that it had a full history but that it had gotten lost by the last owner - "but it was still serviced"!

Wishbone Ash

Yes, I went deep into Co Meath to look at a 5 year old E class Merc which was advertised nationally as being absolutely spotless. It was the make,model, colour, engine size, milage I wanted and was within my budget. I rang the owner ("company director" :rolleyes:) and I emphasised that I was only interested in it if it was in very good condition. He assured me I wouldn't be disappointed and that my journey would be fruitful. Arranged to meet following day.

Well, what a heap of shít. All panels were badly scratched, broken headlight, broken fog light, manky interior. I walked away after about 3 seconds. It turned out that the "company director" was a farmer. He couldn't understand why I was annoyed and kept calling me back to look at the engine. "The engine is the most important part" he kept saying. He probably considered me to be the time waster!:rolleyes::mad:

damo605

Reminds me of the time I took herself to see an FTO that was advertised as being in immaculate condition.... Yer man assured me on the phone that it was spotless, never crashed and didn't have a mark on it.
So headed up to the city to see it - Bonnet and roof was all caved in, windscreen smashed, radiator tied to headlight with bailer twine, slam panel was mangled & engine light on :eek:
He said the bonnet had flipped up and that's what caused the damage to bonnet, windscreen & roof but he had "been away" for a while and hadn't had a chance to fix it.... Well we know why the bonnet had flipped up
I said to him it's not exaclty in 'immaculte' condition... He said "the rest is though"

peasant

Asked around the local dealerships for an estate, didn't really mind what it was as long as it was in reasonably good condition.

Salesman: Oh ...I've got just the car for you. Audi A4. Turbo-diesel. Ten years old, but a really good car, well maintained. blah-dee-blah ....only 8k.

Walked up to it ...the bumper was hanging off, one flat tyre, plenty of scratches and 2 inches of water in the drivers footwell including algae growth.

Not funny at all.

Main BMW dealer with glossy, swanky showroom by the way.


Won't even mention the amount of times when I travelled halfway across the country only to find the the car was nothing like described and/or advertised.

Car Mad

or the time i went into a bmw garage i said id like to see a 5 series he said iv got the right one for ya a 05 megane i said r u serious he said ya its a lovely car.i said will u flup of u dope i asked for a 5 series and ur trying to sell me a megane.he said there a great car i said i know i have one now dont be insulting me.never goin back there again.and i wud of bought the 5 series he had and it way more costly than the magane all he had to do was show me the car lol.wat a dope

Wishbone Ash

Car Mad wrote:

i went into a bmw garage i said id like to see a 5 series he said iv got the right one for ya a 05 megane

LOL Brilliant!

(The 'Naked Camera' crew weren't there by any chance?)

Car Mad

Wishbone Ash wrote:

LOL Brilliant!

(The 'Naked Camera' crew weren't there by any chance?)

i wish he wudnt of been long getting the sack:D what people come up with.the mind boggles

ToxicPaddy

Went to see an 89 Merc 500SEC a few years ago, saw it on the web and rang the dealer. Asked the usual questions, mileage, spec, service history, every been crashed etc. All questions came back good.

So called over and yer man showed me a completely different SEC, moss growing on the roof, tyres flat and worn, chipped paint and damaged panels. I asked about the one on the web, but he just tried to fob me off. I persisted, but again he just ignored what I said. :mad:

In the end, I saw the car over in the corner of the yard, I just brushed past him, walked over to the car, pointed to it. I informed him, this is the one I'm interested in, his reply,

"Oh that one is not for sale"

My response,

"Well why is there a big FOR SALE sign in the window. :rolleyes:

Needless to say he wasnt too happy with what I had to say to him and when I told him I would be informing the website he was using on about his false advertising he wasnt too impressed.

The next day the car was taken off the website. :rolleyes:

Tox

Big Balls

Car Mad wrote:

or the time i went into a bmw garage i said id like to see a 5 series he said iv got the right one for ya a 05 megane i said r u serious he said ya its a lovely car.i said will u flup of u dope i asked for a 5 series and ur trying to sell me a megane.he said there a great car i said i know i have one now dont be insulting me.never goin back there again.and i wud of bought the 5 series he had and it way more costly than the magane all he had to do was show me the car lol.wat a dope

Sure. :rolleyes:

Car Mad

Big Balls wrote:

Sure. :rolleyes:

what do u mean sure thats what happened i asked for a 5 series he asked me wud i buy a megane:D salesman of the year in my opinion:eek:

Undercoverguy

"Its a Fiat but she wont give ya any Problems"

LOL LMAO!!!



27 Trips Back To Service Dept Says Otherwise!

Car Mad

Undercoverguy wrote:

"Its a Fiat but she wont give ya any Problems"

LOL LMAO!!!



27 Trips Back To Service Dept Says Otherwise!

27 :rolleyes: i thought my friends 25 in one year was bad:eek: wont give u any trouble:D y do they say FIX.ITAGAIN.TOMORO :rolleyes: dealers will tell ya other car makers made it up:cool:

cantdecide

only on saturday have i set a personal best.
cork to ballymena with my brother with cash in hand for a '00 2.5 legacy (rare enough car and it seemed to be a good deal which justified the distance). "best you'll find, absolutely mint, perfect mechanically etc.etc.etc.". he couldn't do any more to convince us that it was the car for us. we asked about a shadow down the driver side that appeared to be either a brutal repair or a reflection. "co-incidentally, it was scraped by a shopping trolley and fixed-but the repair is 100% so it must be a reflection" he knew we were coming almost as far away as we could possibly come from in the country at huge inconvenience and not insignificant expense. one whole day and 600 miles.
heatshields loose around the engine bay, overheating, suspension rattling, exhaust rattling, clutch rattling and shuddering, every panel had some issue. it hadn't many scratches and he was right about the paint though. it was a good paint colour match, but the trolley that did the damage must have been shot out of a cannon because there were no panels matching up on the driver side. it was clear that the driver door had been bashed far forward enough to warp and flatten both the door and the wing. the give away was the broken restrictor.
we gave a quick tot of the known repair work and he would have had to give us the car WITH a significant lump of money to make it the way he described.
i was ready to punch him but i'll report him to autotrader as a rogue trader instead.

back to the topic - my favourite quote was "very good condition for a '00 car". most '00 cars are, you dingleberry. this would have been in poor condition if it were a '90. i should have asked him to make me an offer on my '92 beemer. he probably would have described it as concours.

rant over.

DirtyDog

Went looking at a second hand car, met the guy he was walking me around the back of the house to the garage and I asked "is it in good condition?"

His reply...."yeah great, shes still got her original paint"....

And i think thats about all it had left that was original it was a total bucket.

r3nu4l

The gf and I were looking at cars and we liked the look of a 1.2 Fiat Stilo so I said 'sure we'll test drive it but don't expect fast acceleration from a stopped position', then the sales guy jumps in:

'Oh, I've driven it myself, great acceperation, very nippy, more power than you'd expect from a 1.2L'

:rolleyes: I didn't argue, just test drove it and let the car answer for me How he expected me to believe him I'll never know

I still bought it and yes, it doesn't accelerate quickly but it's a nice drive and does all we need it to do

Larry David

Car Mad wrote:

or the time i went into a bmw garage i said id like to see a 5 series he said iv got the right one for ya a 05 megane i said r u serious he said ya its a lovely car.i said will u flup of u dope i asked for a 5 series and ur trying to sell me a megane.he said there a great car i said i know i have one now dont be insulting me.never goin back there again.and i wud of bought the 5 series he had and it way more costly than the magane all he had to do was show me the car lol.wat a dope

Maybe you were speaking to him in TXT slang, and he couldn't understand a word you were saying?

Big Balls

Car Mad wrote:

what do u mean sure thats what happened i asked for a 5 series he asked me wud i buy a megane:D salesman of the year in my opinion:eek:

Well first off I dunno many people who can afford 05 5 Series BMWs that spk lik dis.

But more importantly, I really fail to see how a salesman could be told you want a 5 Series and ends up showing you a Megane. It's just madness..

Car Mad

Big Balls wrote:

Well first off I dunno many people who can afford 05 5 Series BMWs that spk lik dis.

But more importantly, I really fail to see how a salesman could be told you want a 5 Series and ends up showing you a Megane. It's just madness..

well it did happen and i do belive thats what loans are for;) so what if i type text talk i happen to send a lot of texts during the course of my day its a habbit:eek: a bad one i admit but still

*(spell checks) every thing alright boss:D

ps did i say 05 5 series i dont think so i said he offered me a 05 megane

Do-more

I was selling a 3 year old car, with genuine low mileage, a few months back and a phone caller asked me if it was "like new"?

I pointed out that it was a second hand car I was selling and whilst it was in very good condition it had some minor blemishes and described them to the caller.

No, he replied, he'd only be interested in the car if it was "like new"!

You just can't win sometimes!!

Larry David

Do-more wrote:

I was selling a 3 year old car, with genuine low mileage, a few months back and a phone caller asked me if it was "like new"?

I pointed out that it was a second hand car I was selling and whilst it was in very good condition it had some minor blemishes and described them to the caller.

No, he replied, he'd only be interested in the car if it was "like new"!

You just can't win sometimes!!

And? I don't see any problem there. I would expect a 3 yr old car to be like new, and without blemishes if it had been taken care of!

Do-more

Larry David wrote:

And? I don't see any problem there. I would expect a 3 yr old car to be like new, and without blemishes if it had been taken care of!

Ah maybe it was you that was calling me so Larry!

Larry David

Do-more wrote:

Ah maybe it was you that was calling me so Larry!

Or maybe it wasn't, and you can just answer my post instead of making a stupid remark.

testicle

I agree with Larry David.

Anan1

Larry David wrote:

And? I don't see any problem there. I would expect a 3 yr old car to be like new, and without blemishes if it had been taken care of!

testicle wrote:

I agree with Larry David.

Words fail me.

Eoin

I was quite disappointed when going out to see a BMW e36 coupe a couple of years ago, but instead was greeted by a 316 compact. The girl selling it honestly thought it was a coupe the whole time she owned it.

Larry David

Anan1 wrote:

Words fail me.

Obviously not, because you wrote "words fail me".

What's wrong with expecting a 3yr old car to be "LIKE" new - I never said brand new, but LIKE new? Anyone who takes good care of their car from new, should have no scratches or blemishes - hence it's "LIKE" new after 3 years. So what's the problem?

peasant

Anybody who claims their car is "like new" after three years is exaggerating.

There simply is too much wear and tear after three years for it to be "like new".

It can be "very well kept", "spotless" or even "immaculate" if you must ...but not "like new".

And what good is a totally unmarked exterior and interior (possibly with plastic covers over the seat) if the car was only ever driven to church once a week at 7000 rpm in first gear by a little old lady who kept it clean but never bothered to service it?

Larry David

peasant wrote:

Anybody who claims their car is "like new" after three years is exaggerating.

It can be "very well kept", "spotless" or even "immaculate" if you must ...but not "like new".

I disagree.

There simply is too much wear and tear after three years for it to be "like new".

Not true. Depends totally on the individual car - where it has been driven, how much it has been driven, how well it has been driven, and how well the owner cared for the interior & paintwork.

Squirrel

And new cars look like ****e

maidhc

Larry David wrote:

I disagree.

You are completely wrong then!

I bought a 3yr old car last Jan. It looked immaculate/spotless, had a perfect s/h, and was very well minded. However it was not "like new" because:

• It had 60k up.
• There was a small scratch on the corner of the bumper. It didn't need spraying, and you have to look for it.
• There is a tiny ding in the panel below the rear offside window, you can see it if the light shines the right way.
• There is a scratch on the passenger door. Again, small.
• Paint chips on the bonnet.
• Nasty scratch below the radio (fixed with part from ebay)

(I think though when someone says a car is "like new" they don't mean it is actually exactly like the day it came out of the factory, just that it looks fantastic)