Worried I've bought dodgy car :-(

mrsvanderkamp_2

AdrianC wrote: »

What are you basing this on?

I guess I'm quite cynical and kind of just expect to get ripped off by a secondhand car salesman, which I know is a dreadful stereotype, so i apologise to all the genuine sellers out there! But if a car gives you trouble/acquires a fault less than 24 hrs after purchase, I think most people would wonder if they'd been sold a lemon....or were just very unlucky....in fairness I'd like to think it's the latter. This is DS's first car and he's well chuffed with it so would hate to think that he's lost his money (all his savings) on a complete dud.....

bigjl

Old sub £1000 car has a sensor fail.

Nothing to see here.

Have you read the fault codes?

Phone the seller and advise him about the issue.

If you owned a car for four or five years and were going to sell it and the value was well under £1000 (which the previous owner would have got when he sold) would you spend £2/300 on it?

Or would you decide the time is right to sell it and buy something newer?

s_b

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

I guess I'm quite cynical and kind of just expect to get ripped off by a secondhand car salesman, which I know is a dreadful stereotype, so i apologise to all the genuine sellers out there! But if a car gives you trouble/acquires a fault less than 24 hrs after purchase, I think most people would wonder if they'd been sold a lemon....or were just very unlucky....in fairness I'd like to think it's the latter. This is DS's first car and he's well chuffed with it so would hate to think that he's lost his money (all his savings) on a complete dud.....

the seller sounds more than reasonable to me even double checking the oil level as you arent even cable between the two of you to check it yourselves
the belt gets done at 10 years or 100,000 miles these are both overdue so need doing yesterday
unfortunately im in the trade of selling cars and its the old dammed if we do dammed if we dont,i often wish i could rip everybody off and sleep soundly but i couldnt so there are plenty of us out there who try our best but we all get prodded with the same stick
maybe buy new next time rather than graveyard robbing £1000 bangers? wow i feel better now
contact seller for best approach to eml but do it in the right frame ie phone not text

mrsvanderkamp_2

bigjl wrote: »

Old sub £1000 car has a sensor fail.

Nothing to see here.

Have you read the fault codes?

Phone the seller and advise him about the issue.

It isn't just the light though, the car really does sound a quite poorly. DH and I have a 12 year old Renault and 15 year old focus so I am well aware of the "character" that old cars offer, but as I say it does sound rather "unwell" ....

bigjl

s_b wrote: »

the seller sounds more than reasonable to me even double checking the oil level as you arent even cable between the two of you to check it yourselves
the belt gets done at 10 years or 100,000 miles these are both overdue so need doing yesterday
unfortunately im in the trade of selling cars and its the old dammed if we do dammed if we dont,i often wish i could rip everybody off and sleep soundly but i couldnt so there are plenty of us out there who try our best but we all get prodded with the same stick
maybe buy new next time rather than graveyard robbing £1000 bangers? wow i feel better now

This thread is why I no longer sell cars as a sideline.

I used to make sure all the cars I sold where up to a standard Inwould expect, always fully serviced.

But I got fed up with people expecting a brand new car for Bangernomics money.

Like the eBay time wasters that come and test drive,take up an hour of your time, ask for an idea of how much it would take to buy it etc.

Then the idiots bid pops up and despite you telling them anything less than say £2000 would not buy it they bid £672.59!

Yup selling cars as a home trader is not the easiest way to make a living or extra income anymore.

bigjl

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

It isn't just the light though, the car really does sound a quite poorly. DH and I have a 12 year old Renault and 15 year old focus so I am well aware of the "character" that old cars offer, but as I say it does sound rather "unwell" ....

The car has a sensor issue, why would it run correctly when the ECU has told you it is not getting the correct Data?

Have you even spoken to the trader?

Phoned the RAC/AA/GreenFlag? As they carry diagnostics.

Could be a MAF fault, have you cleaned the MAF?

mrsvanderkamp_2

s_b wrote: »

the seller sounds more than reasonable to me even double checking the oil level as you arent even cable between the two of you to check it yourselves
the belt gets done at 10 years or 100,000 miles these are both overdue so need doing yesterday
unfortunately im in the trade of selling cars and its the old dammed if we do dammed if we dont,i often wish i could rip everybody off and sleep soundly but i couldnt so there are plenty of us out there who try our best but we all get prodded with the same stick
maybe buy new next time rather than graveyard robbing £1000 bangers? wow i feel better now
contact seller for best approach to eml but do it in the right frame ie phone not text

I appreciate what you say and have already stated that I realise that there are plenty of honest sellers out there, but I am sure you cannot deny that that there are unfortunately always going to be rogues as well. I am more than willing to give the seller the benefit of the doubt which is why I'm taking the car to the garage first...if he tells me it's basically sound and this is bad luck then fair enough....if however he tells me that it shouldn't even be on the road, then obviously I may take a different view.

The car was bought as a first car for DS as stated, and saving up and paying a few hundred quid for your first car is a right of passage isn't it? Seems to me more sensible than getting into thousands of pounds worth of debt.

s_b

bigjl wrote: »

This thread is why I no longer sell cars as a sideline.

I used to make sure all the cars I sold where up to a standard Inwould expect, always fully serviced.

But I got fed up with people expecting a brand new car for Bangernomics money.

Like the eBay time wasters that come and test drive,take up an hour of your time, ask for an idea of how much it would take to buy it etc.

Then the idiots bid pops up and despite you telling them anything less than say £2000 would not buy it they bid £672.59!

Yup selling cars as a home trader is not the easiest way to make a living or extra income anymore.

i had 2 cars last year that were becoming landmarks so both were sold on my business account ebay, full details, no faults, at 99 p start ,they both did about £800 a piece many bids but neither buyer came and both made feeble excuses why, i wasnt in the mood to relist so ended about £25 out of pocket and a wasted week replying to idiots,i would never sell a car on auction there again only as a fixed price sale

bigjl

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

I appreciate what you say and have already stated that I realise that there are plenty of honest sellers out there, but I am sure you cannot deny that that there are unfortunately always going to be rogues as well. I am more than willing to give the seller the benefit of the doubt which is why I'm taking the car to the garage first...if he tells me it's basically sound and this is bad luck then fair enough....if however he tells me that it shouldn't even be on the road, then obviously I may take a different view.

The car was bought as a first car for DS as stated, and saving up and paying a few hundred quid for your first car is a right of passage isn't it? Seems to me more sensible than getting into thousands of pounds worth of debt.

You do realise that a similar problem could easily occur on a brand new car?

Or £10000 car?

You haven't even given the bloke a chance to look at the car and you seem to have pretty much decided the car is at fault.

s_b

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

I appreciate what you say and have already stated that I realise that there are plenty of honest sellers out there, but I am sure you cannot deny that that there are unfortunately always going to be rogues as well. I am more than willing to give the seller the benefit of the doubt which is why I'm taking the car to the garage first...if he tells me it's basically sound and this is bad luck then fair enough....if however he tells me that it shouldn't even be on the road, then obviously I may take a different view.

The car was bought as a first car for DS as stated, and saving up and paying a few hundred quid for your first car is a right of passage isn't it? Seems to me more sensible than getting into thousands of pounds worth of debt.

let selling dealer tell you what to do before you do anything, this way you comply with consumer law if it goes pear
i know you are alright by the way no hard feelings here:)