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I will be telling a story about when I and my brother were looking to buy a used car. Everyone knows how stressful it is buying a budget car. Heck even buying a new car can be stressful. The added stresses of buying a used car are:
- Could the car be rigged?
- Is this person lying about the condition of this car?
- There might be something wrong with this car.
- Not having full knowledge of cars.
- Not mechanically inclined.
If any of these things resonate with you I highly recommend having someone with you that has the capabilities to guide you through the process. But anyways back to my story. My mother was in need of a new vehicle. She was particular about it being an American made SUV.
Me and my brother go on the hunt using craigslist and other means to locate a decent car. We did about a week of searching. Looking at other low cost cars that were totally out of my mother’s peculiar taste. The first car that we had looked at was an older model Hyundai sedan with a lot of miles. The guy who was selling it owned a shoe store in our neighborhood. He was a really nice guy, besides the fact he tried to sell us a POS car. The price he was asking was $1200. Cosmetically the car was in decent shape, mechanically otherwise.
I asked the gentleman if the car had any issue’s of course, he replied: “Nothing is wrong with the car.” He had a middle eastern accent. So the first thing when I get into a used car that I may purchase is, turning it on and letting it run whilst in neutral for 20 minutes. While it's running I go over the car. The second thing I did was turn the steering wheel as far to the right as possible, get down with a flash light and check the axles. And what do you know both CV Axles were ripped. Again I asked dude if there was anything wrong with the car, I got the same response.
I showed him what I had discovered on the car which he claimed he had no idea. This was a huge red flag off rip. Now the car was still running and the reason why I do this is to check if the car is leaking or overheating. Also the car performs better whilst the engine is hot. We were still interested in the car but for a lower price. The owner of the car offered us to take it for a drive which we did. I got into the drivers seat, adjusted the steering wheel and the lever fell apart. I disregarded it and put the car into gear.
Now when you take a car on a test drive, I highly recommend driving it like you stole it. (If the car was a good car it can take the beating) Once on the road I drove slow with my brother in the passenger seat. We are talking about the car and checking if the radio works. All of a sudden the car started sputtering, I disregard this thinking it could be a clogged fuel filter. After we got out of sight I punch the gas which the car was a little nippy but u can tell it had some issues. We decided to go to my mothers and show her the car and get her approval. After a stretch of empty street with my heavy foot on the peddle I got it up to about 50mph then screeched at a stop sign. The car started sputtering worse and almost turned off, couldn’t hold an idle. Once this happened we got scared the car would die and leave us stranded with no way back to our car. So Im still driving like a maniac even worse. Finally we made it back. As I am pulling up into the drive way the engine started smoking from under the hood. This was the last straw but still wanted to know how far this guy was going to lie. As the car was smoking I asked him if he still wanted the $1200 dollars for the car. He replied yes that seems fair. The guy really thought of this car being worth the money. We told him thanks for his time and started walking away.
Once we turned around he said he would take $500 for the car which I then declined the offer. I still cant believe the dishonesty in people today. Thanks everyone for reading my story!