The worst car buying story

It is rare to hear someone describe the seller of his or her used car as honest, and I don't plan on breaking that trend with the story of my used car buying experience.

It all started with my search for an '89 BMW 325is. Not an '88 or a '90, an i or an e, or a 318. I wanted specifically an '89 325is. After spending 3 months scouring the Craigslist, Auto Trader, and all the BMW forums I finally found a white '89 325is in the local paper. I contacted the seller who had decided to advertise in the newspaper that was across the state. He also happened to be having 'computer problems', so he snail mailed me a couple pictures of the car. The car looked pretty clean, I asked some in-depth questions about the condition of the car, and he told me he'd drive the car 5 hours across the state to show and sell it to me. Sounded like a great plan.

The planned Saturday meeting was canceled the Friday before because the "water pump needed to be replaced". Cool, I'll get a new water pump and timing belt right before I get the car. Excuse after excuse kept him from driving my way. Sick of the excuses and wanting to be done with my search a couple buddies and I took a road trip to him.

When we arrived the car still looked good other than the rust spot working its way out from behind the license plate, the cracks in the seats hidden under the seat covers, and the broken tape deck, which made this a little less than the "clean and perfect" car he had described and priced it at. Nevertheless, I test drove the car and it ran solid, so I decided to deal with the cosmetic problems and break down and knowingly overpay for the car.

I’ll cut it short and say all of those excuses and problems he had either “forgotten to mention” or “just fixed” weren’t. After running into hack-job repair and problem after problem I decided to replace the timing belt and water pump that “had just been done”. Lucky I did because the timing belt was cracking from age and days from snapping and ruining the motor.

Today I still own the car, but I have dumped enough money into repairs that I've pretty much bought the car a second time. Next time I'll pay more attention to the long-term ramifications when the BS meter goes off.

The newspaper ad said $8500 for a brand new truck. My wife and I were young and had no kids and loved trucks. This would be great because we had a $200 junker.
It was night, dark, and raining. The dealership was busy and the showroom full. When a salesman got to us it was late and we were tired. We explained that we wanted the advertised truck.
We did not need to go out into the rain to see it or to drive it. He said it was red and had a full 8 foot bed. That was fine. Now just fill out the paper-work. Blah-blah-blah.
The salesman got to the bottom of the contract and as he was ready to figure the added sales tax he asked a WIERD question.
"Do you want a rear bumper with the truck?" What? We told him we expected the truck to already have been finished at the factory. Finally we agreed to the extra $600.
"Do you want a radio?" Again, we replied with a what?. We asked the price. "$195". Reluctantly we agreed. "Do you want carpet in the cab?" How much more would that be and since it was $350 more the salesman agreed that just the rubber flooring would be fine.
"Do you think that you will need a spare tire?" I was beginning to loose my temper.
We said let's stop here. " We will take the truck as agreed to and don't ask anymore questions."
When we were able to get the truck the next day with all the "options" on the way home the trim around the windshield blew off. The next day the radio quit working.
Never again would I enter a car lot as an ignorant "car-buyer".

When I was in my late teens in the late 80's, I entered a drawing at a local car dealership. Lo and behold, I received a call saying I'd won a used car! Since I couldn't afford to buy a car, I was absolutely thrilled. My mother drove me to the lot and I happily walked in to claim my prize.

It was a 1980 moss green Chevy Citation. My mom and felt some trepidation when we saw its condition and asked to drive it. The salesman handed over the keys to my "prize" and we headed over for our maiden voyage.

The first thing we noticed was an area beneath the passenger door window where the paint was scratched off down to bare metal. Next was the ruined lining inside on the passenger door panel. Some previous owner had let a dog really tear up that passenger side! There was also a gaping hole where the glove compartment should have been. The rest of the upholstery in the car was dirty and torn in places.

Trying to put its appearance aside, I started the engine. Great clouds of black smoke erupted from the tailpipe. I drove it out onto the road, looking in the rear view mirror at all that nasty smoke, smelling exhaust inside as well. The car would barely go 40mph as it sputtered and backfired. What a lemon!

By the time we got back to the dealership some five minutes later, I was in tears. I was so disappointed!

To top it off, the salesman said he could understand it not being an ideal car for me and offered to take it as a trade-in on another car. He offered some ridiculous amount like $500 for it toward another car on their lot! Talk about a racket!!

I spoke to my mom outside of the salesman's earshot. She suggested I take the car and sell it either for scrap, parts or to someone who'd put in a new engine. When I told the salesman this, he became angry. He couldn't do anything but sign it over to me, though, since I'd won their "prize" car.

That dealership had probably given the car away a dozen or more times, taking it back as a trade-in or watching as ticked off "winners" stalked off the lot. What a sneaky, horrible way to get business. Believe me, we told MANY people about that nasty place and the experience we had there.

I got a used Volkswagon Beetle -- one of the original ones. It broke down so often that, after a while, AAA refused to answer our calls for road service. AAA cut us off!!!!

For the longest time it had been a desire of mine to own a Volkswagen Beetle. My chance to own one finally came one year when on vacation in Oregon visiting my mother. In her neighbor's driveway sat a yellow '01 VW Beetle with my name all over it -- Okay, so the warranty was almost expired but with less than 20,000 miles on it for $13K it seemed a steal. A quick call to my husband (who was at home in Ohio at the time) and it was mine.

Like a good husband should, mine volunteered to fly out and drive it back to our house (okay, he did have business out there) because the girls started school soon and I can't be trusted to navigate safely out of a paper bag. It was nothing but smooth sailing for a while, but then I get a call from my husband in the middle of the night. The car has broken down in the middle of Nowhere, Wyoming -- screws are missing, things are rattling that shouldn't and in short, can you please come pick me up? So at the crack of dawn I pulled my kids out of bed and we made a two day trek across the country (did i mention we drove all the way across Nebraska?) to pick him up and tow the invalid car home.

Sadly, the story does not stop there. I was not about to give up a toy I hadn't gotten to play with yet. So after a trip to the car doctor -- who fixed all the rattling and tightened all the screws -- my '01 Beetle ran beautifully for a year and kept us warm through a cold Ohio winter before it decided our move was the perfect time to fall apart again. Luck being on our side, there were no signs of trouble those few days we remained in the neighborhood and within comfortable reach of a mechanic. No way, it was not until we were well established into the highway route did the stick shift decide to start sticking and the hood to start belching smoke. Unable to just leave it on the side of the road (though I really wanted to) we ended renting a U-Haul and dragging it the rest of the way to Arizona.

In the end, I jumped at the first chance to trade the piece of junk in. In the short year that I had owned it, I had concluded that the sun-roof, daisy-in-the-dashboard cuteness, and leather seats (which weren't very useful in 100 degree weather anyway) weren't worth the head-aches, stress, near-heart-attacks, and mechanic bills that that used Beetle had caused me.

If I ever buy a used car again, it'll be a little closer to home.

Ok, so I found the car I was looking for online and contacted the dealer to ask some questions. After being assured that the car matched my specifications and checking out the pictures, which portrayed the car as one that met my needs aesthetically, I decided to plan a trip from Washington, DC to Pittsburgh, PA.

Even though they assured me that the car's condition was "perfect" before driving all the way down, they were wrong. VERY wrong. The vehicle had door dings and hail dents all over the body, worn spots under the floor mats, a missing turn signal lamp and worst of all, a FLAT tire from not having been driven.

Needless to say I turned right back around...very unhappy. Very, very unhappy....

While on the way home from the dealership after pay cash for a 1996 Ford Explorer it started to rain. So I thought it'd be a great idea to take my stock SUV over to the local mud bogging track outside of town.

I got maybe 15 feet into the mud before I was sunk all the way to the running boards. After wading through the mud to solid ground I called AAA. It must of been a slow afternoon because they were out there in the mud and rain with me pretty quickly. Once the tow truck driver stopped laughing he quickly explained that due to insurance reasons he could not enter the mud with his truck, and that I would have to attach the winch to the trailer hitch myself, and hope he could pull it out that way.

So I had no choice but to head back into the knee deep mud to dig the hitch out. Once attached it didn't take long to pull the Explorer and I was on my way to the nearest pressure washer.

My new ride cleaned up just fine but the low gear on the transfer case was never the same again. Though that was probably for the best cause that thing had no business driving on anything other than well paved roads.

My boyfriend saved up and finally bought the car of his dreams -- a used Jaguar XKE.
Soon afterward, while testing the car on the curvy back country roads, he suddenly rounded a bend... and drove right into a herd of cows that had escaped from their meadow.

Not only was the car totaled. he had to reimburse the farmer for his damaged cows.