Buying a Lemon-Your Worst Experience?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Sun 26 Jan 2003 00:28
Buying a Lemon-Your Worst Experience? - brambob

Even when you have bought a fair number of cars you can still be taken in all too easily. My worst experience is described below - I wonder if there are lessons we can all share from our car buying disasters.

Clocking is alive and well as I found to my cost 3 months ago. I bought a 1998 BMW 520 which showed 29000 miles and the dealer quite happily gave me the name of the previous owner, showed me the service book, all duly stamped by the supplying dealer, and also an HPI certificate.

After eventually deciding to go ahead and buy (even though I had been unable to contact the previous lady owner by telephone - she was apparently ex-directory), I got a gut feeling that everything was not as it should be after driving the car for a couple of days. I therefore contacted the BMW dealership who had supplied the car and they confirmed that they had done the first service a few months after it had been bought new. They told me that they had not seen the car since that time, even though their stamps were in the service book (which turned out to be a duplicate). They said though that the car was still on their database and had been serviced by other BMW dealerships, the last one being about 15 months ago at 107k miles.

Upon learning this I went back to the supplying dealer to cancel the deal but he had already sold my previous car on and seemed as distraught as I was. Eventually, after considerable negotiation, he agreed to take the car back and gave me a cash payment but I probably lost about £1500 as a result and he may or may not have done the same as he subsequently readvertised it for much less than the original price.

Looking back I feel silly and almost ashamed to have been taken in like this and I will never buy a used car again without verifying the service history. Perhaps I should have gone to the police but it is the sort of thing you just want to forget and put down to experience.

Can anybody beat this?

Brambob
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Jan 2003 01:32
Buying a Lemon-Your Worst Experience? - THe Growler
Now let's hear all those Austin Allegro stories......
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 26 Jan 2003 09:32
Buying a Lemon-Your Worst Experience? - wemyss
Bram, I sympathise with you totally and feel you were extremely tolerant with the outcome.
I must admit I wouldn't have been satisfied with the outcome as the dealer seems to have come out of it better than yourself.
However we all make mistakes so don't feel too badly about it as we all get taken for a ride at some time.
Whatever we seem to buy, a month later we see it for sale elsewhere at considerably less.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link