A790
05-12-2008, 11:45 AM
Remember last year when I bought my MR2 and I was so thrilled that it had been taken care of so well by its previous owner? Yea, I take just about everything I said back.
Body wise it's in great shape, with only a few minor dings/scratches. Otherwise, only me, god, and the dumb jackass I bought the car from knew exactly what I was getting into.
When I first looked at the car it seemed to be in great mechanical shape, and it was. It was lowered in Tein SuperStreet coilovers, had 17" Seneca Rims, a custom made exhaust, GenIII engine/transmission, and a host of other little things that made it stand out. When I drove it, it rang great. It pulled, HARD, and launched like a bat out of hell. Admittedly, I fell in love with the car in a way. It was the sexy black beauty that I had always wanted, so I came back a week later with my uncle (who's a mechanic) to check it out in a bit more detail.
He poked around the engine bay, checked some things, and everything turned out fine. He didn't know these cars at all, but he said that it was running fine and he didn't see any real obvious mechanical problems. Well, that's because the guy that owned this car before me obviously went out of his way to hide the bullshit that I was going to wade through.
I get the car home and two days later the drivers-side tire is flat. I refill it, and two days later it's the same thing. I take the rim off the car, down to Canadian Tire, and get an inner tube put in it just so I can move it around the yard without damaging the rim. I was going to replace them anyway, but didn't see the point in doing so at that point. What I find odd is that the drive home from Barrie (about 1.5 hrs from my parents place) was fine- the tire was fine. Remember this point.
I take the car out of storage and it won't start. I boost it, and as soon as I take off the boost cables it dies. Either the battery or the alternator is fucked. We pop open the bonnet and have a look and there's no fucking belt on the alternator. Not only that, but trying to turn the alternator pulley takes A LOT of effort. A belt hadn't been on this thing for a while.
Whatever. I put the car on a trailer and get it taken to my mechanics that specialize in cars like this. Actually, they specialize in Talons, so I knew that they had a LOT of experience with electrical problems (I kid, I kid). We get it off the trailer and I take off for the day.
I get a call the next day. They want me to come in to "talk about this car and what I want to do with it". Well... that's never a good sign. I head on in there (I had a rental car at this point).
They hand me a LIST of shit this car is going to need to pass inspection:
+ New suspension. The coilovers were leaking, the front two being completely shot. I never knew the difference, but apparantly the car isn't supposed to sit that low or ride that hard. Not only that, but the stock Toyota mounts are gone and to get new ones is $1,000, or a new Tein kit is $1,900. I order the new Tein kit.
No big deal, I figure, even though the guy told me the suspension was brand new and only used for a few months. Whatever, buyer beware right?
+ Horn/signal lights are buggered. I knew this going into the deal. I was told by the previous owner that it was a relay problem, which it was. No biggie.
+ The exhaust is mounted to the rear bumper. Literally, BOLTED on to the rear bumper. Not only that, but the guy made a custom 3" downpipe that fed into a stock DODGE NEON muffler, with a hacked pipe that had been spot welded in. A ghetto-ass exhaust job.
I wouldn't have belived it if I didn't see it myself. Unreal.
+ Other odds and ends not really worth mentioning. These aren't what piss me off...
... this is. We take off the rim and tire, and it's PAINFULLY obvious that a chunk had broken off at some point. So, they took a section FROM A DIFFERENT RIM ENTIRELY, NOT EVEN THE SAME KIND OF RIM, and spot welded it in. You could SEE the JB weld. This thing could have fallen off at any time, and I wouldn't have had a clue since he had paid to have the face of the rim refinished and powder coated.
What really upsets me is that this guy was fully comfortable with me driving the car across the damn country (as I was originally going to do)... anything to make a sale, right? That car wasn't even safe to be on the bloody road at city speeds, let alone cruising along the highway.
So I've litereally replaced just about everything aside from the engine/transmission, which I verified IS a GenIII, and IS a LSD tranny, both of which are in surprisingly good shape considering the rest of the fucking car.
I've replaced...
+ Steering wheel
+ Signal relay
+ Rims/tires
+ Suspension
+ Exhaust
+ Bushings
+ Ball joints
+ Who knows how much little shit not worth mentioning.
Now I would be suspicious of my mechanic, except for the fact that he does mechanical work for me and I do web development work for him. He's an honest guy, more a friend than anything else, and I've brought other vehicles to him that were a quick fix that he comped for me.
So this "pristine" MR2 that I bought was really a death trap. It's pristine NOW, but only because I forked out over $5K on top of the purchase price to make it so. I had to cancel a lot of plans I had and things I wanted to buy because the guy FLAT OUT LIED TO ME. If he had told me this shit up front, like I had asked him to, I would have saved some money aside for it since I'd have been aware of it.
But no, he lied like a bloody cockroach for a lousy $7,500.
Of course, all the BS things we found you wouldn't see without it being in the air. I mean, who jacks up a car and removes a rim to check the suspension during a test drive?
Sorry, just had to vent. Thinking about this really makes my blood boil, since every time I've sold a car I've always been honest about what it does and doesn't need. Every time. Because I'd hate to BS to someone only to put them in harms way, or even just inconvenience them. This guy didn't give a s hit that one of the rims had as much structural integrity as a ham sandwhich...
Anyway, that's my rant. Thanks for reading :)
PS - Pics coming soon of new rims, suspension, tail lights, etc.
PPS - I still love the car, but not the douche that mistreated her before I rescued her.
Body wise it's in great shape, with only a few minor dings/scratches. Otherwise, only me, god, and the dumb jackass I bought the car from knew exactly what I was getting into.
When I first looked at the car it seemed to be in great mechanical shape, and it was. It was lowered in Tein SuperStreet coilovers, had 17" Seneca Rims, a custom made exhaust, GenIII engine/transmission, and a host of other little things that made it stand out. When I drove it, it rang great. It pulled, HARD, and launched like a bat out of hell. Admittedly, I fell in love with the car in a way. It was the sexy black beauty that I had always wanted, so I came back a week later with my uncle (who's a mechanic) to check it out in a bit more detail.
He poked around the engine bay, checked some things, and everything turned out fine. He didn't know these cars at all, but he said that it was running fine and he didn't see any real obvious mechanical problems. Well, that's because the guy that owned this car before me obviously went out of his way to hide the bullshit that I was going to wade through.
I get the car home and two days later the drivers-side tire is flat. I refill it, and two days later it's the same thing. I take the rim off the car, down to Canadian Tire, and get an inner tube put in it just so I can move it around the yard without damaging the rim. I was going to replace them anyway, but didn't see the point in doing so at that point. What I find odd is that the drive home from Barrie (about 1.5 hrs from my parents place) was fine- the tire was fine. Remember this point.
I take the car out of storage and it won't start. I boost it, and as soon as I take off the boost cables it dies. Either the battery or the alternator is fucked. We pop open the bonnet and have a look and there's no fucking belt on the alternator. Not only that, but trying to turn the alternator pulley takes A LOT of effort. A belt hadn't been on this thing for a while.
Whatever. I put the car on a trailer and get it taken to my mechanics that specialize in cars like this. Actually, they specialize in Talons, so I knew that they had a LOT of experience with electrical problems (I kid, I kid). We get it off the trailer and I take off for the day.
I get a call the next day. They want me to come in to "talk about this car and what I want to do with it". Well... that's never a good sign. I head on in there (I had a rental car at this point).
They hand me a LIST of shit this car is going to need to pass inspection:
+ New suspension. The coilovers were leaking, the front two being completely shot. I never knew the difference, but apparantly the car isn't supposed to sit that low or ride that hard. Not only that, but the stock Toyota mounts are gone and to get new ones is $1,000, or a new Tein kit is $1,900. I order the new Tein kit.
No big deal, I figure, even though the guy told me the suspension was brand new and only used for a few months. Whatever, buyer beware right?
+ Horn/signal lights are buggered. I knew this going into the deal. I was told by the previous owner that it was a relay problem, which it was. No biggie.
+ The exhaust is mounted to the rear bumper. Literally, BOLTED on to the rear bumper. Not only that, but the guy made a custom 3" downpipe that fed into a stock DODGE NEON muffler, with a hacked pipe that had been spot welded in. A ghetto-ass exhaust job.
I wouldn't have belived it if I didn't see it myself. Unreal.
+ Other odds and ends not really worth mentioning. These aren't what piss me off...
... this is. We take off the rim and tire, and it's PAINFULLY obvious that a chunk had broken off at some point. So, they took a section FROM A DIFFERENT RIM ENTIRELY, NOT EVEN THE SAME KIND OF RIM, and spot welded it in. You could SEE the JB weld. This thing could have fallen off at any time, and I wouldn't have had a clue since he had paid to have the face of the rim refinished and powder coated.
What really upsets me is that this guy was fully comfortable with me driving the car across the damn country (as I was originally going to do)... anything to make a sale, right? That car wasn't even safe to be on the bloody road at city speeds, let alone cruising along the highway.
So I've litereally replaced just about everything aside from the engine/transmission, which I verified IS a GenIII, and IS a LSD tranny, both of which are in surprisingly good shape considering the rest of the fucking car.
I've replaced...
+ Steering wheel
+ Signal relay
+ Rims/tires
+ Suspension
+ Exhaust
+ Bushings
+ Ball joints
+ Who knows how much little shit not worth mentioning.
Now I would be suspicious of my mechanic, except for the fact that he does mechanical work for me and I do web development work for him. He's an honest guy, more a friend than anything else, and I've brought other vehicles to him that were a quick fix that he comped for me.
So this "pristine" MR2 that I bought was really a death trap. It's pristine NOW, but only because I forked out over $5K on top of the purchase price to make it so. I had to cancel a lot of plans I had and things I wanted to buy because the guy FLAT OUT LIED TO ME. If he had told me this shit up front, like I had asked him to, I would have saved some money aside for it since I'd have been aware of it.
But no, he lied like a bloody cockroach for a lousy $7,500.
Of course, all the BS things we found you wouldn't see without it being in the air. I mean, who jacks up a car and removes a rim to check the suspension during a test drive?
Sorry, just had to vent. Thinking about this really makes my blood boil, since every time I've sold a car I've always been honest about what it does and doesn't need. Every time. Because I'd hate to BS to someone only to put them in harms way, or even just inconvenience them. This guy didn't give a s hit that one of the rims had as much structural integrity as a ham sandwhich...
Anyway, that's my rant. Thanks for reading :)
PS - Pics coming soon of new rims, suspension, tail lights, etc.
PPS - I still love the car, but not the douche that mistreated her before I rescued her.