Have you ever bought a lemon car?

obi_waynne

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Has anyone on here bought a total wreck of a car, or bought a car that turned out to be a total Lemon?

I bought a car through a friend which had loads of rust, one of the front suspension arms had almost rusted through, the brakes were all warped and the car cost me a small fortune just to put it through the MOT.
 
Yep, back in the day I sold my absolutely immaculate 318i to a friend (which he eventually wrote off), then bought a 206GTi. Looked and drive great and then the exhaust fell off, I found out that it had pretty much been plastered together so has to replace that. The list went on but I had to pretty much replace the front suspension top to bottom, clutch, all sorts. Absolute bag of scrap. Never looked at another French car since
 
Afraid so, back in the day when my knowledge of cars you could comfortably write on the back of a postage stamp :oops:

Two total rascals cars that emptied my then meagre wallet at every opportunity. Learnt lots though, in particular back street mechanics are "Liar liar pants on fire" :mad:
 
Yes and from a dealer also. When I went into management at 21 I got all giddy and bought a BMW 5 series alternative Lancia Thema V6. Very luxurious and owned by the Earl of Romsey with some awesome bespoke audio extras. The car was only 7 years old when I bought it. After a month most of the electrics were intermittent or had failed and by 6 months of ownership the gearbox was playing up and the exhaust fallen off. I had bought the car for £4000 and the dealer kept fobbing me off with they had fixed it when actually I eventually found out from a Lancia specialist they had done nothing as he had seen the car when they brought it to him before I bought it. £1200 exhaust and £2500 gearbox if he could find one. I had part exd my ultra reliable Honda Prelude Executive for that pile of.... !
Off loaded it and bombed around in a Citroen AX GT for a few years which was a come down but brilliant fun at least.
 
I had an MG Maestro 1600 years ago.Faults the bloody sun roof would always leak when it started to rain.The bottom of the doors started to rust away very quickly.The spark plug on number one cylinder used to oil up frequently,had to take out and clean at least once a week.Remember once when driving around the M25, there was a heavy thunderstorm.As soon as I switched on the wipers,the drivers wiper decided to detach itself from the car and flew into the under growth at the side of the road.To add insult to injury I had water dripping on my head from that bloody sun roof.A total LEMON.
 
The Maestro 2.0 was a dream car of mine back in the day, but most sadly had problems. Rust was a major issue on them. I bet there are not many around today.
 
The classic joke on this car was the talking woman from the dash panel giving general information about the car's servicability etc.
One day a Maestro was found upside in a ditch,and naturally all the engine oil had drained out.And when the recovery men got to the car,they could hear the woman repeating over and over "ding dong " Low oil level"......"ding dong" Low oil level "
 
Oh yes I remember the voice. The seatbelt warning was one IIRC. Not quite night rider but they were getting there in the 80's
 
I bought a Vectra once, as a stop gap car whilst I was looking for a good mk1 Golf.
A few days later I drove a 500 mile round trip to see friends. On the way home the engine died. AA couldn't get it going so towed me home.
Took car to my garage who spent some time examining it and I was told the engine was complete shot. Gaskets blown, rods and pistons bent out of shape (this was a few years ago and I may be misremembering the exact details, but it was basically a dead car). The mechanic stated it had been in this state for some time and he was amazed I managed a test drive, let along 400 miles of my journey.
Private sale so no come back. Very expensive lesson and haven't bought a dud since.
 
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Not too long ago, I bought a newish Audi 3.0tdi A6, absolute nightmare, I lost several thousand pounds when i sold it a few months later and was actually glad.
 
The first 4 cars I bought were all lemons and needed to be scrapped quite soon after I took ownership.
 

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