Would you buy a car if

[obi_waynne]

Would you ever consider buying a car if....

1) The driver tended to drive it hard from cold.
2) It had not been serviced in the last 3 years.
3) The interior and bodywork is dirty and shabby.
4) There was blue smoke from the exhaust

How bad would these things be to put you off. What other things would put you off buying a car.

Have you ever ignored your gut instinct and bought a car against your better judgement only to regret it later?

Have you ever bought a car without seeing it on trust or the say so of a friend?

 

[pgarner]

1) - yup that would put me off, then again unless you knew the car would you be able to tell
2) - serviced as in booked stamped ? if they had a pile of receipts and had done the work themselves, then i might actually be happier than if the car had been serviced exactly on time every time.
3) as long as theres no real rust issues body work can usually be sorted with a couple of afternoons work
4) probably not unless it was going super cheap and i could find another engine for less than the difference between the car and one in a decent condition

 

[bigbadjoe]

1) The driver tended to drive it hard from cold.
2) It had not been serviced in the last 3 years.
3) The interior and bodywork is dirty and shabby.
4) There was blue smoke from the exhaust

1) Yep. If I knew about it. Cold oil when deeling with metal on metal is never a good sign.
2) Nha. I would check the colour of the oil. If it seemed fresh'ish and not low then I would still considder buying the car.
3) No. If I was buying a 10yo ford as a run around, as long as the arches and cills are good, fine by me.
4) Blue smoke....From a turbo deisel id give it a few min to warm up and turn it off and on, see if it has cleared (if it has been sitting, the waste gate could have gathered some #!#!#!#!, when the seller turns the car on and off without moving the car.)

I find you can tell alot about the car by seeing the previous driver.

I would not buy a car off a boy racer. One thing that would put me straight off is if the clutch is on the blink. I would hate to buy a car and have that go.

 

[stamford]

Probably wouldn't touch it unless there was enough history to back up the servicing side. Maybe take a risk if it ran okay. Other than that I wouldn't take the risk. Alot will depend on the reasons for buying, is it a stop gap and likely to be scrapped when it's done its time?