What a test drive

[crankedup]

Drove 200 odd miles to view a tasty 1920's saloon car.
Gave it the inspection but was concerned about some small cracks appearing and breaking the newish paint finish.

All the mechanicals appeared to be excellent tho and the car started and run lovely.

3 miles into test and time to turn around, the saleman said that I could then drive the car back :lick: We pulled into a housing estate to find a safe place to turn, trundling along at 15-20mph when suddenly a horrible grunching noise and the back offside of the car collaped.

I thought it was a tyre blowout at first, we got out of the car to discover the wheel had come off :yikes: completely and ended up in someones front garden. The mudgaurd had been ripped from the coachwork causing horrible damage including metal stretching around the rear suspension. The mudgaurd was destroyed sadly.

Apart from the wheel coming off, the damage showed up copious amounts of body filler around the rear corner of the car.

This particular car had just been renovated both mechanically and the coachwork too.

I thought the dealer would have offered me a great deal on the car after all this, but no he stuck to a price he wanted and said the car will be back looking smart in a couple of weeks time. I was hoping to secure a deal and then have the coachwork renovated properly.

So I'm still looking, altho a nice little Chrysler has shown itself recently (private deal) so we shall see.

[Alpineandy]

How can he ask for the same money now that you know it's full of filler?
How can you consider it knowing it's full of filler?

etc.
etc.

[crankedup]

If the price had been correct for me then I may have purchased with a view to stripping off the coachwork and having it rebuilt correctly, as I mentioned in my original post.

[williamp]

Do yourself a favour:

walk away now

It will end in very expensive tears- afterall, what else has been bodged? And remember: he allowd you to drive a car which he might have known to be knowlingly dangerous: it could have killed you both.

[crankedup]

Seems good advise williamp, I've walked at a fair rate of knots.

I'm now off to Dorset on Monday to have a look at an Austin. Hope to goodness its worth the trip.

[Alpineandy]

williamp said:

It will end in very expensive tears- afterall, what else has been bodged?

My thoughts exactly.