Just went for a drive with my mechanic (fortunately he is a good friend of my Dads) and showed him what I do to make the gearbox whine, and he says that there is definitely a bearing which is wearing out and that it will be fine for the time being, but I should get it seen to at some point because it will only keep getting worse until something breaks (as I suspected)
What have you done to your car today?
- Thread starter mattyprice4004
- Start date
As Ryan said I thought you'd know better than to do this.
Assuming you aren't joking, you're a piece of **** if you do this.
Eh? It's an ancient polo worth 2 bob, buyer beware
To know full well it has a potentially ticking time bomb fault and conceal that from the buyer is just scummy.
Buyer beware =/= intentionally hiding a major fault.
I wouldn't lie about it if they asked, but why should I go out of my way to point it out if they haven't noticed?
If they ask I will just say that I had noticed the noise, but I put it down to the age of the car and the mileage of the engine, and that it has been fine like that for however long and I hadn't got rount to having it looked into. Then I'd pass them the service history so they can be overwhelmed by the amount of parts which ARE new.
I'm hardly going to say "yeah the car is solid apart from the gearbox which is totally ****ed mate and will write off the car in a few months" am I...
Its not like I'm selling them a car which will explode when they get down the end of the road. I'm selling them a car for a few hundred quid which might need gearbox work in a year or two.
I'm sorry if you disagree with this point of view.
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Gearbox blows before he gets to the end of your street....
"Ah yeah I knew the gearbox was on its last legs however you never asked so I just neglected to tell you for an easy sell and more money in my pocket."
Obviously you won't say this but it's what you're doing, you honestly think that's OK?
No, no I don't think its OK. And I wouldn't be happy if it happened to me, but then again they're not going to know that I knew, and it isn't going to die at the end of the street, there would be far more obvious signs if it was that close to blowing up, at which point I would obviously have to sell it as a repairs car or at least tell the buyer. As it is it is just a whine which is a sign that a bearing is worn. When I come to sell it the only difference will be that the bearing is slightly more worn, and the whine will be a little louder.
Thinking back, it was there when I bought the car, just incredibly faint. I have done about 25,000 miles since then and it has only just got to the point where it is noticeable in the cabin if you have the fan off and listen for it. I just happen to know what it is now. It will only have maybe 10,000 miles more on it when I sell it.
Thinking back, it was there when I bought the car, just incredibly faint. I have done about 25,000 miles since then and it has only just got to the point where it is noticeable in the cabin if you have the fan off and listen for it. I just happen to know what it is now. It will only have maybe 10,000 miles more on it when I sell it.
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Great! So you know it's know OK but because it's not you getting shafted, sod 'em because only you matter. You know that this car won't die that early do you? For a fact?
Maybe you should consider that someone buying a car for a couple of hundred (Not that the value of the car makes it any more acceptable) may not necessarily be able to afford a new gearbox and labour to get it sorted if it does go bang.
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Good point mate... I've adjusted my previous post a little since your reply by the way.
I suppose I'll at least see how much it will be to get it sorted, and in the grand scheme of things I suppose it isn't worth being one of "those people" for the sake of a few hundred quid to go towards a few thousand quid car...
Now if it was a car dealer and I was trading it in on the other hand.......
I suppose I'll at least see how much it will be to get it sorted, and in the grand scheme of things I suppose it isn't worth being one of "those people" for the sake of a few hundred quid to go towards a few thousand quid car...
Now if it was a car dealer and I was trading it in on the other hand.......
Every car worth worth a couple of hundred quid is a potential ticming time bomb - seriously it's in your own interest to know a little bit about what you're buying
It could easily last years
So it's less acceptable if I sell a Jaguar for £20k knowing it has a fault? Do enlighten me on how it's more of a disaster for someone with £20k to spend on a car with a stuffed gearbox than someone with only £500 to spend on a car.
If that car was advertised at £3k less than other identical ones then the buyer would have more of a reason for suspicion that something is up but to price a car normally knowing it has a big repair bill potentially on the horizon is entirely deceitful.
It's scumbag behaviour at either end of the spectrum.
And you've made me realise that now so lets move on shall we.
My car is such a piece of ****. I am seriously questioning the intelligence of buying a second hand Polo/Golf as my next car because of the experiences I have had with this one...
It is so depressing sometimes...
My car is such a piece of ****. I am seriously questioning the intelligence of buying a second hand Polo/Golf as my next car because of the experiences I have had with this one...
It is so depressing sometimes...
And you've made me realise that now so lets move on shall we.
My car is such a piece of ****. I am seriously questioning the intelligence of buying a second hand Polo/Golf as my next car because of the experiences I have had with this one...
It is so depressing sometimes...
Aren't most of the issues you've had due to the crash/general age related wear and tear?
I wouldn't not get one again, I've had loads of issues with my Fiesta ST which have had to be put right but I wouldn't let it put me off buying another because for every bad car there are thousands of great ones
Let's be sensible here
Every car worth less than £1k, by very virtue of the fact that it is inevitably either really quite old, really quite crap in general or any combination of the two could have a multitude of things wrong with it.
A £20k Ferrari falls into the same bracket - it is entirely possible it has a catastrophic fault. I could buy a £20k Ferrari, I would be no more able to realistically fix it properly than someone buying a car for a few hundred quid.
If buying privately, expect and inspect for the worst, it really is that simple.
Acme has absolutely no idea what's wrong with his car other than it makes a noise. If I drove it I might think "hmm what's going on here", it wouldn't necessarily stop me buying it for £400, if would definitely stop me buying it for £20k
If a few hundred is a matter of months worth of savings for someone I'd expect then to be very careful when spending that on a car, if not there is only one person to blame
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Yes but you could also buy a car for less than £1k and it be fine, I had a £600 Clio for 2yrs and all that went wrong was the handbrake cable snapped.
I'm talking about the moral issues of selling a car with known potential for a catastrophic failure and not disclosing it to the seller for nothing other than wanting to make more money than you should be doing on that sale.
If that Ferrari was priced accordingly for the fault then it wouldn't be quite the same but to price it as if the car is fine and intentionally not disclose the fault just because the buyer doesn't ask is another story.
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Apart from where a professional mechanic checked the car out and confirmed it's a bad bearing which will eventually result in something breaking