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Further to Cincinnati Rick's thread about snatching victory from the (seeming) jaws of defeat with his ill-advised sight-unseen purchase of a '70 4-4-2, I'd like to ask you guys:
What's the worst automotive purchase you ever made? What was wrong with it? Were you ripped off or misled, or did you go in with your eyes open? Any kind of car, although Oldsmobiles and muscle car misadventures would probably be most entertaining.
Come on, let's see how many of us can have a laugh at our own expense. Plus, maybe the rest of us can learn a thing or two. If I get a few good responses, I'll weigh in with the story of the love/hate relationship I had with a '64 Chebby.
Last edited by BangScreech4-4-2; January 25th, 2016 at 09:27 PM.
My worst was 66 Lincoln continental convertible. Triple black, suicide doors, loved it, until I started getting into it and realized it was a basket case. Unibody and crap load of rust, top down sunny California day, we were pulling out of the driveway trying to look cool and car just buckled in the middle.
Last edited by 70cutty; January 25th, 2016 at 09:44 PM.
Back in the day i bought 71 ltd nice car inside okay paint. The problem was i was driving down the street and the red light came on. The oil pressure sender was unplugged and plugged it in. Light wouldn't go off. Bought a pressure gauge and 3 pounds. Snow on the ground i change the oil pump. That wasn't the problem. Took it to a shop they said cam bearings. So i just traded it in on a 78 Volare. I had good credit no cash.
Last edited by wr1970; January 27th, 2016 at 03:19 AM.
Not me but a good friend bought a completely rust free 61 Catalina convert off the internet, or so the ad said. Absolutely beautiful pictures in the ad. Got here and unloaded from the truck and it had at least a gallon of Bondo in each quarter. The guy was so embarrassed he turned around and sold it to someone in West Dallas of the mexican ethnicity.
I bought a 74 Omega from a woman in the Okanagan. It was a lo-mi two owner clean car in her description. Pics showed a nice clean car.
Drove all the way to Penticton from Calgary to pic it up. Car was total turd but I was already there. Paid $1000 for it & dragged it home. Sold it a week later for what I paid for it. No money lost on the car but lost money on the diesel & hotels.
I bought a car from a western state from someone I thought I knew somewhat, his dad was from the town I lived in at the time but never met him. Had it shipped, upon arrival I was not happy, took forever to get the title, when I went to check the VIN in preparation to get it titled in my name in my state, NO VIN. Let that sink in, no VIN plate. So I called the POS seller he says "It's your problem." Needless to say I lost a lot of money on that deal, had to jump through so many hoops to be able to title/sell it, a nightmare.
I've bought a few cars off the net sight unseen, just did it again in November. Maybe one was near what I expected, the rest fell short of my expectations. How does the saying go "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and each time expecting a different outcome that never happens"?
I've also driven many many miles to look and came home without the car and with less money.
Insanity for sure, "Car Crazy"
Not sure I can answer that on the classic car side. I can't remember a single one I regretted. The closest thing would be a Rallye 350 parts car. I did not want to buy it and was paying a premium for it. The only reason I went through with it was because with buying the car I was able to buy many other things from him after that. In the end it was worth it because it opened the door for a relationship with the guy but that car was a pain to unload and get my money back for it.
With the question being "worst automotive purchase" I would have to say every daily driver I ever owned are equally bad other than a 92 Cutlass Ciera.
As we all start out buying our first couple of cars we go through a learning process. Its usually things we never thought of due lack of experience. My first car I bought on my own in 1977 with no help for $400 was a 64 Chev Belair, had a great body and interior. Never looked underneath until I purchased lunch from a Burger King a week later and placed the huge coke on the floor to drive back to work on a lunch break. Had to make an emergency maneuver and the Coke fell over making a huge puddle. Glanced down a minute later and the puddle disappeared. When I got back to work looked under the car and there was rot everywhere. It was a miracle that the body didn't go air born or twist around while driving in a stiff headwind. The car met an untimely death with a concrete divider on Rt 1 in NJ after being cut off by an old man entering the highway while I was chasing a blond girl with the words painted on the back of her car, "If you can beat me you can ...."
Second time was a 68 Coronet RT I bought for $200 in 1978. It had been rode hard and put up wet plus had had a carb fire that burnt the paint on the hood, the carb, and most of the wiring and rubber parts under the hood. Repaired the wiring, replaced all the rubber parts and carbs, fired it up and it made more smoke than the neighborhood mosquito truck. Upon further troubleshooting it needed a valve job and the entire inside of the 440/6 pack engine was sludged up. Spent another week cleaning the engine inside, replaced cam and lifters, and rebuilt heads. This one met its demise in a parking lot when a Mercury Marauder flying blindly crashed plowed into the side of it.
I guess with every car I bought in my younger years I learned something new and gained the skills to overcome my car purchasing shortfalls.
My '77 Grand Prix SJ, a car I loved, but simply spent way too much money on it. Bought it at night for $3200 in March 1981 and discovered in the daylight the next day that it was 3 different shades of silver, due to the car getting knocked around a bit. Drove it across country and, half way between Washington State and Virginia, the dash lights went out. Looked under the dash and it appeared as if someone had gone after the wiring harness with an axe. Had no idea of how fast I was going at night, other than just keeping up with traffic. Got to Virginia just in time as the driver front tire blew up on me - all the tires weren't in that great a shape so it was new tires. Couldn't figure out why the dash lights would pop in and out at night, so I took a week's leave as I found an unmolested, yet wrecked, '77 GP in the junk yard and it took me 3 days to extract the under-dash wire harness. It took me another 3 days to pull the under-dash harness out of my car and install the unmolested harness. While pulling my harness, I removed the front buckets and the console to make it easier for me to work under the dash. When I pulled up the console, there must have been at least a couple dozen burnt down "roach" cigarettes in there, all dried up, thank goodness, as that would not have looked to good in my line of work at the time (USCG)! Deep breath as I started the car for the first time, just hoping there wouldn't be smoke and fire under the dash...there wasn't! Everything worked, except for the cruise control. Figured that out a year later when a friend told me that perhaps I had the release switch (that the brake pedal mechanism hits) mounted incorrectly. Reset that switch and everything worked! I was so happy I decided to get the car painted...it got MAACO's $299 presidential special and I changed color to white. Also found a complete set of snowflake wheels in the junkyard and my '77 GP SJ was absolutely beautiful for about a year. Then the paint started to flake off, down low at first, but it gradually crept higher on the car. Finally sold my beloved GP SJ, after 8 years of blood and sweat and lots of hours in junkyards, for $1000. I really liked the car and the style...just took a lot to keep it going the way it should!
Hmmm ... seems like a lot of problems stem from us buying cars when we haven't actually seen them. Or travelling a long distance to look at a car, being disappointed and buying it anyway because, well, you travelled a long way.
71 Charger...on ebay..looked like an incredible car....what a dose...wasnt a lot of money, but was hassle to get it...and was nothing like explained..if it would have been next door i would have left it in its spot..
but, i was younger..less experienced on ebay and was afraid id get a negative if i left it..so loaded it up and drug it to sl louis and regretted it..such a pice of mudded up crap..and i'll never do again..i said that in 1990 and its held true since...never did it again...if i cant see it i aint buying it...too much to loose in my time and fuel..but mostly time..
should start a thread on the cars you drove to get long distance and ended up leaving them..man..ive dont that so many times, just the fuel and hotel money spent would buy a restored 442...no doubt..but its the adventure...right?
I donated my 74 Cutlass Supreme to charity for the value of a good condition book value. (tax write off). I bought a 93 Pontiac Bonneville because it has a "Supercharger". A lot of friends and neighbors always ask me for help to look up the history of the car trhey are looking at and i'll tell them whats wrong and the defects. But not for me, I bought the Pontiac and have it for a terrible 6 months. When i did the history about this car, it has a length of an encyclopedia and the worst car i ever own. I donated this car to the same charity as the 74 Olds. I even called the charity to buy back the 74 but no luck. So i bought a 77 Cutlass Supreme.
Three bad buys and all my fault and all rust related. You'd think I'd learn.
1) 67 Impala - frame was so rotted it would crab down the road at any speed over 40mph. When the rear shocks pulled out of the cross member I junked it.
2) 68 Impala - Sagged in the rear so bad that the driveshaft hit the floor boards over bumps so installed coil springs spacers in it. Put myself and three of my biggest friends in it and and went to the biggest dip in the road in town and drove over it at 50mph. Beautiful! Took it like a champ. 1/4 mile down the road stopped at a stop sign and the frame cracked in half. Garbage
3) 65 Riviera - Held together with rust and Bondo. Brake line to rear brakes blew (single bowl master cylinder). Only thing that saved me from going over a 15ft embankment and into a four lane highway was the emergency brake. Previous owner also had a propensity for extra sets of keys hidden within the engine compartment, passenger compartment and trunk. Set of keys behind the voltage regulator (WTF) grounded out and burned the wiring harness in the engine compartment. Gave it away to some kids to work on.
I bought a 74 Omega from a woman in the Okanagan. It was a lo-mi two owner clean car in her description. Pics showed a nice clean car.
Drove all the way to Penticton from Calgary to pic it up. Car was total turd but I was already there. Paid $1000 for it & dragged it home. Sold it a week later for what I paid for it. No money lost on the car but lost money on the diesel & hotels.
Never trust an old lady I say.
I remember that car... Kid who bought it had it for sale again last year. Same condition.
Bought a 79 cougar XR7 from a local dealer bout 20 years ago. looked great, but wouldn't allow for a test drive before purchase. Said too many other people interested and I better buy it now before its gone. yea right. First time on the highway it RAN OUT OF OIL within 10 miles. And any time after too. It would work great, until you got over 50mph, then it would burn/blow oil out the tailpipe. Sold it to a local fella who wanted the body, no engine. I learned.
I was 16 and bought an 1969 Opel GT (anybody remember those). I was going to fix it up and use it for a first car. Never got it on the road (legally). I was over my head and couldn't find parts(pre internet). Learned to do research on the cars i plan to work on. I still want one and think they were great looking cars. Looked like a 3/4 size Corvette.
Used to be a bunch of them around here, always liked the look of them. I still see the occasional one cruising around and I'm trying to remember where I saw one sitting deteriorating recently.
Bought a mint looking one owner private sale '82 30K mi Chevy Cavalier Type10 hatchback in ~ '85 as a 2nd car to my OK, but worn '73 Chevelle to share with my GF. IIRC, I paid ~ $4500 for it. Looked like this, but white with gray interior & larger blackwall tires.
It had the awful (1 year only) 1.8L 4 cyl w/AT. As I found out later, an engine so bad that GM pulled it in from production and replaced it with the 2.0L toward the end of the '82 run. Buzzy shaky little thing. Didn't seem that bad when I got it, but got worse fast.
So, it was under powered (yay - MPG!), but looked good (for the time) with it's 'sport nose', handled OK, and had a nice interior (again, for the time).
After a couple of months it developed a very sporadic starting/stalling/rough running problem. After checking obvious things and getting nowhere (& I only had my apt parking lot & a few tools to work on it) I reluctantly took it to a dealer for help. They'd fiddle with it for a day, charge me for something like plugs or a dist rotor/cap and it'd seem better for bit. As time went on it got worse and dealer time got longer. About a year in the GF had her own car and I was (trying to) using it as my DD. At one point it was at the dealer for a week. I went to check on it, went to the bays, and they had the front wheels and the entire doghouse off.
It was hooked up to more machines than a heart transplant patient. Seems the issue was something to do with the goofy slightly computer controlled (variable venturi?) carb, IIRC. After every visit they'd tell me 'we finally found & fixed the problem!' Yay!
By now it had ~ 40K mis on it and also had sporadic electrical probs. Things like the dash lights would go out or radio would quit for a few moments, or a turn signal wouldn't blink randomly. It also started making a short loud ratcheting noise in the drivetrain when accelerating hard off the line. I'd have to feather-foot it off the line to keep the noise at bay.
Then the sunroof & later the windshield started leaking.
Then the front brakes ate themselves requiring new everything & done by me in the winter parking lot.
Then my reclining seat broke while I was driving. I turned to check for a lane change and it just flopped back. The little ratchet assy broke off. I fixed it by bolting a piece of scrap in place.
Then the oil pressure sender blew. Really blew. Apart. Sprayed oil everywhere in the engine bay/undercarriage.
By now the 'ratcheting noise' had been diagnosed as the main engine-trans chain drive...requiring more $$$ than the car was worth. I was really having to ***** foot it to get it anywhere. Finally it gave up and I could only move it by revving it and the drive would occasionally (& violently) catch for a second.
So, even though I'd only had it like 1.5 years....and the body & interior were still nice & it only had 50K mis on it, I ended up selling as-is for like $700.
So I had a '72 Delta 88 that I purchased in '78, since I had it in Vermont, the floor boards rusted out. I found a wrecked '72 on Ebay for $400 from a guy in NJ. I knew from the pics that the front end was wrecked and probably had a bent frame where the radiator bolts on, but was planning on pulling my good front end to mash the two together. The seller convinced me that the car wasn't in that bad of shape and my plan should work. He posted pics on Ebay that didn't show the extent of the damage.
As soon as I saw the car in person, I knew it was over as the frame was bent in several places with the body popped off the frame under the front seat. Seeing how flat the front end looked, the guy that wrecked it must have run into a building, the steering wheel was even bent.
The odometer read just over 13,000 miles and with the condition of the car, that appeared correct. I ended up pulling the motor and other parts, then had to take both cars to the junk yard.
One year later I found a great replacement. (last pic)
Last edited by 72hardtop; January 28th, 2016 at 10:32 PM.
The first car I bought that I actually spent some decent money on, was also the first car I ever bought without having an extra set of eyes with me when checking it out. It was an 86 Grand Prix, super mint. This was in 1991. I paid $6,000.
Everything looked good as far as I could tell. I could tell that it needed rear tires. We negotiated that. I get the car home and cannot find the "key" for the locking hubcaps. Call the guy back and he ignores me. That should have been my first clue.
Got another key from a dealer. Within the first few months of ownership, I replaced the tailshaft seal in the trans. The new one started leaking too. Ended up needing a different driveshaft. Then the radiator sprung a leak when a rock bounced up from the road, missed the grill but came up from underneath. Fixed a funky power window motor too. Also replaced the exhaust system after finding a kink in the extension pipe that then swelled from the inside and was choking the motor.
I was on a trip through the Pennsylvania mountains when one of the brand new rear tires exploded and the shell of the tire went over the side of the mountain. I went back to the place I got the tires from for a warranty replacement and they wouldn't honor it because I didn't have the tread portion to take a tread depth reading off of. He didn't care that I had the identical twin on the other side.
I finally had pretty much everything that was wrong, fixed working well when a buddy's dad backed into it and caved in the passenger door.
I had a shop put a new door-skin on it and when picking it up, the shop owner told me that he saw evidence that this car had been in a pretty bad accident at one point. I think his exact words were that it had been "booted in the ***."
All my enthusiasm had worn off at this point. I put the car up for sale. I was firm at the $6K I paid for it since I spent money getting it better. Best offer I got was $5700. I decided to keep it.
As luck would have it... During the first big snowstorm that following winter, I got T-Boned in the driver's door by a carload of drunk teens. It totally wiped out the car, ripping the rear end out of the frame, buckled the roof, blew all the windows out, folded the back seat in half, bent the steering column and put me in the hospital.
Upon recovery, I'm sure their insurance co. didn't want me creating too big of a case. So besides covering my medical bills, they also cut me a check for $7,000 to cover the GP. With that money I went and bought my 88 T-Bird, which I really wanted in the first place, and I still have.
January 25th, 2016, 09:24 PM
Kid who bought it had it for sale again last year. Same condition.
