Caution buying used vehicles.

[Out of Character - 0]

I had a wonderful experience last night and thought I'd share, maybe it'll save you a few bucks. The lesson is never buy a used vehicle without having a inspection.
We purchased 2 used trucks cash last night, a 99 isuzu npr diesel and a dodge 2500 van. The npr ran strong, sounded good, and drove nicely. The engine blew like a bomb 2hrs after buying it from a independent seller. According to my guy driving it there was no indication of a problem, then BOOM. You could put a 32oz gatorade in the hole on the side of the motor. Unfortunately for us this happened 350 miles from home, pretty big loss. Oh well

 

[Dan]

OUCH...

Add towing and 5 grand for a motor plus install. Sorry to hear that. Hope all works out for you.

 

[Jimbo]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Isuzu-Tr ... enameZWDVW

 

[Fred Homan]

And the guy probably said....Sorry...AS IS

 

[steve g]

those isuzu diesels I hear are pretty expensive to rebuild, the last place I worked claimed to have spent 12k rebuilding one,

it sounds like a rod must have went right through the side of the block, catastrophic failure and will make your block unrebuildable and you will not be able to get a core charge back either. to the car dealers credit something like this likely could not have been known when they sold it. bought a '99 crapstar mini van with 36k on it used, by the time it hit 45k we had spent 3k on a trannie and nearly another 1k on a new rack in pinion, this along with problems too numerous to list will keep me from likely ever buying another ford

 

[John Buxton]

ouch! time to part out the isuzu.

 

[truckmount girl]

Bummer, we had a similar experience with a 92 BMW bought from a private party. It's sitting in the driveway for the last several months with a blown tranny.

:-(

I feel your pain.

Take care,
Lisa

 

[Greg Loe]

that's just bad. Sorry to here that. A persons biggest fear of buying a used car.

I wonder if it would have even been found if you took it to a mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection.

Just bought my daughter a truck and had it inspected and they pulled all the plugs and checked compression.

If you had a bad rod bearing, I don't think that would have been found if it wasn't making and noise.

 

[TimP]

The tranny was going out in my last car I had so I traded it. It wasn't my fault it was going out, it was under recall and took it in once but it still wasn't right so I traded it. The new car has almost 89,000 on it now an runs perfect. I bought the same brand vehicle just didn't go with an auto and bought a manual.

But I can see easily how people ditch something when it isn't working right, I almost always buy new as to not buy someones headache. I know it's smarter financially to buy used but piece of mind is worth the depreciation to me.

 

[Bob Foster]

 

[Dolly Llama]

If you had a bad rod bearing, I don't think that would have been found if it wasn't making and noise.

'specially on diesel.
The stinky, noisy things are rattle knockers when brand new


.L.T.A.

 

[Fon Johnson]

The sad truth is that is just how it is dealing with used vehicles. I sold a car to my uncle once, and shortly thereafter it threw a rod. I was on my way home one day in the Lincoln and BAM, it threw a rod right through the oil pan. Before that rod let loose it never knocked or rattled or anything.. My parents bought a nice low mileage car that was just barely broken in, and by 50,000 miles it had been rebuilt twice. I've been really lucky lately, but that is just how it is if you buy/sell/own any vehicles.

I am sorry to hear about your luck though. That won't be an inexpensive engine to rebuild/replace. Check and see if you can find a used low mileage engine out of a wreck, and check with rebuilders such as Japser. I can't remember off the top of my head of Jasper rebuilds those, but there are companies that do..

 

[John Watson]

You never know on used items. Last year bought a 33 ft motor home sight unseen, 4 hrs into bringing it home spun the bearings, cost to much to transport home, put in crate engine, Gave it away next morning to be free and clear of it. (Just put $150 in the gas tank)

Last Feb I bought a Cadillac on eBay sight unseen. Drove it to mikeys, put over 10,000 mile this past year, only repairs thus far are $45 exhaust repair and 2 new tires before our 1st trip. 29 miles per gallon on the road 22 around town.

You win some and you learn on others!!!!