Ok guys, here is the story. I recently (6 weeks ago) bought a second hand car(02 Subaru Outback) from a dealer. I had no need to drive it out of the city until recently, it drove fine and I really loved it...mechanic said it was fine as well when I got it serviced. Anyway I take it on its first big trip(about 2 hour drive) and once it hit some hills on the highway I noticed the temperature gauge going up, it never got dangerously high but kept doing the same on any climb. I get to my destination and noticed it had lost about 2.5 liters of coolant. Anyway push ahead to it going to the mechanic who discovers it had a cracked head and damaged head gasket, he recommends replacing the engine(quoted at $4500). I just took the warranty that came with it and did not upgrade as my mechanic plus a complete check performed by another well respected company here came up with nothing wrong, of course the warranty does not cover my problem. After arguing with them about the fact they must of known about the problem they claimed they did not and said they were as much the victim as the previous owner did it to them. Phone calls to Subaru about the fact I shouldn't have this problem with a 7 year old car with only 55,000 miles on it came up with nothing either. Basically I am screwed. I must add also that a friend recently bought a car from the same dealer and they try to sell a higher warranty to them the whole time which does cover my problem, they did not mention it once to me. So we come to why I would some opinions. The car continues to run fine around the city and you cannot tell anything is wrong with it until it hits the highway and runs for 45 minutes or so and hits the hills. Anyway, while looking at cars to help me to decide whether I should just outright buy another and get what I can for the Subaru I discovered an 04 Outback at the same dealer but a different location, I went there and loved the car and had mine with me... they said they would take $5000 plus a trade in of mine, so I would be paying nearly the same as what I would be to fix mine to just get a newer car with less miles. I thought it was great and said I would think about it and get back to him, I told my parents who both said it would be disgusting for me to give them a dodgey car to sell to some other poor unsuspecting poor person. My view is why should I be the nice guy in this whole situation and be the one who has to cough up a large amount of money to be ripped off, I would not privately sell the car to someone like it is but selling it back to the same company then surely it serves them right? What do you guys think?
55,000 MILES haha. Sorry dude, other than that I've got very little for ya. But I would sell it back for sure!
the problem may come up in their system when yall are doing the paper work so you may not get away with it. have you heard of the lemon law? dealers arent allowed to sell lemons. im not sure your car would apply but its worth a shot. id be honest and try to reason with them to give you more for the trade in. if they wont do it, threaten to take it to the internet and other media outlets... good luck man, dealing with customer service can be a pain in the butt!
It sucks for me because I am in Australia and no lemon law here, in fact we have some of the worst car buyer protection in the developed world and while researching my problem for help did read they are being proposed to be implemented soon, no help to me at the moment though! The fact that I had two different people check the car before I purchased it and did not find the problem means that could probably argue they had no idea either. While they may find it when doing the paperwork, I did ask for a written deal and they are holding it for 48 hours for me, the number plates have been changed since I purchased it(something I do on all cars I have ever had) so maybe it would sneak through, also changed address. It is more the moral problem for me about the poor person who buys it off them.
As long as the engine block is good, you should be able to just replace the head and gasket for 1 to 1.5k. Provided the rest of the car is ok & you like it, you would then have a car you like for 1500. To me, that is your best course of action. That doesn't address the sh!tty situation you were placed in, but it does address the moral problem of pawning it off onto some other unsuspecting sole & you you don't run the risk of the same thing happening with another used car.
It would not be a moral problem for me as long as I did not lie. It is the new dealerships responsibility to check the car out before making you an offer. If they didn't find the problem, that is on them. If they asked me if something was wrong with the car, I would not lie about it.
Do it. I traded in my POS 98 corolla because it was making some weird engine noises whenever you really gunned it (I know, hardly possible). I wanted to get rid of that crapolla before it died on me, because then I'd really be screwed. Of course the dealership didn't give me **** for it, but it at least paid for the TTL on the new car.
I just remembered an incident many years ago when I was trading in an old Datsun. The salesman asked me about the car and I proceeded to start with a litany of the problems. The salesman actually stopped me and said he didn't want to hear the "bad" things, only the "good" things. It actually had some good points so he wrote them down. They made me an offer on the trade in and I accepted. Later the salesman asked me why I didn't tell him that the passenger door had trouble closing, to which I replied (in front of the sales manager), "I tried and you told me not to tell you the bad things.". Not much he could say to that.
