Missled,angry,gutted........stranded

[Melly-Doo]

Hi All, well what a day i've had.

3 Weeks ago i stupidly sold my modded Hawkeye Sti and have missed it ever since so today i went to buy it's replacement

I had always said after buying and owning the hawkeye that i could never go for a classic. Around 4 or 5 years ago when on an SIDC run, i was in RS Grants reddish blue wagon and we were following Playsatans black type r and i just fell in love with it. Ever since then i have wanted a V5/6 Type R. So...................

I Seen a V6 cool grey Type R and had spoken to the lad after he had posted it up on S/net. It looked very nice in the pics and he answered my many many questions.

So i booked two train tickets for myself and RS Grant who came down with me all the way to Andover. 500 miles and 9 hours on loads of trains.

When we eventually got there i phoned him and he picked us up. I sat in the back to get a good listen to the diff which was very noisey. The rear calipers were sticking and clicking during and after use and the rear struts were knocking and crashing over bumps and potholes. He drove it very poorly too holding onto gears far too long and after giving it a bit of stick he turned it straight off on arrival to his home. Not a fan already.

When we got to his place and got out, i had a look at the interior which was very worn and the seats were covered in bobbles and generally very tatty. Got out and noticed he had washed half of the car from the roof down to maybe the door handles. Edges of the doors were chipped to death, there was over 10 dents in the paintwork and some had black marks still in them like they had been kicked. The rear quarter had been painted very very badly and looked like it had been done with a scouring pad. The bonnet was raised higher than the wings indicating a slow speed front ender as it has buckled up. The edges of the tyres were worn to death and the side skirts were gouged through to the plastic in some places.

As you can imagine i was shocked and rather annoyed. He told me it was in excellent condition and the only dent was a shopping trolley ding in the drivers side front wing which he said he had proffessionally repaired. When i pointed it out to him he said "yeah i told you about that one" obviously forgetting he said he fixed it. Every single panel had dents no smaller than a 5p peice and some the size of a 50p. When Grant noticed the paint on the rear quarter his reply was that he had never seen that and it must have been done in Japan. This says 2 things. 1 He is lying or 2 He cares nothing for the car as it was glaringly obvious and he has had it for 3 years so hasn't once polished it.

In the end i just told him i wasn't interested and we headed back to the train station. At this point i am now £300 out of pocket and Grant and i are stranded in a tiny town. We spent some time going over our options and decided the best thing to do was get a train to woking, bus to heathrow and then hire a car to get us home.

In total i am now £600 out of pocket, absolutely knackered and pretty disappointed.

On a lighter note i must say a massive thankyou to Grant for coming with me and making the whole thing barring the car disaster fell like a nice but weird day out with loads of great banter and rant so cheers mate.

Hopefully i can find something more worthy of my time and get back into the scoob fold. Just hope its not another 1000 mile round trip in one day.

Cheers

Melly

[wrxmania]

Sad Day Melly.

Total waste of time. Make sure you post this info on the thread on Scoobynet...

The right car is out there - will be worth the wait.

Brian

[notsosmall]

Thats crap mate, what a time waster

[StrikE]

I hate that, guy was obviously a complete K jockey & you will feel better in a few days after the shock wears off. It takes a big man to walk away

Been in the same boat myself.......... car is 'minted' or more like mingin' when you see it.

Feel for you m8 & bad news on the money spent.

Del

[mystery machine]

What a bummer.

But the important thing is that you didn't buy it!

I know how you feel though - buying an old motor can be a soul-destroying experience, trying to find a diamond in the rough, etc...

What about another Hawkeye?

[Wee Jock]

You should try here, at least thgey are fresh from Japan, probably without a blemish!

http://www.svaimports.com/cars.php?make=Subaru

If you speak to members on Kent Scoobies they can give you info on this company, generally good write ups.

Hope you get sorted out.

Regards

Paul

[marko72]

Hi

Do u have pics or link to this 'minted' machine.

Cheers.

[Jon B]

Sad Day Melly.

Make sure you post this info on the thread on Scoobynet...

name and shame him,

another importer to try www.gcar.co.jp/gbtrader/index.htm

[Phil MC]

Unfortunately, this seems to be a recurring theme over on scoobynet. You hear about things like this, along with folk being ripped off all too commonly .

The guy must have been sooo desperate to sell that he purposely never mentioned the long list of issues with the car. Any normal person, knowing that a viewer is travelling to see a car would go out of his/her way to point out the smallest of issues to save this kind of thing from happening..........or maybe that's just me?

Let's hope you find a mint example soon and put this episode behind you

[rig-pig]

not good melly, i would name and shame the user to save another person doing the same thing

hope you find good one soon

[Melly-Doo]

Thanks for the support guys. Feeling a bit better now after some sleep

Just went and had a read of his f/s thread and RBAZ who bought a mint bugeye WRX for a Scottish lad last year or the year before is now interested in that type r. Thing is RBAZ is from France. Think i better send him a pm and warn him so the same doesn't happen to him.

As for a link to the car:

http://bbs.scoobynet.com/private-sale-cars...sti-type-r.html

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1484939.htm

As for posting on Snet. Grant is going to do that today. He is a well known member on there and his views will be taken seriously where as mines will just be tumbleweed.

Mikeyb13, thanks for the message mate.

Cheers

Melly

[Ovv]

Any normal person, knowing that a viewer is travelling to see a car would go out of his/her way to point out the smallest of issues to save this kind of thing from happening..........or maybe that's just me?

Totally agree with you on this, when I lived up in Abz, I had a guy who came all the way up from Plymouth to buy my Civic VTI-s, I listed all the wee points no matter how small or petty I thought they were.

I just dont know how folk can have a clear conscience esp when folk are prepared to travel.

Gutted for you mate, at least didnt buy it, many people would have considering the distance / expense that they had travelled.

Chris.

[BalliSTIc]

You're "£600" out of pocket having NOT bought it... but how much more would you have had to pay to put it all right, coupled with the fact you'd probably never have been 100% happy about it.

At worst, it's been a jolly down South with a mate... it could have been a h*lluva lot worse!

I'm not even going to comment on the seller. Not worth the SIDC webspace...

[dipsy]

Not good Melly and forking out that money to get there .

[GazTurboUK]

had this experience before aswell, spotted an old mk3 supra turbo down birmingham spoke to the guy asked if any faults said slight surface rust but runs perfect, got down there the paintwork was mega dodgy and signs head gasket was on its road out .... told the guy where to go and came home out of pocket and without my new car

[r1ynb]

what a nightmare,im sure youl not make that mistake again without seeing loads of pics,im sure you find the right car for you

[RS Grant]

Can't believe the guys brass neck at letting us travel such a distance knowing that the car he had described was complete fiction. If that car is "very good condition" then I would seriously hate to see what his idea of an average car is.. more than likely be sitting 3 cars high at your local scrapyard.

Have put a large post of my thoughts in the guys For Sale Topic over on Scoobynet, which I won't copy and paste in here since I've quoted Phils reply to Melly and it would be a little 'lost' in this thread I think. My reply on the thread is here: http://bbs.scoobynet.com/private-sale-cars...sti-type-r.html

Had a good laugh through the day, real shame that we weren't driving home in a Scoob, but nothing handles being welded to the floorboards in 5th as well as a hire car... so the trip home was probably better that way!! Oxford to Perth, 386 miles, in 4hrs 40mins.

Cheers,

Grant

[mikeyb13]

When you get a good one the hassle will all seem worth it

[colin_ross]

Yes - I've had the same happen to me.

Drove down to Sommerset to buy an S2000. Looked good in the pics and despite direct questions about the condition I was assured all was well.

When I got there I had to double check there wasn't another s2000 forsale as it was well rough. Did some checks on the engine and the oil wasn't even on the dipstick. Said he didn't have money to buy oil but obviously had enough to buy a new engine if it siezed.

As me and my old man had driven all day through a snowstorm to get there I asked him how much he wanted - full askig price. When I said I brought the full asking price with me but for the car that was advertised not the one that was sat there he even admitted that the advert was misleading.

To cap it all off he said if I did buy iy I'd have to come back for it as he needed it to go to work the next day.

I told him he was a c0ck and left.

Cost me and my dad a day and over £100 in diesel and service stations grub.

[rig-pig]

nice write up grant good on ya m8

[bobbyc]

Thats crap mate but how many times have we heard of cars not being as described some people just don't have a clue. After traveling that distance I'd be well hacked off. There will be one out there for you will keep my eyes peeled.

[BalliSTIc]

Oxford to Perth, 386 miles, in 4hrs 40mins.

82mph on average? Yes officer! *lol*

JUST in case you wanted to reconsider posting this for prying eyes... I suspect not! *chortle*

[Melly-Doo]

These are fictional statements. No laws were harmed in the making of our adventure story

Cheers

Melly

[RS Grant]

Complete make-believe...

Cheers,

Grant

[notsosmall]

These are fictional statements. No laws were harmed in the making of our adventure story

Cheers

Melly

Complete make-believe...

Cheers,

Grant

Is that *sniff* *sniff* B B B Bull$h1t is smell