Just bought a used car...

[J_A_B]

"Hyundai Sonata, 2001 with 69000 miles on it. Paid 8100 for it including a 3 year warranty on the drive train. Figured that would be the best way to ensure nothing happened to it "


My gosh that's a lot of money for an old Hyundai!  Powertrain warranties are a waste of money 95% of the time--they don't cover the things that normally break.  Get OUT of that purchase if you can!



For that same amount of money, you could buy a mid/late 90's upscale car with much lower mileage on the odometer.  My Roadmaster cost just over $6K and had 42K miles.  For $8000 you could be driving a Cadillac; just a quick internet search reveals multiple late 90's DeVilles listed at that price with 60K miles or less.


Point being--$8K is too much for an old Hyundai, whether you want a Cadillac or not.  Yes, I know the blue book sites say that's what they're worth, but that's more because of the year than the mileage.  If you're looking for a used car, go back a few more years--you'll get a lot more bang for your dollar.  

If you can, find a car that old people owned.  They often have remarkably low mileage, and old people drive like 30 MPH so they're usually in good shape.  Be willing to drive a bit to pick up a car and you'll have plenty of options to choose from.  I had to drive about 225 miles to pick up the Buick, but it was definately worth it.

J_A_B

[gw327th]

First thing I do when I buy a car is buy the book on it,you will need it somewhere down the line.

[JTs]

the purple powerband should fix the door locks but i'm betting he might need an aquamarine to fix the windsheild washers

[Urchin]

Haha, I'm halfway retarded.  Well, some might say all the way, but I dn't like them anyway.

So I take it to the dealer today, and the salesman sees me right away.  I tell him about the locks and the washer fluid thing.  He says he'll talk to someone for me, then he goes off and tries to sell cars to two more people while I wait.  I was getting a little bit pissed.  So in that time two more salespeople come by and say that the problem will be taken care of, the dealership is good about that.  

So after about an hour, the salesguy finally comes back.  I tell him whats going on again, he wants to go look at it himself.  So he pushes the same knob in that I've been pushing in and no washer fluid comes out.  He says, "Yea, its probably just the motor, what you'll have to do is..." At that point I interupted and said "What I have to do?"  He says "Yea, it isn't covered under the warranty"... then a tech guy walks by.  So he yells for the tech guy to come over, and the tech guy does the same thing, then looks for the motor.  The motor is under some panel that has to be removed.

Then he tries the locks,and they don't work.  At that point, the tech says "Yea, definately something wrong", and tells the sales guy to go talk with the service manager.  After the sales guy leaves, the tech guy says to me "Yea, they'll take care of it for you, don't worry about it."  

So then the sales guy comes back and says "You buy the extended warranty?  The service people need to see it to find out if you are covered or not."  I hand him the warranty I bought (which was just for the drivetrain... and we both knew it, and he leaves again.

The tech guy wanders off.  Eventually the sales guy comes back and tells me the service people decided I'm SOL.  He tells me he' on my side, yadda yadda, etc. I tell him not to try to feed me a line of bull****, and ask to speak to his boss.  He says his boss isn't there.  I ask to speak to that guy's boss.  He says that THAT guy isn't there.  I ask him to write their names down for me, and he does.  

Then I go over to the new car building (its like a complex), and ask the salesguy who asks if he can help me where his boss is.  The guy is like "Is everything ok?"  I said "No, but thanks for asking"... and then he went and got his boss.  

Well, I tell his boss the story... his boss calls the used car boss and gets permission to fix the damn car.

The service manager comes and checks out the car first.  He sprays wiper fluid all over the place while I watch, dumbfounded.  You have to pull the little lever towards you, not push the little button in.  I really felt dumb.  

Anyway, something really was wrong with the locks.. they take it back for an hour or so, then a guy gives me the keys back and says its fixed.  I go check it out, it still doesn't work right.  So I go give my keys back to em, and they notice that they didn't "fix" what was wrong lol.  For some reason they thought the key wasnt working when I was fairly explicit in saying the power lock switch wasn't working.  

So they check that out for an hour, figure out that the switch went bad, and have to order a new one.  Hopefully it'll be fixed tomorrow.

[Furball]

Originally posted by Urchin
The service manager comes and checks out the car first.  He sprays wiper fluid all over the place while I watch, dumbfounded.  You have to pull the little lever towards you, not push the little button in.  I really felt dumb.