I know from reading the posts on here that most of the people that use these forums are seasoned petrolheads but I thought I would post this to save anyone else the AGONY I have experienced as a result of buying a car from an auction house. A few weeks ago I picked up an Audi A4 1996 1.8 with 152,000 and a full service history for £980 (I am from the UK) including the commission. I was willing to spend out a little more on top of the sale price to get the car up to standard as I thought I had got a bargain..but OH NO..

I took the car to the Audi dealer to get it checked over...they told me that:

The front brake hoses were very near to splitting and the brakes were in an unsafe condition as a result
The front suspension arms (all 4) were bent and the whole lot would need replacing
The car would need three new tyres

total bill for this work? £1520.00!!

Seeing as I had paid so little for the car I told them to go ahead as I figured that I would have a decent roadworthy car for around £2500. It took the Audi technicians TWO days to replace the suspension instead of the one day they had quoted originally. Thankfully they only charged me for one day's labour as the price had been signed off before they started the work.

So I picked up the car and feeling very pleased with the way it handled and held the road with the fat new Conti Sport Contacts they had put on I drove down to Bristol to see my girl for the weekend (a 600 mile round trip) During the trip to Bristol the fuel gauge kept going down to empty and the fuel light came on. I thought a fuel line had split so I pulled in to the services and tried to fill the tank but it was full. I ignored the problem on the way home as the car drove fine, so when I got back I posted on here and got some great advice on what the problem could be (a corroded fuel sender) and someone even gave me a link to a step by step guide on doing this myself.

Feeling happy with the car and knowing the fuel gauge thing was quite minor I decided to take the car into the local indy garage to have an oil and filter change and the aux drive belts replaced as they were looking worn which they did for the price of £140.00. They advised me that the windscreen was in need of repair so I took it to Autoglass and they charged me £54 for repairing two chips and advised the windscreen would need replacing in the near future at the cost of £320. I then replaced the windscreen wipers at the cost of £30, bought an Autoglym valet kit for £25 and gave her a good waxing.

But this is not all dear reader..the worst is yet to come

I drove the car on a short 30 mile trip for work and the oil pressure light came on so I pulled in at a motor factors and checked the dipstick which showed empty. I bought some oil and topped it up. The bonnet seal was covered in oil and there was a load of oil on the inside of the bonnet too and dripping all over the crossbeam in the engine bay. This freaked me out so I decided I was going to drop the car back to the garage that did the oil and filter change and get them to look at it- I thought the oil leak was due to them not tightening the sump nut correctly. The coolant tank was totally empty too so I filled that up and set off. About five miles into the trip back the car started making a hideous noise like someone had tipped nails in to the engine so I drove back with my hazards on at 30mph to avoid straining the engine which was obviously suffering badly..

I took it back to the garage and left it with them overnight, the next day I got a call from the head mechanic saying that the oil and water pumps had failed and as a result of this the engine was a write off and would need replacing. Today I got a call from them saying that it is going to cost £2520 for them to install a recon engine. I have not decided whether to get it done yet. I either throw away all of the money I have spent so far (approx £3000) and scrap the car (which would be a shame because of the new suspension and tyres) and buy another car.. or I go ahead and have the work done..but if I do this who knows what will go wrong next? The gearbox? The engine management system?

THE MORAL OF THIS SAD, SAD, STORY IS:

1) NEVER EVER EVER BUY FROM AN AUCTION UNLESS YOU HAVE GOOD MECHANICAL KNOWLEDGE OR YOU HAVE A FRIEND WHO KNOW ABOUT MECHANICS THAT WILL GO WITH YOU
2) REMEMBER THAT IN THE UK YOU HAVE NO LEGAL COMEBACK WHATSOEVER AS YOU GIVE UP YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS WHEN BUYING A VEHICLE OF ANY TYPE FROM AN AUCTION AS YOU ARE CONSIDERED TO BE A 'DEALER' BY LAW
2) IGNORE SERVICE HISTORY- IT DOESN'T ACCOUNT FOR THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE CAR (mine had full sh)
3) TRY TO FIND AN INDY SPECIALIST TO WORK ON YOUR CAR - DEALERSHIPS ARE VERY EXPENSIVE


APOLOGIES if anyone thinks I am teaching grandma how to suck eggs with this post - like I said I have posted this for the benefit of any newbies. If it saves one person from making the mistakes I have then it will be well worth it.

 

hey it could be a lot worse. and probly will be. jk

 

You have a couple grand to add to the 980 pounds.
Hoses you can replace yourself - but they aren;t cheap. The control arms will cost ya the most.

Auction houses can be hit or miss. Friend of mine got his A4 at an auction and it was just fine.
However he paid significantly more than you.

 

i only posted half the story by mistake..the rest is up now..yeah you are right..it IS a lot worse!!

 

dayum... You got blue-balled.
That sucks, man. If I were you I'd give up on that car, part it out and make back most of what you spent.