Worst car owner EVER!

azflyboy · 05-14-2005, 06:16 PM

I thought some of you might find this funny or at least interesting.
This all started last summer when i went and looked at a 2001 ZX3 with only about 15k miles on the odometer. The owner was a nice Arab guy who got the car in a divorce and didn't want it, so he was only asking $8000 for it. I test drove it and noticed that the cruise control was dead as were some lights. I had the car looked at by a mechanic and also ran a CarFax on it. The mechanic said that the car just needed some new fuses and a bulb adn tha carfax came back clean.
Since the car was still under warranty, I bought it and when I got to DMV, to change the registration, i got my first nasty surpirse. All went well until they ran the title through the computer system. When they did so, the tile came up as a class C title, which is for cars that are either complete rebuilds (restorations or wrecked) or are salvaged. It turns out that the issue was that the DMV had no record of the original title and therefore could not verify that the odometer wasn't rolled back. I called up the seller who told me who the company was who had had the original paperwork that DMV needed. With that info i asked the DMV if they could check with the office in Phoenix if the title was there. It turns out that the title agency had never bothered to give the title to DMV and had vanished off the face of the earth. I had the car looked at again (at the sellers expense) and the mechanic said there was no evidence of domoeter fraud and the car had no evidence of an accident or slavage. Since I wasn't gonig to resell teh car anyways (it'll be driven ino the ground) and all the C title does is drop resale value, I really didn't think it as a huge deal.

Shortly after buying the car I took it into the dealer (to get the fuses replaced and the lights fixed) and they found that the seller had put fuses in the car that were rated way too high, and this necesitated a replacement of the fusebox. While fixing this the dealer found that the battery was not even intended for the car and had been jammed into the holder, which also had to be fixed.

All went well after that repair until I noticed that the ride seemd a little harsh and decided to check the tire pressure. To my amazement, the tires were all between 90-100PSI! I quickly deflated the tires to a sane value and had the tires inspected (they were remarkably fine).

About 3 months after getting the car, I had a tail light burn out as well as a foglamp. This time the dealer found wiring that had beenburned out by teh older fuses and fixed it.

Thankfully I have had no more issues with the car, but from time to time I still find some litttle deatil the old owner managed to mess up, such as; wipers on the wrong side, a gascap that didn't fit, antifreeze in the wiper fluid tank, and my personal favorite, a bottle of lighter fluid under the spare tire that had been leaking.

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CKA · 05-14-2005, 08:23 PM

Well.........congrats and I am verr surprised that your not one the many complainers we get and you are willing to work on the cars issues, much props on that.
Welcome also and wow, very long story.

Blurvfocus · 05-14-2005, 08:52 PM

Ride A LITTLE harsh?!! Omigosh! Maybe the previous owner was determined NOT to have his tires blow out from underinflation like on the big ford SUV's. Or maybe he was a gas mileage freak.

Foci_Fosho · 05-15-2005, 01:59 PM

heh anti-freeze in the windshield wiper tank... some people just aren't even close to educated.

Poney · 05-15-2005, 02:29 PM

HAHA ! I would have drove back to the previous owner and slapped em for Focus Abuse !!! No wonder his wife divorced him !!

GAfocusZX3 · 05-15-2005, 02:40 PM

what an idiot.... that guy needs to be smacked around a bit with a wet noodle....

well, I hope everything keeps going well for you and your focus, but if you ever see that idiot again, smack him one for me.

Lil PZEV · 05-15-2005, 04:57 PM

Wow that's an insane story!

Glad things seem to be working out for you though, overall. Hopefully nothing major pops up further down the line!

Gismo · 05-16-2005, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by azflyboy

All went well after that repair until I noticed that the ride seemd a little harsh and decided to check the tire pressure. To my amazement, the tires were all between 90-100PSI!

I could just picture the tires. They musta had like 1square inch contact patch!!! LOL!! And looked like overstuffed doughnuts.

Oh... and congrats on the car.

LokiG · 05-16-2005, 02:22 PM

I can just see it now...you go to use your wipers with a good squirt of washer, and someone ahead of you chucks a cigarette out his window and it hits your car.

Glad to hear that everything's in decent shape now.