Bought a Serious Lemon-Want to Chew Out Dealer-Thoughts?
 

Earlier this week I was day-dreaming about the satisfaction a nice leaf fence installation would be along the yard line...today, BLOWN HEAD GASKET!

Mrs Saucy says to get rid of what's become project car #2, so, I do, especially considering the 911 has lame engine (want it back on road asap) Sell the 540 in a day (could have gotten more) and pick-up an '07 Buick Lucerne. Why a young guy in a Buick? Low dollar car, parts are cheap, large, comfy, good mileage, safe for small humans...and it would be (is) my third Buick. Basic, boring reliable transportation...LOL

It's a 1 owner granny deal with 53k on the clock, small dealer with good history/reviews had it with clean bill of health (PPI) from the local Chevy dealer he picks up all his GM's from. Car presents as clean and worry free as any other low mileage garage queen that goes to and from the grocery store and Dr office.

Test drive: I take it for a 20 mile loop, determine all good, drives great aside from torn front engine mount, he fixes no questions asked. He tells me it has a new water pump...because the other was squeaking* Engine was clean, no detectable oil residue/odors or coolant residue/odors. I buy, happy customer thinking I got a good car for market value.

Home 3 days: Car begins to leak power steering fluid and oil from basically everywhere it can. PS pump and high pressure line had 2 distinctly separate leaks. Oil coming out from below lower intake manifold and down bell housing (LIM gaskets are common to go/PS pumps are not). Go to dealer t get PS pump and line replaced per recall...shouldn't Karl Chevy in CT have done this? hmmm

I call dealer, tells me to bring it down. Wastes a day of my time so his jerk off mechanic can brakleen and powerwash the motor. The insists its perfectly clean, no leaks.

2nd Weekend: I tear engine down to heads, replace all intake gaskets and surrounding goodies, not my first rodeo, goes easily..aside from the fact that it was very obvious this job had just been done. And more importantly, the LIM had been VERY poorly machined and put back together with oodles of black RTV. My brother instantly tells me...dude this thing was melted down. Put back together, clean engine...clean oil persists on bottom of bell housing, concurrently so begins a high pressure issue on top coolant pipe (where exists block from t-stat and bridges to rad.) On cold start, the hose is leaking like a bee-otch, once t-stat opens, goes away.

I texted this information to the dealer, without question, he reimbursed me for all receipts.

4 weeks in: Use boroscope to determine Rear main was leaking, replaced it. So continues troublesome coolant dribble on cold starts. Replace hose, clamp and bleed properly...hose was dry.

Couple months, 1500ish miles later, yesterday (I've been down and out recovering from back surgery so very little driving) silly little coolant dribble comes back. Today, this:http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1473883191.jpg

What I'm thinking is the case here...: Water pump failed, car melted down (why it was leaking from everywhere) dealer takes car in tells her it's going to be a million to fix, scares granny-sells her new car, this loser (me) buys it from Class A Douche-Dealer and is now stuck with a serious issue.

Considering I'm stuck with the car...Would you:

A: Call the dealer direct and give him your mind

B: Email him your mind

C: Trash his business to the CT DMV and Google Review

D: A and C

Please advise

What happened in between the monkey with the Brakleen and the 2nd weekend?

_

Is the dealer you're ready to chew out the selling dealer or the Chevy dealer? I'm confused, if I understand your story correctly it seems to me your selling dealer got hosed when he bought it and has taken some steps to make it right to you.

monkey Brakleen drove car 2nd week

The selling dealer. The guy has been in the biz 27yrs he knew exactly what he was doing. there were a couple other little Q/A's he and I had and he did everything he could to not give information ... but they werent deal breaking things so I didnt care

I got suspicious when he had the guy with the mullet Brakleen the engine and kept lying to me that everything was fine.

It was obviously not and he did what he could to keep me appeased hoping I would get lost like every other unsuspecting soul who buys used...right?

You bought a barely functional car from a d-bag dealer and are now well in to fixing broken things. I think this ship has sailed. Giving him a piece of your mind won't make you feel any better and won't change him. Move on with your life, get a crate motor if that's the easy fix.

There might have been some kind of arrangement between dealer and seller to give a good PPI. You should have got the PPI done by somebody completely independent.

Perhaps you can take that POS Buick back and exchange it for something else on the lot. Being buyer beware you are stuck with that pos unless you get creative.

Make up a placard that says this business sells lemons and walk in front of the business
on a Saturday. A girlfriend of my first wife did that and got satisfaction.:)

This is not what people buy Buicks for. You need a new engine or a new car. But it's a little late now...

E: Stihl BR700

Sorry man, I just had too :)

you got the shaft....move on

Park it in front of his dealership with a sign on it. Notify the press, call the BBB, I just don't know.

This is sort of the risk one takes when buying used . What motor is it ? 3.6? I have not done head gaskets on one yet, but it looks like an ugly horrible job . Probably motor and , trans out . Eww
Trade it in , pass it on . Maybe the dealer will let you make a good trade on it . Sounds like he tried to take care of you with the other issues .
Sorry for your bad luck.

Interesting read- sounds like he was trying to help although he wasted a day of your time -I think you took him off the hook when you started your rebuild-the good news is that he reimbursed you for your receipts. Good luck-keep us posted.

Sold the BMW to pick up a Buick?

I think that sucks, you got screwed and good luck.

Are you going to accuse him of buying a known POS and selling it you? Proving that he knew the cars condition is going to be a heavy lift.

Go to the dealer and have him take it back in exchange for another car even if you have lose some $. Life is too short for stuff like this.

Drive it back to the dealership and light it on fire right in front of their lot.

I would first go back and talk to him calmly and not make any threats. Explain what you feel would be fair for both of you. If you walk in yelling right off the bat he will probably just yell back and you will get nowhere. I had a similar problem once and it took everything I had not to yell and scream when I spoke to the dealer. He ended up taking the car back and I ended up better off. If that fails then you can try some of the other options.

If the guy has been in business for >20 years, you'll hardly impress him with yelling at him.

Like others have said, your goal here is to get out of this car. Go there and tell him just that. Tell him you need a reliable car and this will never be it. It has been monkeyed with and who knows what it will take to get it to run right. Ask for a refund first. If there is no budge, ask for a refund minus a loss on your end and take the loss.

No way in hell would I try to get into another used car from this guy.

Lesson learned is not to buy from a used car dealer. You have to find such a car directly from grandma or the estate. Especially on a run off the mill vehicle, there is NO reason to go through a dealer. It only adds a bunch of armor all on the car and risk of shenanigans like this. Sounds like an impulse buy - never a good idea. But I am sure you know all this by now. ;)

Good Luck!

G

Shut down the internet.
Get off the computer altogether.
Forget about some broken car which needs fixing eventually.

Dude...get some rest now.

I'm always amused when a seller advertises a new water pump and radiator like that's a positive thing. As a car guy, my first thought is "run!"

This
Talk calmly to the guy, tell him you want a different car I'd be willing
to bet he didn't know about the problem he would have dumped it at an auction

THIS!

We buy older subarus for family. First sign that the seller knows of a head gasket problem is advertising NEW WATER PUMP and/or NEW RADIATOR!

As far as the Buick goes it might be cheaper to buy a second hand engine and install that rather than keep screwing around with one that clearly has been terribly overheated. You'll chase leaks on this thing forever.

angela

So I called around to start the process of pricing out my options...as the dealer gave me a bullischt "it's not my problem" response....to see if it's worth raising hell or going about it myself.

Turns out, there is NO demand for these motors (GM 3.8 V6) and they're dirt cheap. $800 for one with 4k miles or $425 for one with 37k miles and everything in between.

I'm gunna swap the motor for less than front brakes on my old 540i. LOL

The intake manifold on that engine is liquid cooled and uses a ****ty plastic gasket.

They are notorious for leaking intake manifold causing coolant to enter the cylinders, steam cleaning the valves and cylinders, and if bad enough filling the cylinders with coolant causing the crank to hit the driveway the next time you try to start it.

Meanwhile the rest of the car falls apart around it leading to nice shiny looking cars in the junk yard that need motors and so many other part that motors aren't worth it to many original fed up owners

If you get a recycled engine look for signs of low coolant or internal leaking

As a precaution do the intake manifold gasket every 50,000 miles

( the duty cycle on those cars parts isn't very long which is why in the used market they are cheap and toyotas are not)

Do you want to vent... ...or get the situation resolved. Probably can't get both.

Go yell and move on if that is what you need.. ...or...

Go in, say this is the last straw, take the car back and give me my money... ..we'll part ways...

the 3.8 is the old 90 deg v6 from the 60's to the 80's
the newer 3800 is on it's third revision by 07 called a mark III 3800

they also come with a supercharger on some motors

Obviously it's too late now, but a solid PPI with someone you know that is independent of both parties ( on a lift). I strongly believe the dealer went beyond his role in making the deal right by reimbursing you, regardless of his knowledge of existing problems.

As far as keeping it - you need to asses your tolerance of future repairs VS resources.......

I did have a PPI done after I fixed the LIM and the high heater hose/coolant pressure persisted. Guy is a 30yr GM mechanic, thought everything looked mint.

I already did the LIM gaskets as they were leaking pretty badly. While in there I found they'd already been done and the LIM was very poorly machined (may have already mentioned this). Again, could dig in and see if this is the issue but a new LIM and gaskets are $300 more than a used motor...

It's an interesting crossroad.

No question on keeping it, car is solid as a rock and otherwise very clean...the engine has some story that has been diluted with the numerous repair and time.

I owned a Toyota, bought it for reliability...there was a story on here about that too. Thing was falling apart at 62k miles.

After owning a/multiple Porsche (2), VW (2), Chevrolet (3), Nissan (3), Toyota (1), Buick (3), Ford (1)...I'm very satisfied with my current status of a Suburban and this Buick.

This is also a very discouraging exercise forging realization of how exorbitantly overpriced the parts are for my air-cooled...