MarkTVS

Cars on your don’t buy list?

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We all have them, terrible experience with a car puts you off buying another. I have a few. 

I know many of you hate Vauxhall’s but we do really well out of them, we stock lots of small corsas aswell as Corsa and Astra vxr’s. Yes they have chocolate gearboxes and numerous other issues but we know them well enough to fix them easily.

Anyway I saw a nice Insignia VXR at the auctions so logical step was to try one of them, never again! Car drove fine however after a couple of minutes of driving it would flash up service rear diff; after consulting a friend who was a main dealer tech told me they usually try servicing it, it’s a haldex unit however 9/10 times it needs a diff. So tried a few options none of which worked, Vauxhall wanted a fortune for a new unit, so sent it down to Thorney motorsport in brackley who are regarded as a specialist with these who told me they could rebuild it with uprated parts, so they had the car for 2 months, rebuilt it twice as it was still having issues, they then aparantly fitted it with a brand new Vauxhall unit however I have my doubts after looking underneath it. 2.5k later we have the car back, it still needs a new sat nav screen, a rear shock at £350ish, and it still has an occasional management light. So that’s one car I don’t want to touch again.

Another is a 2014 Audi A6 avant s like with 60k miles, bought the car unseen from the auctions, both front windows didn’t work needing regulators, all tyres were at 3mm so needing replaced, rear parking sensors not working, traced to broken wiring, a crack in the front windscreen, it started showing up gearbox issues which was fixed, a service, a seal kit, pressure sensor and a software update. Now the car keeps hitting limp mode with a boost issue we’re trying to get to the bottom of so that’s now another car on my don’t buy list.

I never have any luck with auto Audi’s I should really learn my lesson.

so what cars do you all avoid? 

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Anything with the 1.4/1.6 PSA/BMW prince engine, never had a good one.

Edited by Lakeside

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Suzuki vitaras don't know if there any better. Now but had 3 of the older ones from difference sources all with the same fuel problems bought one for good money took biggest ever hit on any car the other two were traded in at the time cheap and sold abroad for parts 

Bought a few audis diesels and only had the occasional small problem .. 

Edited by Casper

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11 minutes ago, Casper said:

Suzuki vitaras don't know if there any better. Now but had 3 of the older ones from difference sources all with the same fuel problems bought one for good money took biggest ever hit on any car the other two were traded in at the time cheap and sold abroad for parts 

Bought a few audis diesels and only had the occasional small problem .. 

What year vitaras? I get through a fair few suzukis never caused me any bother. You have to watch out for gearboxes on swifts and corrosion on Jimnys though.

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Peugeot 107. I have three of them and there all shite.

On a serious note Petrol Insignia 1.8 . Spent about £500 chasing an engine management light only for the customer to text me saying it had come back on again (Garage still haven't heard from her to book it in). Still made money on the car but only as it was a PX i paid peanuts for.

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It would be easier to tell you the cars I buy rather than the cars I avoid.

  • Haha 1

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All German (especially VW Audi), Vauxhall, Ford autos and Ecoboost as above, Minis (particulary 1.4 or Cooper S). Automatic newer Nissans (Juke etc). Diesels. Small manual cars. 
Surprised I buy anything to be fair. 

Edited by NOACROSS

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1.6 PSA Prince engined cars as above

VAG cars with DSG boxes unless I can take them for a long test drive first

Never done very well on convertibles but that’s probably more down to poor buying 

Don’t tend to do too many Vauxhall’s anymore. I remember when I started I sold loads of Corsa Bs then lots of Corsa Cs. I then moved on to selling Corsa Ds but 75% of them seemed to have head gasket issues. Don’t bother anymore despite being good sellers 

 

Also, what is it with VAG cars and window regulators? They seem to always be buggered 

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2 hours ago, JA Trader said:

Peugeot 107. I have three of them and there all shite.

On a serious note Petrol Insignia 1.8 . Spent about £500 chasing an engine management light only for the customer to text me saying it had come back on again (Garage still haven't heard from her to book it in). Still made money on the car but only as it was a PX i paid peanuts for.

107 ?? wouldnt be mu choice of a daily driver but there no worse than c1 or the aygo version, yes they do clutches for fun but they can be fitted in 4 hours for less than a £100 

To answer the op question has be the dreaded PSA quality engine 1.4 / 1.6 i cant walk away fast enough these days.

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3 hours ago, BIGNIT said:

What year vitaras? I get through a fair few suzukis never caused me any bother. You have to watch out for gearboxes on swifts and corrosion on Jimnys though.

It was the older ones at time was back 10 years ago 2003-2005 think the newer one are better

Edited by Casper

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Any Skoda, Dacia or Kia. 

Not because they are bad cars. 

Because of the penny wise pound foolish mentality of some people that buy them and also because they generally don't buy them on finance. 

Otherwise if a car is in great condition and has decent spec I don't have a DON'T BUY list. 

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There are not many I will not buy but plenty I don't get excited about buying.

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Mazda6 2.2 diesel - had 2 over the years both had major issues / big bills.

Honda Accord 2.2 cdti- very expensive DPF problems

Alot of stuff from the brands that "used to be reliable" scares me now due to the tech and potential for huge repair bills.

 

 

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VAG TFSI are the only engines we avoid. The high oil burning Mazda/Ford stuff and nightmare 1.6 PSA engined Minis and 207s we stock but probably one in four causes grief...still profitable enough to stock. 

Stock anything supermarkety really but not much German, not much 4x4 and very very little Prestige or sporty stuff if possible...more to avoid a certain demographic of punter than the cars themselves.

Forgot to add we don't really do much diesel.

Edited by grant8064
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2 hours ago, Huggins said:

 

Honda Accord 2.2 cdti- very expensive DPF problems

 

They are on my love to buy list, any Honda with the 2.2 is, so if you ever get any in px you don’t want give me a shout especially newer accord estates!

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30 minutes ago, MarkTVS said:

They are on my love to buy list, any Honda with the 2.2 is, so if you ever get any in px you don’t want give me a shout especially newer accord estates!

They were on mine until I bought two CR-V CTDi's, one going into limp and the other with power surging on half throttle! Still waiting for the Honda fairy to appear overnight and magically sort them out!

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1.0 Ecoboost, anything with an Audi/VW DSG box, Ford automatics, anything under 1.2L, soon see BMW N43 engines on the list, Vauxhalls generally (can't remember the last time we bought one).

Got a top(ish) spec Cat N 2017 Civic that we can't sell to save our lives, so I don't know how good of a seller they are. It's silver and a Cat N, so I can't judge it clearly. Not in a rush to buy another one though. Even if it's a straight one.

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Ecoboost

most autos

peugeot 1.6/mini/ds3 etc

mazda Ford 2.2 diesel 

most modern Vauxhall’s 

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9 minutes ago, Mikey360 said:

With my track record, I should avoid anything with 4 wheels :lol:

Not there's answer love it made me smile 

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7 hours ago, premi-motor said:

Anything with a 2.0 petrol BMW engine!

This! 

Oil pressure, injectors, chains... the list goes on 

  • Haha 1

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4 Cylinder BMW petrol 2008/2012 era and anyone who does sell these is asking for huge trouble at some point.

Land Rover Discoverys or Range RoverSports 2006/2013  absolute pieces of shite, selling them piece of cake keeping them away no chance.

Mini's avoided wherever possible.

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22 hours ago, justina3 said:

107 ?? wouldnt be mu choice of a daily driver but there no worse than c1 or the aygo version, yes they do clutches for fun but they can be fitted in 4 hours for less than a £100 

To answer the op question has be the dreaded PSA quality engine 1.4 / 1.6 i cant walk away fast enough these days.

 

20 hours ago, tradex said:

I was surprised by the 107/C1/Aygo too, most of the clutch issues are down to poor servicing whereby not enough freeplay in the pedal, thereby pushing their way thru the pressure plate. I've one here with 140k up it still on the original clutch and another with 42k on it's second:blink:

No german, no diesels, no auto handbrakes, no slush boxes and now life has been lot smoother since.

I've got 3 of them all less than 50k and not had a nibble on any apart from the first phone call this morning.

Good to see the clutch is cheap and easy to fix if needed

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