ASK HJ - The questions people ask

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Sun 11 Feb 2018 11:41
ASK HJ - The questions people ask - oldroverboy.

www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/94170/i-ve-seen-...t-

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 12 Feb 2018 00:10
ASK HJ - The questions people ask - Avant

Arthur Punter is alive and well and still longing for his used BMW....

We get them on here too as you know: most of us are admirably patient and helpful. I'm often tempted to say exactly what I think, but then I remember that Arthur Punter and his like are to cars as I am to racehorses. To me they're all the same and I wouldn't have a clue....but hey, I don't want to buy a racehorse.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 12 Feb 2018 07:07
ASK HJ - The questions people ask - oldroverboy.

But...

A bent chassis?????????????????????

Edited by oldroverboy. on 12/02/2018 at 07:08

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 12 Feb 2018 08:01
ASK HJ - The questions people ask - Bolt

But...

A bent chassis?????????????????????

No worse than my niece who bought a fiat punto with rusted through chassis, she only found out by taking for an mot and it failed on that + a list of other problems. she asked me to look at it after the mot saying it should have passed

I told her to scrap it, annoying part is her dad sold it to her saying it was immaculate?I have not spoken to him since!

Though he is useless when it comes to cars like most of my family

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 12 Feb 2018 08:15
ASK HJ - The questions people ask - argybargy

In years gone by, before it became possible to check these things via online databases etc, there was a degree of pot luck involved as to whether a buyer with limited knowledge bought a crash damaged car. We heard horror stories of cars stitched together and badly repaired in many other ways, but there were othr signs that could easily pass us by.

I managed to avoid a Belmont which had been rear ended and had a crease in the boot floor which I only spotted because I was looking for rust under the spare wheel, and an ex boss of mine, who affected a great air of efficiency in all other things, managed to buy a Panda with a large hole in the floor. So even without specialist knowledge, as long as you took the time to check every visible part of the car and didn't assume you were an expert and could see through metal, there was a chance you'd spot the symptoms of impact.

Much better nowadays with these Category thingies.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 12 Feb 2018 08:55
ASK HJ - The questions people ask - skidpan

Ihere was a degree of pot luck involved .

No pot luck when buying a used Mini in the 60's and 70's (and probably later). The jacking points were all but useless the moment they left the factory. How many (including me) found out when the jack was going up but the car wasn't when attempting a roadside wheel swap.

Drivers today have never had it so good. But old cars will still have rot to some degree and some brands are still much worse than others.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 12 Feb 2018 11:56
ASK HJ - The questions people ask - craig-pd130

No worse than my niece who bought a fiat punto with rusted through chassis, she only found out by taking for an mot and it failed on that + a list of other problems. she asked me to look at it after the mot saying it should have passed

I told her to scrap it, annoying part is her dad sold it to her saying it was immaculate?I have not spoken to him since!

That's unusual - Punto bodies were galvanised (in common with most mid-90s Fiats, in response to the rust horrors of the 1970s and 80s)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 12 Feb 2018 13:33
ASK HJ - The questions people ask - Bolt

No worse than my niece who bought a fiat punto with rusted through chassis, she only found out by taking for an mot and it failed on that + a list of other problems. she asked me to look at it after the mot saying it should have passed

I told her to scrap it, annoying part is her dad sold it to her saying it was immaculate?I have not spoken to him since!

That's unusual - Punto bodies were galvanised (in common with most mid-90s Fiats, in response to the rust horrors of the 1970s and 80s)

TBH the car was a wreck which I was surprised even bil bought in the first place, he sold it to her with mot on last week. car had been jacked up in wrong places and damaged floorpan including side sils,

garage that did the mot failed it on exhaust leak,but failed it again after fixing the exhaust (they put the wrong silencer on it and because it still leaked failed it again) also on tyres being at limit.

several other things were wrong like ball joints and suspension bushes, which they were going to charge in all £675 to repair for mot, which they kept failing it even when work was carried out

I worked for Ford at the time but had never come across a garage so bad, what annoyed me was she paid them, took the car away and scrapped it, twas a long story that I wouldn`t want to go through again

She bought a new renault after all that.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link