General: Did I do the right thing?

[Neil_]

Hi everyone, I’m new to these forums and I just wanted to have a bit of a rant about an S60 buying experience I have just had.

After deciding I would like our next car to be a S60, I was really glad to find this forum and further have my opinion reinforced that they're nice cars.

Last weekend we test drove a S60 2.0T SE, quite liked it and went back to buy it last night.

However, after looking through these forums I went armed with some questions and things to look at for.

Long story short, the engine mounting thingy was cracked, and the engine idled erratically when the a/c was on.

I pointed these out to the salesman, and he went quite odd and talked down to me like I was some kind of idiot. Apparently my eyes were better than his because he couldn't see a crack, he made a big show of not being able to see it, (I didn't know what to look for before I had the bonnet up, but once it was up, it was clear as day) and the idling he refused to believe was a problem.

He immediately started walking away saying he'd refund my holding deposit. I asked if the car could be checked by a mechanic and he said it would if I bought it!

He then did a big spiel about how many cars they have and they don't sell unsafe cars, blah, blah.

Did I do the right thing in walking away? His reaction was really odd. Was I being over zealous, I thought I was being perfectly reasonable, all I said was "I have a couple of questions"

Only trouble now is, there don't seem to be any other s60s around here at the moment.

Any ideas?

Kind regards,

Neil.

*Edit - Oops, sorry I selected the wrong prefix.

i dont know alot about cars myself, however if you had any doubts about the car i honestly think you done the right thing. If he was willing to either repair the faults you found or lower the asking price then it would be different. His reaction was very odd and i do believe you have done the right thing.

Welcome to the forum by the way and glad you found some information before you bought the car. Hope something better comes up for you soon though

Good luck

[Turbostream]

In a word yes!
Imagine if you had bought the car and it developed some more problems, would you have confidence in the garage then?

I would wait for another to come along in the meantime.

[capt jack]

You did the right thing. The world is stuffed full of good used cars - so why saddle yourself with a bad one?

Good luck in your search - the right one is out there somewhere!

Jack

[DownundeR]

Originally Posted by capt jack

You did the right thing. The world is stuffed full of good used cars - so why saddle yourself with a bad one?

Good luck in your search - the right one is out there somewhere!

+1 to all the comments here.
The world is also full of vehicle sales people who profess to know too much and are complete tools.
Forewarned is forearmed and some people don't like that.

[neek]

To be fair the engine mount is easy to fit and costs under £50 to buy, the ETM issue only effects early models (like mine!) It cost me £250 to get the ETM replaced at Volvo and if your looking at a 2000-2002 age car you will probably find the same wear and tear on all of them. (I had my engine mount replaced about a month ago as well) My car has done 86k. You don't say how much it was so it's hard to say if it's worh buying or not as I think they are standard problems so I would not be too bothered about them if the price was OK. The salesman did sound like a tit though!

[LankyTim]

You definately did the right thing- any doubts walk away. The salesman was trying to back you into a corner by walking away and offering back your deposit. He probably hoped youd crack and run after him!

[Neil_]

Wow - thanks everyone!

I really felt like I was in the wrong, and I was beginning to doubt myself. Probably as LankyTim said, he was trying to get me to run after him.....

Neek - That is what really surprised me, they're well known problems, not hard to fix, not that expensive, but the salesman was having none of it. The price was ok (2001 model), but not good enough to warrant buying it and paying myself to get it fixed.

Again, thanks everyone, I don't feel like such a fool now.

[LankyTim]

The salesman was probably annoyed that youd spotted the problem! He was hoping for an uneducated punter to come along no doubt- Of course Volvo owners are educated!

[TJMurphy]

As said, you did the right thing. ETM and top mounts were gone, as said not big items to fix. However, his reaction to your questions implies there might have been other wear and tear items that were going too - bushes, drop links, etc. Again none of them too expensive to fix but all adding up and you asking the questions was not conducive to him having an easy sell!

Tony

PS Any pre-2002 model is going to have / have had ETM issues. I would have expected the top mount to have been replaced (new one has a sort of a square thing in it) on any car of that age if it had been serviced properly - which might be a good thing to look out for as a guide to how well the car's been looked after.