Whether new or used, buying a car is a process of discovery. While we can all try our best with test drives and, on used cars, pre-purchase inspections, there are always things we just don’t learn until after we sign on the dotted line. Some of those things might even surprise us, and we’d love to know about your surprises.
As enthusiasts, we typically find a way to join the hivemind after we buy a car, tapping into a community of expertise. After I bought my Boxster, I joined a Boxster-specific Facebook group with five figures worth of members but only three moderators. It turns out, that’s because the 986 Boxster community is chock-full of lovely, tactful, helpful, civilized people, and seems to largely be a self-moderating entity. I like it when car people are good people.
My most questionable surprise came from my 325i. Finding out that an airbag code was caused by a homemade smoking apparatus being jammed underneath the passenger seat, knocking a plug out of the seat harness, wasn’t quite as positive of a surprise. Negative surprises can even happen with new cars. My dad was surprised with how much he hates his Hyundai Sonata, while Matt’s big surprise is similarly short and sweet:
On the flipside, a Cadillac ATS owner who found the secret compartment in the center stack is probably stoked for that surprise. Likewise, I recently ran into someone who was delighted to learn that the ambient lighting in their Mini can cycle through colors.
So, what are the best and worst surprises you’ve encountered after buying a car? Whether an original window sticker hidden inside the handbook or weird distortion at the bottom of the windshield, voice your experiences in the comments below.
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal)
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I had to replace the headliner in a 79 El Camino and I found a build sheet for it from Chevrolet when I removed the original headliner panel. I thought that was pretty cool. When I sold the car years later to a local guy who collected and restored El Caminos, he was tickled to get that with the car.
Best surprise: 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage . On the surface, a bland car that looked like every other Japanese compact sedan from the late 1990’s to early 2000s. This was incredibly reliable and comfortable. The standard drivers seat was far more comfortable than expected. Only unexpected repairs in 300k mileage was a valve cover gasket and a high side A/C fitting failed. That’s it. I bought it to commute 100miles a day for $7K and traded it in 8 years later for 2K.
Worst: 1999 Ford Ranger XLT 4×4. Bought used as a third vehicle. Hidden rust everywhere on the frame ( treated with Corroseal ). Grounding issues due to said rust. Constantly chasing electrical gremlins. Learned a valuable lesson to never buy a used car that spent any appreciable time in the NorthEast. Oh and the 3.0 L was both thirsty and slow.
I bought a 600$ ’98 Honda Civic EX Coupe that did not have breaks and needed general TLC. When we bought it, it was dirty and we thought the inside and outside were pretty banged up. We brought it home and gave it a look, replaced the window motor so the passenger side window would go up, and then left it for a couple of days. When we came back to it, we started cleaning it.
To our surprise, the only real damage to the outside was some small dents and a couple of minor scratches, but when we got to the interior, the only thing wrong with it when it was cleaned was a tear in the driver’s seat. The AC and radio worked great, and the seats are more comfortable than you’d expect for 300k+ miles. It also has the OEM manual and SRS info brochure. The only major flaw is were someone indented the driver’s side door panel, and we only have the valet key.
FYI the car is still sitting in the driveway without breaks…
I bought my first car — a ’79 Plymouth Horizon — from a friend for $1,750 right before I graduated high school. One day, driving around my northern Michigan hometown with the Eurythmics (unusually) turned down, I noticed a weird metallic jingling noise. I opened the ashtray to discover more than $17 in change. A rebate! On a used car!
I offered to return the change, but my friend — who had upgraded to a Mk2 GTI — declined.
Best is probably when I found the Westfalia tow ball in the trunk of my W8 Variant. Looked under the bumper and there was a spot to put it in. Apparently all the variants came with this, but I was shocked the car had the ball. Oh also, the window sticker was in the owners manual on my Touareg.
The worst- I have multiple Piëch Moonshots. You guess.
Actually, the worst might have been the first time I floored my W211 E63 and the engine bounced off the hood. New motor mounts (and trans mounts, and a coil pack) on day 3. But it’s hard to call anything on that car the worst, because once I fixed the deferred maintenance, it was absolutely flawless and an incredibly, hilariously fun car that made you feel special every time you got in and started it up. God, I miss that car.
I think I buried the lead.
Best surprise: my £600 RX7 was utterly reliable, and when rust finally took it back the heaven the Wankel was still working great.
Worst surprise: shotgun shells and blood in the boot of an E30 3-series.
1995 Chrysler Sebring LX coupe, first (and only) new car I’ve ever purchased from a dealer. Didn’t like the styling of the Avenger, but wanted the 2.0 DOHC 4 cylinder and 5speed, and could only get that in the LX base model. Being the Chrysler version, power everything but manual adjustable drivers seat, and full instrumentation including oil pressure gauge, which they decontented out on LX’s for 1996. Dealer they got it from had put the Avenger rear spoiler on it, body color, that was a good surprise, looked pretty good. Bad surprise: dropped it off at dealer to get undercoated and received a call the next day, “umm, sorry to inform you that the parts runner guy backed the dealer parts van into you car and dented the front driver side fender”, (face palm). They fixed it on their dime, and if you weren’t aware you wouldn’t notice the fixed spot, it never bubbled or flaked in the 12 years I owned it, but I always knew it was there.
Good suprise: bought it in July, so always running the air con, supposedly 7.6 O-60 time according to car &driver test of the LX 5speed 4cylinder, but seemed just ok. Took it out into the countryside in august to play on the roads, and thought hey, it’s cool enough to turn the air off, next acceleration from a dead stop was a revelation, just wonderful pull up to the 7grand redline in each gear. Always disengaged the a/c after that for fun driving. Always a fun engine on twisting roads keeping it between 3,000-5,000 rpm’s. Never had a head gasket issue as the Sebring 2.0 has the cylinder head turned around compared to the neon 2.0.
Odd surprise: it had stock cassette radio with 4 speakers. Rear deck had grills for 6×9 speakers, and the stock ones seemed lacking. Bought Jenson 6×9 speakers to replace, and when I crawled in the trunk to un bolt the factory ones, I discovered Chrysler had put 6” round speakers with spacer plates in the 6×9 oval opening. I just had to wonder what genius approved this set up, 6” round speaker, two metal plates shaped to fill the deck opening, separate mounting bolts and nuts to attach the spacer plates to the speaker and separate bolts and nuts to attached the assembly to the rear deck. Certainly had to cost more than a cheap 6×9 speaker.
Odd surprise 2: month after i bought it, I bought replacement bulbs for everything, headlight bulbs, front/rear parking/turn signals bulbs, rear parking/brake light bulbs (it used 6 bulbs for just the rear taillights), license plate bulbs, puts them all in a bag and placed in the spare tire well. In the 12 years I owned it, I never used any of them.
Loved the car, never left me stranded or unexpected failures needing repairs.
The worst: 1995 GTI, which despite its flaws was still one of my favorite cars I’ve ever had. A few months after I bought it used, the typical VW electrical gremlins showed up – sometimes when I shut it off, I would turn the key to start it again and literally nothing would happen. So there’s 500 bones at the mechanic, since electrical work is my kryptonite.
I knew it needed tires, so I put some on. The tire shop informed me that I had a couple of pretty severely bent rims, suggesting that the car had taken out a curb pretty hard at some point in its life. Even with the worst two on the rear, it still pulled to the left and had a slight vibration. They could never chase down the problem. So I drove it that way for about a year. Fast forward to getting my front brakes done, and another mechanic in another town told me that I not only had bent rims, but the driver side hub was cracked. Welp, there’s yer problem. By then, my “new” tires, with less than 8,000 miles on them, had not only worn so unevenly that they needed replacing anyway, but the driver’s side rear tire had also begun to grow breasts on the inside sidewall.
It was my personal most aggravating example of, “I bought a lemon, but the guy who bought it from me bought a great car.” By the way, he was a 20-something kid who drove up in another GTI from a decade before, and was tickled pink to upgrade to a VR6. As much fun as I had with it, I don’t blame him.
Best and worst thing, same car.
In about 1979 I bought a used Toyota in Pasadena, Texas. Filthy, but the price was great, as was the car.
But there was a funky trunk smell. After lifting the spare out I found like a dozen dead, decaying mice, and mice babies. And a sealed metal tin of French Hard Candies, along with a baggie that had been chewed through. There were partially eaten big white pills in the baggie’s remains. It was all really gross.
A friend was helping me do some cleaning and odds and ends to get the neglected Toyota Carina to run like it should. He spotted the metal tin of candies, it was about the size of a hockey puck. And sealed with clear tape around the seam.
When we opened it, it was stuffed with about 100 of the same white pills in their own intact factory packing. (clear plastic) Being new to the area I had no idea what these pills may be. But the happy face and excited muttering of my amigo told me something was up…BTW, he was Mexican.
Turns out we had scored a nice free, and fresh stash of genuine Mandrax. AKA Mexican Quaaludes. That’s right, no shit. The real thing.
As a single 22 yr old, the Col felt the need to share one with a sweet girl in the next door apartment. When she let word slip to her other friends about this stash, one could say I became quite popular for a couple of weeks. And a very good time was had by all. Don’t judge me, it was the 70s and free love was still a thing…
45 years later it’s fun to look back and remember those crazy good times. YMMV
My ’88 SL came with the original first aid kit in perfect condition, still in its little cradle, with 35-year-old Band-Aids. It’s still there. The whole original tool roll was also included, but sadly when I used it the fabric ripped everywhere. 🙁 I’m torn (heh) between replacing it with a new tool roll or looking for a vintage one that will probably crumble too.
Another car included a big ol’ stereo system in the trunk that showed no signs of ever being installed in the car.
Worst: my first car was a Horizon. When I picked it up from the seller (who had conveniently moved abroad) the entire exhaust was dragging on the ground. It proceeded to be one of the most stressful experiences in my life given I needed a car and had $0 to my name. It was an absolute pile. One door only opened from the inside, the hatch gate strut was dead so I carried a piece of 2×4 to keep it open, and the head gasket failed around 60k miles. The car was 7 years old and had spent all its life in southern California.
Could go either way. Found a large quantity of hash in 72 barracuda. Stuffed way up the tunnel at the carpet split.
I was once delighted to learn that the fancy aftermarket wheels and slicks on an old MX6 were worth more than I paid for the car.
Sold em, bought new tires and steelies.
Came out way ahead.
And the car looks better.
Best – bought an Audi A4, ending up meeting some life long friends. Some of those life long friends, 3 of us showed up at a Honda dealer and each of us bought an s2000 that day. That s2000 brought on another group of life long friends. My group of friends now consist of a random mix of audi/s2000 guys and gals.
Worst: bought an off lease car from Toyota, my first financed car.
The car had a tiny crack in the front bumper cover, but behind it was a crushed rebar. The salesman readily agreed to fix all of the damage before delivery.
When I went to pick it up, the bumper had been repainted, but the crushed rebar remained, with about a 1 inch stack of washers to shim the bodywork.
Over the next few months, most of the paint chipped and peeled off of the newly painted bumper .
Best is easy. A year after my wife bought her Beetle Convertible, we received a delivery. They sent a birthday cake to celebrate the 1st anniversary of owning the car. It was super cool!
Similarly, VW was good at first impressions on the GTI I bought as well… a few weeks after I took delivery, I received my Fast. The devil-like figurine that came with GTIs. Not sure if they still do this.
A few weeks after that, the car started down it’s path of being the worst car I’ve ever owned.
Something like this happened to my dad. It was the one year anniversary of him owning his 2020 Hyundai Elantra when he got rear-ended in a big wreck on the Wilsonville stretch of I-5.
Keep in mind that this was in the same place he has gotten rear-ended in with the two previous cars he owned mere 3 weeks after purchase of both of them.
Easily the worst experiences ive had have involve shoddy steering and suspension work. First there was the ’04 focus with wood blocks wedging the ball joints together(they’d been spray painted black so I couldn’t see them without the car being on a lift) Then when I bought my wife her truck, the dealership had just replaced a tie rod end the day before, their lot boy hit a high curb badly, but they had re-used the nylock nut to hold it on. When I took it to my mechanic the next day for an oil change(I do an oil change any time I buy a used car) the nut fell off in my hand when I noticed it was loose.
The first dealership were asshats, the second one bent over backwards to make it right, so both scary but only one permanently terrible.
P.s. That focus also had been towed by the radiator in such a way that the radiator and support couldn’t be replaced without major structural repair, and the wiring in the dash had been cut by a thief. Both issues were well hidden by the dealer when I bought it.
I’ve only had good surprises mainly from just being well read on the topic based on internet blags like this such site. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by both vehicles in capability and value since I bought both used after extensive research.
The ’89 Montero’s best surprise was its ability to outwheel almost anything new stock, and the fact that it was set to last from 220k miles to well over 300k since I have had it.
The ’14 BMW has just been the exact opposite of the Montero and excactly what I wanted. To go full analog to digital. The worst surprise was more a user error which involved forgetting dialectic grease on two of the six ignition coils when I did the set.
That was along and frustrating week of finding longer and pinchier things to fish ignition coil boot out of the engine block. Finally got some medical forceps that did the trick.
That was a hell week.
Not totally a surprise as I knew the backstory, but a 2000 Ford Windstar I bought from a friend of my inlaws. $250 and total to pass safety was under $1,000. He was the original owner and every winter it spent in Florida for the first 16 years, until the A/C failed. Then it spent every winter in a garage in Ontario until I bought it. I’ve worked on a couple of southern cars, but this is the first time I’ve worked on an Ontario registered vehicle that literally had more rust (surface only) on the roof than underneath the chassis.
Best – used 72 240z, large bag of devils lettuce stuffed down the passenger side dash vent. Worst, same car – not as rust free as advertised. Built and replaced all floors, inner and outer rockers, front framerails rear floor, spare tire well, and battery tray. Net positive, learned a lot about fabbing body panels.
I had pretty much the same bad suprise with my 280. However it only taught that body shops are slow AF and how to empty my savings account.
I was working in a body shop when this happened. Did all the work myself except paint. I also replaced the clutch, did the brakes and struts, rebuilt the carbs and cleaned up the wiring. Was a fun summer. Didn’t have a girlfriend at the time.
Lucky you! I’m four years into the renovation now…
This was back in the late 70’s. Blew up the engine and replaced it with an SBC. I kept the car until early 80’s. The aftermarket parts suuply back then was pretty thin. All of the chassis metal was hand fabbed in the shop. Exterior stuff was available from Nissan. Also had a TR6 which was much less rusty. It did suffer from the usual UK electrical gremlins. I rebuild the electrical system from the ground up. The TR also got the SBC treatment.
That’s awesome! Repro parts nowadays are widely available, it’s one of the reasons I chose the Z as a first project.
I’d love to do another project car but my creaky broken down body parts, failing eyesight, and need for an equipped, heated workspace keep me from pulling the triģger. Have a decent collection of tools but would need to aquire a few more and a lift. Maybe someday… I’d like a to try a corvair, an old celica or an rx3.
I’m glad I am going though it in my thirties. I spend a lot of time on my back as I have no lift. That’s not something I’ll be doing when retired.
I’m mid sixties, the spirit is willing , but the body not so much. Buying it done doesn’t interest me. So we will see.
When I sold the 240 it was starting to rot again. Different areas, but I was done with patching it. I think the car had originated in the east and was brought west. Normally cars in western canada don’t rot as badly BC of the cold dry wintry and that salt is not used on the roads.
Best: Free 94 Toyota Pickup, still own.
Worst: Audi B4’s. Never again.
Ford Bronco Sport Heritage 1.5
Best: It can completely turn off the the center stack screen.
Technically not actually a car, but I bought a cheap spare engine/gearbox assembly for my newly purchased Kawasaki GPz750-A3 – it was nearby and dirt cheap, so I just bought it on the offchance I might need a part from it at some point.
The bike I had bought was cheap because it was smoky due to worn rings. When I finally decided I had to pull it apart to rebuild it, it was over Christmas and all the Kawasaki dealers were closed, so I thought I might as well open up the spare engine to see if it was good inside. Turns out it had a Wiseco 810cc Street Overbore kit fitted that was so new the bores still had fresh honing marks! I was able to just swap the overbored cylinder barrel and pistons over to my engine.
My own damn fault but … bought a new Audi A5 Sportback in May and no remote start. I didn’t even check because every car we’ve had for the last 10 years has had it. Wife was pissed, “our 2013 Ford Escape had it but your fancy pants German car can’t be bothered to start from 50 feet away.”
Worst: I bought a 1978 KV Mini 1 sight-unseen from a microcar museum in the UK to use as a parts car for my 1980 KV Mini 1. It had been accurately described as a somewhat deteriorated non-running vehicle that they had kept in storage instead of on display but, on the strength of a few photos such as this one:
https://live.staticflickr.com/1458/26018582300_ea68889f4c_c.jpg
I decided to bid in their auction and won it for a modest amount. I was happy to note that the photos showed two intact tail light lenses, as to this day I still don’t know what else these fit and, as it turns out, even most other examples of the KV Mini 1 have round tail lights instead. The museum crated the car and shipped it to me. When I got it home and opened the crate, I discovered the car had shifted a bit in transit and both lenses were shattered. By design, they protrude farther rearward than the rear bumper, so they hit the wall of the crate first. That was fifteen years ago and I still haven’t found another source for these lenses.
Best: Fearing the worst when I next removed the front end of the crate, I was happy to see that both headlight lenses, which were also sourced from who knows what, had survived the trip from the UK intact:
https://live.staticflickr.com/7184/6866508661_e857f9ac16_c.jpg
I have, however, subsequently dropped and shattered one of them.
Best: Ford Racing cams, Ford Racing valve springs, and ARP head studs in an 04 Mach 1 that the most direct PO knew very little about.
Worst: 2001 Miata had apparently had a leaky soft top in the past, totally rust free everywhere but when I pulled back the carpet on the parcel shelf to change the fuel pump it had a large hole rusted straight through that I could put my whole hand through. Also the inside of the tank was questionable. Got it for $2000 with ~130k miles and it ran great after the pump though so can’t be mad.