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| Check the clock before buying one of these |
I needed a new car (when I say new, I of course mean second hand) so this time I engaged the help and advice of a car loving ex-mechanic mate of mine who had a knack of picking up cheap yet reliable Toyotas and Nissans for himself and his wife. These guys loved their cars, went on organised drives (not a passion we shared), watched motor racing together and loved telling me about how good their cars were and how cheap they had got them for. They were well aware of history with cars and my rather dim view of them.
We looked at a few cars and I was schooled in the art of what to look for buying a car privately, how to tut at the right time, how to cast negative aspersions on the vehicle in front of the owner so as to beat their expectations down and so on. Eventually we came across a man selling a Toyota Cressida Grande. I was told this was good reliable car. It was within my budget, and well pimped out with leather seats, electric windows, electric seats, electric sunroof, mags, and a fat ass loud sports muffler.
I was pretty happy with the purchase and wondered what my mechanic would say when I rolled into his workshop in a car that wasn't a complete heap of shit. Two days after the purchase the oil light came on so I wouldn't have to wait long to find out. He phoned me the afternoon the next day to tell me the head gasket was on the way out - apparently a generic problem with these models around the 140,000 kilometre mark. Mine had 139,000 on the clock! Another stitch up. Not even a week since I had it.
"How bad is a head gasket? Serious?"
"Serioos"
"How much to fix them? Couple hundred?
"Over a thoosand, depends though, could be warse"
"How long do I have?"
"No way t'ell. Could be a few months, could be tomorrow"
My car had cancer, $4400 well spent. I advertised it on CarSales but every one who rang asked the same question: "How many k's?", and when I told them they would all ask if the head gasket had gone yet and had I noticed any problems, noticed the oil was thinning etc. I was too honest to say no.
Now every time I drove this thing I would wonder if I was going to get where I was going. I persisted with trying to sell the car. Eventually a couple came down all the way from Newcastle came down to have a look. The husband was a mechanic and fixed cars for a living. He was a Cressida Grande fan. We went through the same Q & A routine I'd been though numerous times in the last few weeks and I thought I was a goner but he asked to take it for a test drive.
One of the giveaways that the head gasket was on the way out was the oil light, which would invariably come in when the engine was cold - but would go off if the car was warm and I had just been driving the car. Lo and behold when he came back he wanted to buy it, but said he was worried about the head gasket because of the clock and offered me $2,500 which I agreed to on the spot.
He texted me from the F3 on his way back to Newcastle to say he had broken down, but I didn't reply.