Buyer Beware...

[ws6whiteshark]

What is the name of your state? MD

I have been in the market for a good used pick up truck and found a 2002 Ford F-150 King Crew Cab (full 4-door) Lariat 4x4 w/the color matched hard bed cover, leather, sunroof, etc. The truck was being sold by an independant car dealership and was extremely clean inside, outside and even the engine bay looked good. The truck was just inspected (Maryland Safety Inspection) with no problems and figured... it was a good find.

Before handing over the cash, I wanted to have my own mechanic look over the truck. There didn't seem to be any reluctance on the owner's part to let me take it and in fact, he went with me as he's been looking for a closer service station that can do Maryland State Inspections.

My mechanic, drove the truck up on the suspension lift and began looking it over. It didn't take him but 10 minutes to discover that the truck had bad lower ball joints, worn upper control arms and inner tierods... all needing to be replaced. He showed the owner and myself how much movement there was in the ball joints and inner tierods and said this should have NEVER passed inspection. The owner of the truck said, "Oh that's not bad...etc..." My mechanic who also was a former Ford mechanic for 15 years told him just how bad it is. Now the owner is like, well if you want this truck you have to pay for the front end work, which is going to be between $800 - $1000 (6-8 hour job). I considered to go half with him, but he said, "I'm loosing money on this deal then..."

Anyway, if you're in the market for a used vehicle, definitely have a trusted mechanic look it over before finalizing the deal.

Oh and the dealership owner, his family are friends with my in-laws family, so don't trust anyone... even family friends.

 

[racer72]

My question to you, what does your "trusted mechanic" do for a living? You get a brownie button if you say repair motor vehicles. And just how does this mechanic get business so he can make money? By finding things the he thinks are wrong with vehicles that need repairing. You don't state the mileage of the vehicle but most 5 year old cars and trucks that have not been abused should not need front end work. I main vehicle is a 14 year old Toyota pickup with the original ball joints and steering components and it still drives and steers just fine. Also, having driven vehicle with bad ball joints and worn steering parts, it is obvious when the vehicle is being driven. I would also bet that if that same pickup was taken to 10 different mechanics, you would get 10 different lists of what needs to be fixed. Your trusted mechanic is likely just like the trusted auto salesperson, he wants to sell stuff to make a living.

 

[ws6whiteshark]

My question to you, what does your "trusted mechanic" do for a living? You get a brownie button if you say repair motor vehicles. And just how does this mechanic get business so he can make money? By finding things the he thinks are wrong with vehicles that need repairing. You don't state the mileage of the vehicle but most 5 year old cars and trucks that have not been abused should not need front end work. I main vehicle is a 14 year old Toyota pickup with the original ball joints and steering components and it still drives and steers just fine. Also, having driven vehicle with bad ball joints and worn steering parts, it is obvious when the vehicle is being driven. I would also bet that if that same pickup was taken to 10 different mechanics, you would get 10 different lists of what needs to be fixed. Your trusted mechanic is likely just like the trusted auto salesperson, he wants to sell stuff to make a living.

I don't know Toyotas, but they probably have grease fittings on their ball joints, where the Fords don't. Plus a Toyota isn't carrying around over a ton on its frontend. The truck has 100,000 miles on it. My mechanic also was showing us how much movement there was in the ball joints and tie rods where there SHOULDN'T BE ANY AT ALL. As for looking for more business, he could care less about doing the work or not, he just wanted to make sure I was getting a good truck. As for 10 different mechanics and 10 different lists... you may be right, but based on what I was shown, all 10 of those lists should have lower ball joints, upper control arms and inner tierods on them. Hell, I could always contact the Maryland State Police, Vehicle Safety Enforcement Division and have them look into this and I'm sure they would find the same safety issues/problems as my mechanic found. The inspector who signed off on the Vehicle Safety Inspection Certificate should lose his license for this sh!t. Dealer probably pays him a little more on the side to pass everything and look the other way.