Husband has just bough a heap of crap and I'm raging

[swinglycat]

DH bought a 15 year old car on Wednesday. He did all the relevant checks and apparently the car has had all the proper BMW servicing done and just passed the MOT last month. The very night he drove home ( 20 mins) the lights at the back had gone off . Woke up the next morning and there is an oil leak now too.

I could cry. We don't have the money to be faffing around with cars.

I'm just so upset that we have been potentially sold a car that's gonna cost money to fix before it's even made it into our driveway.

Would you have spotted the problem? It sounds like he did his due diligence

If he only bought it on Weds can you take it back? Did he buy from a dealer?

Take it back, no question.

He has the right to return the car for a refund. I'd get him to do that asap. Assuming he's purchased it from a garage?

Did he buy it privately or from a dealer? If the latter, then he can take it back (depending on how it was sold to him).

Presumably he bought it as an investment in a potential future classic car, not a family car for regular domestic use?

Would you have done any better?
Sounds like he did all he could to make sure the car was good, yet he’s been done over by the seller - hardly his fault.

Why is that a presumption?
15 years isn’t ’end of the road’ for a modern car, and an oil leak and lighting fault certainly aren’t issues that’ll mean it’s only fit for the bin.

My main vehicle is significantly older than 15 and has been absolutely reliable in daily use.

It was a private seller. He did all he could in regards of checks but he's not a mechanic so was limited.

I mean if it passed MOT last month surely anything major would have been picked up?

I feel so upset as it's going to cost hassle and money to sort- neither of which we have at the moment.

Yes it's the family car

Absolutely I know it's not his fault. I'm not annoyed with him, just the situation.

Me too. However, all our vehicles are bought 2-3 years old and we therefore control the mileage, servicing and maintenance works to make sure the vehicle is optimised in terms of condition. I would never buy a 15 year old vehicle for family use that may have changed hands 7 times and without a full record of what has happened to it.

When we buy for non daily use, it is usually a unique or high spec model that might start to accrue value beyond 30 years as a classic car.

HTH.

It had a full service history from reputable BMW dealers. There was no obvious issue. DH went to see about 3 other cars before hand but Because this had all the relevant documentation it seemed to be in good order and well looked after

Make sure there is always a warranty in future. Even if just for three months.

@LeSoleil Many people don't have that luxury, we have only ever driven older cars (bought when they were around 14 years old) due to budget, our latest was 8 years old when we bought it and that feels super new to us, and felt very expensive. If you have £1500-£2000 to buy a family car its not going to be 2-3 years old!

@swinglycat When we've bought our older cars, we've always budgeted about £1k for the first year to fix anything that comes up like you've described. Do you have a local small garage you can take it to for repairs, who will be honest and not overcharge you?

Did he not get a full mechanic check by the AA or RAC?

Well obviously not, why even ask that.
Is it to stick the boot in more

A oil leak is pretty standard with a car that age, it has nothing to do with a mot being passed . He'll just need to make sure the oil is checked and topped up regular. A light bulb is easy and cheap too. Replace you pick them up for pennies or even free from the scrap yard . We've never on over 30 years have bought from a dealer we just don't have the money. My last car was 25 years old my new is 10 but only has 10k miles on it .
Depends how much he paid for it , he may of been ripped of if he paid to much?

Honestly I wouldn’t worry - while I’m a bit more ‘hands on’ than most, both issues don’t sound like a huge issue to sort.

The rear lights are probably down to one of 2 common issues with BMWs of that age - a short circuit caused by damaged wiring where it passes into the boot, or a ground fault on the rear light clusters themselves. Both aren’t expensive to fix.

The oil leak will need a bit more investigation, but in the past I’ve had what seemed like a major leak from a 50 pence O ring failing - it could be something like that.

Cars of that era are good for becoming more ‘hands on’ and learning if he fancies it, but if not hopefully it won’t be too expensive to sort.

I’ve had cars up to 25 years old - an oil leak certainly isn’t pretty standard.
Only a couple have had leaks, and they’ve been easy to sort.

Unfortunately if all back lights are off it won’t be a bulb - the FRM (module that controls lighting on a BMW) will likely have detected a wiring fault and cut the power as a safety feature.

MOTs check for issues on that day. Lights break and oil leaks can happen at any time.

Thanks to all the kind messages. He is quite good and was able to order bits online to fix himself but waking up to the oil leak has dampened the excitement somewhat. Hopefully it'll be an easy inexpensive fix. I just hate when things like this happen. Especially when you seem to have a run of bad luck

Personally would have focused on a newer car, not a wanky label.

But we've had BMW before and they've been really reliable etc. I take your point though. He will have to get something sorted

Very frustrating for you both, altho I was a bit concerned you were blaming him to start with! I see now that’s not the case. Agree that a ‘lesser’ brand but a newer car would’ve perhaps been more sensible but hindsight is a wonderful thing. I hope the oil leak isn’t anything too major to fix.