I'm an idiot. I wanted something cheap. I just ended a 3 year lease and wanted a POS car with no payments. Just for a year or so. I don't drive much at all. Work is only 2 miles from house.. Payed 2200 for a truck from a private seller. One week later it broke down. Feels like a transmission issue. Hard to explain. But had to leave it on the side of road. Getting it towed to shop tomorrow.

I was sold from the buyer's ********. Looked like a nice guy. Not a dealer in disguise. "Super reliable truck"..... I don't know **** about cars. Wish I knew someone to have checked it out prior. I sent him a venmo for payment.... gonna call him tomorrow and try and not be pissed off (to start off). Maybe I can get some $$ back.

Should have asked for a test drive and just took it too a shop for them to look over

buyer beware *******

Was it japanese?

Should of took it to a mechanic and got a full inspection...

^ 177,000 miles...... Ford Ranger. That. Yes OP is a fuking dumb *******. I rushed it. "Felt good" lol don't trust your gut buying a car.

Not sure how broke you are but at least you only spent 2k. Not that costly of a lesson.

I sold my old blazer to a guy for 1500.I told him everything that was wrong with it that I knew about and said as long as he makes it out of the parking lot it’s a done deal, never heard anything back from him but that thing was a piece of chit. I’ve seen cars people are selling for 2-4K that don’t even run. You usually get what you pay for. Can’t expect much for 2200.

Never trust anyone. Always do your do doing

-Honest Abe

Well, can’t expect much from a car with 177k miles. You took a chance and went down swinging. With used cars, try not to buy something with more than 100k miles.

Might be a n=1, but my brother had a Ranger back in 2000 or so, damn thing broke down weekly, almost always tranny issues. Not sure if he just had bad luck, but he never bought a Ford again after that.

I always have problems with trannies. Hard habit to break.

Lol, this also happened to me with a ranger. Tranny.

but I mean.... OP you paid $2200.... What were you expecting, exactly?

When you get it back sell it to the next chump for 2300 lol

Lmao @ “super reliable” 🤣

That’s a sure sign that truck ain’t gonna last buddy

my friend bought a ford ranger with a blown engine for $200 and got another for ranger with a blown trans for free, combined the two vehicles and sold one for $1100 scrapped the other lol. ford rangers are trash but $2200 isn't much of a budget, I hope you learned your lesson, if you don't know anything about cars find a mechanic to look the vehicle over first or buy from a one owner seller who has documented maintenance. it might just be low on trans fluid, i think automatics you have to check with engine up to temp, running and in neutral, might be able to fix it or milk it for a year by adding fluid if it has a leak.

Meh re-manufactured trans for that will probably run about $1500, won't comment on labor not sure what the hourly rate is like. When it's all said and done you may be looking at 5 grand total. Good news is once you take care of it will be probably be a decent truck.

I don't know......$2k isn't a big loss. But I'm not exactly sure what you were expecting for a $2k truck? If it's nice on the interior and runs smooth, then why would they be selling it for $2k?

I have a '98 civic with 285,000 miles, which I use as my around town beater to keep miles off the other cars - its AWESOME, runs reliably, it costs me virtually nothing besides tires & oil changes and occasionally belt replacements / minor oil leaks, and the Blue Book value is something like $1500-1700. LOL are you kidding me, why would I EVER SELL that car if it costs me next to nothing to maintain and it's reliable?

Also, if the owner can't provide you with maintenance records, just walk away right off the bat.

Dude, it's a 2K truck. Ask for some of your money back? You bought it as is. Probably was okay, but a truck like that is probably on it's last legs.

Oh and once you fix this problem, there will be another.

this

2200 is basically scrap price, i would expect a vehicle that is worthy of being sold to a scrap yard for that price, not one that can actually be driven for another 50,000 miles.

You should stick to older Japanese cars OP.
Easier to work on. Reliable and relatively cheap too.
Stay away from anything that's being driven by young people.
Try to buy from older people if possible.

Dude I work with has a 100+km round trip commute, makes good money and drives an $800 civic. That's poor people vehicles.

B..b...but... the misc said buying a reliable old car with cash is the way to becoming rich?

He owes you nothing. It's on you to inspect it yourself, or get it inspected before you buy it.

Reliable old car.

Not any old car.

Requires research and luck.

I don’t do refunds OP

I would also like to add having tools and knowledge goes a long way. Sometimes you can get better deals when the seller is in fact the ignorant one. For instance maybe the vehicle just needs new belts or an alternator but the seller is dumb af.

You right but some people are uneducated like me who aren’t in that line of work and never have been around that crew. It’s riskier if you don’t know cars and you buy a car with a minor few issues as in very troublesome but very easy to fix. What I did with mine was get a car with low inherent value at a premium along with research.

A lot of times these dumb fuk normies just buy a Toyota/Honda because muh reliability bro and pay 3-4x compared to a comparable sedan from a different manufacturer. Why? Because once a meme sets off it sets off. Toyota and Honda’s may be more reliable. Are they 3x more reliable? Doubt. That’s a very bold claim.

What I think is a good idea is:
- read lots of reviews of the exact same make and model online. You want everyone saying shyt like “she just keeps going and going.” “0 issues. Shytty car though.” Etc. That’s the kind of consistency you should be seeing.
- take advantage of arbitrage. My 06 Pontiac does everything an 06 corolla does and more (higher horse and torque, auto headlights) yet it’s worth 1/4th or 1/5th of the price because Pontiac’s are viewed as cheap and Toyota’s are viewed as good. Go online and read the reviews of the car and see if it clicks in terms of safety with you. And then look into the people selling it for a premium. There’s probably a reason. I paid $2300CDN for mine and it has a market value of ~$1400. Yet it was safetied, and replaced with bunch of new parts that made it road safe. Only problem was a cranky starter which is still working. And you know what ppl pay a premium for working beat up cars.
- don’t be too hung up on the km. Parts get old. In all cars. Look at the parts and try to assess how the car is maintained. Regular oil changes, parts replacements, etc.

Because when you’re paying 3k or less there isn’t an expectation in the market that the vehicle has to be running. So you can take advantage of people looking for something cheap but want a perfectly running car. So when I put up an ad for $2900 I got tons of interest. People are in this particular market desperate for a working car and don’t have a lot of money. Same thing as me hence why I paid a huge premium on it. Thank God I didn’t sell it to make a downpayment on a new $35k car 3 months into my first full time job.

Normie parents are begging me to get a “nice” car because they are normie keepingupwiththejones air heads I guess who aren’t interested in living their own reality.

Just some advice for miscers looking for a beater. N=1 but these are the steps I followed when searching for mine.

Oh and most important tip is to just get lucky. Honestly you never know.

2021 Jeep Grand Wagoneer crew checking in