I sure wish I had researched this car before I bought it. I bought it with 146000 miles. It was sitting by the roadside for quite awhile so I finally stopped to look. It was extremely clean for a 2001. The guy wanted $7500. I took it for a ride and everything seemed great except the Check Engine Light was on. He said it was nothing serious. His mechanic said, at most, it was an Oxygen Sensor. Long story short, I offered him $6500 and he took it. A week later the Alternator went out ($700). My mechanic put it on the computer for inspection and said the Catalytic Converter was bad. He also said the brakes needed to be replaced, even though the guy I bought it from claimed they were only a year old. I called the guy and basically he said tough luck. I called my lawyer and he said I would have a tough time applying the Lemon Law and doubted I could get any satisfaction. Well, two days ago the Transmission Service Required light came on. Took it to my mechanic and he said the fluid was really dark brown. He is going to flush it tomorrow. He also said there were two codes, something about transmission slips. He also said I shouldn't spend any money on the converter or the brakes until we know what's going on with the transmission. The car feels fine and I don't feel any problems with shifting. Here's my question.. Am I supposed to junk the car and take the loss. I'm really frustrated. I've been reading a lot on the forum and I'm getting the feeling the transmission problems are more a serious irritant than a dropping on the ground issue. Anyone have advice or suggestions? HELP

 

Take you mechanics advise and find out what's wrong with the transmission and then go from there. You can not just junk something that costs $6500. Brakes and a catalytic converter are not that big a deal.

 

Thanks Jim. I did run CarFax before I bought the car and it came back clean so that's some good news. I'm just frustrated that one thing after the other goes wrong. We just sold our '96 960 Wagon and told everyone who inquired about the car exactly what problems it had and what we had done and what needed to be done. I believe in being honest and I feel this guy really "screwed" us. I'll take my mechanics advice because I do trust him. He thinks that flushing the system may just do the trick. Not sure if he really believes that but we will see.

 

Transmission flushed with synthetic oil this morning (full flush), $140. Full set of brakes on order $664. Got price for converter and 02 sensors, $1072 without labor. This car is getting more $$ than my Cadillac

 

People that arent DIY'er should not consider buying european cars that have that many miles. I just bought a high miles BMW M5 and if I had taken it to a shop to get some things straightend out like you did I would already have 4-5k in the car for repairs.


You cat issue I bet I could take car of for less than $200. Just buy a new "generic" cat that you can weld in place of the old one. O2's you can find on ebay most of the time at a good price.

 

This statement might have raised a BIG RED Flag on it!!

I might have taken it to the mechanic beforeI bought it..might have saved the trips to the mechanic after I bought it....

I am looking at a couple of thousand in repairs on my car...but it wasstuff I broke....