Skwerl

Agree, and the incredibly obvious stuff they "missed" makes me wonder what else is lurking beneath that just hasn't popped up yet.

hexagone

This sounds like way too much of a liability to keep - considering the relative quality/type of car.

Your first experiene with one of these cars shouldn't be a disaster.

mike cap

TeeJayHoward

Salesman says the owners are offering a chunk of cash to me. It's not enough to fix everything, but it's close, provided I buy used parts and do the work myself. Fine by me. I should be able to get rid of every error light and put the rest towards the wing struts. They're also refunding my deposit. I'm satisfied with the result. It's not how I want it to be handled as a customer but it's a good compromise that doesn't hurt a small business nearly as bad as my dream scenario would. (New parts and labor provided by the local dealership, free PPI with anything else found fixed, written letter of apology, a free warranty, and a freakin' fruit basket)

Today I got to have a little fun tearing into the beastie. I had an aftermarket microphone that was previously glued to the steering column. It had fallen off and was dangling down by my feet. I traced the wire back to a silver box velcro'd behind the glovebox. The iPod cable in the glovebox also went to this box. Awesome. I can finally figure out what model the cable belongs to, and then learn how to use it. Eeh, not so much. I got pissed at it when it wouldn't dislodge and decided that I didn't need it in my car anymore. I could live without bluetooth and ipod and all of that goodness until I replace the head unit. So I started un-wiring it from the car. It was very nicely installed. I'm not a fan of vampire taps personally, preferring to run wires along the main harness until they hit the fusebox, where I add a fuse to an otherwise empty spot. But there were just two little taps, and the wires came off easily. There was also an optical tap for the Bose system - That was a little more troublesome to remove, but it looks like whoever designed this system did so in a manner which suggests it was intended to be easily removed. In the end, there was very little damage compared to your typical used car stereo setup.





So what was it? A mobridge unit. I can't get a model number because they velcro'd it in behind the glovebox (which is why it was so hard to remove). Removing the velcro rips the stickers on the unit, so I'll leave it be. Stereo works fine without it attached.

TeeJayHoward

Oh, almost forgot to mention. My mother drives a big beautiful Infiniti SUV. She was going to be in town today. So I traded her a steak dinner and a tank of gas for a ride down to and back from Porsche of Colorado Springs. Tires acquired! TPMS sensors should be here tomorrow. Just gotta find a cheap set of wheels while I'm on vacation, and then the snow shoes can be assembled.

kellen

What was the sales price of the vehicle? Miles? Good luck fixing it, I would have demanded a refund.

The convertible top thing may have been installed to use the other parts of it, honk when unlock, windows down from remote.

If its a flood car, look at any bolts down low for rust.

BradtheAg

While I admire your willingness to roll with the punches I would personally take a much different approach. My concern is this thing will be a neverending source of frustration/anxiety.

TeeJayHoward

Before I left for vacation, I ordered a new sensor and bought used taillights from a member here. While on vacation, I picked up some wheels and TPMS sensors for the snow tires. They're TireRack cheapos, but they should do the job. I got home yesterday to discover that the tail lights had been delivered. I installed them and then took my wife's car down to the dealer to pick up the sensor. On the way back, I dropped by a Harbor Freight for a 7/8" (22mm-ish) sensor wrench and socket set. Today I spent two hours installing the sensor:



I then cleared the codes, started the car, and rejoiced. I had coolant temp! However, a bit of coolant spilled out when I replaced the sensor, so I drove down to pick up some more. When I started the car after buying coolant, it failed again. I drove home, cleared the code, topped it off, and started the car back up. It started working. However, while idling in my garage I could see the needle dropping. I managed to catch the next time it failed:


I drove around a bit, hoping that it was an air bubble or something like that, but the problem keeps coming back. In addition, while the car IS working, the oil level sensor claims that the car isn't warmed up yet. And replacing the tail lights didn't fix my front fog problem or my lack of cruise control. I'm thinking a Durametric Pro is in my future to "turn on" my cruise control feature again. I'm currently trying to find a way to lift the car up far enough for me to crawl under and check out that disc valve on the transmission. (Part # 928 574 573 03, number 19 on this diagram.) I don't know if the Turbo models have it or if it's just something on the GT3s, but I'm REALLY hoping that's the problem, because the next thing I can think of is an electrical issue, and I don't want to try and track one of those down in a car this complex. I'm going through the parts list right now trying to find a good diagram of it.

edit: I just now ordered some sort of thingie from a company called Dannmar. It's supposed to help me get under the car. We'll see.

TeeJayHoward

Things to add to the list:

Headlight squirters inoperable (assuming the button on the bottom of the stalk is how you use them)
Oil temperature gauge inoperable (but no dash warning? Maybe 10 minutes of driving isn't enough to get it up to temp?)

edit: It really DOES take that long to get the oil up to temp. 20 minutes of idling and the gauge hadn't moved. At about 25 minutes, I could check the oil level.
edit2: The headlight squirters will not work unless the headlights are ON. RTFM, eh?

LISsailor

I'm dying to know what the mileage and sales price of this car was. It is ROUGH to say the least.

hexagone

This thing sounds like a disaster... one thing after another.

Even for dirt cheap it doesn't seem like it will ever be "right". I would not accept the check from the dealer and just return it - cut your losses and buy a better car.

This soundsl ike way too many things to have gone wrong in such a short amount of time

TeeJayHoward

That's not a thing you can do with a car purchase. At least not in my state.

LISsailor

OP, I think what everyone is saying here is that the car has basically been misrepresented. I do not understand how a PPI would not catch even some of these glaring issues. I think you are entitled to much more than the dealer is offering. I would contact an attorney to see what your options are. This might be only the beginning of your headaches. I posed the question earlier as it is relevent. You should have paid much below market for a car with voluminous issues.

Last thought, who performed the PPI? Was it an inside job??

TeeJayHoward

That's information that I can't post on a public forum until arbitration is finished. (And it may be a condition of the arbitration that it not be posted ever.) Let's just say that I agree with a ton of what people are saying. I'm just trying to do everything right should this turn into the legal mess that it has the potential to be.

jll1011

TeeJay, feel badly about your experience. Particularly, after telling us the story at the beginning of your post. There are some strong opinions here, just work this out as best you can. You can tell everyone here wants you to have the best outcome. In the meantime, keep surfacing your issues and the smart guys on the forum will assist (thankfully they keep helping me).