Did my brother buy a lemon or is the car just showing its age?

[JD]

My brother bought a '96 EFII Falcon GLi 5 Speed for $4700 about 2 months ago and in that time he has had to replace or fix: Alarm system, Battery and just this week he has had to replace the clutch, flywheel and he has to get the firewall fixed because the clutch cable has cracked it, the fuel pump is also on the way out.

At the moment he has spent about $1000 and he hasn't fixed the firewall yet or the fuel pump.

To me, this isn't good as i bought my car 2 months ago, i paid $2500 and apart from replacing the RH indicator and adding a alarm, i haven't done a thing to it.

So apart from it being a Ford could it also be a lemon?

[Cobez]

Not that you could check that stuff before you bought it, but there is a good chance it is all coincidence. My car is slowly showing it's age, as are alot of VN - VS's. Fords realistically should be no different.

But then again, i am not a mechanic.

[Shounak]

It just means he didn't check it over properly. Was the car inspected prior to purchase?

Clutches go. When was this clutch put in? A clutch only lasts about 100,000k's. I know a chick who rides her clutch all the time, worst driver ever. She got 40,000km from her last clutch. He could've seen that one coming though.

Battery's do sometimes just die. Did he do tests on it to see how it would be going? But that's not too much of a worry, some sealed batteries do literally just die overnight. No amount of charging will save them.

I think your brother didn't get the car properly checked, rather than it being a lemon. EF's are pretty sturdy cars.

I think the moral of the story is if you're not up for checking the car over yourself, get it done professionally. It's the best $150 or whatever you'll spend.

Also, negotiate prices based on what you think will go wrong. I just helped my friend buy a car and after test driving it, I knew the clutch was going and we factored replacement cost into the offer we made (along with a few other things) and the seller accepted.

[JD]

he " checked it out himself ", the battery died because it had no water in it, the clutch was only 6 months old, so it should of been good for a while and the cars only done about 195xxx, mines done almost 250xxx.

[Reaper]

What you are describing is an old car where the maintenance has been left to slide for quite a while. It is a bit hit & miss with stuff like that. You can get cars where the owner hasn't touched them in 10 years and they are 100% reliable. Others can be exactly the opposite. The hard bit is where do you draw the line, cut your losses and move on to something else.

Reaper

[Shounak]

If a clutch lasted 6 months I'd be contacting the previous owner to find out where they got it installed and what kind of clutch.

Either the previous owner was dumping the clutch at every set of lights, drifting, doing burnouts and riding it EVERYWHERE or something was screwed up in the installation process. Even driving instructors get more form their clutches.

Battery was just old to begin with. But I would say that the clutch along with the damage to the firewall was a screw up in the install.

KM's don't mean a great deal for Falcodores. My uncles Commodore which shuttles between Melbourne and Canberra regularly is in perfect nick, despite its massive amount of K's. Compare that to my friends later model VT which only has 140,000km with a slipping tranny and pretty much everything wrong with it. It's all about how the cars are treated.

edit: Did you consider the possiblity that the clutch was never changed? No-ones going to remove a gearbox when inspecting a car to see if the clutch is new.

[JD]

the previous owner said the clutch was a Exedy twin plate, according to ABS ( where he got it fixed ), it was a chinese copy.

[f1tzy]

Wow. Why would you get a twin plate for an n/a six?

[adam69]

Cracked firewalls are a common fault with this era of manual falcon,batterys always die in cold weather and fuel pumps are normal stuff ups too.Fuel pumps are easy to fix also.Its not a lemon just common faults with this model and its age.

[Mack]

I think he got a bargain, $1000 isnt much at all to spend on a vehicle so cheap. I always say, whenever buying a new car always have $1000 spare to fix **** up, because there is almost always **** to fix. I had to spend $1000 on my GTS to get it roadworthy'd , it happens with age.

[hsvpunk]

the question is. why did he buy a ford???

Should ahve had somebody with him to check it out ( someone that knew about cars) as for fuel pump, u dont know when it is going to go.

[JD]

i grew up in a ford family, my father is a ford fanatic, as is my brother, i am the onl person who drives a Holden.