The Big Think

Oy vey. The beat(ing) goes on. Went to check out a 2000 Camry today. Loaded with leather and 57K miles. Seemed like a pretty good deal. “Oh! It’s a sweet little car that runs great, with great tires.” Well, the tires turned out to be oversized mag wheels. First warning. The current owners live on a farm (second warning). And they are getting rid of it because they don’t need it (they bought a Hummer and then an Avalanche to replace it). As the mechanic said, something didn’t pass the smell test.
Well, we took this “sweet little car that runs great” to the mechanic for a pre-purchase test. Came back 90 minutes later. The verdict? Leaking air conditioning system, oil had been spattered all over the inside of the engine compartment and then carefully cleaned out (they couldn’t get it out of the hood liner, though. When you squeezed the liner oil dripped out of it like water from a sponge). Overspray in several locations from what appears to be a major wreck, bondo in several places, tape marks from amateurish repaint job, cracked outside mirror, replaced muffler, misaligned doors (wreck again), worn brakes, original transmission fluid (nice and gunky), and worn wheel bearings (from the mag wheels).
Yeah, a real cream puff.
The mechanic fee was the best $83 we could have spent.
Like I said, Oy vey.