Used Car Buying Horror Stories, As Told By Jalopnik Readers (2024)

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2 / 17

The one I’m dealing with currently.

In mid-January 2024, I flew from Oklahoma to Illinois to purchase a 2018 Genesis G90 5.0 Ultimate AWD from a newly opened Genesis store. The process seemed promising enough, so I was happy to hand over a certified check for the car. The first complication came when it was discovered that I’d have to pay tax at the time of purchase. While Oklahoma allows you to remit tax within 30 days, Illinois makes you pay tax upfront. And now that Illinois and Oklahoma reciprocate tax with each other, the dealer was required to collect tax and then use a third-party service to remit the tax to my state and apply for a title and plate on my behalf.

I also purchased an extended warranty while I was there.

When I got to the dealership, I noticed that the car only had one key and asked if they’d provide a second one. They agreed to do so. They also agreed to send me a new fuse box cover for the engine bay, since it was missing.

A couple of weeks later, in late January, I texted my salesperson and asked him where the key was. His response was that they were only ever going to give me the second key if they could procure it from the prior owner, and they couldn’t. I said, “No dice; it was on the We Owe, and you need to provide it.” That was an uphill battle, but I finally got them to pay my local dealer to make a key, which I just received the other day. I also received the fuse box cover pretty late, after they lied and said it was on backorder (it wasn’t).

The bigger issue is the title. I still don’t have the title, or plate. I just had to call them today to ask them to overnight me another temp tag, because mine officially expires today (three-month tag).

And, on top of that, the car has developed a noticeable shudder around the 1-2 upshift. I had my local Hyundai/Genesis dealership look at it, and try to engage the warranty. Since they had a similar issue on another G90, they know that it’s the transfer case. But the warranty company wants them to tear the transfer case down to the point of failure before they’ll approve a new one. Since the dealer doesn’t think they’ll be able to find a culprit part, they told me the best thing to do is just to wait for it to worsen.

I honestly want to sell the car and buy something else, but I haven’t got the f*cking title. I have the Illinois Attorney General and the Secretary of State breathing down the Illinois Genesis store’s neck, because they have not given me a satisfactory answer for why I don’t yet have plates or a title, and my state doesn’t seem to know anything about the car. Whenever I call the third-party company that’s handling the interstate tax and title transfer, they tell me they can’t release information without the dealer’s consent, even though the dealer allegedly gave it to them.

To recap

- I purchased a six-year-old Genesis from a Genesis store out of state

- I had to pay tax at the time of purchase, to be sent to my state by a third-party company

- That store tried to renege on their written agreement to provide a second key

- I still don’t have a title or plates, three months later

- The car has a mechanical issue

Honestly, it’s the worst purchase I’ve ever experienced, and that includes my purchase of a V12 Jaguar wherein the car’s transmission promptly failed right after I bought it. I think that Genesis made a huge misstep in a) not spending the money to launch as a proper luxury brand at the outset, and b) allowing Hyundai stores to retail its cars after it did. Unfortunately, Genesis stores—even as they move to standalone operations—are still extensions of Hyundai franchises, so most of the dealerships are just moving their unprofessional Hyundai sales and management clowns over to the Genesis side, which means you get sh*t like this.

Suggested by Kyree

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3 / 17

I bought my second ‘91 BMW 318is from the Russian Mob in Philly via eBay. Flew down, get picked up by a big Russian dude in a Porsche Cayenne who drove like he was in Ronin. End up at a Lincoln dealership out in the Mainline somewhere that they are operating out of the back of - about a dozen Russian guys. Car is there, it’s OK but the paint isn’t as good as it looked in pictures (metallic black). But it drove nicely and mint interior. They can’t find the title - much scrambling and shouting in Russian. Finally found, paperwork done, I hit the road. Make it halfway up the Jersey Turnpike when the dash lights up like a Christmas tree. Pull over, open hood, find belts have come off. Grrr. Call AAA - “we can’t tow you off the Turnpike, you will have to pay a local tow truck and we will reimburse you”. $300 to get towed to the closest PepBoys, where I buy belts and a cheap wrench set ( I did indeed get a check from AAA in a few weeks). Fixed the car in the parking lot and head on to my buddy’s place in CT where I am spent the night.

Not a fortuitous start, but it was a good car. I sold it for more than I paid for it a few years later, and I REALLY wish I had kept it because the “Baby M3" is worth bank today. A car that is FAR better than its specs would lead you to ever imagine.

Suggested by krhodes1

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4 / 17

Not a purchase for me, but for a friend. In 2022 a friend of mine was living out of Province. He was looking to buy a two-year-old F150. He sent me a dealer listing and asked if I would go take a look. The listing was for a 2020 F150, in silver, with a high-enough trim level that it had bucket seats, a big centre console, some tech, nice wheels, etc... An XLT with some options, I guess.

I bookmarked the ad and went to see the truck, at the appropriate Ford dealer. I get there, and I can’t find the truck on the lot. Thinking that maybe it’s sold I went inside and asked one of the sales guys about this listing. He says “Oh yeah, it’s out front.” I’m thinking that maybe I didn’t see it but whatever, I followed him outside.

Now, the image in the ad was taken on their lot, of a very clean, silver, F150 XLT. What he led me to was a clearly-just-arrived-on-the-lot, dirty, grey F150 with steel wheels.

“This isn’t the same truck”, I said.

“Yes it is”.

“No, the truck I’m looking for is silver. This one is grey, and it’s a different model.”

The sales guy then has the unmitigated nerve to say “The picture in the ad is just a placeholder.”

I replied that the listing says “silver” and “XLT”. And has a VIN listed.

Dude doubles-down and insists this is the same truck.

So I ask him to open it. I checked the VIN and sure enough, it’s different.

The response? “Well, it’s basically the same truck.”

I just walked away. I ended up arranging a private sale for my buddy, with another guy who had the exact truck my buddy wanted.

Suggested by JohnnyWasASchoolBoy

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5 / 17

I can take a lot of crap. I have taken a lot of crap in my life. The experiences that still get me are the hom*ophobes and transphobes I run into on Facebook Marketplace...and, well, life.

Sometimes, it’s someone who stalks my profile, finds out I’m trans, and refuses to sell me a car or a set of wheels. Ok, fine, whatever. Then things get worse. More than once, someone has done that little stalking and instead of just taking my money, they have to leave harassing comments on my posts before I just delete and block.

One time, someone had me drive hours to buy a car, just to happily turn me around when I got there. But the absolute worst was a jackwagon who threatened to kill me because I refused to sell him a $500 motorcycle for $200. He’s the reason why I no longer give an accurate address to strangers. I try to do public places whenever possible, but that’s harder if the vehicle either can’t make it there under its own power or is otherwise illegal to drive on the road.

Suggested by Mercedes Streeter

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6 / 17

Might’ve told this story before but- in my twenties I couldn’t be bothered to crawl in the mud to look at the frame on a 1st gen Isuzu Trooper. The body was immaculate and the frame in the wheel wells seemed ok so how bad could it be? Took it to my mechanic for a (post-buy) inspection and it was so bad he wouldn’t even put it on the lift. I only got some of my money back. I deserved it. The mud might have been a strategy on the part of the seller...

Suggested by stiggums

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7 / 17

I bought a 1973 Land Rover Airportable (ex-military) for $13,000. Also known as a “Lightweight”, the vehicle was meant to be launched out of a C-130 with a parachute. I did not have a C-130. I had it shipped from the East Coast to Alaska. The vehicle, which we nicknamed “The Butt-bomb” because the gas tank was under the seat, turned out to be an illegal import with a fake VIN plate. I discovered its status while rebuilding the brakes and asking questions in online forums. Rather than go to jail I quietly parked it. The Butt-bomb ended up on a farm in Massachusetts years later when I gave it away.

Suggested by TheBlightofGrey

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8 / 17

I had an Infinti dealer refuse to let me leave for over 90 minutes. They “lost” the keys to my trade and kept applying high pressure sales tactics to convince me to buy the heavy, slow, POS car I had test driven. When I threatened to call the police, they finally found my keys.

I will never set foot in an Infiniti/Nissan dealership again.

Suggested by Segador

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9 / 17

I’ve told this one before, but here goes. Back in spring 2022, I found a used 2021 Tacoma with very low mileage and a “NO HASSLE PRICE” of $36,990. I contacted the dealer through their website. After speaking with a sales rep to confirm the “NO HASSLE PRICE” was legit before making the ~45 minute drive, we roughly calculated the total price (adding TTL, etc.) to be around $39,500. While on the test drive, I confirmed the “NO HASSLE PRICE” again. While looking over the vehicle, the rep put together the paperwork - final price $45,000+. When I asked what happened to the “NO HASSLE PRICE”, he said they need to charge for reconditioning and add-ons like LoJack - all which was already done, so it wasn’t a new charge added on that day, it just wasn’t included in the price on purpose. After pointing out the “NO HASSLE PRICE” and the $39,500 drive off price we talked about, I got up to leave. He asked if I could pay $42,500 and I said $40,500 (1000 over what we talk about already) and that’s it. Then a senior rep came out to try to smooth things over and try to become my buddy when he realized we were both originally from Louisiana. But he didn’t budge on price, so I left.

Suggested by Ours Blanc

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10 / 17

I once bought a Grand Wagoneer from a guy who was living in it. It had no gas and parked on a city street where it had racked up like 15 parking tickets.

So after I went a got gas in it, double checked that i wouldn’t be liable for the tickets and evicted the tenant. i was able to drive it home. This was like a 5 hour thing that should have taken me 45 min.

Suggested by the_AUGHT

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11 / 17

I was teenager buying a car from some old dude. We put it up on a jack so I could look underneath after my test drive and make sure nothing was leaking, but didn’t pull the hand break or block the tires. As I was looking around, I started to hear gravel crunching and noticed the car slowly moving. Got my hands on the bumper and yanked myself out from under it as the car rolled off the jack. Learned a pretty important lesson that day, thankfully without injury.

Suggested by engineerthefuture

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12 / 17

Once drove four almost three hundred miles to look at my unicorn VW Golf Clipper Cabriolet, only too have the dealer, who had promised to reserve it for me, say they had sold it earlier that day. They then proceeded to offer me, instead of the mint condition VW Golf, a rusty Austin Maestro with after market GTI decals on it.

Words were had.

Suggested by plant_daily

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13 / 17

I test drove a CX-9 with no brakes. More specifically, it seemed to have suffered from the catastrophic loss of brake pressure common to the last generation of that vehicle, and the dealer had done nothing whatsoever to resolve it. I had it about halfway to the highway when I tried to reduce speed and just... Couldn’t. I eased it back to the dealership, told them it was stupid to have it for sale in that shape, and left.

Suggested by Rayce_Archer

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14 / 17

I was persuaded by my father not to re-invest £600 into my first car, an E21 BMW 318, and instead spend £1300 on a much older VW Beetle....

On the test-drive the fuel tank was leaking, that should have warned me.... But the shop selling it fixed that before I picked it up.

First time I drove the car more than 5 miles, picking up my brother from school one December evening, it blew a piston ring (I think), and the engine breather started pushing oily smoke into the engine bay... which of course is where the “heating system” for the passenger cabin draws it’s air from. So - the cabin was filling up with hot, oily smoke. We ended up driving most of the distance with all the windows open, with both of us smoking cigarettes because they made the air we were breathing taste a little better!

Sold the pile of junk back to the same shop a week later (tried to get them to accept it as a refunded purchase but they wouldn’t do it) for the grand sum of £1100, so I didn’t quite get all my money back!

Suggested by Rockburner

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15 / 17

2010, my wife needs a new car and has settled on a Mazda3 GT hatch. We find a good deal on one, brand new, optioned exactly how she wants, down to the color and everything. We already had financing in place through our bank and head off to the dealership - which happened to be in a different city 90 minutes away, because neither of our local Mazda dealers had what she wanted. We arrive, do the test drive and everything checks out. We close the deal and are in the F&I office wrapping up when a lot attendant knocks on the door and looks absolutely shaken. Apparently, they were taking the car directly across the street where the dealer network’s wash and detail center was located to get it cleaned up and ready to go, when a lady ran a red light and took the front end off.

Needless to say, we did not go home with a new car that day but I will give the dealer credit for locating another just like it and offering to have it shipped to us if we were still interested, which we took them up on. Ironically, she had that car for 7 years before it was totaled by... a lady running a red light.

Suggested by Hankel_Wankel

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16 / 17

First car I purchased myself back in 2015 - it was a two year old off-lease Infiniti G37x. Bought it as a CPO directly from the Infiniti dealer. I got hosed on the purchase, inexperience at work, totally my fault. Lesson learned. But that wasn’t the bad part.

I had just moved to the state where I purchased the car, had an apartment but an out of state license. I wasn’t planning on changing my license right away since I didn’t know how long I’d be living there. Unprompted, the people at the dealership said there wouldn’t be an issue registering the car in my name in this new state. Ok, great.

I left the dealership with my new-to-me car, temp tags, and a promise that the dealership would send me the title and my plates well before the temps expired.

We all can guess what happened next.

And then I waited. And waited. And waited. I heard nothing. We’re less than two weeks out from when my temp tags are set to expire and I start contacting the dealership. First my salesman who says he’ll look into it. After a couple of days, he sends me to his manager. His manager eventually tells me to contact their title department. I try a couple of times and don’t hear back. Squeaky wheel gets the grease, right? I continue contacting the sales manager and my salesman who seem to be the only two people, besides the receptionist, who answers the phone at the dealership.

I don’t know if this was incompetence or an overwhelmed title department but here’s what happened. My temp tags were set to expire on Tuesday the 14th. On the afternoon of the 13th, my salesman forwards me an email from the Title Clerk. She said that on the 10th, she MAILED (not FedEx, UPS, or even certified mail) my title with a note saying they could not register my car with my out of state license. Even though I had been trying to get ahead of this for nearly two weeks, they didn’t think to call or email me giving me a heads up that they had failed to get me plates, just a piece of snail mail that would have reached me, at the earliest, the DAY BEFORE I could no longer legally drive the car.

Understandably, I was livid. This was our only car and my girlfriend at the time was using it to commute to her job. While this city we lived in had public transportation, it wasn’t known for its safety, her commute went through a pretty rough neighborhood, and she had to get to work before sun up and left after sundown.

I called the sales manager and expressed my frustration. Could they give me another temp tag until I could get to the DMV whenever my title arrived? Nope. Ok, that’s not acceptable. I eventually had them send a porter to drive 25 minutes to me to drop off a dealer plate for me to use until I could get plates myself.

It didn’t end there. Since I now had one of their dealer plates, they were motivated to get my issue resolved. So, when my title hadn’t shown up by the 15th, they proactively ordered a duplicate title and had it hand delivered. The day I received the title, the sales manager proceeded to get a little testy with me and said I needed to get the plates myself quickly since they couldn’t let me keep the dealer plate forever. He didn’t have a great response when I reminded him that all of this was his dealership’s fault and I had been as proactive as I possibly could. With duplicate title-in-hand and whatever other nonsense I needed, I eventually went to a sketchy local DMV branch, got my plates, and the dealership sent someone to pick up their dealer plate.

If the Infiniti lineup was not enough alone to have me avoid the brand, that dealership experience certainly was.

Oh, the original title got to me a week later.

Suggested by blumalago

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