Was I right to walk away ?

[robocal]

I posted here about 1 week ago with an enquiry on fuel consumption and mileage in an X5 I was buying. Subsequent to this I got an independent vehicle inspection report drawn up. The report was largely good, with some items which the vendor was willing to repair such as the fan belt being split. The big problem however was that the report indicated that there was deformation under the left front underwing. The deformation was detected on the inside of the bumper, the outside looked fine. In addition to this on further inspection I noticed a small part of the air grille under the bumper on the right hand side had also been repaired, quite badly I might add. Underneath the car was no better, all the attachment points between the bumper and the car's underbody were either broken or missing and on looking at the bumper head on it was slightly lower on one side then the other ( this took a very close inspection to determine, if you weren't looking for it you probably wouldn't notice). The vendor assured me that it was probably the result of just a minor knock it had received. Either the owner had a parking accident or perhaps someone reversed into him. In either case he stressed to me that the main structure of the vehicle had not been effected and it was shown to be ok on the vehicle inspection report. Eventually after much discussion he offered to replace the bumper.

In the end however I decided to walk away based on the fact that
1. The vendor had told me there were no accidents and subsequent information showed that he knew that it had this knock. If he was lying about that what else was he not telling me ?
2. Anyone who had an accident and got his vehicle repaired the way this had been obviously didn't care for the vehicle.
3. The car was 3 years old and had only 10,500miles on it. I was happy the first 2 years it was seviced under the BMW warranty but for the last year it probably had not received any service. (not really a major deciding factor with only 10,500 miles on the clock).

So was I right to walk away ? I have been second guessing myself ever since as it really was a beautiful X5 with everything I wanted and more on it.

[statdoc]

You should not have walked away, you should have RUN away! Surely more problems will show up down the line for anyone foolish enough to take that deal.

[UCrewX5]

If the glove don't fit, you must acquit

In all seriousness, if you weren't comfortable with the deal then the smart thing to do was what you did - walk away and don't look back.

[X5Ghost]

Run man, once in accident, you'll never get the market value for it once you decide to sell it... good luck finding another one. I'm sure you will, just be patient

[vinuneuro]

There is such a thing as too low miles. Just because it was that old with so few miles, a lot of bugs/glitches/common problems that we got fixed under warranty, you would have had to fix out of pocket.

[B-Line]

Me feeling is,

ALWAYS walk away. At the very least, they will call you in a week and ask if you'll buy it if they drop the price a couple grand.

Happens all the time!!!!

And, maybe the car is not such a bad deal if you save some $$$$ on it.

B

[kglesq]

You can place the decision to bail on that purchase in the "good decision" column. That thing had nightmare written all over it.

[03Topazbluex5]

Is there such a thing as an honest salesman?

[adrian.b]

NO there isnt, bought my first ever BMW 2 weeks ago (X5 of course) and the whole garage just tried to rip me off left right and centre. I was trading in my fully paid, 2 yr old Audi A6 with loads of extras but all I managed to get was book price. If the X5 wasnt my dream car then I would have walked after the first saleswoman opened her mouth, but they had me by the short ones.. I phoned all over the place, but nobody but my main dealer had what I wanted, so I paid through the nose in the end. But I`m happy with my X5, very happy.

[bozo]

Originally Posted by robocal

In the end however I decided to walk away based on the fact that
1. The vendor had told me there were no accidents and subsequent information showed that he knew that it had this knock.

Thats all you need to know..You catch the guy in a lie, WALK...Unacceptable...