‘I awoke with a thick head…’
A wine, internet, judgement failure
Cost neutral motoring in cars of character – I had become so blasé about the whole thing that I decided to venture near a computer after a slightly sozzled Sunday afternoon. What happened next should be a lesson to all of us.
My rosé-tinted wine spectacles told me that the £550 Saab 9-3 advertised on Gumtree, with minimal pictorial content and sparse wordage, would be an excellent purchase. My wine brain told me that I would buy it for my wife as a replacement for her Ford Ka, she would love me for it and it would be a perfect machine for summer family days out. It had to be a bargain.
I phoned the seller, agreed to buy it and went to bed thinking ‘that’s Christmas sorted then’. Next day I awoke with a thick head and a thinner wallet. WHAT, had I done. Still, the Bangernomics DNA in my soul still said – ‘it will be OK’.
A week later it turned up on a trailer and it was not OK. The engine warning light was on, a front damper was out and the car was stuttering. Then I showed my wife a picture – as a speculative precautionary, pre-christmas test. She then told me it wasn’t quite her cup of tea…
I fitted a crankshaft sensor, front damper and serviced the 9-3 ready for resale. No takers at £700… at all. Eventually I found a buyer at £400. Then the engine light came on again. I called the buyer to tell him that, according to the engine diagnostic, the Mass Airflow Sensor was causing issues. He became a non-buyer immediately.