Anyone have funny test drive stories?

[BADPURPLE70CHEVY]

Anyone went to look at a truck and was shocked by what you saw or took a test drive and thought you would not make it back?
Years ago i went with a buddy to test drive a 69 c-10. The truck was on a car lot and they let us take it on a test drive. Got going down the road and he got on it a little and the rear end made a clank noise. The diff roared bad as we drove slowly back to the lot. Got back and the car salesman asked if we were ready to buy it? Needless to say we left in a hurry.

[Hubscrub]

only bad time i had was driveing a 67 chevy swb, the brakes (drum) where sooooo bad i thought i was gonna have to drag my feet to stop it i turned it around and took it back, and the po liked to use clear silcone to fix alot of stuff and he said i got three going to the bank today! (still sat there for a while:lol)

[laplander]

Several years ago, a friend of mine knew I wanted to wring one of those Honda S200's out, so when one came onto the lot he called me up and we proceeded to BEAT that thing like there was no tomorrow. Side steppin the clutch, donuts in the high school parking lot, even drag raced some kid in a Camaro. He took it back to the lot and IMMEDIATELY got called into the manager's office and almost lost his job. He had thought it was a trade in but it was actually on consignment, and the owner said we had passed him like he was standing still on a two lane road. Good times, good times........

[67ChevyRedneck]

No test drives, but I've seen a lot of trucks, and cars, that looked great from the road, but were a total POS up close. I stopped to look at what I thought was a beautiful 68 GMC shortie for 8K, but it turned out to be bondo covered rust bucket.

[Jacfourteen]

I took a test drive in a big block 75 chevy 1/2 and before I even got to roast the tires it ran out of gas, this was before cell phones so I had to knock an old ladies door to use the phone then I realized that I didn't know the name of the car lot!

Earlier this year I called about a 01 tahoe, the guy didn't speak any english so his daughter did the translating. She said there were no problems with it so I made the 100 mile trip (one way) in my 68 with a 16' car trailer, the plan was to throw my GMC on the trailer and pull it home with my new tahoe (better brakes and fuel milage). When we went for a drive the check engine light was on, the brake pedal and steering wheel pulsed BAD when you hit the brakes, and it took a full block to get it to 25 MPH with the go pedal to the floor.

Needless to say I didn't buy either of them.

[Jacfourteen]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

No test drives, but I've seen a lot of trucks, and cars, that looked great from the road, but were a total POS up close. I stopped to look at what I thought was a beautiful 68 GMC shortie for 8K, but it turned out to be bondo covered rust bucket.

This reminded me of a few years back I was looking to buy an explorer and my dad spotted one for a good price on his way to work. so I drove an hour to go take a look. They had the good side facing the road the other side was completely smashed, they even had the head light bulb taped in a mason jar since the headlight housing was nowhere to be found. Talk about a ghetto headlight setup

[67chevy1series]

when i was little my dad was gonna sell his 55 chevy 1/2ton (my dad helped me grow up around all chevys i think i might know more then him now ) but the buyer came over and said lets take it for a test drive he didnt thinkit would run so my dad got in and the buyer got in my dad stared it then drove it for a little while all the sudden this tire comes flyin right past us then bouced real high then the truck goes falls in the back and the truck steers off the road and stoped my dad gets out and looks turns out that was our tire my dad used the wrong lug nuts the buyer called his family and left real quick i think he **** his pants and thats why he left so quick lol

[big_al_71]

In 1985 my dad and I went to the dealer to buy a chevy c10 SWB that he wanted for himself so I drove him to the dealership we looked around and found a nice black one my dad was like love at first sight. Salesman gives us the keys and off we go on a test drive well everything is awesome as expected brand new truck and all next thing you know my have a sheriff behind us with the lites on of course we pulled over officer walks up asks for my dads liscense and he says do you know you dont have a plate? of course we are test driving it is a brand new truck, well the officer told us to go back to the dealer about three blocks away to get a dealer plate of course my dad said this romance with this truck started on the wrong foot I have not even bought it and I am already getting pulled over of course away we went. He ended buying a used truck instead at a later day.

[BADPURPLE70CHEVY]

Originally Posted by Jacfourteen

This reminded me of a few years back I was looking to buy an explorer and my dad spotted one for a good price on his way to work. so I drove an hour to go take a look. They had the good side facing the road the other side was completely smashed, they even had the head light bulb taped in a mason jar since the headlight housing was nowhere to be found. Talk about a ghetto headlight setup

Funny...

[70STOVEBOLT]

When I was in high school, there was a 66 Impala convertible for sale. I went and looked at it, but never started it or drove it. I went back the next day after school (it was a Friday) and bought it. The guy took my $200 and handed me the keys and said "watch those brakes, they'll throw you through the windshield". I got to the first stop sign, and hit the brakes and -NOTHING!! I just about s**t my pants. I was only a couple blocks from my girlfriend's house, so I drove over there, using the emergency brake to stop, and the first thing I checked was the brake fluid. The master cylinder was empty. I filled it up, bled the brakes, and then they would just about throw you through the windshield. About 3 months later the left front wheel came off of it going down the road. I knew the wheel bearing was toast, so I was only doing about 15 mph. I ended up selling the car to a guy for $200, so I broke even.

[silverstreak]

About 20 years years ago I saw a shiney red 67 Mustang on a used car dealer's lot. I stopped to take a quick peek. The salesman was on me before I could even get to the car, he said it had just been restored.

The fresh paint looked good from 50' but looked like crap up close. It was a base model with a straight six. I asked him if I could take it for a spin. I had a smoke screen behind me the whole time.

I took a peek at the underside of car which was all freshly undercoated. I took my hand and gave the underside of the floor a sharp hit, and when I pulled my arm from beneath the car I had rust flakes on the entire length of my arm. I still may have got it as a "project" if the price were right, but at $7500, no way.

[BADPURPLE70CHEVY]

Originally Posted by silverstreak

About 20 years years ago I saw a shiney red 67 Mustang on a used car dealer's lot. I stopped to take a quick peek. The salesman was on me before I could even get to the car, he said it had just been restored.

The fresh paint looked good from 50' but looked like crap up close. It was a base model with a straight six. I asked him if I could take it for a spin. I had a smoke screen behind me the whole time.

I took a peek at the underside of car which was all freshly undercoated. I took my hand and gave the underside of the floor a sharp hit, and when I pulled my arm from beneath the car I had rust flakes on the entire length of my arm. I still may have got it as a "project" if the price were right, but at $7500, no way.

Did that myself but it was a 67 c-10 about 10 years ago. Probably had a 5 gallon bucket of bondo in it.

[70c10-08]

When i was 18 my bro in law and i went to look at a 70 c/10it looked nice so we took it for a test drive he went to adjust the seat and it didnt latch so when he stepped on the brake I thought we were gonna die or something cuz seat kept moving we ended up buying it and a week later i was driving it down my qtr mile driveway and realized it had manual brakes that didnt work and i thought i was gonna die but the truck stopped the the middle of the county road thank god no one was on that road to so i decided to quit driving this truck and start restoring it rather than fix the brakes

[epashhans]

About 5 years ago I saw a vw dune buggy listed in the paper and had always wanted one. The price was right and after talking to the guy it sounded alright, so after I got off work I went out to see it. I looked it over and a lot of stuff had been done. He told me to take it for a test drive down the street. Its dusk now, probably not light enough to drive far, but down the street I go. Everything is good but about a block down I see a rock get thrown up in the air over my head, and then another a few yards down, then another. I thought that tire was really a rock throwin son of a gun. All of a sudden I see that same front wheel getting a little swagger to it. It then dawned on me. The guy had never tightened the front lug nuts! Those "rocks" were lug nuts coming off but I couldn't quite tell in the light! Luckily I still had 2 on there and hand tightened them enough to idle the 3 blocks back. Haha. The guy sure felt bad. Ended up buying it and still have it to this day.

[blazin]

my brother in law, took a new truck out about 15 years ago.. took it off roading up in the bush, got it stuck and had to call a tow truck to get him out. he was so stuck and about 30 mins off the road, cost him hundreds to get it out. once he got back to the dealer the truck was just covered in mud, they made him pay to get it cleaned.

[Longhorn321]

I got two.

First one was in a customers Audi 200 turbo. This is a hopped up 5 cyl. turbo with a 5 speed manual trans and all wheel drive. I decided to find out how well an all wheel drive could cut a do-nut. Well I know now and I can tell you for certain that you do NOT want to try this unless you have plenty of pavement with no obstructions. You ever see one of those fireworks thingys that spin around and bounce up and down on the ground? That's pretty much what this thing felt like and I found myself heading for a telephone pole with both feet standing on the brakes. I got it stopped and counted my blessings as I headed back to the shop.

The second was a brand new BMW M Roadster. I decided to punch it once with the traction control on and then turn it off and see what the difference was. Well that was one of the last cars that BMW made that did not have traction control. As I was fish-tailing down the road trying to maintain control I decided that 300 HP for a little car like that was just about right.

[cparman]

Long story. One of my customers was looking for a 4x4 1st gen Blazer. We found one on EBAY. I called the guy and asked as many questions as I thought necessary, including " would you drive it from Kansas City to Jax FL? " " Absolutely!"
I even spoke to the guy that restored this thing. I hopped on a plane and went to KC, and met with the guy. He says " seems to want to idle rough today" I said lets go for a drive. Leaving the meeting place, and going up a small incline I step on the gas and hear a noise, all the mains rattling their butt off. I think OH S^&*! put my hand behind the gauge cluster to make sure the oil pressure gauge is connected, cause it was just off the left side of the gauge. Drive a bit more, and step on the brakes, pedal goes to the floor ( bad Master cyl). I said to the owner " the engine is junk in this thing" he says " really?" I was a bit unhappy. Tried to get him to move on the price, and he said no. Then he tells me that he never titled it in his name, but it really is his. I left my house that morning at 5:00a.m. My VERY unhappy wife picked me up at the airport at midnight.

[vectorit]

I have a few, but these come to mind.

I had always wanted a vintage VW bug, and I was living close to the bone so a 4 cyl was the ticket for low fuel costs. A co worker tells me he has a 65 that he would sell me, went over to look at it and it was pretty solid for an un restored bug. Took it around the block a couple times, and everything seemed ok. Paid him, then took off with it.
Got up to about 50 mph and the thing started to shake really bad, so I applied the brakes which tripled the shaking sensation in the whole car! By the time I got it stopped, I had to make sure I still had all my teeth! Scared me to death...
Took it back to him, and he was happy to give my money back. As I was walking away, I saw a nice Honda Nighthawk 650 in his garage. Ended up buying that from him instead.

This one is me, selling a truly cursed 77 K10 Silverado. No matter what you did, how much money you sunk into it, or how nice you treated this truck it would crap on you. The truck was from the North East, and it was rusty in a bad way. Every fender well was rotted out, but my room mate at the time said he wanted to "make things look good for me". So he bondo'd up all the rust holes, used a belt sander to "smooth things out" and rattle can painted all his work. Looked better than before, but it was nasty looking.
I had it in the paper for weeks, then on the last night of the advertisement I get a call on it. It's 8:00pm and raining cats n' dogs out, and this dude HAS TO HAVE IT that night. So I gave him directions, he gets there and we are standing in my drive under umbrellas with flash lights. This truck was painted black, so at night in the rain it looked good.
We go for a drive, and all the defrost vents are not working so all the glass fogs up. I tell him you have to crack the window's to prevent that from happening. (This whole time I am lookin at this guy, thinkin he can't wait to get out of this truck and go home).
We get to my house, and he pays me my asking price!
As we are getting ready to say buh bye, he asks to look under the hood... I know, I know... But, he looks under there and says "Oh, it has headers". I say uh huh...
He slams the hood down, and hops in and pops the key in. He takes a moment to look at the big chrome gear shift, and says to me "It's a stick shift..." I say, uh - yea, you were with me as I was telling you all about it and driving.
He then asks me to give him a minute to figure out the shifting!
He listened really good, and then proceeded to take off in his new truck. I watched him lurching it down my street, revving and slipping the clutch as he turned out of site.
I thought for sure I would hear from him again. Never did.

[PanelDeland]

My buddey bought "Christene" in brown.It ran good and drove fine during the test drive.He paid the man and 6 blocks later a main left.Found 90 weight in the crankcase.
Not as big a deal as you might think.He only paid $59.00 for it and the replacement bearing was about $8.00.

[LandonL]

Not a test drive story, but a story nonetheless. When I was around 5 years old I was at my grandpa's when he was trying to sell one of his cars. I was only 5, but when someone came over to look at it I was with my grandpa while he was talking to the man and I had remembered that my grandpa had hit a deer with this car and I thought that would make a great selling point so I added my little bit into the conversation. Nonetheless, I believe the man still bought the car.

[oldblue1968chevy]

^lol funny^^

[BADPURPLE70CHEVY]

Anyone else?

[red69ss]

just yesterday I took my nephew to look at a car I found on craigslist ,I should have knew better after talking to the guy on the phone he was from russia and it was very hard for me to understand him, but it seemed like a pretty good deal so off we go to columbia(about an hour drive) . I told my nephew on the way down this was probaly a waist of time and the place was going to be a dump. so we get there and sure enough its a dump, its a old run down metal building we get out and theres a guy sitting there who doesn't speak english we go in the place and theres the car we came to look at up on cinder blocks some guy has the drivers door gutted working on window regulator and the exhaust is taken off as the hoods up so I can see. Well no one can speak english then I look to my left and some guy is sleeping in the back seat of an old car sitting in the place then one of the guys starts telling me boss boss boss and someone is pulling up outside (the only guy who speaks some english), he says 5 minutes it will be ready, so I told him I'd be back needless to say I hauled butt out of there. my nephew told me on the ride home we should have never went in there ,I told him he wouldn't have gotten the full experience in the car.

[BADPURPLE70CHEVY]

Originally Posted by red69ss

just yesterday I took my nephew to look at a car I found on craigslist ,I should have knew better after talking to the guy on the phone he was from russia and it was very hard for me to understand him, but it seemed like a pretty good deal so off we go to columbia(about an hour drive) . I told my nephew on the way down this was probaly a waist of time and the place was going to be a dump. so we get there and sure enough its a dump, its a old run down metal building we get out and theres a guy sitting there who doesn't speak english we go in the place and theres the car we came to look at up on cinder blocks some guy has the drivers door gutted working on window regulator and the exhaust is taken off as the hoods up so I can see. Well no one can speak english then I look to my left and some guy is sleeping in the back seat of an old car sitting in the place then one of the guys starts telling me boss boss boss and someone is pulling up outside (the only guy who speaks some english), he says 5 minutes it will be ready, so I told him I'd be back needless to say I hauled butt out of there. my nephew told me on the ride home we should have never went in there ,I told him he wouldn't have gotten the full experience in the car.

Guy sleeping in the back of the car is priceless......

[awc7772000]

well i ended up looking at this 69 long fleet c/10 in a trailer park of all things from a crack head and it supposedly had a new crate motor in it well he fired it up and i got in revved it a couple of times then i was like can i drive it he was like yeah so i noticed the brakes went to the floor first off but it kinda stopped but i rolled it forward and my mom said to me the wheels are spinning im like huh open the door and the back wheels are spinning doing the worlds slowest lamest burnout haha so i drove it slowly around the park and i ended up picking it up for like 1250 and i drove off the park and got MAYBE 1/8th of a mile down the road and it just died im like NOOOOOOOOO i got screwed cause that was all the money i had had. well i finally got it started for all of about 2 seconds and it died again so i sent my mom to get some gas she was in her car lol. so im sitting there poking and prodding it and i go to the back to drop the tail gate and look at the bed well i pulled the handle and the whole thing came off in my hands lol so i finally got it back on and went inside and i noticed while i was driving it alot of the gauges didnt work well i looked at the pannel and noticed there were no screws they superglued it in so at this time i was angry to say the least and we put the gas in primed the carb and after 20 min. got it started. then the tranny wouldn't shift it was a powerglide with a floorshifter i tried everything got frustrated so my mom tried and nothing so i went under it and told her to hld the brakes HARD and she said ok so i shifted it by hand and the truck comes barrelling at me im like AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH closed my eyes and messed my pants but she stopped it even though it hit me but i got nothing but a bruise. well she jiggled it again and it slipped back into gear so we switched and i flew back doing like 80 with no brakes hahaha got it back and he came up missing... which he said he was gonna stay there just in case well we waited for 4 HOURS and he never showed up so i already knew i was doomed and we were just leaving as i saw him duck behind a car and im like I SEE YOU F****R!!!! so he like pops up like oh hey so how is it and denied that he said he would take the money back BUT we finally got my money back and the truck fired right up and shifted right into gear for him made me look like a liar lol worst experience ever and this was my first car buying adventure ever my truck now was given to me talk about a pain. and im sorry its so long