This car HAUNTS the Car Wizard's dreams!

Check out our 2022 Sponsors:

#CarWizard #NightmareCars #CarIssues

[hobo]

Nothing worse than being under the thumb of an unreasonable bully making impossible demands. Glad you put him in his place in the end.

[tomasjones]

Great example of 'we are motivated to change, via pain or irritation'. The Landlord/Rabbit pushes Wizard to buy a large shop; ends up wiser & with a more successful business. Without that headache, who knows where the Wizard's biz would be today. I'd consider building a demented shrine with images of that car, the landlord and the old shop.

[craigw.scribner]

The Car Wizard is really an honest, "up-front" guy. We need more guys like him in every aspect of business--people you can trust to do what they say they will--and to quickly tell you if they can't or won't do something--often for your own good!

[TheFoolishboy]

It's tough when Hoovie's your landlord. I'm glad you got out of it and got a better place.

[acrvids]

You're absolutely right about losing track of time when it comes to vehicles. I had to check my own sense of time with a vehicle that I own that's been sitting for a while. I could swear that the last time I drove it was a couple of months ago. Nope. It was actually 7 months ago. I'm seeing that my pads and rotors were worn and remembered putting brakes on it on it a couple of years ago. That also was wrong. It was actually FIVE years ago.

[zayhs]

Just shows how good of a guy wizard is, I would’ve set that vehicle on fire

[draco]

I always said that the worst customers are those that think they have a lot of money

[miketeeveedub]

This story wasn't really about a VW being a POS (which sadly in this case, it was), but was more about intimidation and flat-out- extortion. Car Wizard was taken advantage of, and it obviously taught him a valuable lesson on how to deal with unreasonable people.

That said, as the owner of a 1984 VW Jetta with the 1.8 Bosch K-Jetronic injection. Yeah - they're not fun to service. Especially if they've sat for extended periods with ethanol-mixed fuels. I speak from first-hand experience. :(

[CoolTI-Daniel]

I caused my mechanic such a nightmare when I bought for cheap, a friend's Subaru WRX... blown Turbo.
I thought I could have my guy replace the turbo and then resell the car... But forgot that my friend, doesn't take care of his car and is basically was an idiot when it comes to car maintenance. I was an idiot for not thinking of it.

Wiring nightmare with poorly installed car starter.
Turbo was bad and replaced, blew and replaced again due to oil return line issues.
Clutch and pedals assembly welds were bad, entire dash removal to re-weld the pedals
All 4 brakes were bad...
Blown shocks
Timing belt... I wish I could show you guys the picture... it was a miracle it didn't snap, in fact it was a shame it didn't snap. It was cracked at every cm.

It cost me around 4500$ (Good price) to get the car to a driveable condition and even after that, I realized the car was burning tons of oil and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't need a new head gasket...
The market showed they were selling for 10000 / 12000$
Bought for 6000$, put 4500$
Sold it for 6500$ I just needed to get rid of it...

Even as a Daily I would have needed to change the clutch because my buddy had some garage put in an overly heavy racing clutch on it... Un-necessary on a WRX-225... it wasn't even an STI...

Expensive Lesson learned.

I love my mechanic but that car ended up being one of his most hated cars ever... At least his client (me) is a good understanding guy and I paid him what he asked me.

[landoncook]

The only cars that ever haunted me were the ones that generated new issues while they were at my shop. Those are very difficult circumstances to convey to customers, as they always believe it's YOUR fault their P.O.S. broke while you had it.

One case in particular, was a 5.9l cummins dodge that came in for an alignment, and the dreaded dowel pin behind the timing cover worked itself loose on the test drive.... yup. NOT A FUN DAY.

[gotham]

I have had work done on cars that ran more than the value of the car many times. If you like the car, it can be worth it for you. I always go in understanding what it will cost, and never complain about the bill. The mechanic I have used for 25 years knows this, and never asks for prepayment.

[helvetesfonster]

I have a similar story from when I worked in an independent BMW and Mercedes shop, about my first week of employment there a customer brought in an old soft top 3 series and just wanted to get it running. Long story short every time we would get it ready he would add something else to the list he wanted fixed saying money isn't an issue. Eventually he started wanting things done that we didn't do like body work so my boss wanted to get paid for the work we had already done. My boss also recommended he go to a body shop next door, then the guy decided he didn't have any money to pay for the car. So as far as I am aware it is still sitting there it has been at least 5 years I drive by there every now and again and they still have it parked outside, I got out of that shop after 2 years so I'm not sure what is going on with it now.

[ravennexusmh]

whats funny is a really show condition one of those mk1 golf convertibles here in the uk that fetch up to $40000. or $10000-15000 for decent one.

[jamesbarisitz]

That story had me squirming.
I had a standby excuse that worked.
"A great friend of mine and I had a bad accident in a car exactly like that. Without getting into it, I won't have anything to do with that vehicle. "
That landlord was a bully and a low rent scammer. At least you're out.

[MCD.]

What I learned from this story and from some of the comments is; when an individual starts adding more fixing after fixing something, collect for the work done before proceeding to the next request. If the individual can't pay for the original work, then it will save time and further headaches with that vehicle/individual.

[caydencorning]

I guess we could add Hoovies Baja to the list of cars he will never forget. They were sitting under it for several minutes and one of the lift arms wasn't holding anything.

[RobsNeighbor]

I have a few Haunted cars You are the only auto shop channel I watch. Thank you for the value!

[TOBYH]

WIZ, WE BOUGHT A NEW 79 WABBIT 2 DOOR SEDAN, WORST CAR I HAVE EVER OWNED, THE ENGINE SHOOK SO BAD, THE DASH
ALMOST SHOOK LOOSE, MY WIFE COULD HARDLY STEER IT, MY SON HAD TO HELP HER IN TIGHT SPACES. MY SON GOT REARENDED ON HIS WAY TO F.B PRACTICE, IT WAS 1/2 AS LONG AS IT WAS, SEAT BROKE, SON ENDED HORIZONTALLY IN BACK SEAT TOTAL WRECK, GUY WAS DRUNK AND ON DRUGS WHEN HE HIT HIM AOUT 50 MPH. PIECE OF SHIT CAR, I SEE ABOUT 0 RUNNING AROUND HERE IN CA. NOW, GOOD RIDDENCE.

[cheyennedogsoldiers]

Back in the early 80's I worked for a shop here in the UK that went through a similar thing with a 68 MK10 Jaguar. The owner of the building had the car parked there and same thing, do the car or your lease is at risk. So we set about working on it. Well the costs began to rise and we discovered that the car had last been registered for the road in 1970. So it had sat there for 12 years. However, we could not convince the owner to let it go. Back then you could pick up a nice MK10 Jag for less than what this thing was going to cost. Well I left about a year later and forgot about the car. Tom, the owner of the shop retired around 95 and a tire place opened up. Well guess what, that Jag was still sitting there in the building. They moved around 2000 and another restoration shop opened. So around 20003ish I was passing and spotted a 64 Galaxie sitting outside, well I'm a huge fan of 60's Galaxies so had to go take a look. Anyway got talking to the shop owner about the car then mentioned that i had worked there in the original shop back in the 80's, it was my first job. Then the conversation went to the Jag, and he was like, "wait, come this way!"

And sitting there was this Jag, and yes the guy was doing the same thing with this shop owner. Basically it had sat there since we had worked on it 20 years early. In-fact it still had boxes of parts in the trunk which I had put there, had my hand writing on them. So by now it needed new floors, the engine was seized, again! it just needed a ground up restoration. Well they moved around 2006 and a storage company moved in for a couple of years, after which the building just sat empty. I sometimes wondered what had happened to the old Jag but eventually I forgot about it. That was until 2015. I was driving by and noticed that they were taring down the building, anyway a few days later I get a call from a buddy that runs a junk yard asking me to come look at an old Jag he'd picked up. Just wondering if it was worth repairing or just breaking for parts. And yes, it was that Jag. So went to take a look and I could see that it had had new floors put in and the engine had obviously been rebuilt, seats retrimmed and had just needed putting back together. At this point the rest of the body was just too far gone so the car was broken for parts. But it was crazy, basically this car had been bought used for a couple of years and then parked up for no apparent reason. Then restored twice but never moved out of that building until it was taken to the junk yard. And to this day, i wonder what the real story was behind that car.

[dragonbrownies]

Worst nightmare vehicle for me was a 1982 Datsun 720 extended cab pickup. Traded my broken 1982 Datsun Maxima Diesel for it thinking it'd be a quick flip or at least one I could tolerate. The camshaft and timing chain on the Maxima Diesel failed. Found out that 1% of castings were bad on an old forum.

Anywho, the 720. Guy picks up the Diesel, drops off the 720 saying "Oh its got a new engine, new carb and it just needs adjusted." Should have told em No thanks... as the carb was leaking fuel and was plugged up with silicone sealant all around the fuel sight glass. Get it running and it's just God awful. When I first ran it, it ran smooth-ish. Next day, Engine knocks, leaks oil and is just puking fuel everywhere.

Put a new Weber on it, tune it and get it running decently. Runs great until the bottom end throws a rod... sold it to a friend for parts.. Because of this old Datsun pickup, I've sworn off Nissan entirely. You couldn't give me one for free.

The Diesel Maxima was a great car, however. I just didn't know squat about diesels. It even had a 5speed and sunroof. Originally sold new in Olympia Washington. Bought it from a junkyard. Why you may ask it was in a junkyard? Original owner couldn't operate the clutch anymore due to age and doors were frozen shut. 3-n-1 helped that. Anywhoo. That's my nightmare vehicle.