Just Need to Vent (surprises in my newly-acquired car)

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bamorris2

New member
Sorry guys, I need HAVE to vent. I've had this on my mind for a few days now, and I can't stop thinking about. Perhaps some venting therapy will help LOL. Feel free to skip this thread of you don't want to hear a story.



Anyway, I purchased a used 2006 Ford Fusion from a Ford dealership in September. It was sold as a CPO vehicle. I test drove it for about 20 minutes. All seemed well mechanically. Cosmetically, the exterior paint had moderate+ road rash (many small paint chips). It was owned by 1 person, and origially titled in Texas. I saw the road rash, and was ok with it, as I just used some touch-up paint. After all, it's my DD and has 68,000 miles on it. I'm ok with that. I took it to Innovative Detailing (Dave) in OC and he did a great job in restoring the paint. Again, not show quality, but good for a DD. Dave just did a brief wipe-down on the interior as a courtesy (hired for exterior only). Very pleased with Dave.



Fast forward to a week ago. I notice a few ants on my dashboard. I kill them one by one. A few more appear...soon there are dozens on my dash board. Now keep in mind that I keep my interior very clean. Very rarely will I eat in my car (never yet in this car), and I always take my drinks out when finished. Anyway, I went to Home Depot and got a few Terro ant bait kits. My thought was that I parked near an ant nest and a few made their way into my car.



Last Friday evening, I decide to give the interior another good wipe-down, just in case there was some food residue somewhere. And this is where the misery began. I made the mistake of looking in between the rear set, where the upper and lower cushions meet. It was absolutely disgusting. With a flashlight, I could see tons of crap. So I proceeded to remove the rear lower cusion from the car. I couldn't believe my eyes. I almost vomited, no kidding. Whoever owned this car previously must have had 38 kids crammed in the back seat, and encouraged each to make as much as a mess as humanly possible. Gum, candy, lollypops, coins, jewelery,more candy, solidifies liquid, trash, more junk... truly disgusting. And to top it off, there was a very healthy spider making a nice living back there. But oddly enough, there were no ants there. I used almost two full bottles of Meg's APC, along with a wire brush and a dozen MF's to get it cleaned up back there.



But wait, it gets even better. I made a 2nd mistake; I removed a bezel on the front center console. OMG!!! Another absolutely disgusting site! Inside the console (disassembled), it looked like someone took either a pot of coffee or a gallon of chocolate mile and just dumped it all over! All over the wiring, all over the shift mechanism. I spent another hour or two working on that. The problem here is that the crevices are so small around that area, it's not really possible to get it cleaned completely. It is significantly better, but not perfect. And again, there were no ants there either.



I was so sick to my stomach discovering this stuff. I've always been very picky with my vehicles, but have never had the "pleasure" of buying a used car (always bought new up to now). How could someone live like this and allow their car to get to this point? How could Ford sell a car like this? Did they know about it and not disclose it? And above all, why did I not look into this car more before buying it? On the surface, it looked good. The interior was pretty clean, as were the leather seats. But I didn't bother to look "under the surface".



I guess this is a huge lesson learned for me. It will be very difficult for me to ever buy a used car again. I can just image next time. "Sir, I really like your car, and I think that I want to buy it. But before I do, I will need to disassemble the interior. I hope you don't mind."



I never did find any source of the ants. They seem to have completely disappeared now. As an added bonus, I think the APC (4:1) burned my airways, as I now have a coarse throat and bloody nasal phlem.
 
Wow that sounds like quite a experience. I have never purchased a car yet but my family buys new and used cars. The used cars are usually higher end, Acura/Lexus and we have never had mechanical or hygienic problems, unless you think about if the last guy who farted in the car is trapped in the headliner, if you keep that in mind then you should be okay...I've never even known someone who has had a problem even close to this. Most of used car complaints are shotty mechanical work and un claimed accidents. Please remember product safety when using cleaning and protecting products in enclosed environments or any time really.
 
Sounds pretty nasty, but don't give up on used cars. Its usually better to buy them from the original owner as they haven't been given the dealer spit shine treatment and you can see what type of care the owner took.
 
And other thing that gets me with this is, is the interior condition indicitive of the care that they took of the car mechanically? I mean, did they ever change the oil??? Did they start it up in the morning and immediately hammer on the throttle down the street? This just really bothers me all around.
 
I think you were just unlucky and I would think this is an extreme case, I have purchased numerous vehicles both new and used and never come across anything as bad as you are describing. Sure once I’ve pulled it apart there are always things to clean up that are out of reach for most people, however nothing like you had.



Look on the bright side at least you know its clean now.





Cheers Daniel
 
bamorris2 said:
And other thing that gets me with this is, is the interior condition indicitive of the care that they took of the car mechanically? I mean, did they ever change the oil??? Did they start it up in the morning and immediately hammer on the throttle down the street? This just really bothers me all around.
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You can't ever really tell if they hammered it in the morning but you should be able to get maintenance records if it was dealer maintained. A good way to tell if it was generally beat is tire and or brake condition. If its on the first or second set of tires, are the tires cheap replacements, same with the pads. Lots of clues all over the place.
 
I agree about it being an extreme case. Upon finding these issues I would have returned it to the dealership to do the work. If they offered any resistance I would have offered to sell it back to them for the same price. Further resistance and I would have made sure to call the local news crew to show them the quality of the used cars being sold by the dealership. Most dealerships will bend over backward, though, when the problem is obviously on their end.
 
Nth Degree said:
I agree about it being an extreme case. Upon finding these issues I would have returned it to the dealership to do the work. If they offered any resistance I would have offered to sell it back to them for the same price. Further resistance and I would have made sure to call the local news crew to show them the quality of the used cars being sold by the dealership. Most dealerships will bend over backward, though, when the problem is obviously on their end.
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I totally agree. If it were me I'd insist on STEAM CLEANING of the interior to make sure they eliminate all the mess.
 
That sucks to hear. Like said before, at least you know its "clean" now, but I agree that the dealership should do a steam cleaning on the interior to ensure the cleanliness. Good luck! Too bad you didn't snap any photos, but maybe better off since it would have made us all sick!
 
Yup, people are slobs. The thing is, if a really nasty car comes in to get cleaned, we typically don't disassemble the interiors of them to get them clean unless they are snap fasteners. I always take out cupholder inserts and the whole cupholder if possible, but I won't remove the center console unless it is requested or deemed necessary (and paid for). If the customer requests seat removal, ill do that as well but it is not in the typical detail. The dealers get cars, Detailers spend the least amount of time on them for the $80 they get for them, and then move on to the next car. It is sad but the same thing happens all over. Have you seen Holmes on homes or Holmes Inspection? Similar scenarios and truly disturbing.
 
Yes, I should have taken pictures, if for nothing else than to use them to support a bill that I should send to the dealer. The thing is with having them clean it is that I would have probably taken everything apart and did it again myself because I wouldn't trust them to do it right. As it is, the "detailer" that the dealership hired to buff the paint did nothing but inflict some major swirl marks. So bad that the dealer discounted the sales price a few hundred dollars because they knew that I would have to pay to get it done correctly. Chances are that they would have called the same detailer to fix the interior.



But I do like the idea of a steam cleaner, especially for the console and shift mechanism. As I said in my OP, the crevices are too small for me to properly clean them with APC, brushes, and rags. But there are a few large wiring harnesses in there, and I wouldn't want the moisture to mess with the electronics.
 
Dan said:
You can't ever really tell if they hammered it in the morning but you should be able to get maintenance records if it was dealer maintained. A good way to tell if it was generally beat is tire and or brake condition. If its on the first or second set of tires, are the tires cheap replacements, same with the pads. Lots of clues all over the place.
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I'm not sure if I follow you. The car had 68,000 miles when I bought it. It looks like the dealer replaced the tires with Falken ZIEX ZE-912. Also, I checked the brake pads, and they have about 90% remaining. But these things make sense because it was sold as a CPO vehicle. I believe that Ford requires that tires and brakes be substantially new if resold as CPO.



But even if it wasn't sold as CPO, it may still make sense that these items are new. At 68,000 miles, that about right for new brake pads, and maybe a little long-ish for new tires.
 
It is very possible that dealer did not know about the problem either. Many dealers get their used cars from dealer auctions (Adesa, Manheim, etc) and have been "detailed" already. When a volume focused shop or a dealership detail department is cleaning up a car they will get what they can see and leave it at that because they know it will be good enough most of the time. Your situation sucks, but unfortunately it is part of the deal when you buy a used car.
 
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