Buying my Grand

We pick up the story at the purchase of my Grand Vitara. After months of research and waiting, I’d found the car I wanted, a red 2010 3.2L V6 at a decent price. But it was in Adelaide, and I was in Melbourne.

I’d driven the Adelaide to Melbourne route a few times – coincidentally the last time was to bring back our long-term Suzuki Vitara that was delivered to Adelaide instead of Melbourne. I knew I could comfortably do the drive back the same day, but was prepared to stay somewhere along the way if I got tired, and planned to take sufficient rest stops. But I was in excitement mode, I was off to buy a car! Hindsight is 20/20. I’d love to be able to remove emotion from a car purchase, but I can’t. While they’re just collections of metal, plastic and wiring to some people, I form a bond with these machines.

I arrived in Adelaide early and was whisked off by the dealer to the dealership. We went downstairs to a basement containing a number of luxury cars and supercars….many many dollars worth of vehicle porn and the Grand being vacuumed and cleaned. It was by far the cheapest vehicle being sold there.

In the artificial light it was hard to see details. The paintwork up close looked like it spent it’s seven years permanently in an automatic carwash – swirl city! There was paint chipped and scratched in places, a 20c piece of clearcoat missing from the bonnet, countless door dings (and strange door-type dents in places no door could reach). They told me there had been small repairs to the rear when it got rear-ended. I was okay with this if the car was cheap enough provided it was mechanically sound, as offroading takes a toll on the paintwork anyway.

It had a dealer warranty (so the dealer liked to remind me) if anything was unroadworthy and needed fixing. If it had great paint I would’ve vinyl wrapped it for protection, but seeing as the body was a bit bruised already I’d be less precious about bush pinstriping and marks (at least, that’s what I’m still trying to convince myself). The headlights were foggy, but I was sure they’d come up like new with a little attention.

A further look around the car…it looked like a used car. Not how a used car of that age in my ownership would have looked, but I couldn’t afford to picky given the lack of cars in my price range. I’m no mechanic, but the car started strongly, the engine sounded good, no smoke from the exhaust, no obvious fluid leaks, an up-to-date service history (hah!) and an ex-service manager’s car. I was happy enough at this point and really, I wanted to buy a car and start driving home (impatience strikes!).

Out of the basement into daylight and I drove it around some back streets and engaged 4L. That all checked out but the wheel alignment was way out. Adelaide suburban roads aren’t the greatest, but I knew something was up. I mentioned it and they promised to sort it out for me once I got back to Melbourne. The drive selector was sitting in Neutral which I thought was odd. I questioned it and was told “that’s the setting to drive it on the road”. The contract was signed, money was exchanged, a permit to drive an unregistered vehicle slapped on the dash and I got ready to set myself up for the drive home.

Hmmm…I thought, looking at the car in daylight, those doors have been poorly repaired. Pull the passenger sun visor down to look, great, that falls out of the roof. Go to change radio stations, the LCD screen on the radio only partially works. Hey wait, why can I see light coming through the mirror casing when I indicate? Ah crap, I didn’t notice the broken mirror assembly in the dimly lit basement. The poor lighting also hid the fact that the dash display with range to empty/odometer, etc. could really only be read in darkness. Sunlight, forget it. Too late, money had been handed over. The next bit before I got the car set up for the long-distance drive was hilarious – the drive selector. I was pretty sure they were wrong having it sitting on (or as it turned out to be, near) the Neutral position. I consulted the manual, and no, being full-time 4WD it was supposed to sit in 4H (but not 4H Lock) on the road. The point – there’s no way it was actually in Neutral when they were driving it, the transmission would have been disconnected from the wheels, the dial was just sitting slightly above that position.

I setup my temporary phone holder (no Bluetooth), drinks and food, music and jumped on the freeway back to Melbourne. By Tailem Bend the constant pull of the wheel alignment was getting tiring, but I had much further to go. I took the opportunity to fill up with fuel and check the tyre pressures. Shortly after leaving the fuel gauge dropped and Range to Empty seemed to get eaten up more quickly than I was completing kilometres. By the next fuel stop I was convinced the fuel gauge was being incredibly pessimistic. I was recording between 10.5-11.0L/100km according to the car, at freeway speeds. Ouch! But at least it accepted 91RON. I haven’t had a car that accepted any less than 98RON for a long time. More fighting the steering, more stops, more fuel (for me and the car) and I was nearly home. At this point I noted a thud through the steering.

I got a message from the dealer asking how the trip was, I let them know I was well on the way and mentioned the wheel alignment issue and the thud. I’d chat to them about the other issues after I’d had the car inspected so I would know if anything was wrong and prepare it for a roadworthy certificate (RWC) and Victorian registration. The dealer would of course be liable for replacing any items it needed to make it roadworthy. I arrived home, went straight to bed, messaged my mechanic and dropped the car straight down the next morning.

The first report caught me off guard. Dirty fluids all round, oil leak (but thankfully an easy fix from the oil filter), spark plugs and drive belt needed changing, air filter dirty, one tyre excessively worn on the outside (due to the terrible wheel alignment) and unroadworthy, the brakes shuddered (grooved and gouged discs), all four shocks were leaking, bushes worn, knock internal to the steering rack, unroadworthy broken mirror as it contained the vehicle’s side indicator which was cracked. A service manager’s car doesn’t mean it has been taken care of, rather like the pool builder with a dirty disused pool in their own backyard. Naivety and excitement got the better of me – heart won over head. I sent a list to the dealer politely requesting they sort out the roadworthy items with my mechanic and approved my mechanic to give the car a complete change of fluids, new spark plugs, etc.

Weeks of the dealer ignoring my emails and phone calls or passing me on to someone else and I felt like I was getting nowhere. While I was waiting I got the headlights professionally detailed for roadworthy, which you can read about here. I was at my wits end. I read through the dealer roadworthy clause in South Australia to make sure I fully understood my rights and contacted their consumer affairs body. A tip for anyone buying a car from a dealership (not a private seller) in another state – it’s different in every state, so make sure you understand the roadworthy requirements and warranty period for the state you’re buying from, not the state you plan to take it back to for registration. I started the claim process and gave the dealer one last opportunity to resolve some of the issues before I started submitting evidence. Finally they agreed to a small amount; one tyre, two shocks – although four needed replacing, and a wheel alignment. All that stress over six weeks for a tiny amount of compensation. Should I have taken it further? Maybe, but I didn’t need further stress as I was busy with study.

Where did that leave me? Not with the reasonable deal it appeared on paper – fixing those items and others at my own expense, and hoping it made it through a Victorian RWC.

I registered the car and celebrated immediately by taking the car to our test area for 4WD press cars and the Hill of Truth. Not through lack of trying, the Suzuki made it half way up the Hill of Truth before the cheap road tyres became slicks and the car ceased to have traction. It also ran out of clearance, partially because it’s not massively high and I failed to angle across a ditch I didn’t see. Whoops, no harm done, a little touch to some underbody plastics.

So, where to from here? Immediate priority items are a lift kit and tyres. The car has already demonstrated that it’s traction control is brilliant, but it’s being let down by tyre grip and clearance. Unfortunately it has 18″ wheels which would limit offroad tyre choices, so I’d be looking at smaller wheels, preferably 16″, but 17″ can be made to work too. I don’t plan to go crazy with this car, it just needs to be a reliable, practical little tourer.

Feel free to let us know what you’ve done to yours and any modifications or accessories you’ve found particularly useful. Stay tuned for things I like and don’t like about the car, lift kit, wheel and tyre selection in the next update!