today my son and I started really examining our just-purchased, used
95 Passport for serious conditions the dealer tried to conceal from us, and we found a few. you guys tell me how concerned we should be about our findings so far: my son got out his tire iron and checked all his lug nuts. all seemed ok, save for one of a different color on the front left tire. it turned and turned and turned, by hand. never stopped. i thought it was stripped. after reading this board, i wonder if it's just torqued past and broken?? how serious is this? what should he do?since we were on tires, i prompted him to check the PSI in all four tires. whaddya know--only the right front was at 30 PSI as specified. the other three were at 35, 40 and 45psi, going clockwise around. he let the pressure out till all four were at 30, and we frowned and thought WTF??? is that why everything tugged a bit to the front right when he hard-braked on the test drive? we haven't driven it yet since he adjusted those. anything we ought to watch for when we do??? he took out a penny and checked to see how deep into the tread it fit. not real great. barely reached as deep it should. lincoln's head barely touched. that fact hacked us off. then we finally thought to unzip and uncover the spare tire. it was filthy--but get this-the tread was new! so was the glaringly obvious patch, staring us in the face, near the hub rim. and it was a different maker of tire than the four on the ground he's driving on. it said it took 35psi, but when he checked it, it was inflated only to
- isnt that just precious??? he got to thinking where his spare changer kit must be in the car, and went searching thru the interior to see where it was to be kept. he finally unearthed the jack, and discovered they had not given him a tire iron at all. lucky him, he's been scavenging and saving odd car supplies for two years wherever he finds them,so he had three irons of his own-- or he'd have been SOL on the road. he made a list of all these, then added a few more he's discovered: the fan cover was not attached AT ALL over the engine. it was completely loose, and we drove this like that from santa ana to venice beach, [los angeles]. the battery bracketing was some strange cobbled, homemade affair and welded arm, that didn't even fit the battery. he removed it .and we found a perfect fit at Kragen auto parts. you'd think the dealership would have bothered to do it, if we could, but .nahhhhh, why bother. did i mention the j-bolts on the battery holder were two different sizes, and one was bent thru the threading? so the nut couldn't screw down? and the bolt bounced out? cute. the moonroof doesn't open and close. it's dead. the ceiling light is also dead. i want some reactions and opinions from you guys here: they told him the asking cash price was 95 US, over the ten phone calls he made to them, before he went to see and test drive it. when we went back a week later to buy it, they handed him all the papers to sign BEFORE they wrote them up and filled them out to close the deal. it was only after they handed him his yellow copies that he saw that they had jacked the price up to 5995, a difference of 1200 dollars more-- and if he pays off the financing in 24 mos, he will have paid
-- what would you do if you were him?