Abused g20 story

[boingo82]

Hi - You guys probably don't remember me, I posted back in Nov. or Oct. with a random survey about G20s, which helped me decide exactly what I was looking for. Well, I work at the newspaper locally, I'm the girl who lays out the classified section, putting all the ads on the pages. I usually look through as I do, and a week or so ago I saw this:

1996 Infinity G20, silver, 4 door, 5 speed, power everything, excellent condition. Below retail. $6,900. 101,000 highway miles.

It sounded almost perfect except the high mileage. I called on it that night, and talked to the mother who was selling it because her son was going on a mission. (Here in Utah that means he's 18-20 yrs old.) She said he didn't want to sell it but she refused to let it sit for two years.

That sounded pretty good. It's a good idea to buy a car that someone doesn't want to sell because it generally means that you're not buying someone else's problems. The next day I went to look at the car.

From a distance it looked great, but as soon as I got up close I could see dents. Everywhere. There were even 200 or so mini-dents in each chrome door handle and surround. My father (who was there because he has to approve of my vehicles because it is his job to fix them) pointed out to me that the trunk and rear bumper were obviously misaligned, although according to the woman it "hadn't been in a wreck" of any kind. This makes sense. What 18 yr old is going to tell his mom he backed into something. In addition, the tires didn't match *warning sign* *warning sign* and the rear ones had 1/16" tread on the centers but the edges were worn down with .5" of wire sticking out. Oh, and did I mention the roof had been jumped in? I looked in the trunk, and the kid had put 200 or so paintballs in (loose) with a bunch of tools and crap so every time he cornered hard the paintballs would smash all over the trunk.

At this point I wasn't going to buy the car but I wanted to test drive it to see how the tranny and basic ergonomics of a g20 felt.

Inside, this child had applied Billy Idol (?) stickers to everything, and done his best to break the switches for all the power accessories. What I mean is the switches were unattached to the door panels anymore, just kind of loose. If that makes any sense at all. I drove it for a while, and decided that the G20 (the model line, not this particular model) was definitely worthy of my obsession. Then I switched my dad places and sat in the back.

I was shocked to discover that the entire back seat and door panels (light grey velour interior, BTW) were coated, and I mean COATED, with dark green marker. This is in addition to the paint balls smashed into the floor amidst the 1/2" of mud. The mother did offer that she hadn't had the car "detailed" yet.

I imagine that this car was given to this child as a gift, presumably for his 16th birthday. It sure didn't look like he paid for it himself. I am sad just thinking about that poor car. Highway miles, my a$$. Those were spring-break miles. My 91 Sentra which just had its' 183rd birthday yesterday is in WAY better shape.

Ah well, I am still looking.

Emily

[speediva]

It's always sad to hear about any car being in such misery, but a lovely G20 put through so much crap Quite disturbing!

I am glad that atleast both you and your father realized this was a giant "no-no" due to the lousy condition of the vehicle!

[northwestrally]

Fercryinoutloud!!!!

They need to send that boy to Kabul for his mission!! Makes my blood boil to test drive a newer used car that has been abused.

Glad you decided a G20 was worth it. I looked at dozens of cars myself before buying my '94 G20t 5spd (including a couple other G's). One was a salvage (if the owner is named Vlad or Uri around these parts, be wary!).

On the test drive for the car I bought, I snooped around in the trunk & glove box, too, for incriminating clues.....nothing bad found!

The black leather on the Touring's seats was in perfect shape, a sign that the driver didn't make many short trips (ala pizza delivery-mobile) even though the car had 98k miles. The radio was factory (most hooligans have to put in something else to earn the admiration of their peers), the wheels were nice, older-style MOMO's ($$ but not bling-bling) and there were no rattles to speak of.

This is simply the best car I've ever owned, and I've put on 26,000 trouble-free miles in 8 months.

Find a G20 that hasn't been owned by a punk, and you'll have a treasure of a car.

Regards, Don

[boingo82]

I don't require a car be babied, but it has to have been loved. Besides, how often do you think that kid changed the oil? Isn't it scary what passes for "excellent" condition these days. I think I was lucky to see it before the detail so I could see how it was really driven.

Emily

[primera man]

It always amazes me to read a story like this and just hear about what ppl can do to ther cars. Very sad indeed.

Makes me wonder what the hell his parents are like if it was a gift to him and then letting him look after it like this

[GoldP11]

I can't even imagine my car ever being treated like that!! I mean I don't baby it or anything, but I do take care of it! The nerve of some people, they don't know they have something good, until it's gone.

[2002G20Racer]

Its a hobby of mine to clean my G20 but its 2 hard with all this rain damnit.

[FlossinPrimera]

Some people are just stupid. I think junior there was trying to get high by coating the doors with marker, I think he damaged his brain to the point where he could listen to Billy Idol, yeech!

[boingo82]

Well, apparently the car hasn't sold yet (I can't see why not...) but they've updated the classified ad:

1996 Infinity- Fast & Furious G-20. Silver, 5 speed, 4 door, excellent condition, new clutch, $7,200. 102,000 freeway miles. (435)674-4741

That's right folks...still "excellent" condition, but now that it's "Fast & Furious" it costs $300 more. It's not because of the clutch because it felt new when I drove it.

Whenever you have trouble selling something, just keep raising the price until you have a taker!!! Perfect logic, huh.

[AznVirus]

poor poor G lets start GACA! "G20ers Against Car Abuse"