The Dumb Decisions Previous Owners Made With Our Readers' Cars

Ever since I bought a 2019 Husqvarna Svartpilen 701, I've basically ridden it nonstop, only taking breaks to complain about the exhaust. It isn't the cheapest exhaust the previous owner could have used, but just personally, to my ears, the sound of an infant screaming in pain is less unpleasant than the noise my motorcycle makes. It's possible I'm being a little dramatic, but I'm an SEC fan. Being a hater is literally in our blood. 

The good news is my credit card company hasn't cut me off yet, and last night my new LeoVince LV-10 slip-on exhaust arrived, ready to make my bike sound like something I enjoy instead of something I despise. Paid for with my own money, by the way. Brands aren't exactly breaking down my door to offer me free parts for a motorcycle that's been out of production for years. Maybe I'll get lucky, and Husqvarna will be able to find, like, the world's dustiest front brake disc to send me or something.

Before the good exhaust showed up, though, I needed a pick-me-up. A little commiseration to make me feel better. So I asked about the dumbest decisions that previous owners had made with your cars, and we got some pretty wild answers. Let's take a look at a few of the most popular ones. 

I don't buy modded cars. I don't want to have to figure out what problems the previous owner installed. BUT... In this case, I inherited one. After my Dad passed away, I inherited an old 'bull nose' SAAB 96. Those had a weird water pump/generator all-in-one device that would destroy the water pump end regularly. I suspect it was because of electrolysis from the generator effecting the wear of the water pump bearings (but I am guessing). Meanwhile, Dad couldn't find parts to fix it or find a shop to rebuild it. Being the king of Gerry Rigging that Dad was, he pulled apart an old washing machine and removed the belt driven water pump. He rigged up a few brackets, mounted it, and rerouted the V-belt to drive the washing machine pump. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. It was still working when I sold it on. I don't know if that was dumb or genius... there is a fine line in between sometimes.

Suggested by: Old_SLAAB_Guy

Oh! My '01 Camaro. My car came from the factory with the Monsoon system but I assume someone stole the head unit and they replaced it with the cheapest stock head unit before I bought it. As I was installing the required Pioneer Stereo with the removable faceplate and the dolphin animations, I found a Fanta can behind the stereo which is what kept it from falling into the dash since it was shallower than the Monsoon unit.

Suggested by: Mr Rick

Never seen anything like this before in all my years of car stereo-ing, but the previous owner of my S8 had connected a subwoofer amp to the car battery by cutting off the leads of a perfectly good set of jumper cables, clamping one end to the battery, and wiring the bare ends to the amp.

He then jumped the remote terminal to the positive.

Suggested by: Darwin Brandis

Bought a 'race prepped' Fox body with the intent of doing a cheap drag build and the owner told me that he was selling his dads project for him, needed it gone "now" had a professional install a bunch of stuff including a battery relocation, fuel cell and a 6 point cage.

It was a roller, no rust and the frame and body looked good and straight. Price was, in retrospect, a little too good but i snapped it up.

Brought it home and parked it in the back of the garage while I buttoned up a couple other projects. 8ish months later when I got around to it I started doing prep so I could start on the suspension and drivetrain and while I was climbing in and out of the thing I grabbed the cage to pull myself up and the entire bar just came away under my weight.

Turns out the entire thing was welded so poorly that it wouldnt survive a pillow fight let alone a 10 second wreck.

Suggested by: JaredOfLondon

Full PPF but done incredibly badly, thankfully when the car was delivered I noticed how terrible it was and since the dealer clearly mentioned it was included when they sold me the car, they were on the hook to fix it. the whole car had to be re-done under warranty.

Suggested by: G_Tee_Free

Bought my son a used Honda CR-V. It was cheap and needed a few things, including brake pads. We removed the rear wheels and went to change out the pads. I noticed something shiny that the work light hit while positioning it. Upon further inspection, we found a vice grip crimping the brake line. The previous owner, instead of doing the right thing, sacrificed his vice grips to crimp the rubber brake line. 😐

Suggested by: LeftLaneTRDPrius

Mine is also a motorcycle. My cousin bought a Yamaha Star Warrior new in 2008.

After he got it home, he rode it once and scared himself. It sat in his shed for the next 16 years with a total of 31 miles on the odometer. I acquired it and am working on getting it back to road ready condition. New tires, belt, all fluids, new turn signals as the rubber stems on the originals had turned to dust, and undoing some handle bar mods.

Suggested by: Mathnerd

My mint 1985 AMC Eagle wagon is stock, with some factory equipment upgrades.

However, one of the PO's painted the optional aluminum wheels. The paint job was well done, but the color is a silver gray and the original silver center caps no longer match the rest of the wheels. It's that minor flaw that draws my eye every time I look at the car.

Suggested by: Radar Lover Gone

Previous owner put a track duty clutch and Macleod slave cylinder/master cylinder in my cammed 6.0, T56 swapped GMC Sonoma (S10). There is no easy release of the clutch. It's more like a switch, it's either on or off. Which combined with the light weight and lack of traction of the compact truck chassis and street tires makes for some interesting takeoffs. The lopey stage 3 cam makes low speed maneuvers tricky at times and the clutch just makes it worse.

But its soooo much fun to drive otherwise.

Suggested by: MP

I'll go with basically the same story. Nearly two decades ago I picked up a 2001 BMW F650GS – wonderful 650CC thumper dual sport in glorious yellow. Which the prior owner decided didn't thump hard enough and replaced the factory exhaust with a SuperTrap. Even pulling it down to the minimum number of discs didn't reduce the "pop pop" to something manageable and my buddies wouldn't ride behind me when going on camping trips. I kept it a year, picked up my airhead and sold the GS to a buddy, who very promptly sourced a factory exhaust for it.

Suggested by: Misnomer