Things I learned buying my used Festiva (and other used cars...)

[thirdman]

1) Sellers lie.
2) If an Odo has been replaced, they place a sticker indicating such on the b-pillar part of the driver's side door. Miss that, and you miss an important piece of info.
3) You can mask cigarette smoke for a short while, but eventually it will return... with a vengeance. And always AFTER the vehicle has been purchased.
4) Sellers lie.
5) "Title in hand" doesn't always mean "title in hand". Also, even if they do have the title, it won't necessarily be in their name. Or signed.
6) Some folks don't have bank accounts and/or don't know what Money Orders or Cashier's Checks are.
7) Never buy on an impulse.
8 ) Sellers lie.

That's all. Just venting.

[JPT]

By the way...

Sellers lie.

[nonamekid]

I hate sellers who lie. Clear title to some sellers mean that they have the title in their name. Clear title to me means it is not a salvage title, it is in their name, and no one else has a lien against it.

[thirdman]

Oh, and I also learned:

9) The only way I could find to get cigarette smoke stink out of the seats is to clean them thoroughly with Simple Green and then literally SOAK them in bleach. Takes a few days to dry out, but it helps.
10) Some things cannot be saved. Sometimes you just have to rip out the carpet.
11) Ripping out carpet can reveal may deeply hidden evils...
12) Sun visors are a wire hoop with firm foam in the middle wrapped in vinyl. The foam absorbs stinky stuff. An exacto knife will remove said foam toot sweet.

[Bathtub Tom]

I've heard the way to get rid of unpleasant smells (particularly dog and baccy) is to leave an open container of fresh grass clippings in the the car overnight. I've never needed to try it.

[Axlander9289]

Febreeze has always worked for me.

[thirdman]

febreeze... grass clippings... I will try anything. So far I have used: carpet cleaner, Clorox wipes, simple green, Windex, carpet fresh, straight bleach, Lysol, water+soap.

Next up is kerosene plus an open flame...

p.s. I am horridly allergic to tobacco smoke. Usually a single molecule will set me to sneezing, so I am wildly disappointed that I got fooled on this one...

[stefan]

#2 Any monkey with a philips screwdriver can replace the instrument cluster (odo) 90% of the time there wont be a sticker. (like mine)

[Axlander9289]

Febreeze, man! Febreeze is what you need!

[neanderpaul]

man I've been in some smoke stinking cars. The one thing that gets the smell out every time is..... time.

[MeeMo]

ODO-Ban, works well. Have also had success with dryer fabric softener sheets. (Those things also repel mice, proven to work for me).

[thirdman]

Just in case anyone is keeping score at home, the smell became worse and worse as the days went on.

I tore out the carpet completely. I removed and rebuilt the visors. I threw out the back seat. I pulled the seats and Simple-Greened the interior, followed by Clorox Cleanup Bleach. I hit the headliner with 409, Simple Green, Bleach and hot soapy water. I spayed TONS of lysol in the air inlets while running the fan on High.

I then diassembled the seats down to the foam. I soaked the foam in hot water and laundry detergent, and squeezed and re-soaked until the squeezings ran clear. This took approximately a dozen cycles for each piece of foam. You don't want to know what the initial squeezings looked like! I machine washed the upper and lower seat covers three times each in hot water. (I wouldn't recommend that unless you are desperate, as it roughs things up a quite a bit.)

I hosed down and scrubbed the seat frames and repainted the rusty bits. I also lubed 'em up for good measure, added some foam to the seats and put new covers over the whole mess.

Success!

It was a horrible job. I did learn that you can tumble-dry a seat cushion if you monitor it so that it doesn't get TOO hot.


UGH.

The Stinktiva lives.

[batstiva]

I feel you on the stinks. I ended up with a piece o' crap Voyager after my uncle passed away last winter. Thing stunk to high heaven. Can't even really describe the odor. This is the one that I posted about earlier that actually had stuff growing on the floor where the third row seat should have been. Anyway, was told to try scattering coffee around, leaving it for a few days and then to vaccume them up. Did as instructed and all I ended up with was adding coffee to the other odors in the van.

Oh, and seller do occasionally lie.

[Damkid]

i smoked for 5-6 years (i've quit now) and my festiva doesn't smell like it, then again i wasn't a heavy smoker either

[thirdman]

My Stinktiva (tm) did not smell only like smoke... but a fascinating combination of ammonia, wet dog, smoke, urine and a sickly-sweet nastiness...