Why Buying Second Hand Vehicles In The Philippines Is Often A Risky Financial Trap

[00:00:00]Hello you lovely lovely people. I thought I'd make this video about uh buying a used car in the Philippines.

[00:00:10]Uh now of course you're taking a risk like you are in any country buying a used car but I think more so here in the Philippines and the reason for this is Filipinos don't really take care of the things that they've got. And that's why a lot of people will tell you when you buy a motorcycle here, don't buy a used motorcycle.

[00:00:33]And that's generally because they just tear the ass out of everything. Nothing is maintained, people. Nothing is maintained.

[00:00:43]Um, so sometimes you can chug good money after bad. Now, with this car here that I've got, and I've had this for over a year now, and uh I've done a lot of work to this car, and the Filipino that I bought it from wasn't exactly honest. Of course, he wasn't honest, but he seemed like a trusting guy. He had a good job for the government. And he, like I said, he seemed like a trusting sort of a guy.

[00:01:13]So, I give him the money that he was asking for this. I didn't even knock him down really cuz I thought it was still a good buy for a secondhand uh you know Suzuki uh DA62 which is what this is 4x4 now when I drove it when I test drove it yes there was a you know there's a you know a bit of knocking you know which is you know it's not a new vehicle people but over the course of the months that I had this in the very beginning.

[00:01:49]Many things were going wrong. Many things. Now, I've had the steering changed on this twice now because the first one was stolen when I took it into a garage.

[00:02:02]And uh I took it into the garage not to have that done. It was a totally different job that I took it into the It wasn't even a garage. It was like one of these these uh these mechanics here that work from a house that you know they got a few tools and they have quite a lot of customers. So you think right I'll yeah I'll go there. So not only do you get like ripped off when you're buying a new uh a secondhand car here when you go and get the repairs done you can also get ripped off there and they can change parts like they do in cell phones here and everything like that. And it does go on people. It does. So with this I've been doing this over the weekend. I made a video yesterday, but you didn't see me over the weekend because I was doing this. I will show you what I've done.

[00:02:45]Okay, so people, this is what I did over the weekend.

[00:02:51]I've changed the uh lower suspension arms, both sides, and I did the uh racking ends on the steering, and I did the track ends on both sides. Obviously, [snorts] you can't do one side without the other, right?

[00:03:07]Um, now there's still a banging. There's still a banging. So, it's this drive shaft here. And it is in the differential.

[00:03:18]It's in the differential, people.

[00:03:22]It's the differential side carrier bearing that needs replacing cuz you can grab hold of the CV joint on the the inner CV joint and it moves up and down. you know, it's moving inside the diff inside the air differential. So, I've got to do that.

[00:03:39]And uh I've also done the bearings on the front, the front uh the front wheel bearings. Now, this is what I want to talk to her about, people. Um I I don't know where the box is now. The box is being thrown out. My wife's throwing it out. I wanted to keep that box.

[00:03:55]I bought some bearings, okay, from Shopee and meant to be Coyo bearings, Japanese.

[00:04:03]And uh I I got them delivered and I looked at them and they look good and I thought I don't know these just seem a bit cheap to be genuine Coyo bearings.

[00:04:17]So I downloaded the uh scanner from the world bearing checker and of course they fake.

[00:04:25]So I sent them back and this is the thing as well people.

[00:04:31]Uh, I thought I had the box here. I was going to show you the box looked cauter people, you know. It Oh, here. No, it's not. It even had the, you know, the, you know, the um hologram on the box. It It looked really, really cautious, people really. But I just thought they're just too cheap. So, I thought I'd do a check and I was disappointed.

[00:04:52]So, when you're buying parts for your cars here as well, understand that if you're getting them from Shopppee, the chances are they are very, very cheap aftermarket parts that have been made in China.

[00:05:07]Now, I went to the shop in Dipperog and I bought the real Cory bearings and they were 1,500 pesos each. I needed two of them, you know, one either side. And I did a check on the uh on the bar cord and yeah, they were genuine. But that I think I paid 600 for the bent ones each and uh I think that's what made me think are they real or not? But these anyway I just sent them back to uh the supplier [snorts] in on Shopee. So people listen, buying a secondhand car, especially if it's not from a reputable dealer, you're taking a chance. You are, people, you're taking a big chance. I've had the steering changed on this. I've had so many things. I've had welding done the chassis. Not a lot, but there was I just wanted it all done. And like I said, the guy that I bought it off said, "Yes, it's a Yeah, it's a great thing. This Yeah, these people selling vegetables."

[00:06:06]Yeah, I'll just say my wife.

[00:06:09]So people, you you're taking a big chance. Um, but the thing was I didn't want to buy anything, you know, like a new car and spend out all that money on a new car because, you know, you're putting yourself in debt, aren't you?

[00:06:22]You know, you you're pushing your limits. Um, so you've got that to think about, you know, do you want a new car?

[00:06:29]And also people, you've got to think about this parts.

[00:06:34]Now the reason I got that Suzuki there was because there are many of them here on the island of Mindanao in Cebu. There are so many of these. So the parts are quite readily available and you can get like a lot of their surplus parts what they ship in. But it's still a pain in the ass. You know, it's still costing you money and it's still the inconvenience of fixing fixing fixing. Um, [snorts] now I do like a lot I've been doing this work myself on here. I haven't been doing videos of the work people because it's very difficult for me to video and do the work on here. I mean, if my wife was a little bit better with a camera, she'd probably do it. But we've got Zach, you see, so she's always continuously monitoring Zach and got Zach cuz he's being very restless at the moment. He's at that six weeks old stage, you know, he's getting very, very inquisitive.

[00:07:32]at 6 weeks. He's looking around now and he's not sleeping much to be honest with you and he's got snot. So, I couldn't really ask my wife to ward the camera.

[00:07:39]But anyway, you've got to watch out for these things. You've got to watch out for bent bent people who are selling these vehicles here. If I was to buy another one of these, which I would buy another one of these, I wouldn't buy it from a from a Filipino who's just, you know, in a house here. I will go to these places, these surplus places where they ship them over as a cut and shut. They cut and shut here. It's not illegal. Um, so they ship them over and then they they they cut the bodies off by the back wheel arches and ship them over and then they they reweld them when they're here and they repaint them and do this and do that. And I I don't know what else they do, but they say they change all the bushes and this, but they don't. They don't don't believe that for one moment because my neighbor, he bought one. I think he paid about 230,000 240,000 pesos for it. And it's the model up from this one. He's is the uh the DA64. This is the DA62.

[00:08:43]And these is the turbo model as well.

[00:08:45]And there's just so much gone wrong with that. You know, the exhaust was he's had to have a new exhaust. He's had to change the bushes. had to do this and do that and the electric window stopped working. So, you have to think about these things. Is it worth getting a secondhand one like this or are you going to go and buy a new one from a dealer? Well, yes, of course, if you get a new one from a dealer, it's brand new. It's probably not going to give you any [snorts] problems for a long time to come, but they're expensive. They're damned expensive.

[00:09:18]And also here when you buy secondhand cars, I've seen some proper crap. I've seen some proper crap where back in the UK they would be scrapped. But here they have a value. Everything has a value here.

[00:09:31]Like this, like this, you know, this in the UK. If id have bought that in the UK, I don't [snorts] know what I'd have paid for it, but I would have paid nowhere near the amount I paid for it here. Nowhere near. In fact, they would probably give me it, [snorts] you know.

[00:09:44]But um everything has a value here. So be careful buying parts. If you're going to buy the parts, people try not to get them on Shopee because they say they genuine parts and they not. And yes, if you're happy fitting a Chinese cheap bearing or a Chinese cheap uh you know like a law suspension arm or a or a bearing for your differential, which I've got to get one for this. And I I've sourced it from Dipper log. And again, I think the bearings are 620 or 7. Uh, and um, that's the part number 6 620 or 7 on Shopee. I can get them for like 200 pesos, right? In the shop that, you know, the shop where they are genuine Coyo, they're like 2,000 pesos. So, there you go. You know, do I want to cuz that's quite a big job taking out that diff for me anyway, you know, cuz I haven't got ramps or anything like that.

[00:10:39]So, I don't want to be doing it twice. I don't want to be taking out that differential fitting the bearings and then you know 3 months down the line it's gone again.

[00:10:52]And also you got to think as well people when the vans get this old things do go wrong them you know and it normally happens in a line you know like it's like a domino effect you know something will happen then you get that fix something else happen something else will happen. So, what I've done with this, I've ch I'm changing all the bearings. I'm changing all of the uh the the bushings.

[00:11:12]Well, I've done most of them. I've only got the back bushings to do now. And rather than buy the bushings, just buy the whole part, people. You know, it's it's a little bit more expensive, but it's less funny, you know, and rather than taking a bushing out and trying to, you know, press one back in and stuff.

[00:11:27]I'll just buy the part and just fit the damn part on it. But when I take this diff out, because there's only one side that's gone, I will replace the the I will replace the uh pinion bushing, which is the uh tapered uh bushing on the back that that connects to the prop shaft for the four-wheel drive. And I will replace both sides of the side uh carrier uh bushings. I will do that.

[00:11:54]I'll do both of them. And then it's it's done. It's done. Um, what else have I had done? I think this is the brakes, but that's just wear and tear. And again, when I went to buy brake pads here for the front now, online, they were like 200 pesos or something stupid like that. And I thought, nah, you know, you're putting yourself in, you know, I've got a family. I'm not. No. And they said genuine. They not. And I went to the shop here that specializes in these. And I think they're about 1,200 pesos.

[00:12:28]That's okay. I don't mind paying the extra for genuine parts. And of course, these parts, if it's not aftermarket, if it's genuine parts, they, you know, they they have a hologram generally and you can scan the um hologram. It'll say illegal or it'll say, you know, a kosher product. It's, you know, it's it's genuine.

[00:12:48]And I do that now. Even when I go to diplo and I buy the parties, I always scan them before. And the guy in the shop when I bought the the bearing for that, the genuine bearing, he didn't know about that. And uh I said, "Yeah."

[00:13:00]I said, "So then he downloaded the app on his phone so when he buys the stock, he can check them all." But he's a genuine uh and um it's worth buying from a reputable garage, I think, secondhand or whatever.

[00:13:21]Don't buy from someone on the street like I virtually did when I bought this damn thing. But I spent a bit of money on it. The engine is good. Thank goodness. The engine is good. Oh, the clutch. I had to change the clutch after about a month. I changed the clutch because it had a noise on the uh release bearing, the thrust bearing as we call it in the UK, the release bearing. Uh the pressure plate release bearing. So I I didn't do that. I've got these two guys to do it from up the road here and they were online as uh mobile mechanics.

[00:13:55]Oh god. Well, one couldn't see. The the the boss couldn't see. He couldn't see one one foot in front of him. He's blind. But I didn't know this at first.

[00:14:08]And he was like doing everything by touch. And he's I think it was his son-in-law. I think he was doing the work and he was telling him what to do.

[00:14:15]And I said to me, I said, "I think he's blind." that that block and I said he's doing me clutch and like I asked his son-in-law I said is he blind? He says no he's not like blind properly but he says he can't see very far. I thought oh here we go and I paid top money for that. I paid top but they did a good job. It it it was done but they weren't going to I forget what that bearon's called.

[00:14:41]Uh where the where the gearbox spindle goes into the spindle bush. They weren't going to change. I said, "No." I said, "I want that changed as well." So, when I bought the uh the clutch kit, everything was in there, but you know, that spindle bearing. So, I had to go, you know, to dip a log and buy the spindle bear, but they were, you know, they weren't going to change that. I said, "Well, everything's off." And they didn't have, you know, a clutch aligning kit. And I thought, "God almighty." So, they were just going to try and think that it's there properly trying to line the gearbox up, the spindle. And of course, they were up and down, up and down, moving the clutch. I said, "Look," I said, "I'll go and buy a clutch aligning kit." You know, they're only about three or 400 pesos in diplo. So, I did. I went there and I got one and yeah, straight in that, you know, they aligned it and, you know, the gearbox went straight in. But, you know, it's just I don't know. It can't be damn frustrating, people. But that's it anyway. Um, buying used cars, buying new cars, pre-loved, whatever you want to call them. Just think about it. go to reputable dealers, go to these surplus places where they do, you know, they ship them in, they weld them back together and blah blah blah blah. But even then, people, you know, you're still taking a chance cuz they don't do what they say they're going to do, like change the bushes and the brakes and this and that and whatnot. They don't, you know, they don't change the SUV boots if they split or they hanging off from the from the uh drive shafts or the axles as they call them here. Uh so it it's food for thought, people. Food for thought. Anyway, people, listen. I'm over and out. And uh take care. Whatever you're doing, do it well or try and do it well. God bless you all. Bye-bye.