There’s nothing quite as expensive as being poor. That’s what one woman who was looking for affordable transportation claims she found out after purchasing a supposed bargain on Facebook Marketplace.
In a video posted to her TikTok account on Apr. 26, artist and Tiktoker Sheba Monique (@bmoniquej) states that she was looking for an affordable car so she could quit using rideshares to get around. But she claims the car she purchased quickly became a money pit.
The video, captioned “Being broke is expensive,” currently has 210,500 views as of Monday. In it, Monique states, “Do not buy a car out of desperation or else you will end up with a dud.”
She claims that she had “spent well over $200 in the course of three days on Uber,” and states she took to Facebook Marketplace to find a “car within my budget that drove.” She says she was able to talk the asking price of $2,300 down to $1900 but she claims, “Here I am four days later and I feel like that was too much money.”
Monique’s footage of the alleged vehicle shows a GMC model that hasn’t been cleaned in a while but she says the cosmetic issues are scratching the surface regarding the car’s problems.
“The entire suspension system is going to need to be replaced and it’s also going to need some new catalytic converters,” she claims she was told after taking the car to a mechanic.
She states that the repairs in question will set her back an additional $1,500 but that the mechanic “never advised me against getting it.”
“I don’t think a 2009 with 200,000 miles on it is worth $3,500 to four thousand dollars,” she says to her viewers.
But she says the other shoe dropped when she took the car to a second mechanic for a new opinion.
“He told me that I need to just get a new car,” she claims, alleging that the car’s transmission is “having problems.”
She then states that she plans to put the vehicle “back on the market.”
@bmoniquej Being broke is expensive… #facebookmarketplace#usedca#baddeal ♬ original sound – Moniqux
Is buying from Facebook Marketplace risky?
Private auto sales website PrivateAuto says Facebook Marketplace “is an excellent place to shop for a wide range of items” but notes that buying a car via the service “doesn’t offer the same protection and verification of other online services.”
It advises potential buyers to “research the necessary steps of buying a used car yourself, like securing gap insurance, obtaining the vehicle history report, and more.” It also states that car buyers can find “dealership-certified, pre-owned vehicles often come with an extended warranty,” in the marketplace.
The Daily Dot has reached out via email to Facebook’s parent company, Meta for a statement.
Many of Monique’s viewers responded in the comments after seeing the video of the alleged vehicle.
OJ (@bigoh9528) wrote, “They didn’t have the common decency to clean it; that alone would have made me say no thank you.”
“Honestly don’t do anything out of desperation. It’s always bad,” another viewer advised.
Another viewer suggested she should use the vehicle to help finance a new one. “Take it to a dealership most they’ll probably give you is $1000 use that and finance a used Toyota or Honda with max 100,000 miles,” they wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Monique via email for further comment.
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