Sold a car and now the head gasket has gone

123legaladvice

Justcat,

Some of the advice you have received on here isn’t that good actually, you need to take it with a pinch of salt.

I would recommend you talk to the woman, I work in a county court in the South West and too often things come through the court that could have been sorted out without the court.

If the women feels strongly that she is in the right and you are in the wrong she may choose to go down the county court route (or small claims as it sometimes gets called), then it will be down to the court to decide and that could go anyway - you paying nothing, paying half or paying for the full repair!!!

This judgment will be based on facts, proof of repairs etc so you will need to provide all this.

Check out the link before for more info on the small claims process, this takes time and can be pretty stressful.

www. hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/claims/index.htm


My recommendation, pick up the phone and sort it out – the court should be the last resort.

meana

how does the buyer know that the garage she took it to wasn't trying to sting her out of £580 for the Head Gasket repair (which seems a heck of a lot of money!!).
a head gasket can just 'go' at any time, it could have gone as she was driving it home..it could have not gone at all and the fact that it is cold at the moment causes the 'mayo' type gunk you see where you pour the oil in, but Mr Garage man says 'Hi there, i'm definately an honest mechanic and i've checked over this car you just bought and i'm sorry to say the head gasket has gone that'll be £580 please'.

not sure how the garage could say it's been gone a while, but either way the buyer should have driven it or at least started the car before buying it..
if the head gasket had gone, starting the car up and running it for a couple of minutes (check number 1) would have caused plumes of white smoke to come billowing out of the exhaust (similar to Back to the Future!).

tell the buyer 'sorry and go away'.
even if it goes to the small claims court...the fact you are out of work and therefore don't really have any way of paying would probably go in your favour..but i think the buyer would have to be a bit b*llsee to go there.

LandyAndy

123legaladvice wrote: »

Justcat,

Some of the advice you have received on here isn’t that good actually, you need to take it with a pinch of salt.



My recommendation, pick up the phone and sort it out – the court should be the last resort.

And that's some of it.

Are you the person who bought the car?

housesitter

For what it's worth.

I bought a BMW Compact 316 on a N reg from a lass at work.

One day on the way into work there was a lot of steam rising from under the bonnet.
She phoned the AA who came out, topped it up, chopped the water pipe to the heater for some random reason, looped it back to the engine, told her to fill with water and that the head gasket had probably gone.

She took it to her regular garage who confirmed it was the head gasket.

I was away on business at the time and came back to hear the story and find the car on ebay.
I went to have a look at it and assured her it wasn't the head gasket.
She still was panicing and sold the car to me.

I fixed it for 50p. It was a small plastic part in the radiator which on all BMW's for that age can go porous.

I'm not an expert when it comes to cars, I just choose not to listen to people who want my money without doing my own research.


I would quite happily suggest that the fault may have been misdiagnosed.

If she had issue with the car and expect you to pay for the repair then she should have given you ample time for you to inspect it, get a third party opinion. Else how are you to know that she and the gargae are not colluding to extort money from you ?

red_eye

justcat wrote: »

Anilator, the MOT was only just done and again as far as I was aware, it was a good runner. Again, not a lie as it's my opinion. It's not like I said it was black but it wasn't.
To be honest, I was starting to feel better and everyone else seems to think I am okay but your comments keep worrying me again.

the buyer should always check te car over or have a mechanic. the car passed mot emmisons and im guessing you had the car serviced before the mot so as far as you know the car is in good working order. i

leachyd

speedbird1973 wrote: »

For crying out loud Justcat.... Just tell the buyer to f*ck off and forget about it!!!

Lol - love this!!

Cat- Don't even entertain the thought of giving them any money. It's just their bad luck, from what i remember of my contract law lecutres-the buyer would only have recourse to void the contract/recover losses if there was a material error in the description of the vehicle, or decieved the buyer - i dont think "a good runner" is very specific.

Just tell them no, and tell them that you see that as the end of the matter.

MORPH3US

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Everytime I see one of these threads, with posters saying the seller has nothing to worry, sold as seen etc, it reminds me of the ebay - caravan episode on here, where the buyer successfully claimed against the seller. Despite all evidence that the buyer didn't have a leg to stand on, they still won.

You're not the only one.... "nothing to worry about" might not be as true as they think :eek:

Ivrytwr3

justcat is looking for someone to say that she doesn't owe the lady who bought the car a penny; she doesn't. Sold as seen, blah blah blah. She hasn't even mentioned, going halves, offering a token amount etc. Just, "how do i get away with not paying her a penny?"

However, the buyer obviously had no idea what she was buying and put her trust in another human being. That was her mistake.

There are so many possibilities why this buyer had come alone (or maybe had nobody to help her).

Legally justcat is in the right, but if i were in her place i wouldn't feel right shutting the door on the buyer and would have to come to some sort of mutual agreement.

PS Merry Xmas.

zzzLazyDaisy

Ivrytwr3 wrote: »

justcat is looking for someone to say that she doesn't owe the lady who bought the car a penny; she doesn't. Sold as seen, blah blah blah. She hasn't even mentioned, going halves, offering a token amount etc. Just, "how do i get away with not paying her a penny?"

Why should she pay a penny? The buyer had full opportunity to inspect, and didn't do. She didn't even take it for a test drive. That was her choice.

However, the buyer obviously had no idea what she was buying and put her trust in another human being. That was her mistake.

The buyer cannot rely on the opinion of an owner who is clearly not an expert. Putting one's trust in the person who is selling you an old banger (sorry OP) is not a smart move - in fact it is stretching naivety to exptremes!

There are so many possibilities why this buyer had come alone (or maybe had nobody to help her).

And none of them are anything to do with OP. She could, had she wished, had an AA inspection carried out on the car. Or she could have decided that, since she had no idea what she was doing, the best place thing to do would be to buy a car with a warranty from a dealer (I have only ever bought from dealers for this reason)

Legally justcat is in the right, but if i were in her place i wouldn't feel right shutting the door on the buyer and would have to come to some sort of mutual agreement.

WHAT???? You agree OP is legally in the right, but still expect her to pay up? <walks away shaking head>

OP, in my view (for what it's worth) you haven't done anything wrong and you should politely but firmly tell her that as far as you are concerned the normal rules of Caveat Emptor apply, and you do not believe that there is any useful purpose to be gained by continuing this correspondence.

mrbrightside842

I'm another one for 'sold as seen'. I'd only pick up the phone and offer money if I knew about it, offering money would seem like you are accepting some of the blame. Going to court would be very stressful and cost money - so I doubt she'd want to do that, it could totally up her costs. It's the buyers responsibility to check the condition, she wouldn't have handed over the money if she was not happy with the condition.