Sold Car in August - now Buyer wants compensation!

kwaks

'were refusing to let me have the car back, without first having a new air-con pump and belt fitted, as they said it could break and damage the engine'.


says it all really, what a numptie

iolanthe07

When I have sold vehicles in the past I always get the buyer to sign a receipt with the words "As Seen Tried & Tested". I have no idea whether this has any legal basis, but it has always worked.

Jakg

If the fuel pipe was broken, how would this effect the MPG? If it was leaking i'm fairly sure you'd notice...!

hewhoisnotintheknow

Jakg wrote: »

If the fuel pipe was broken, how would this effect the MPG? If it was leaking i'm fairly sure you'd notice...!

With things like this you need to take into account the numpty factor

It was probably explained from the mechanic to his supervisor, who then explained it to the customer services advisor who then explained it to this guy

mechanic > supervisor > customer services > car buying numpty

He's just trying to jump to the worse conclusion as it makes for a better email / complaint

Fuel lines will either leak or not

easy

He's had the car 3 months. ANYTHING could have happened to it in that time, it is very doubtful he could prove any of the damage happened before he bought it (certainly not without spending money on forensic investigation).

I would ignore his email. IF he drives over to complain in person (unlikely I suspect), tell him you sold the car in good faith, it was sold as seen. If he becomes insulting/difficult, offer to call the police.

I wouldn't worry too much.. He's trying it on.

da1seggy

sarymclary wrote: »

You will also be aware that you especially asked me for cash, which at the time we thought was rather unusual.

I'm with you on this. I wouldn't sell a car privately and accept a cheque - nothing unusual about that.

Besides, if you sold the car in August, a lot can go wrong in 2/3 months... certain parts on a car can just fail with no warning.

easy

da1seggy wrote: »

I'm with you on this. I wouldn't sell a car privately and accept a cheque - nothing unusual about that.

Standard practice, selling privately for cash, so they don't bounce the cheque on you, or give you a stolen bank draft.

Trying it on

cbrpaul

iolanthe07 wrote: »

When I have sold vehicles in the past I always get the buyer to sign a receipt with the words "As Seen Tried & Tested". I have no idea whether this has any legal basis, but it has always worked.

yes , i always do this aswell ,

i also give the buyer plenty of time to , inspect, test drive and even have a professional RAC inspection, if they want,

The reason people buy private rather than a dealer (well i do anyway ) is that 9 times out of 10 the private sell is far cheaper , of course this is mainly due to having no warrenty on the private sell , and you always take abit of chance here ,

So if you buy private and cheaper ,you cant expect a 6 month warrenty also,

I would write a poilte letter back , clearly explaining the above , and saying although you are sorry this has happened , you sold the car in good faith and at a good price to him, and that you were not aware of any defects that he has mentioned.

I really dont feel that you should have to pay anything out for this !!

redux

On my current car, the consumption wasn't great for a while, until it eventually got a lot worse one day to the point that it was obvious fuel was leaking, as the underside and rear of the car were wet. By coincidence this was as I arrived at the Channel Tunnel, and they wouldn't let me travel. A mechanic came to help, and between us we tightened up a union in the fuel injection system. Fixed in a few minutes.

sarymclary

Thanks for all the replies guys. I was totally thrown by this email, and want to try to deal with it, without involving my OH, who was made redundant a couple of weeks ago, and has a dispute with his ex employer, which means he has enough on his plate right now.

It did occur to me about the fact that anything could have happened to the car since I sold it to him. He could have driven off-road in it for all I know, or had his own prang.

The car was just under 3 years old, and I sold it for £6,400. Initially it was £6,500, but I took £100 off to cover the windscreen damage. It had very low mileage, was a fairly well-equipped model, and I'd priced it very keenly to get a sale before the winter. It was a fairly rare model, in that it had the new 1.5 diesel engine, plus 5 doors. Most models of that car come in the standard 3 door format. I was the 2nd owner, and bought it from a dealer in Yorkshire with only 3k on the clock. I'd never had a problem with it, and believe it would have been very early to have had the cambelt changed on it. I have a larger car, of the same make, and the cambelt change on that is at around 70k (£650 at the dealer for that!).