Sold dodgy car by someone I know - should I be annoyed?

[Deleted User]

Went to see a used car recently. Anyway, turned up at the house and it was the boyfriend of my wife's 2nd cousin who was selling the car. Only a young lad but we'd met him a few times and he seems a nice fella.

So, because we knew him, we asked him to be honest with the state of the car. In the end, because he said it was ok, we bought it off him. (to be honest, we did offer a bit too much but thought at least it was someone we knew so it would be a decent car). One thing he did say was there was a hole in the exhaust but he'd get that done by his neighbour who was a mechanic. Excellent I thought.

Anyway, that was 3 weeks ago.....

When we had the car, it didnt sound right so I took it to local fast fit. They saw within 5 seconds that there was a new rear exhaust but there was a hole in the front bit too!!!!! Cost (this is the bit with the CAT) £300 !!!!

Seems obvious that my young friend knew about this, was happy to fix the rear bit (£50) but didnt want to pay out for the front bit and hoped we wouldn't notice. After all, his mechanic neighbour would have noticed when he fitted the rear bit.

Other stuff that I probably cant say he knew about:-

- Door lock fell out after 2nd day. Again noticed some screws in door well so someone had looked at this previously.

- Running roughly/misfiring. Hmmm. So much for it being a 'great' runner.

- This morning smoke billowing from engine. Coolant had spewed out from coolant well all over the engine. Dont know the cause of this yet!!!!

All seems a but much. Especially the exhaust thing where it would be blatantly obvious to the person who fitted the back bit. I can imagine the conversation - Front is gone too - £300! Sod that - leave it they wont notice.....

OK, buyer beware and all that.... I know if this had happened if we bought from another seller this is possible, but am I right being a bit miffed that we know this guy quite well? After all, we considered him practically family and treated him as such when we bought the car....

Anyway, word has got around the family and his girlfriends parents know about whats happened but they say he didnt know any of this. Told my wife to leave it now because I think we'll end up looking the bad ones for picking on him when he knew nothing about it.

newcook

To be honest I would take the car back and ask for my money back!

victory

Your assuming he knew and you say you met him a few times then you knew him quite well?

balletshoes

Boyfriend of your wife's 2nd cousin who you'd met a few times. Sorry but thats not family, he's not even really much more than an acquaintance. I've usually met a car dealer a few times before I buy a car off them, and thats most definitely a business deal.

If you offered over the odds for the car he and his mechanic neighbour probably saw you coming a mile away. Its a private sale, I don't think you have any come-back, do you? Even if you bought the same car from your brother (ie much closer family tie) the issue about it being a shed would be between you and your brother - it wouldn't be anything to do with anyone else at all. So in your case, this is between you and your wife's 2nd cousin's boyfriend - nowt to do with anyone else in your, or your wife's, family.

If you want to discuss the issues with your car, the only person who should be doing the discussing is you, with the person you bought the car from.

If you buy a car from anyone in a private sale, without getting it checked over first by a professional, you are buying a pig in a poke.

Yes, you can be as annoyed as you like about the state of the car you've bought, but I'm not sure how being annoyed will help the situation.

[Deleted User]

Hmmm. Maybe I'm expecting to be treated fairly by someone who I'm quite likely to see in the future.

I must admit I'm constantly amazed by how some people have little or no morals about things like this.

In the past, when I've sold cars I've gone overboard in telling people what was wrong with it. Maybe its just me being dull then!!!!

I even once sold a car (person was picking up in few days) then found out next day there was a major problem with the brakes. I phoned the woman and told her I couldnt go through with the sale because of this and I needed to get this sorted first. I could have sold it and not told her but I didnt.

NAR

Can't believe anybody not mechanically minded would buy a second hand car without getting someone who is mechanically minded to give it the once over. Did you even go for a trial run in it? That would surely have alerted you to the major exhaust problems.

Alias_Omega

You dont say what the car is, how old it is, and how much you paid?

The older the car, the lower in value the car, the more likely its to have faults/bodged repairs. A person who owns a £500 car, will not spend £300 fixing it. They will made-do and bodge, until they pass it on.

The condition of the car you describe, is a car that appears not to be well looked after. Use & Abuse.

magenta22

Difficult one because you don't actually know for sure that he did know about it. He may not have done.

Did you actually have a good look around it and check things?

[Deleted User]

magenta22 wrote: »

Difficult one because you don't actually know for sure that he did know about it. He may not have done.

Did you actually have a good look around it and check things?

Person who changed the rear section would have known. Why wouldnt he have told the owner that front needed doing too?

Tropez

[quote=[Deleted User];48792049]Person who changed the rear section would have known. Why wouldnt he have told the owner that front needed doing too?[/QUOTE]

Because he wasn't asked to fix it?

He might have been doing a "mates-rates" deal on the rear section which wasn't going to cost much but noticed the front section, knew the car was being sold and thought sod it and didn't mention it to save himself a job.

Plus, he might just have been one of those people who don't mention anything they're not specifically asked about... quite a few of them around.

scheming_gypsy

[quote=[Deleted User];48792049]Person who changed the rear section would have known. Why wouldnt he have told the owner that front needed doing too?[/QUOTE]


he might have just jacked it up and did whatever without running it after, or putting it on the ramps. So it is possible.

It doesn't exactly help you, but the first rule of buying used cars... NEVER buy from (or sell to) family and friends!!