Advice Please - Bought a Car, Car is Knackered - Small claims court advice

motorguy

pinkgem wrote: »

the OP said he mentioned the above after taking payment

if the op had inspected the car even half heartedly, fairly fundamental things like the handbrake being faulty and it not starting easily would have been picked up.

Not nice when it happens to you, but the seller has done nothing illegal.

Get rid of it at auction, you might not lose that much as 406 diesels are popular. you could waste months and ££££'s on this.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I'd check the seller's other eBay activities just to be sure they're not a dealer. If they were, then a case against them would be much easier. The seller might have shot himself in the foot by stating "nothing else wrong with it", which is an inaccurate description. If he'd said "nothing else wrong with it as far as I'm aware", he'd have a better chance of getting away with it.
Did it have a recent MOT? I'd be wary of paying serious money for a car with less than about 10 months MOT (though I know hindsight isn't much help now).

Snooze_Control

Never believe anything anyone tells you or writes whenever there's money involved - always check it out for yourself.

You can't really blame the seller - he was trying to get shut of a scrapper and was deliberately being vague to ensure he got the best price possible. I'm pretty sure if you were in the same boat you'd have done the same, otherwise you would have wasted your time paying to list it as it would get no bids. Going by what you say, it sounds like you had ample opportunity to examine the vehicle and take it for a test drive before commencing bidding but you decided to take his word for it instead. Now you've ended up with a scrapper and no doubt have learnt a valuable lesson to go with it.

Apply a large plaster to your burnt fingers and move on.

SC

Hintza

Got to agree with all the above, unless it was a trader you are stuffed.

You need to check it out throughly before parting with your cash.

rose_sparky

You could list it on ebay for spares/repair.

kriss_boy

Tophat, if I was the seller Id be pretty annoyed.

The ownus is 100% on YOU to inspect and ask any questions prior to the purchase. You cant honestly expect the seller to list every fault with a 10 year old car?!

Seriously, these complaints wynd me up sumin awfy!!!

When I sold my car I had the buyer sign a reciept to say inspected and agreed sale for £xxxx.

When I bought my car I got a mechanic to look over it. Obviously I later found the odd niggling problem but thats the nature of the beast.

MrsTinks

I bought my little MX5 from Ebay - but I drove 40 odd miles to see it before the auction ended... (Granted having driven all that way I then decided I liked it, felt it was sound and asked him what he wanted to end the action early We found a price we could agree on and I paid the man and drove away in my new MX5 Still think I got a bargain to this day )

Always inspect a car before you buy it - that includes a test drive to check for smooth running, straight breaking, will it run in a straight line and not try to pull you off to one side, does all the lights work, windscreen washers and wipers amongst 50,000 other little things I check for as I go round a car (I guess it helps that I used to off road landrovers and had to rebuild a few engines over the years...)

motorguy

tine wrote: »

Always inspect a car before you buy it - that includes a test drive to check for smooth running, straight breaking, will it run in a straight line and not try to pull you off to one side, does all the lights work, windscreen washers and wipers amongst 50,000 other little things I check for as I go round a car (I guess it helps that I used to off road landrovers and had to rebuild a few engines over the years...)

Absolutely, though you dont need to be a mechanic to spot a pup. i used to buy and sell cars and basically, if the suspensions clunky its going to cost money, if the brakes grind it needs new brakes, if its hard to start its going to need sorted, etc etc. ie, if it sounds like there is a problem with car, then there is and budget for the worst...

reehsetin

it is buyer beware your only recourse as i understand it would be if the seller had mad a misrepresentation in the sale
simply if you asked - are there any other problems with it or is there a problem with this or that and he said no when he knew there was then you have a chance, (as someone pointed out the fact he said no other problems might be a misrepresentation?)
but if you didnt ask or asked after the sale - nothing really that could be done

smashed

Why do people post a question...then not bother to at least put a reply in and say thanks to all the comments?
Instead they just log on, read it, and then log off again?