Another unhappy buyer - private sale

captainawsome

Hi everyone. Before I start I have read the recent threads on this but thought I would start my own more specific to my case.

I will stick to what I belive are the key facts in the matter but if you need more info just ask.

-I sold my car privately to a friend of a friend of a friend through word of mouth, the car was never advertised.
-I work as a mechanic, on the brand of car sold, the buyer knows this.
-The buyer inspected and test drive the car to his satisfaction.
-The seller went away to think about the desicion before ringing me back with an offer
- I asked £3500 but we dealt at £3150
- No 'contract' or 'sold as seen' receipt was given or signed, just the V5 with the new keepers details on
-this was 2 weeks ago, he is now saying he went away in the car and it used 1l of oil in 200 miles. Amongst other faults such as a knock from a driveshaft and a tyre pressure light on (I know, that's a non-issue)
- the car was in daily use by myself including a few long motorway journeys during the week he bought the car, never missed a beat or needed topping up more than a couple of hundred ML.
-the car is 10 years old and has done 130,000miles

My view on this is that the car was fine when I sold it, and the buyer was satisfied after his inspection and test drive. As its a private sale I have no reponsability for whatever issue he is now having? Would this be correct?

Any advise much appreciated, thanks.

aeroblade

Legally yes, you are not obliged to do anything- you are in the clear, the seller has no standing.


However, from a moral standpoint I think you should fix the car free of charge as you are a mechanic

motorguy

captainawsome wrote: »

Hi everyone. Before I start I have read the recent threads on this but thought I would start my own more specific to my case.

I will stick to what I belive are the key facts in the matter but if you need more info just ask.

-I sold my car privately to a friend of a friend of a friend through word of mouth, the car was never advertised.
-I work as a mechanic, on the brand of car sold, the buyer knows this.
-The buyer inspected and test drive the car to his satisfaction.
-The seller went away to think about the desicion before ringing me back with an offer
- I asked £3500 but we dealt at £3150
- No 'contract' or 'sold as seen' receipt was given or signed, just the V5 with the new keepers details on
-this was 2 weeks ago, he is now saying he went away in the car and it used 1l of oil in 200 miles. Amongst other faults such as a knock from a driveshaft and a tyre pressure light on (I know, that's a non-issue)
- the car was in daily use by myself including a few long motorway journeys during the week he bought the car, never missed a beat or needed topping up more than a couple of hundred ML.
-the car is 10 years old and has done 130,000miles

My view on this is that the car was fine when I sold it, and the buyer was satisfied after his inspection and test drive. As its a private sale I have no reponsability for whatever issue he is now having? Would this be correct?

Any advise much appreciated, thanks.

You say your only experience of driving the car was "during the week he bought the car"?

How long have you owned it?

Was your name address on the V5C?

motorguy

aeroblade wrote: »

Legally yes, you are not obliged to do anything- you are in the clear, the seller has no standing.


However, from a moral standpoint I think you should fix the car free of charge as you are a mechanic

Complete nonsense.

bigjl

aeroblade wrote: »

Legally yes, you are not obliged to do anything- you are in the clear, the seller has no standing.


However, from a moral standpoint I think you should fix the car free of charge as you are a mechanic

Are you crazy?

bigjl

motorguy wrote: »

You say your only experience of driving the car was "during the week he bought the car"?

How long have you owned it?

Was your name address on the V5C?

My take is it was his own car and the week it was sold he went on a long journey.

This is why WeBuyAnyCar type businesses are growing.

Selling a car is a nightmare.

Everybody want everything for free and it is their 'right' to come back again and again for trivial items such as blown bulbs etc.

shaun_from_Africa

aeroblade wrote: »

Legally yes, you are not obliged to do anything- you are in the clear, the seller has no standing.


However, from a moral standpoint I think you should fix the car free of charge as you are a mechanic

And then the following week if something else goes wrong or next year if it fails the MOT?

motorguy wrote: »

You say your only experience of driving the car was "during the week he bought the car"?

How long have you owned it?

Was your name address on the V5C?

I don't think this is the case.
The only reference that the OP made to a week was that in the week before selling it they had driven it on a few motorway journeys.

captainawsome

bigjl wrote: »

My take is it was his own car and the week it was sold he went on a long journey.

This is why WeBuyAnyCar type businesses are growing.

Selling a car is a nightmare.

Everybody want everything for free and it is their 'right' to come back again and again for trivial items such as blown bulbs etc.

This is correct. It was my own car, owned from about March time. I was travelling a lot the week before hand looking at new cars to buy. Lots of motorway miles. Other than that it was in daily use by me since owning.

burlington6

aeroblade wrote: »

Legally yes, you are not obliged to do anything- you are in the clear, the seller has no standing.


However, from a moral standpoint I think you should fix the car free of charge as you are a mechanic

Be quiet you fool

motorguy

captainawsome wrote: »

This is correct. It was my own car, owned from about March time. I was travelling a lot the week before hand looking at new cars to buy. Lots of motorway miles. Other than that it was in daily use by me since owning.

Spot on. As long as your name and address is on the v5c, then you're totally watertight.

Private Sale = no warranty.

Its not uncommon for a 130,000 mile car to use some oil, and the other faults are wear and tear really. No car that age is going to be perfect.

Dont get involved at all - if you fix one thing, you'll end up doing loads for them.

If he wanted a perfect car with a warranty, there are plenty of new car franchises would be willing to help.

colino

As long as you didn't sell it from your or your employers forecourt, tell him to jog on. It was not just a private sale, it was an unadvertised request to buy.
He wants the benefit of buying, at discount, from someone in the trade, but wants a perpetual warranty thrown in. The bit about using a pint of oil in a couple of hundred miles is really the clincher. How much oil was in it when he drove away? Did he check the dipstick on a hill, on a camber or one eye shut? If he really thought the engine was guzzling oil, he'd be demanding his money back, not just part of the list in the first instalment of many requests for free attention.