Any redress on a private car sale?

DB1904

mrsyardbroom said:

My mechanic has been out and he says it's just the battery. The seller assured me that the battery was fine and he'd never had any problems. 

Just a word of caution, there are a lot of unscrupulous sellers out there. I sold my car to someone who posed as a lady wanting a car for her car boot business. I was careful to point out the many faults. I reckoned it would need a minimum of £500 in repairs. That included new tyres which the buyer could see would need replacing in a few months. I sold it at a cheap price because of this and a few days later they're selling it as a wonderful car in tip top condition and they want £1350 more than I sold it for. I only asked £900 for it! Due to the rise in car prices recently, everyone is coming out of the woodwork buying and selling cars to make a quick buck on the side.  I wonder if any are registering as a business or are they just selling cars on the side and pretending to be private sellers? They need to be careful. As an ex HMRC employee I'm duty bound to report anything I think is suspicious. I had considerable training in this so in my case it's not just buyer beware but seller beware as well. 

Maybe your expectations of a £900 car are a little high. 

Grey_Critic

A frosty night can often be enough to kill an ailing battery.

L9XSS

DB1904 said:

mrsyardbroom said:

My mechanic has been out and he says it's just the battery. The seller assured me that the battery was fine and he'd never had any problems. 

Just a word of caution, there are a lot of unscrupulous sellers out there. I sold my car to someone who posed as a lady wanting a car for her car boot business. I was careful to point out the many faults. I reckoned it would need a minimum of £500 in repairs. That included new tyres which the buyer could see would need replacing in a few months. I sold it at a cheap price because of this and a few days later they're selling it as a wonderful car in tip top condition and they want £1350 more than I sold it for. I only asked £900 for it! Due to the rise in car prices recently, everyone is coming out of the woodwork buying and selling cars to make a quick buck on the side.  I wonder if any are registering as a business or are they just selling cars on the side and pretending to be private sellers? They need to be careful. As an ex HMRC employee I'm duty bound to report anything I think is suspicious. I had considerable training in this so in my case it's not just buyer beware but seller beware as well. 

Maybe your expectations of a £900 car are a little high. 

She didn’t pay £900 for the car, she sold her old car for £900.........

cymruchris

If the previous owner was driving the car regularly and for fairly long journeys, the battery may have performed perfectly for them. When you got the car, your driving style may be different to theirs, maybe you don't drive every day, maybe you do more short journeys. As a result - the battery that worked perfectly for them due to their driving style, could easily have failed due to yours. Batteries don't last forever, and although it a short time after purchase, it's not guaranteed to be the previous owners fault for not declaring any issue when to them there wasn't likely one. To keep your new battery in good condition, if you do a lot of short journeys, ensure you do one long journey every week or so. If you don't, the new battery can fail prematurely as well. 

MalMonroe

mrsyardbroom said:

My mechanic has been out and he says it's just the battery. The seller assured me that the battery was fine and he'd never had any problems. 

Just a word of caution, there are a lot of unscrupulous sellers out there. I sold my car to someone who posed as a lady wanting a car for her car boot business. I was careful to point out the many faults. I reckoned it would need a minimum of £500 in repairs. That included new tyres which the buyer could see would need replacing in a few months. I sold it at a cheap price because of this and a few days later they're selling it as a wonderful car in tip top condition and they want £1350 more than I sold it for. I only asked £900 for it! Due to the rise in car prices recently, everyone is coming out of the woodwork buying and selling cars to make a quick buck on the side.  I wonder if any are registering as a business or are they just selling cars on the side and pretending to be private sellers? They need to be careful. As an ex HMRC employee I'm duty bound to report anything I think is suspicious. I had considerable training in this so in my case it's not just buyer beware but seller beware as well. 

Hi, I'm also an 'elderly lady' motorist (in my 70s but vehemently denying it) living in a rural area and over the years of driving have discovered that the best thing to do with an old car is take it for part exchange to a car dealer. You then come out of the dealership with a decent car and get a fairly decent price for your old car. If you buy from a dealer it's much easier to get your money back when/if anything goes wrong - even if they are resistant. 

Sometimes people mistakenly think that they can get more for a car if they sell privately and save on a new deal if they also buy privately.  But sadly things don't always work out like that. I'd never buy from a private seller again - I did it once and ended up with a costly pile of junk. I'd certainly never give them top price. Some sellers may be honest but some are not and you never know which is which until you've handed over your money and driven away.

Hopefully if your mechanic fits a new battery and that's all that's needed, all should be well. As Ebe_Scrooge has said, batteries only last about 5 years, maybe more if you're lucky. 

Ditzy_Mitzy

It's entirely possible that the seller didn't know the battery was on the way out.  The dashboard voltmeter is a thing of the past and the average motorist doesn't test his battery in any way other than using it to start the car.  If it does that, it's fine.  I have experienced two complete and sudden failures of batteries, one on my mother's XR2 and the other on my car; in both cases the car started and ran normally, was switched off and refused to restart.  It happens.  

shiraz99

MalMonroe said:

mrsyardbroom said:

My mechanic has been out and he says it's just the battery. The seller assured me that the battery was fine and he'd never had any problems. 

Just a word of caution, there are a lot of unscrupulous sellers out there. I sold my car to someone who posed as a lady wanting a car for her car boot business. I was careful to point out the many faults. I reckoned it would need a minimum of £500 in repairs. That included new tyres which the buyer could see would need replacing in a few months. I sold it at a cheap price because of this and a few days later they're selling it as a wonderful car in tip top condition and they want £1350 more than I sold it for. I only asked £900 for it! Due to the rise in car prices recently, everyone is coming out of the woodwork buying and selling cars to make a quick buck on the side.  I wonder if any are registering as a business or are they just selling cars on the side and pretending to be private sellers? They need to be careful. As an ex HMRC employee I'm duty bound to report anything I think is suspicious. I had considerable training in this so in my case it's not just buyer beware but seller beware as well. 

Hi, I'm also an 'elderly lady' motorist (in my 70s but vehemently denying it) living in a rural area and over the years of driving have discovered that the best thing to do with an old car is take it for part exchange to a car dealer. You then come out of the dealership with a decent car and get a fairly decent price for your old car. If you buy from a dealer it's much easier to get your money back when/if anything goes wrong - even if they are resistant. 

Sometimes people mistakenly think that they can get more for a car if they sell privately and save on a new deal if they also buy privately.  But sadly things don't always work out like that. I'd never buy from a private seller again - I did it once and ended up with a costly pile of junk. I'd certainly never give them top price. Some sellers may be honest but some are not and you never know which is which until you've handed over your money and driven away.

Hopefully if your mechanic fits a new battery and that's all that's needed, all should be well. As Ebe_Scrooge has said, batteries only last about 5 years, maybe more if you're lucky. 

The many threads in this very forum would beg to differ. Yes, you have some more rights against a trader than you do against a private seller but this is certainly no guarantee that you're going to end up with a decent, fault free car and no hassle if you want to get your money back.

caprikid1

I should also add any car sat idle for while will flatten the battery, if the seller had not used it he could not know if the battery after charge was on its last legs so to speak.

Flight3287462

Lockdown has hammered many car batteries over the last couple of years.  Mine was feeling jaded a year ago but I have nursed it along for the past year.  But today I bit the bullet and have ordered a replacement (had a meeting this morning and it flashed up it needed charged, I just managed to get it to catch, can't afford to risk it again).

£120 for a Varta (Bosch) AGM battery from the Battery Group which I thought wasn't too bad (2.0TDi Superb)

shiraz99

Flight3287462 said:

Lockdown has hammered many car batteries over the last couple of years.  Mine was feeling jaded a year ago but I have nursed it along for the past year.  But today I bit the bullet and have ordered a replacement (had a meeting this morning and it flashed up it needed charged, I just managed to get it to catch, can't afford to risk it again).

£120 for a Varta (Bosch) AGM battery from the Battery Group which I thought wasn't too bad (2.0TDi Superb)

And have the battery registered/coded to your car?