sold a car, now a problem arises. tell your tales

"SantaRita" (SantaRita) 10/11/2016 at 17:23 • Filed to: None

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Mine is boring. Sold a car, and about a week later and new owner says trans started to slip in on e of the higher gears.

I feel really bad but honestly the trans never missed a beat for me, and when I had a CV replaced over a month ago nothing was mentioned as awry and it’s acted normal. It even spent a full day at VW two months back for a health check since I had a long trip coming up and no mention of issues then.

The car was somewhat maintenance-heavy for me since it has some miles on it and needed routine timing belt/brakes/coil packs and the like while I owned it...but if my brother hadn’t needed to sell his car(he moved) i’d still be driving the beast machine. i.e. I had full faith upon the day of sale.

But I still feel awful, because that’s never what I want to hear.

What are some of your tales,and how did you reconcile responsibility?

MonkeePuzzle > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 17:27

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sold my car, and a day later new owner calls “radiator broke!”

well, it was -20F, so that’s a struggle, and it was a rad hose that popped off, not the rad that broke.

owner’s wife was PIIISSSEED!!!!!

TysMagic > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 17:29

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part of buying a used car in general, especially from an individual. I agree on feeling bad, but not much to really do imo.

Pretty small, but the next owner of the TSX I had let the battery die on it and the radio needed to be reactivated. I helped him walk through the steps of finding the radio code online since I knew how.

Decay buys too many beaters > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 17:30

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Sold a VW a few years back. Got a call TWO HOURS later with the buyer telling me the clutch went out. I’d never had a single problem and told him as much, I gingerly told him that it was sold as is and I had no way of knowing exactly how the car was driven after it left my custody. He was mad, I felt bad, but a deal is a deal.

crowmolly > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 17:33

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Every non-hotrod car I’ve sold has come with a detailed sheet of good and bad stuff.

When I sell the car I tell them this is full disclosure of everything I know about the car. If it’s not on the list, I don’t know about it. Then I have them sign two copies of that sheet, plus two copies of the bill of sale, then they get the title with my stuff filled in. I also sign next to them on each sheet.

Yes, I know it’s not legally binding , and Steve Lehto can feel free to drop some truth on me, but it’s worked in the past. I think having signed stuff that looks “official” makes it look like I’m not fucking around (because I am not).

notsomethingstructural > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 17:34

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I mean, if you did your due dilligence as an owner, I would establish that and say you are happy to support him in any beef he has with the people who serviced the car, but you don’t really owe him anything more than that. If you really feel shitty, tell him you’ll pay for the fluid to get changed but be really careful of that because some people take it as an admission of guilt. Whole new can of worms at that point.

I had a car with some semi-custom parts on it and the guy had a wastegate that got stuck open (a fluke-y thing), then he kept cracking welds on the turbo manifold. I told him if he’s gonna drive it like a race car every time he takes it out then he’s gonna have it in the shop as much as a race car. He said he wanted his money back. I said great story that’s not happening especially now that I know you’re beating the piss out of the car. He said he was going to sue me. I laughed my ass off and told him to have his lawyer call me and hung up the phone.

Put “AS-IS” in all your sales contracts. If the buyer says they don’t want it that way then tell them you’ll waive it for another $2000. You owe it to the new vehicle owner to answer any questions they have directly and honestly, just as you would if they had questions when you were selling it. As long as you have been completely truthful and reasonably transparent in every facet of the sale, after the transaction occurs that is all you owe them. Period.

BeaterGT > notsomethingstructural 10/11/2016 at 17:40

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Well said, nothing to add.

Pickup_man > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 17:41

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I try to be as honest as I possibly can right up front, and if they have a problem after it’s sold, I’m sorry, but it’s no longer my problem. Do I feel bad that something happened, of course, but do I feel any guilt? Not if it never gave me signs of a problem and I was as honest about it’s condition. Couple stories.

I very recently had my 924 for sale, hoping to put the money towards a new bike. Had a few interested people and all of a sudden my fuel pump starts blowing fuses. I told this to the people looking to buy it, and once they backed out I pulled the car off CL to get it fixed, and possibly hold on to it for a while longer. (Although it might go right back up now because of another long story).

My Dad traded his ‘91 Corsica for an Oxy/Acy torch to a friend of my Uncles, partially as a way to be nice (because the guy is mostly a scrapper, is really hard up on money, and didn’t have a good vehicle) and because it was getting old and we no longer felt like maintaining it. Well we’ve heard about every single thing that’s gone wrong on the car as if Dad was supposed to fix it. He even complained that the tires were worn out, after he put 60,000 miles on the car (which is a miracle because it already had 180k when we got rid of it), they were basically new when we traded it. So yeah, this has put a little sour taste in my mouth.

I also try to avoid selling cars to friends unless they have a very clear understanding that if something goes wrong, it’s on them. I’m more than happy to help fix it, but don’t bitch to me if something breaks after you bought it.

So that’s my policy, 100% honesty up front and you get the taillight guarantee, once the taillights are gone, so is your guarantee.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 17:41

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Dont know if you were around or not, but I owned a 2000 V70R. Car was a nightmare. AWD didnt work, wrong bumper, rebuilt title, slipping transmission, CELs would show up.

Sold the car as is and told the lady it wasn’t anywhere near perfect but it works.

She texted me the next day asking about a light on the dash saying the trunk was open. I had that light, but I replaced the trunk latch (which was the problem) so I thought it was okay.

I... I never responded. And she never wrote me again other than that one text.

They drove it for about a year before trading it into a Nissan dealer....

Mid Engine > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 17:43

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Sold my ‘89 Supra Turbo to a dude, he drove it for two months than stored it in his father’s garage for the winter. Garage caught fire, Supra was (literally) toast. The guy called me in tears asking for a revised (higher) bill of sale for his insurance claim. Nope, not gonna be that guy. He was pissed!

SantaRita > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 10/11/2016 at 17:45

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oh god i was here. i remember that car/story.

crowmolly > Pickup_man 10/11/2016 at 17:49

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you get the taillight guarantee, once the taillights are gone, so is your guarantee.

I like that!

Pickup_man > crowmolly 10/11/2016 at 17:56

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Not sure where I heard it first, but I certainly wasn’t the one to come up with that, it’s a good one though.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 18:00

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I’ve got no similar stories for after a sale but I will say this, unless otherwise stated, these types of Cale’s are usually considered as is.

I had a person looking at a car I was trying to sell and she wanted me to pay for a pre purchase inspection and fix anything necessary for it to “pass” the inspection if necessary (keep in mind not a state safety inspection, just a PPI where they grade things like 1-5 or whatever). I Told her as nicely as possible, this is an as is car, I’m not going to be chasing down things that we may disagree about the acceptability of. My example to her was if the front brake rotors are say 15% away from minimum thickness and the shop recommends changing them now, is that a fail even though they are safe right now? I also told her she could pay for the inspection and then use it as a haggling tool(I had to tell her this!). I was pretty relieved not to sell to her as I imagined if anything went wrong in the first 3 months, I’d probably hear about it.

Some people who buy used cars have weird ideas about what to expect.

FromCanadaWithLove > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 18:18

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Not my sale, but my dad recently sold his boat. It was a 2006-year 26' with an outboard V6 engine. It was white and blue. That’s all I can tell you because I don’t know anything about boats. He never really had any issues with it (although he only owned it for one year). Two or three days after selling it to a reseller, they called my dad to tell him a customer bought the boat and the engine blew.

someassemblyrequired > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 18:21

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Past the curb, you got ‘er. Not your problem - this is why you test drive and do PPIs. And sometimes as a buyer you draw a short straw, even if you do those things.

HammerheadFistpunch > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 18:27

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Been on the receiving end only I understood that that’s just the breaks and took care of it

Land_Yacht_225 > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 18:38

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I always draw up a bill of sale, say the car is as-is where is and there is no warranty or givsies backsies.

When I buy a car, I take it to a mechanic before I write a check. And I will let people who buy my car do the same. But if you don’t ask to, and subsequently don’t have a PPI done, the problems the car has past, present, and future, are soooooooooo far from being my problem it’s not even funny.

Case in point: When I sold my Lincoln, I told the people to meet me at the police station at 5pm so it would still be light. They show up 3 hours late, bought the car in the dark, than claimed it had too much rust 2 days later and they had paid me too much. I didn’t respond. They shouldn’t have made me wait.

interstate366, now In The Industry > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 18:51

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I once sold the carcass of a wrecked car to someone who was going to use some the non-damaged parts to fix a car that had been wrecked in a different place. A week or two later, the buyer contacts me, saying the shop that they’d asked to do the work had told them the car had been wrecked in the front previously and that they were just going to part it out. I had included a Carfax with the car, and it showed no other accidents. I knew the shop was lying because the buyer told me the shop said the car was originally black (the car was silver). It wasn’t, unless the person who repainted it also changed the stamp in the car that said the factory paint color. I just said the Carfax didn’t show anything else and that’s what I went by, and never heard from them again.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 18:57

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One not one, but two occasions I had a buyer tell me after a transaction that the engine was knocking.

Now the first time was on a 109k mile 1989 Mercedes 560SEL, and that car’s engine ran perfectly. I know that because after I gave the guy his money back (I didn’t want to deal with it, his ‘mechanic’ also told him that it was illegal to remove the car’s second muffler in RI...it is not illegal), I drove it home, dailyed it for a few more months, and then sold it for $500 more to a guy who flew in from Spokane, Washington drove it up and down the east coast with his son looking at colleges, and then took it back across the country to WA.

The second time was a 1969 Corvair. Now this car had an oil leak, and Corvairs are known to develop rod knocks when low on oil. But I kept up with it, and I sold it on eBay stating that it had an oil leak. The guy paid, the car sat for a month, and eventually his shipper picked it up during a blizzard to take it to Louisiana. The dude worked in an oil field in Russia, and didn’t return until two months after that, but cheerfully told me about how his wife and son would be driving the car before he got back.

About a week after he got back, he leaves me a message saying the car had a rod knock. It didn’t have it when it left me, but the two months of his wife and son driving it without topping off the oil was more than enough. I didn’t bother calling him back.

DynamicWeight > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 19:33

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It’s completely your fault and problem, you should drive over there and take the car in to the mechanic yourself, pay for the fix, and pay for a rental car while he is out a car. Then throw in a blow job from your wife. It’s only reasonable.

But for realskies, this happens to me EVERY time I buy a used vehicle. Something breaks, I fix it. The world keeps turning and I get a little more jaded. You don’t owe him shit.

Pinks1ip > SantaRita 10/11/2016 at 19:41

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I had a MkV VW R32 I bought used. I worked at a dealership at the time (I bought it elsewhere, as I didn’t want to buy a car blind from an auction through my work), and so naturally I had my service department do the routine maintenance on it. I had one oil change done soon after I bought it. No issues were brought to my attention- just a typical “your car is ready.”

A year later, I get another service done. Same deal- no issues “your car is ready.”

A couple months later, I sell the R32 (once my special order new car was arriving). I offer the buyer to schedule a PPI, but he felt comfortable with the purchase. Two days later, the buyer calls me to tell me the drain plug hole in the oil pan has been completely stripped and was basically sealed shut with grease. He’s obviously upset, as I told him the car was in great shape.

Turns out, the dirt bag tech that serviced my car fucked up a simple oil change and didn’t own up to it. I raised hell with the GM who cut me a check for the cost of a new oil pan. The buyer said he was happy to do the labor himself, so I just PayPaled the money to him.

Even after it all came to light, the tech didn’t own up to it. Dealers typically throw the least experienced/cheapest mechanic on employee cars, since the employee gets a discount. Even still, this guy works on customer cars all the time.

Side note:

This same tech mounted/balanced the tires for the new BBS wheels I ordered for my new car. I paid him cash on the side after he clocked out, so he made extra money for it. The first night I had the car, a wheel weight flew off, throwing my balance way out. I left the stock lug nuts at the dealership (first day with the car, so I was excited to get her on the road) so I had to call roadside to tow my new car to the dealership on it’s maiden voyage. That tech is a piece of shit.

accordingto > SantaRita 10/12/2016 at 00:24

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so, my dad has never bought a new car in his life. always buys used. last time we went to visit him his minivan was in the shop because the transmission needed fixing. something clicked in my head and I thought of how many of his cars needed transmission work within a month of purchase. I doubted that every car lot and independent seller in town was selling cars with bad transmissions. So I asked my uncle, his brother, a gearhead deluxe - “does ____ do something to transmissions?” “Yeah, he drives in the wrong gear. I’ve tried to tell him, I’ve tried...”

So, maybe your purchaser is driving it wrong.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > SantaRita 10/19/2016 at 16:09

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It may still feel rough, but frankly if you told them everything, you did all you could. It’s buyer beware and whether they believe you held something back or not isn’t your problem.