Car Sale Problem

Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2004
Posts
6,360
Location
Harrow, UK
A mate of mine sold his A Class Mercedes today for £2800. It was advertised for £3200 and it clearly stated it was sold as seen. The buyer took it for a test drive, everything seemed fine, and he managed to haggle it down to £2800.

My mate also made up an invoice, which again stated it was sold as seen, and got the buyer to sign it before car and cash were exchanged.

This evening, the buyer calls shouting, complaining and threatening my friend because apparently the car stopped twice on his way home and that he was bringing it back. My mate simply said that no one was at home, and if he carried on with the threats that he would call the police.

Where does my friend stand with this?
 
<(Multi)> said:
The real question is though, was the car known to be faulty when sold?

Well to be honest my mate has a few problems with the gear box and they were intermittent, but nothing as extreme as the car simply turning off.
 
If it were me, and he seriously is worried for his family - say if the buyer seemed a bit tapped in the head, I'd give him a refund if I knew the car was faulty when I sold it on.

Personally I much prefer to rip off dealerships with knackered old cars (or in my case bikes) than pass that onto the general public.
 
Danger Phoenix said:
Also, he is worried about his safety as well as that of his family, after the threats this guy stated on the telephone... the buyer obviously knows his address :(

Call the police. Threatening your friend is illegal.

Edit: Obviously if he sold the car knowing it was faulty then that's morally questionable. I'm not condoning it but in terms of a private sale caveat emptor applies.
 
Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware.

The buyer's own stupid fault tbh - if he hadn't driven it far enough to know there was a massive problem then he's either very unlucky or a total turnip. Although, he has just spent money on an 'A' Class so the vegetable comparison seems rather valid.
 
as long as he didn't knowingly lie on the advert or to him he fine. Although proving he knowing lied is almost imposable. So yes it's sold as seen.
 
The car was sold with some faults the seller was aware of - such as a few gearbox problems and the driver side door requiring a little more effort to close.

Both those problems are minor, and primarily the gearbox problems only occur every now and then.

The buyer is complaining of the car turning off, which has never happened to my friend, nor during the test drive...

I think my friend is looking for some sort of protection from the legal side of it all - what could the buy do to him? Whether it was morally right or wrong that is up to him, but the legal issue and the safety of him and his family is the important problem here... (as Adz kindly pointed out, threatening is illegal and therefore that issue is covered).
 
he can take him to small claims court and lose. It's up to the buyer to prove your mate deliberately and knowingly lied to him.

I've had buyers like that before. I usually hang the phone up. Usually they phone back apologetically. begging for there money. I tell them where to stick it.

People like that don't take there abuse just hang up and tell them if they try anything or harass you the police will be called.
 
AcidHell2 said:
he can take him to small claims court and lose. It's up to the buyer to prove your mate delibratly and knowingly lied to him.

Oh, another thing I forgot to mention was that when my mate actually bought the car, those problems weren't pointed out to him either and the car was sold as seen. He tried calling trading standards etc, but it never went further because the car was sold as seen and nothing could really be proved.
 
AcidHell2 said:
this is why the buyer can't do anything, as long as your mate sold it privately. Sold as seen from a dealer isn't recognised by the law.

Yep, it was all private :)

I have told him to install a program on his phone that records the calls, so if there are any threats he has proof :)
 
Danger Phoenix said:
Yep, it was all private :)

I have told him to install a program on his phone that records the calls, so if there are any threats he has proof :)

Whatever he does he needs to inform the buyer that the call is being recorded before anything is said. If he doesn't do this then he can't use the recordings in court if things ever have to go that far.
 
AcidHell2 said:
Sold as seen from a dealer isn't recognised by the law.

Oh, but from a private seller it is?

Wasn't there an ebay thread in GD in which this was discussed and the consensus was that the private seller is still required to deliver working goods?
 
Ex-RoNiN said:
Oh, but from a private seller it is?

Wasn't there an ebay thread in GD in which this was discussed and the consensus was that the private seller is still required to deliver working goods?

Well the car was working... the buyer took it for a test drive before decided to purchase it. If it wasn't working then why purchase it? Its not like it was set to break down after he left...
 
I actually had a very similar problem when I sold my scooter (age 16 before you start :p) on eBay. It was fine when I sold it but the guy insisted on riding it 90 miles back to London. I explained that it was de-restricted and that he shouldn't max it out all that way otherwise something nasty would happen - imagine redlining a car for 90 miles?

Later that evening he rings me back to tell me it broke down 10 miles from his house and that he'd be bringing it back the next day for a refund. I told him where to go and then came the threats...

"My mate is a lawyer"
"My mates will be coming to collect the money"
"I'm reporting you to trading standards"

Etc, etc. Nothing ever came of it, of course.
 
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