Franx

I am faced with a slight problem.

The reason is, I'm selling my car, as it's just cost me a huge amount in repair bills, and I can no longer afford it. It was in good condition when I bought it a few months ago, but had an engine problem, which has now been sorted with a top end rebuild. I can fairly confidently say that it has no other known problems, mechanical or structural.

My problem, is that one of my mates - known for the last 10+ years, might be a potential buyer, and what I really don't want to do, is land him with something that might need big money spent on it (I don't know of any problems, except very minor ones), as he'd obviously be annoyed, & we'd perhaps not be on the same terms again, if he was forced to shell out a lot of cash for something that I sold him.

I realise that it's down to him whether he buys it or not - he should get an inspection done etc, but they're not foolproof, and although I can't think of any potential problems, they do arise, as I've just found out.

Should I just tell him what I've just said here, & see if he still wants it, or would I be better to sell to someone I don't know? I don't know of any other buyers at the moment, and I would like to sell it fairly quickly.

Or am I thinking about it too much?

Thanks for the advice
Chris.

PG

if he knows what has been done to it and you are honest about any remaining niggles then he probably knows more about the car than he would any other private / dealer purchase he might make. As such it is his informed decision. Let him know of your concerns re. the friendship being affected. IMO the ball is in his court.

....just stop worrying and sell him the lemon of a car

imlach

Yeah...the times I have sold cars to my mates was only after I'd been totally honest with them - don't like selling them to friends in case they do go wrong, but if you are totally honest about the repairs/problems/issues etc, then at least they know!!

To be honest, any cars I have sold to friends have been generally quite old, and therefore it is quite accepted that ANYTHING could happen within days anyway....

You will get into more trouble if you DON'T tell him something significant, and that particular bit causes problems soon after.

Once he's had it a few weeks, full mental responsibility is passed on IMHO anyway

Franx

This one is quite old as well - a 1988 E reg, but it's going for about £3k.
I think then, that i'll express my concerns, & tell him everything that I know to be wrong with it, which isn't very much.

I'd rather sell it to someone I don't know, but that said, I'd quite like someone I do know, to get the benefit of all the money I put into it, if that makes sense.
I suppose it's really down to him to get it checked out properly, but I do know the car quite well, & I know the last 2 owners as well, so I know what's been done & what hasn't.
I'm also a bit doubtful about handing it over to him just a few days after a top end rebuild - in case something's been missed by mistake, but I'm sure the garage will get it sorted before I get it back. Bloody should do, at the price I'm having to pay

Better see if he wants it then

Any other thoughts?

imlach

Well, last car I sold to a friend was a 1989 F-reg Merc 230E saloon for £1250.

Pretty sound car, with just a few things wrong like couple of the leccy windows not working, radio a bit duff, bit of blue smoke on startup etc. Emphasised that was ALL I knew was wrong with it, but also emphasised 'sold as seen' etc....caveat emptor etc. He accepted this.

Told him all this, and 15 months on, it's still running like a dream, with no minor or major failures since. In fact, probably running better than its replacement!!!

lone wolf

Just put on the receipt...Sold as Seen/no warranty....its still recognised in Law should anything untoward happen after the sale of the vehicle. Your friend should know by now anyway how much you have done to the car and if willing to take it on, then he/she is already accepting that there could be further problems along the line...specially if the car is getting on in years.

Franx

TBO, it's not so much the legal things I'm thinking of (which is lucky,as he's a magistrate), it's just the idea of selling a car to a mate, which turns out to need things I didn't know about.
I'll see what he says then Might not even want it any more

bonkers

Just be totally honest with him, encourage him to get it inspected, give him the best price you can (and let him know that) and make sure he's comfortable with the car being his responsibility once the deal is done.

If something still goes wrong after all that, he'll be much less likely to hold it against you (though obviously there are no guarantees).

Sold my old Honda Civic to a gal at work and she loves it - just a cheap second car for her to use as a runabout while hubby has the Forrester. Car didn't have any problems, just the break pads were coming due for replacement but I was totally up front with them. (But then that's me anyway)

Bonkers.

Brit_in_Japan

Selling to a friend? Just be totally honest and if something goes wrong then it's just bad luck and you can just commiserate with them.

When my sister was selling her car I put her in touch with a friend who was looking to buy. Six weeks later the car developed an engine problem which would have cost more to repair than the value of the car. I felt very guilty, even though I had nothing to feel guilty about. Luckily my mate knew I would never do him wrong and he just wrote it down to experience. But I would prefer never to sell a car to a mate again.