chrisbed9

I picked up my first subaru my95 wrx yesterday and it was about 1hour later that the bottom end went and the seller(an asian fellow from high wycombe) is now not answering my calls i even went around later(a two hour round trip) to be faced with a large group telling me to leave or else! so can anyone shed any light on where i stand legally on this please as i dont really know where to go from here???? other than the bottom end the car is really clean and has had plenty of mods etc....im going to get it fixed for now and keep the bill and see if i can some sort of compensation

mgg

Unfortunatly, thats the only downside of buying cars private. You have not got any come back at all, there are no laws that cover this.

It might be worth while going to your local Subaru dealer and asking them if you can buy a years Subaru warranty or something alike, they prob wont do it, but its worth ago.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

You won't get a subaru warrantee on a Classic wrx - also modifications make matter worse. But your probably get an warrantee company to cover it (or even the same one Subaru use), although I'd question the legality.

Seems to me you've been done over. He must have known something was up on it. Shop about for engine build prices as they do vary wildly.

Gangsta Smurf

Chrisbed ... a new law was passed a few years back which states that a car being sold privately must be in a fully roadworthy condition and the seller must notify you of any problems with the vehicle. IF you were faced with a group of people they must have already known that the car was on the way out. Take them to court and you will win your money back for definate.

Go to the Citizens Advice Bureau if you don't have access to your own solicitor. They will tell you the same thing. The car must be free from all defects or you will be able to reclaim your money.

they don't have a leg to stand on mate take it from me

Gangsta Smurf

Chrisbed ... just checked with someone I know that was in this situation. He said the law removed the seller's ability to sell the car "sold as seen"

It was more recent then two year's ago too - more like 7 or 8 months!

Talk to your solicitor - take the w@nkers to the cleaners

whiteyisback

burn their fecking house down......no, seriously.....just turn their legs round.

thats a story that makes me freak!

WR1 Bro

That is a real bummer. How do these people sleep at night? Screwing someone else to save their own pocket is worthy of knee capping if you ask me!

WR1 Bro

Bring back HANGING..... Guilty as charger m'lord!

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

Speak to Colin at Thames Valley Motorsport (in Reading) if you want it fixed for a decent price. (07771 767874)

D

Audi-Boy

If it was me, his car(s) would be getting totally destroyed.

Or if they were worthless, burn the fuggers house down!

It will make you feel so much better!!

Scooby-Doo

Out of interest if the car ran fine on the test drive and fine for the first hour could the previous owner have been unaware of such a problem ? If these new rules are in place to protect the buyer and what point is the seller protected ?

SomeDude

Nice to see Scoobynet keep it's head cool again :rolleyes

If it's a big end, there is a very big chance (like 99%) that the previous owner was unaware of the problem, especially if it ran fine during the test drive.

Can't comment on the legal aspects.

gyfto1

i have seen many things like this happen.a favourite with these sort of people is to use a very thick oil.
usually disguises amazing problems for a short amount of time
there are some nasty people out there.
give that a check over

Butty

iTrader: (2)

Oh what a fickle thing SN is?!
Seem to remember a SN thread some months ago, about a Scooby seller having the buyer come back after the car blew up a couple of days after buying it. They wanted repair costs or their money back.
All the comments were basically tough $hit to the buyer - they must have ragged the car when it was picked up.
Now we get a similar story, but its a buyer who thinks he has been hard done by and its the nasty seller (does it matter that he was Asian??) who's at fault.

Anyway....my input is that its going to be very hard to get any come back - your going to have to prove an outstanding fault that the seller knew about.
He will turn around and say you ragged it and given the high temps in the last couple of days, a popped piston was inevitable.

Nick

jjones

wrx. did you run it on optimax+booster? did you have a knock link fitted - you say it has a fair few mods? de-cat? induction?

these also have a habbit of blowing after high speed runs - did you attempt to find new cars top speed?

speedking

Another possible avenue is if you think he was a trader who passed himself off as a private seller. Was he selling several cars? Have you seen other adverts with the same contact details? Had he owned the car for long? etc.

Contact Trading Standards if you think he was really a trader and you will have more of a comeback.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Chris

Who did you buy it from? PM me if you like.

I'd go to trading standards because it wasn't fit for the purpose, there is a law for that

Paul

M444GY

iTrader: (72)

sold as seen? if so u have no comeback whatso ever. if u didnt sign a sold as seen u can demand money back due to the car being unroadworthy and illegal

Gangsta Smurf

Butty ... you're correct with your post about proving the seller didn't know about the defect. In the case of this new law the seller's rights are not really taken into account - it is all about protecting the buyer who is the one who always get's screwed when something like this happens.

In the case here the guy has been threatened by the seller so that in itself is a show of guilt and/or knowing that the car was defective. In a court he will get his money back or have his repairs paid for by the seller.

When I sold my car I had it serviced and deemed roadworthy before I sold it - which eliminated any come back if the buyer then goes and rags the t1ts off of it and blows it up! In my case I sold to a dealer, and the reduction in cash I got was more than worth it to not have to worry about something like this happening.

He has a case ultimately and should pursue this through the courts - and will win!

Gangsta Smurf

M444GY

Sold as seen means nothing now ... your car has to be roadworthy when you sell it on otherwise you can get taken to court for the repairs/refund if something happens that you were aware of, or had a inckling about. A friend of bought a car and it then blew up - he went to court and this new directive/law meant that the sold as seen slip he signed meant for nothing - he got his money back!

Trashman

Surely "Roadworthy" is not the same as broken? Would the car run with a knackered big end? Prob not very well (!) but that doesn't make it illegal. Again, if it ran for a while, the seller could easily argue that he thought it was all OK and sold in good faith? don't know the legalities, just playing Devil's Advocate.

Phil

Rob,

What Act is this covered under because try as I might I can't find it on any legal site I have looked at

Not doubting you as I heard a rumour about sold as seen not being good enough but just trying to put meat on the bones of this NEW LAW

Phil

Because IMHO this will almost amount to Private Sellers providing warranties

I mean if I bought a £300 car for running around in we all know that it won't last for long

so where do you draw the line

Scooby-Doo

If this laws exits it would make selling any car a bit of a worry, if the seller claims there was nothing wrong with the car when sold it is one word against another and I can't see how they would be held responsible.

streetbeats

hey Dunk - where abouts are they ? Do they have a website (just curious)

@ ChrisBed - thats really sucks mate - Follow what Gangsta is saying....words seem wise....

streetbeats

But ChisBed was confronted by a group of them telling him to go away.
This implies that they knew of the problem before the sale.

Try and get some evidence along these lines.....

Johnny sti

Bad news mate
I had my big ends go two months after buying it from an import dealer in Basingstoke. He gave me a crappy '5 Star RAC Warranty' when i got the car and when the engine exploded, their(RAC) get out clause was that they only replaced the part that was faulty. So this meant that if it was the oil pump ( to find out, i would have to pay the investigate labour myself) they would only replace that part and not anything else that failed due to the pump giving up.
I never did find out what the problem was and got a new engine instead although the car was off the road for six months and i had to buy a Merc a class to potter round in!! Nice car but slow as ****!
So moral to this boring story is you will get stitched up whatever way you buy a second hand car and to all those with an RAC warr-a-con, get it checked to see 'how good' the warranty really is. Im not lying though.

Johnny

ajm

Really sorry to hear about this. It is always disappointing to hear of stories like this. Its one of the reasons why I very rarely buy privately, and only then from people I am very confident are on the level. I know enough about this bloke already to tell me I wouldn't have bought a car from him!

Make sure he regrets it.... one way or another....

misty

Wonderfull thing hindsight!!!
dave

ajm

LOL! Isn't it just!

Maybe I should ellaborate.... I used to live near High Wycombe.... 'nuff said!