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Second hand car sale and an unhappy new owner or attempted scam?

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Wolfie1 said:
Yes but its all to do with the description, best friend sold a swift a couple of years ago now, the clutch had worn out in their ownership so i fitted a new clutch, all was well for another year then the car was sold, a few weeks later the new owner got back in contact to say the car had been sold with a faulty clutch which was not the case and that they demanded that he pay for the replacement which he declined, anyways the other party got a solicitor involved and wrote a letter saying they were getting taken to court, so they got their own solicitor and it came down to the for sale advert, not once in the advert did my friend put perfect in the for sale ad and the buyer then didnt have a leg to stand on according to the solicitor, so this was conveyed in a letter and that was the end of it
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Well that's the whole point.... the buyer demands a couple hundred quid, and, unless you have friendly solicitor, and not everyone does, then it will cost you to have a letter sent from your solicitor to his solicitor, and then you don't know how many more letters this affair will involve... buyers are taking a punt on you preferring to cut your losses and settle and put the matter behind you, rather than spend more time and money to prove that you are right.
 
markjay said:
B

Well that's the whole point.... the buyer demands a couple hundred quid, and, unless you have friendly solicitor, and not everyone does, then it will cost you to have a letter sent from your solicitor to his solicitor, and then you don't know how many more letters this affair will involve... buyers are taking a punt on you preferring to cut your losses and settle and put the matter behind you, rather than spend more time and money to prove that you are right.
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Or just ignore it as nothing will happen.
 
markjay said:
B

Well that's the whole point.... the buyer demands a couple hundred quid, and, unless you have friendly solicitor, and not everyone does, then it will cost you to have a letter sent from your solicitor to his solicitor, and then you don't know how many more letters this affair will involve... buyers are taking a punt on you preferring to cut your losses and settle and put the matter behind you, rather than spend more time and money to prove that you are right.
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They were after near £450 off my friend so a £50 solicitors letter was worth it but mind that was only after speaking to the citizens advice bureau and being told what the rules were
 
I'm surprised that the CAB didn't just advise doing nothing, other than personally acknowledging receipt of the solicitors' letter and declining to make any payment; there was no point in engaging a solicitor to fire back. In matters like this, unless and until you hear from the court seeking a response to a filed complaint you can ignore everything. The solicitors' letter was just a try-on; even if the clutch fault was genuine, they weren't going to spend another £175 in court fees filing a complaint they knew they would lose.
 
Last edited:
I’ve just purchased a low milage R class 350 cdi cheap with a underlying engine issue.

Taken a risk buying it as I knew it may indeed need a new engine which is does.

However the owner failed to mentioned the blocked cd changed, no working day time running lights, noisy torque converter, auxiliary battery error that won’t clear, heavy power steering, broken front spring, two tyres slow puncture and nsr brake shoe sticking. Oh and the front lights and auxiliary battery error is probably the front SAM unit.

So a good 6 - 7 grands worth of work there and a good chunk he failed to mention.

Am I threatening him with legal action? No as i wouldn’t get anywhere. You buy private and take the chance.

My loss but it’s a good job I paid 1/3 of the retail price so I’m not too much in the hole.

Good job I’m used to running expensive cars, it’s now In line with my 911 turbo, Evo, and Impreza.
 
Brilliant. Even the people writing the article are clueless. A $1000 computer knocked down to $25 equals a 250% discount. Er what?
 
Smiley said:
Brilliant. Even the people writing the article are clueless. A $1000 computer knocked down to $25 equals a 250% discount. Er what?
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Clearly a typo. Should have read:

"One conversation that took place in the US saw an online shopper attempting to buy a $1,000 computer for just $25 by asking the seller to pay them $1,500 for agreeing to take away the computer, a discount of 250 per cent, while another interaction shows a man asking the seller of a microwave to cover the cost of his travel to pick it up. "


:doh:
 
Somebody's mathematics isn't the same as mine...
 
A few instances of this sort of thing have come up on Pistonheads and it usually ends with the "friend" of the seller caving in and paying up, or in the Small Claims Court where the results generally (but not always) seem to go in the buyer's favour.

The most remarkable one I can recall, a PHer sold a car to a woman who claimed it had a gearbox fault and would cost thousands to fix. PHer said it didn't have that fault, but even if it did it would cost £600 to fix. Went to Court, where the woman said she'd got rid of the car. There was no evidence of the fault, or that it had been repaired. Court found in her favor and awarded £600 based on the sellers estimate to fix IF it had been faulty!
 
Rory said:
A few instances of this sort of thing have come up on Pistonheads and it usually ends with the "friend" of the seller caving in and paying up, or in the Small Claims Court where the results generally (but not always) seem to go in the buyer's favour.

The most remarkable one I can recall, a PHer sold a car to a woman who claimed it had a gearbox fault and would cost thousands to fix. PHer said it didn't have that fault, but even if it did it would cost £600 to fix. Went to Court, where the woman said she'd got rid of the car. There was no evidence of the fault, or that it had been repaired. Court found in her favor and awarded £600 based on the sellers estimate to fix IF it had been faulty!
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A good example of why County Court Judges are considered to be the traffic wardens of the judiciary.
 
DSM10000 said:
Traffic Wardens of Traffic Wombles? 🤔
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They are a funny bunch, judgement can go either way on the day dependent on their mood.

I witnessed one send a defendant to High Court on a perjury charge for something very minor, the guy was in tears on the day but, predictably, it was dismissed within 2 minutes.
 
Rory said:
A few instances of this sort of thing have come up on Pistonheads and it usually ends with the "friend" (of the seller) caving in and paying up,
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Sorry - that should just be "friend". The inference being it's not usually a friend at all, it's usually the seller who is writing the post for themselves.
 
E55BOF said:
Difficult to know whether the clutch did actually fail, or whether it was a scam from start to finish. Even if it was genuine, even if the car was described as fault-free, if something goes wrong with a wearing part like a clutch a few weeks after the sale it will be arguable whether the failure was in fact due to the way the new owner drove the car.
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Hi ,try taking a manual car back to a car dealer with a clutch issue , close the door on the way out , now
 
Probably true, unless either it happened very soon after driving away, or something actually broke.
 
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