Brought a lemon in W.A

[yeah_m8]

Hey how's it going peeps

My next door neighbour brought a 02 falcon last week off Gumtree, private sale, it was advertised as in excellent condition and had recent receipts for full service, oil, spark plugs, filters and rad flush...no oil leaks, very clean.
Her problem is she has only done a few hundred k's and it started over heating badly, she limped it to her local garage, diagnosis is that it has a blown head gasket.
She rang the seller(owned car for 3yrs) and asked if there were any issues previously to which he denied there were.....well the mechanics took the head off and have found that chemiweld had been used previously and one of the bores is badly corroded.
The mechanics suspect the previous owner had known about this hence the full service and flush prior to selling.
What I'm asking on her behalf is "would it be worth trying to get her $$$ back from the seller, does she have a leg to stand on in recouping purchase price or repair costs??"

[kempy311]

No leg to stand on when buying privately its up to the buyer to make sure its all up to spec.

[jpblue1000]

caveat emptor!

JP

[pottery beige]

welcome to scumtree...

[FGII-XR6]

technically if she could prove he knew about the damage and covered it up to mislead the buyer you would win in court . but the reality is it would cost far more in time and money than what you would get back

[yeah_m8]

Originally Posted by kempy311

No leg to stand on when buying privately its up to the buyer to make sure its all up to spec.

That's what I thought but going from the mechanics point of view, it looks like the seller has tried to cover up a fault by using a quick method of repair to on sell the goods......hence in W.A is there anything that may go in her favour to recovering costs due to someone doing such a mongrel thing?
She's quite upset that this has happened but also that she has been duped, despite her inquisitive questions and having receipts of recent work.

[Kil4Collingwood]

You should see the hunk of junk 1985 liteace a guy at work is trying to sell on gumtree, great car cheap to run not much for roadworthy blah blah an absolute death trap definitely have to be very careful buying a car on there alot of dishonest people out there.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2

[yeah_m8]

Originally Posted by au3xr6

technically if she could prove he knew about the damage and covered it up to mislead the buyer you would win in court . but the reality is it would cost far more in time and money than what you would get back

Yes that what she's also thinking, the cost of recovery through using a Solicitor, this is a lesson she's spew'n on anyway.

[Auslandau]

Unfortunately no where to go. Its just cross your fingers buying any car privately and probably hard to prove anyway. No warranty, no comeback. You could buy a new car for the costs of the courts. Sorry but it will be a case of grin and bare it. In Vic, it wouldn't even show up as a dodgy RWC.

[yeah_m8]

Originally Posted by Kil4Collingwood

You should see the hunk of junk 1985 liteace a guy at work is trying to sell on gumtree, great car cheap to run not much for roadworthy blah blah an absolute death trap definitely have to be very careful buying a car on there alot of dishonest people out there.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2

I noticed that when I myself was out looking at cars, lots of cars in crap condition and if your not mechanically minded to look for obviously faulty parts or a worn out condition, you could be buying a potential death trap...hence get a vehicle inspection.
I checked the car out myself, went over it and thought yeah she got a good buy but hey it's not as if you can inspect internal parts.

[Muzzle]

Originally Posted by jpblue1000

caveat emptor!

JP

Buyer beware.

[monte.b]

In Queensland we have a small claims tribunal that can sort these things out ,no lawyers ,just go before the judge and state your case ,you serve a summons on the other person and they have to front up in court ,maybe W A has something similar ,good luck with it ,i hate thieves

[yeah_m8]

Originally Posted by monte.b

In Queensland we have a small claims tribunal that can sort these things out ,no lawyers ,just go before the judge and state your case ,you serve a summons on the other person and they have to front up in court ,maybe W A has something similar ,good luck with it ,i hate thieves

Hey I'll pass that on to her, no harm in checking it out...thanks for that

[EF ECTIV]

It'd cost more money to fight it than it would to fix it.

[Z2TT]

It would be too hard to think whether the owner knew about this before or not, for all we know his mechanics/workshops could have done all this work on the car and him not known about it.

In the end its a second hand car so these things are to be expected.

And like others said the issue on chasing it up and all the problems involved in that probably outweigh the effort in just fixing it up and moving on.

[yeah_m8]

Thanks for your help guys, I've passed on some of the comments and she's just gonna weigh up the thoughts on chasing it further or biting the bullet, get over it and get it fixed.

Cheers

Rick.

[Itsme]

Mechanic suspecting owners knowledge of problem is not good enough unless it is put in writing then it has to be proved beyond doubt. (legal fight & costs)

Most likely option would be cheaper to put in another engine.

As mentioned no harm in trying local consumer affairs if no costs involved.

[monte.b]

The only cost in the small claims tribunal is the cost of serving the summons,which would be about $50 i reckon,no court costs awarded if you win or lose

[Thornie]

My el was the same when i bought it had it about a month, flushed the radiator and all the gunk out and as soon as it started it it was leaking coolant from the head gasket sweet fa you can do about it witha private sale except suck it up.

[JC]

Having bought a half lemon myself recently, I sympathise - in my case I had no-one to blame but me, but then I did knock $3k off the price so knew it had some work to be done (just not the full extent).

Instead of getting the head gasket fixed, I'd be installing a lowish km second hand motor from the wreckers.

[XR Martin]

Originally Posted by trublu

Mechanic suspecting owners knowledge of problem is not good enough unless it is put in writing then it has to be proved beyond doubt. (legal fight & costs)

LOL
Its not a criminal matter, where you require 'beyond reasonable doubt'.

It would be a civil matter, and only require a 'balance of probability'.

[blackf6]

JC has the right idea. Replace engine.

[Crazy Dazz]

Not 100% sure, but I think the small claims tribunal has been replaced by something else, and in any event could only be used where the defendant was a vendor, not a private seller?

Either way, unfortunately she has no hope, it would simply waste her time and prolong the feeling of injustice.

Also, don’t be so quick to judge the seller based on what the mechanic says. Some are idiots. My FIL once bought a demo Magna, and after a bit it started leaking petrol (when I was driving it.) I took it to the local Mitsubishi “approved” service agent who claimed that the car had been rear-ended and improperly repaired, and that a crumpled edge of the floorpan was digging into the plastic tank. As you can imagine we stormed around to the dealer who sold the car, ready to rip his balls off. They pulled off the tank to show us that there was no damage. They replaced the tank, but a bit later it happened again. Turns out there was a blockage in the vent line, so that in hot weather the tank literally split at the seams. Over the years I have some “mechanics” venture absolute BS opinions.

Best bet is to try and put it behind her. Decent AU engines are cheap as chips 2nd hand, the fitting normally costs more than the engine.
PM me if I can be of any help.

[yeah_m8]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

Not 100% sure, but I think the small claims tribunal has been replaced by something else, and in any event could only be used where the defendant was a vendor, not a private seller?

Either way, unfortunately she has no hope, it would simply waste her time and prolong the feeling of injustice.

Also, don’t be so quick to judge the seller based on what the mechanic says. Some are idiots. My FIL once bought a demo Magna, and after a bit it started leaking petrol (when I was driving it.) I took it to the local Mitsubishi “approved” service agent who claimed that the car had been rear-ended and improperly repaired, and that a crumpled edge of the floorpan was digging into the plastic tank. As you can imagine we stormed around to the dealer who sold the car, ready to rip his balls off. They pulled off the tank to show us that there was no damage. They replaced the tank, but a bit later it happened again. Turns out there was a blockage in the vent line, so that in hot weather the tank literally split at the seams. Over the years I have some “mechanics” venture absolute BS opinions.

Best bet is to try and put it behind her. Decent AU engines are cheap as chips 2nd hand, the fitting normally costs more than the engine.
PM me if I can be of any help.

Thanks for the offer of help CD, I'll pass it on.

[pottery beige]

slap another motor in from a reputable wrecking mob in and it will go for another 100 years.. good mobs are out there..

mate picked one up from this mob for $650 and it ran like a charm can recommend..

http://www.yellowpages.com.au/sa/ath...3-listing.html

send seller of car two cans of Pal and a hand full of dry food..

he's a dog

[ebxr8240]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

slap another motor in from a reputable wrecking mob in and it will go for another 100 years.. good mobs are out there..

mate picked one up from this mob for $650 and it ran like a charm can recommend..

http://www.yellowpages.com.au/sa/ath...3-listing.html

send seller of car two cans of Pal and a hand full of dry food..

he's a dog

Plus $1000+ in front of fixing head gasket..
Even then you don't know if there's other damage..

[yeah_m8]

Just spoke with the neighbour and her brother has a motor out of an XR6 sitting on his garage floor, he's gonna swap it over for her over the weekend, so she's rapped....thanks for the suggestions and she thinks karma will catch up with the seller at some point.

[rag top]

Originally Posted by yeah_m8

and had recent receipts for full service, oil, spark plugs, filters and rad flush...no oil leaks, very clean.

Ask the seller for the missing receipts...

or

Have the receipts been checked to confirm the seller was aware of what work was actually done?

[05_ENFORCER]

Originally Posted by yeah_m8

Thanks for your help guys, I've passed on some of the comments and she's just gonna weigh up the thoughts on chasing it further or biting the bullet, get over it and get it fixed.

Cheers

Rick.

Walliston motor wreckers in Lesmurdie, you even get a warranty on used engines.


.

[BPXR6T]

I'd back my ute onto his front lawn. Swiftly accelerating and depositing the dead engine...