Screwed on a Used Car— Options/Suggestions

People will prolly laugh as they drive by.

 

My method of gaining some satisfaction - Drive that f*ing pos through their front f*ing window. Ooops, foot slipped. Bonus points for barley missing the salesman and sales manager. Sure you might get dropped by insurance, but "accidents happen"

 

I’ll but a bandage on it and trade it back in

 

I was not really talking about any used car dealers at all.
I mean that the factory new car stores are the only ones with enough to lose and enough margin to offer things like buyer protection that they actually intend to stand behind.

This of course hardly means that there will be smooth sailing and no troubles if problems arise but your odds are often better with this kind of dealer.

All of them are lying if the mouth is flapping in my experience but the new car stores do answer to the manufacturers too and would prefer not to have to.

 

Not sure but every used car sticker clearly has a box that is checked and says "As Is no Warranty" or the box above lists a warranty if it is still within the 3-year/36,000 miles. Something tells me once you drive it off the lot it is on you.

 

@baby-shark any updates?

 

Updates are still trickling in, I’m also holding off on peppering her with advice. She’s taking it pretty hard and from what I can tell most of the “damage” (buying without an inspection, no warranty, giving the mechanic a green light to fix “everything”) is pretty much done. To complicate matters— the mechanic who’s fixing the car is talking to her father about all the work… her father is not the owner or co-owner of the vehicle (she bought it solo with cash)… the father has been approving all this work without her in the loop. You can imagine the tangled web that could lead to.

The water pump was very strange to me also… as for the catalytic converter, the dealer said it was “fine”, two other mechanics said it was bad and when they removed it, the interior of it just crumbled apart. She’s going to keep all the parts and invoices for evidence and will decide where to go from there. Aside from being a pain in their ass (which I would be happy to do but she may be a little more bashful than I, and many of the commenters above ) I’m not sure there’s a lot of recourse.

The video shared above was eye-opening. I thought I had an understanding of the strategic things you do when buying a used car but the attorney’s perspective is really fascinating. (Thank you for sharing!)

I think she’s going to get the invoice today (again not how I would do things but…) so I can share that info with the curious when it comes in.

I’ve enjoyed the commentary and I shared a lot of this as it came through. She got a kick out of the idea to picket and stand outside with a big sign!

 

“I told you the brakes were bad!”

 

I hope to share more information as it comes in!

 

Take some person responsibility. Some life lessons are more expensive than others. I’ve found the couple $hundred to have “my guy” check something out BEFORE I buy it is usually money well spent. And I’ve made some very bad decisions. The ones that sting the most are the ones I remember to never let happen again.

If a dealer won’t let your mechanic look at it walk away. People are so quick to buy a “good deal” and then whine when the deal wasn’t so good after all.

“The Bitterness of Poor Quality Remains Long After the Sweetness of Low Price is Forgotten”

Caveat Emptor.

 

It's good info but there wasn't much in that video I didn't already know.

 

If she had all these issues the day she drove it off the lot, and has documentation of the issues, I'm pretty sure she has some form of recourse. I'd have her call your State Attorney General and see if they can help. In most cases, AG offices are full of bulldogs that will go straight after shady scammers and cause them a butt load of grief.

It's free so she has nothing to lose by contacting them.