AIBU , or rather were we BU?

[Lara2]

Will try not to drip feed. In a nutshell, DSis bought a car for £500 (was a bargin) from someone I know from dog walking, yesterday. Everything running fine. She drives about 10 miles today including going round to DF's for family lunch. When she tries to leave, car has developed a fault and she can't drive it. DF suggests she phones the guy, she does and he comes round. DSis asks if he will return her money as she's had the car barely 24 hours. He says no, but offers her £200 towards the repair which is very fair. She accepts and he says he will give me the cash in the morning.
The AIBU bit is that while we were talking to him, DF and my DP were standing against the garden wall, just being there not saying anything. I'll say now that neither of them appears intimidating in any way, but DSis and I felt that just by being there (bringing the total to 4 of us and 1 of him), it was intimidating and he felt obliged to offer the money towards the repair. Were we BU to ask for the money back?
My sister feels guilty, but I felt that she'd had the car less than 24 hours and if we hadn't looked at the car til Monday, the fault would have happened anyway and he'd be paying for it so he could sell it. Obviously, if it had been a week later or longer, we wouldn't have asked.
Hope this isn't too muddled.

In what way "not as described", bearleft? It developed the fault "soon afterwards", not before -- unless you could prove that the fault had already occurred and the owner knew about it and he lied about it when asked, you'd be stuffed. It might not be (indeed, wasn't) of satisfactory quality; it might not be (indeed, wasn't) fit for purpose. But it doesn't have to be.

What Spotty says. I know it's hard for your sister, but it's a case of caveat emptor in these cases. The buyer didn't actually have to give you anything.

He was being reasonable to offer towards repair. He didn't have too.. He may not have known it had a fault.. The fact he came out is telling that he didn't.

Get someone in the know to check it out first is the lesson to be learned here tbh.

This is why we've finally stumped up the money to buy a new car. years and years of buying old bangers and spending £££ on them. We realised in three years we'd spent as much on cars that eventually died as if we'd bought a newer car to start with.

In this situation, your sis was lucky to get the £200, as speaking from experience with older cars things can suddenly go caput.

Years ago, my DBs and I did something similar. I had bought a second-hand car. DB1 was very au fait with cars at that time, but couldn't come with me to buy it. I drove it home (3 miles), he took a look and said it was rubbish. In fact, it was 2 cars that had been welded together. All three DBs and i went back to the seller. He immediately gave all my money back!

There's nothing wrong with what you and DH, etc did. You're lucky the seller even offered £200. I bet it will cost your Dsis loads more than that to fix, though.

OP, your sister paid £500. Go look on ebay for the same make and model car and look for one the same year with the closest milage,mot and tax on it to the one she's just bought and see how much they're going for on there.

My dad has worked in car dealerships (selling not buying) for over 30yrs and his golden rule for buying second hand cars as he's had a few and knows what he's talking about is to see what they're selling for on places like ebay and compare than to the price you've been given-if there's a big difference in price then you can bet that there will be something wrong with it,regardless of what the seller says! It is very rare to find a car for less than the "going rate" that doesn't have some kind of usually major or expensive problem or issue!

Of course the obvious thing is to always get a car looked over and checked out by a professional,or at the very least someone who knows what they're looking at,before buying any used car.

IMO the fact your sisters new car is an automatic and she got it so cheap suggests to me that the guy knew full well it had a major/expensive problem and simply didn't shead light on it and probably knows someone who can turn off the various warning and problem lights on car dashboards to make the car seem fine until it does a few miles and the light turns back on again. (I've seen people actually advertising the "light switch off service" on facebook and I know several mechanics who have said exactly how quick and simple it is to do if you know how) so that's probably why he sold it so cheap in the first place and I do think he only offered £200 because of your dad and partner where there and in all honesty he probably knows the problem will cost much more than that to fix and that (depending on value) the car will probably have to be scrapped (which could be as little as £80 age/make/model depending) so the way he sees it,even if he's given your sis £200 back,he's still sold a car worth nothing more than scrap for £300!