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AIBU?

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Original poster

Sold my car and buyer isn't happy

209 replies

monotonousmum · 09/05/2022 11:24

I sold my car at the weekend, and the buyer has messaged today to say she isn't happy.

Car is 13 years old. Only known issue is that the boot needs to be opened via remote button on the key. It's been like this for three years - and I showed her this before she took the car.

This morning I've had a text to say she's taken it to a garage and they've valued it at £900 under what she paid for it. Brakes need doing, wiper needs replacing, and apparently an electrical problem causes the boot issue.

She hasn't asked me for anything yet. Just told me she's not happy.

I've sent a polite response back to say its a good car, and she should maybe get another opinion. A dealer offered me £200 under what she paid for it last week, and it's a 13 year old car so not going to be perfect.

I offered her to test drive it, she didn't want to. She asked for a reduced price, which was agreed (slightly more than she offered, but £300 less than my asking price). The price was in line with the autotrader valuation, and similar cars for sale.

I feel bad for her if she's not happy, but I have no intention of giving her a refund or anything. AIBU?

OP posts:
Delia65 · 09/05/2022 12:27

@Discovereads

I hope I never sell you a car. You'd be a fucking nightmare

2bazookas · 09/05/2022 12:28

Caveat emptor. What kind of buyer of a 13 yr old car declines a test drive then takes it to a garage???? That is really weird and would make me suspect she was planning to gazunder the price right from the start CF!

If she persists, ask her to supply a written report from the garage on its headed notepaper, because you will be discussing her assertions WITH THEM to ascertain if any fraud has taken place.

  • Answer; My guess is she did nt dare risk you asking for a driving license because she hasn't got one. . Normal practice by a careful vendor is to ask for sight of the buyer's driving license before a test drive (to confirm the vendors 3rd party insurance is covered).
Buttonjugs · 09/05/2022 12:29

Discovereads · 09/05/2022 11:38

To take a car you just bought to a garage and find out you paid £900 over its value for a 13yr old car would be a shock. Most 13yr old cars are under £5k, so that’s a massive difference.

Why did you price the car at £500 over what a dealer offered you for it? How much % of an increase was this? You showed her the boot issue, and she could have seen the wipers, but why did you not mention the brakes?

Yes the law says caveat emptor (buyer beware) but part of me thinks you’ve been a bit greedy and taken advantage of a less well off person by deliberately charging them too high a price for your 13 yr old car and not disclosing expensive brake maintenance you knew was due.

Of course she sold it for more than a dealer offered! Dealers pay rock bottom prices because they have to make a profit when they sell it on!

Tschecked · 09/05/2022 12:30

Discovereads · 09/05/2022 12:22

You don't know much about buying and selling second hand cars.

Lol. I only buy and sell used cars. I’ve owned over a dozen cars. I just happen to be more ethical about it than what appears to be the majority. Which is truly depressing.

“This woman is trying it on.”
Why is it ok to assume the buyer is a scammer but not ok to ask the OP why they priced the car £500 over it’s market value and whether the brakes truly were not known when that seems unlikely given how MOTs are done?

Surely we need these questions answered to know whether the buyer has a valid reason to be unhappy?

No we don't. In a private car sale the onus is on the buyer to satisfy themselves of the condition and value of the car. Google it maybe. Doesn't the fact that so many people are telling you that is the situation make you even pause to consider that you might be wrong in this?

Irishfarmer · 09/05/2022 12:35

I think she is looking to guilt you into giving her money back. Weird that she didn't want to test drive it. But I sold a car before and the guy asked me to drive it for him during the test drive. He bought it after but it was weird!!

If she texts again I'd just say, car was sold as seen.

DontBlameMe79 · 09/05/2022 12:36

Maybe offer the buyer a few hundred as a goodwill gesture? You never know what people are capable of in terms of making your life miserable and this could be a way to nip it in the bud.

Neverreturntoathread · 09/05/2022 12:38

The buyer has been an idiot but that is not your fault or problem. The car issues are to be expected, if she wanted a guarantee she should have bought from a dealer. Block her and ignore.

It’s ridiculous to say another garage has valued it at £900 less. A newbie sales guy at my garage actually showed me on his computer the way their valuations work. They have a target price for when they buy the second hand car, which for my car was between £9k and £11k. Whether they offer £9k or £11k or something in between depends as much on the seller’s negotiation skills / market availability as it does on the condition of the car. Then they have a target price for reselling the car, which for my car was between £12-15k. So is my car ‘worth’ £9k? Or £15k? It all depends on how you look at it, what mood everyone is in on the day, what the market is doing and how charming the seller/buyer is during the negotiation - which is how I got him to show me all this on his screen in the first place ;)

Tschecked · 09/05/2022 12:40

DontBlameMe79 · 09/05/2022 12:36

Maybe offer the buyer a few hundred as a goodwill gesture? You never know what people are capable of in terms of making your life miserable and this could be a way to nip it in the bud.

WTAF? That's what people like this count on.

AchatAVendre · 09/05/2022 12:41

DontBlameMe79 · 09/05/2022 12:36

Maybe offer the buyer a few hundred as a goodwill gesture? You never know what people are capable of in terms of making your life miserable and this could be a way to nip it in the bud.

Sounds like a great idea. Give her money for hassling you and show her you're a soft touch, so next time the car needs routine maintenance such as an oil filter change, the buyer can just text again and the seller will have to pay for it?

In fact, why doesn't the OP just pay the woman to take her car from her?

Siht · 09/05/2022 12:42

Sold as seen, it's a private sale and you told her about known faults. Onus was on her to inspect for further faults and have it valued before purchase if that was important to her.
I wouldn't respond at all, but ignore, then block if she persists.

Scianel · 09/05/2022 12:43

Thats not really the case

That really is the case. DH has a quite sought-after performance car that we keep thinking about selling, if we sell it for about a grand under the dealer price we'd still be asking a couple of grand more than a dealer would offer to take it off our hands. That extra grand that the buyer then pays to the dealer would cover the service and warranty.

DontBlameMe79 · 09/05/2022 12:43

AchatAVendre · 09/05/2022 12:41

Sounds like a great idea. Give her money for hassling you and show her you're a soft touch, so next time the car needs routine maintenance such as an oil filter change, the buyer can just text again and the seller will have to pay for it?

In fact, why doesn't the OP just pay the woman to take her car from her?

Show quote history

Good to see that the irony detectors still don’t work for many posters😂😂

Alliswells · 09/05/2022 12:43

BigSandyBalls2015 · 09/05/2022 12:06

We sold a car and the buyer messaged me a year later to tell me it had failed it’s MOT 🙄😂

Omg Grin

Erictheavocado · 09/05/2022 12:44

Maybe Discovereads is the disgruntled buyer.

It is normal for dealers to offer less for a car as they will usually service and MOT it before selling it on at a price that more than covers their outgoings on it AND makes them a decent profit. They are not selling on a charitable basis.

The buyer was remiss in not test driving the vehicle. The MOT is a matter of record, easily obtainable online, so she should have checked it before looking at it, that way any advisory notices regarding brakes or anything else, would have been seen.

OP has done nothing wrong g she advertised a car for sale, agreed a price and sold it. Buyer, on the other hand, sounds naiive at best.

GrunkleStan · 09/05/2022 12:44

AchatAVendre · 09/05/2022 12:02

Its always amusing when someone comes onto a thread on mumsnet and tries to waffle a lot of non-convincing nonsense for whatever purpose they have.

I'd say thats pretty unethical.

I'd say the buyer has been pretty lucky to buy a 13 year old car with only 3 issues, and if expecting not to maintain brakes in any car then is in for a shock. After all, she could have bought exactly the same car with exactly the same issues a week later from a dealer and then had to chase around trying to get him to comply with their warranty on a 13 year old car Grin

Show quote history

^
This.

Last week I traded in an 18 year old car. I got £500 for it (and was delighted). I could have sold it for more privately, prob up about £900 ish.

The car I bought was £12.5k. Its probably £2.5k more than it would have been a couple of years ago but ultimately its a sellers market. If you don't like the current values you're free to ride out the current market. There is nothing remotely unethical about this sale.

If youre going to buy a car privately, it's basic stuff to test drive it, check the mot (which can be done on line) and get a mechanic to inspect it. If a vehicle has been sold "as seen" then it is exactly that. If she thinks she's been diddled, then I would suggest her recourse should be the small claims court.

boonducks · 09/05/2022 12:44

If it was me I would tell her to bring it back for a refund. I wouldn't negotiate more discount and I wouldn't ignore. Can you tell I would never sell or buy a car privately? I couldn't cope with confrontation and this kind of thing is not unusual.

SunThroughTheCloudsAt6am · 09/05/2022 12:44

YANBU. Moreover, of course dealers offer less and sell for more - that's why when you log onto Parkers you get both the figures, or what car, or Autotrader - it's completely out there in the open!

springtimeishereagain · 09/05/2022 12:44

She didn't test-drive it?? She didn't bother to value it beforehand? She's a tool. Ignore!

BabsFiddle · 09/05/2022 12:44

The buyer is trying it on! If the brakes were mentioned in the last Mot report then maybe it should have been mentioned but an Mot check would let the buyer know that.

I recently part-exchanged my 15 year old car with a dealer.. had already been welded twice and was starting to cost money.I know it went to auction - Maybe I could have got more if I sold it privately but it wasn't worth the hassle.

I did sell a previous car privately - Renault 5 - to a BMW driver. We took it out for a test drive and he was very impressed, I showed him the service records - the car was in good condition - and he was quite pragmatic about it.. He was very happy with the car and it was apparently still going 5 years after I sold it!. Please block the buyer..and I hope you don't get any hassle.

Scianel · 09/05/2022 12:45

And don't give that woman any money! She's a chancer. It's caveat emptor with private car sales I'm afraid, and you've clearly not lied egrariously about anything.

BaaMoon · 09/05/2022 12:45

You're fine OP. Just ignore her

SunThroughTheCloudsAt6am · 09/05/2022 12:48

And as to brakes - one garage I tried with another car tried to get me to replace them because they only had 20% wear left - 1/5th wear left, on pads that had been there for about 4 years. They wanted me to replace my pads getting on for a year early..

Everyone knows you can’t examine brakes visually

You what? Sure, you can't be precise, but you can certainly have a nosey and see if if they're so far gone they need replacing RIGHT NOW - that's why you always take a torch to buy a car, so you can look at this sort of stuff - this woman didn't even bother to testdrive though...

AchatAVendre · 09/05/2022 12:48

Discovereads · 09/05/2022 12:22

You don't know much about buying and selling second hand cars.

Lol. I only buy and sell used cars. I’ve owned over a dozen cars. I just happen to be more ethical about it than what appears to be the majority. Which is truly depressing.

“This woman is trying it on.”
Why is it ok to assume the buyer is a scammer but not ok to ask the OP why they priced the car £500 over it’s market value and whether the brakes truly were not known when that seems unlikely given how MOTs are done?

Surely we need these questions answered to know whether the buyer has a valid reason to be unhappy?

Are you one of these part time traders, trying to avoid tax? Why would you say you "buy and sell cars"?

I mean, I buy cars and then sell them too, otherwise I'd have more than 10 cars accumulated outside my house. I mainly buy cars that are between 6 and 12 years old. I think I've had slightly more cars than you. I have never yet bought a car which didn't need its brakes maintained. Quite often, DH replaces things like brake discs in case they are flagged up on the next MOT. Even when buying from a dealer because routine maintenance will be excluded from any warranty for a second hand, several years old car. If the car has a current MOT, then I cannot see the problem. The OP says that the brakes weren't even listed as an advisory on the last MOT so this is clearly routine maintenance, or the garage or the buyer are trying it on.

Do you have a copy of Parkers? If not, how can you possibly know the market value of an unspecified make and model of car? Why would a dealer give a private seller full market value? You've had this explained to you countless times, that dealers buy cars cheap to then sell on for a profit, but you're still not grasping it. What is your actual agenda here? Your posts are really strange.

dottiedodah · 09/05/2022 12:51

BigSandyBalls LOL ! Honestly the sheer nerve of these people .We have bought and sold lots of cars , Once cash handed over end of story!

TheOldRazzleDazzle · 09/05/2022 12:52

Discovereads · 09/05/2022 12:11

@AchatAVendre

So why should a buyer take someone who knows cars with them if it’s nonsense that buyers do so to avoid being ripped off by unethical sellers? You said the buyer should have brought someone who knows cars…why should she have then if my reason is “nonsense”?

And as my reason is “nonsense” doesn’t that mean you believe every private seller of cars out there is 100% honest and trustworthy?

Yes, it’s a good idea to avoid being ripped off. That doesn’t mean the op was a rip-off seller though.

It’s also a good idea because the vendor themselves may not themselves be aware of an issue.

No one is saying all private vendors are trustworthy. Some won’t be, and others will be deluded about the value of their car. None of that means the op is one of those vendors.

Also, £500 is a high figure proportionally, then £900 is huge. Why is the op taking advantage for putting a price tag of £500 more than the dealer’s offer (and selling for only £200 more), but the buyer is legit suggesting she should have paid £700 less than a dealer would have paid? Your percentage-based argument doesn’t stack up.

As for having a hunch that the op was being greedy, I can’t stand posts that don’t take other posters at face value and instead flesh out hypotheticals. It’s unfair.