Bought a car from Facebook and it broke straight away

[Littlemissmuffett27]

Hi, Im not too sure where best to post this, but I really need some advice please.

At the weekend, I saw an ad on Facebook for a second hand car - in had one previous registered owner and looked it good condition. It had all the paperwork and the MoT was valid for another 10 months. Now, usually my husband is the one who buys our family cars, but he is away and he asked if I would be happy to view it myself and make the decision (car is a 2012 plate and is meant to be a little run-around for me to get to work / DC to school).

I saw the car and it was immaculate - my parents came with me and were also impressed. The car man, who advertised it, stressed it only had one owner and my dad clarified it with this guy that he was a “dealer”, who buys cars, does them up and sells them on. I went for a quick test drive with him and decided to purchase it for £1900 (the selling price). I drove the car straight home.

So, since then, we have had countless issues; it has had to be jump started 3 times, new battery and then yesterday, as I was about to go onto the motorway with my DC in the back of the car, the engine made this awful banging sound and an error message came up to say to stop the vehicle. My DH came out to rescue us and he checked the engine; basically he found the coolant bit was full of a copper coloured “dirt”, which we now believe is a “stop leak” substance, as the water just drains straight out of it.

DH messaged the seller straight away (car bought Monday and this latest incident happened yesterday); the message was civil as he wanted the man to reply to him and open up a conversation, but this man has ignored my husband.

Im so upset as money is very tight at the minute and I have literally just wasted nearly £2k on a broken car.

I know about the “seller beware”, but as this guy was acting as a “dealer” (car was not registered to him), is there any comeback on him? Is there anything I can do to recoup my money / some of it? What makes me most upset is that this guy has no morals and doesn’t care that the car could’ve conked out on the motorway, endangering my DC’s lives.

DH is going to take the car in to a garage to see if it is at all repairable, but I just want to give the guy a piece of my mind / a big thump.

Unfortunately it's a suck it up situation. Not really much you can do.

Sorry to hear this, but as you say, it’s a caveat emptor situation. Different if you had purchased from a garage. I hope you get it sorted.

That’s not true if the seller was a trader. OP ask for this to move to legal as you will get a better answer from more knowledgeable people.

@NameChangePoP ok thank you. Please can I ask how to get mumsnet to move it to legal?

Sadly there isn't anything you can do other than maybe post a warning on social media about him. Depending on what the garage say the car might be worth spending a bit of money on it to get it running reliably. Any car though that is 13 years old can develop a problem at anytime, so it could just be bad luck that it's done it as soon as you've bought it. What was the milage on it? Sometimes low mileage on an old car is not good as it can do cars more damage just sitting around than being driven.

Report your post and ask Mumsnet to move for you ☺️

So on his FB post (it was his private account, not a “car dealer” account) it said 92k miles, but when I got home I realised it was actually 94k miles.

Ok, that milage does sound like it was driven regularly so hopefully wasn't sat round for long periods not being driven. I think if it was on his personal facebook page then him being a "trader" doesn't really carry any weight. I don't know if you can report someone to facebook for using a personal account when they are claiming to be trade. I think really you will need to chalk it up to experience unless you want to go to his address and see if speaking to him face to face has any effect.

You don’t have any come back and potentially even a RAC check wouldn’t have picked up a cracked head gasket, assuming that what you have. It could just be an isolated issue with the actual coolant system. A garage will be able to tell you. Blown or cracked head gaskets can be fixed as well, it’s just depends on the make and model of the car and how much you can afford.

if it makes you feel a better my husband is a full blown degree engineer and bought a car many years ago ago that literally blew on the way back from the purchase, it really is sometimes just bad luck.

it does sound like they sold knowing there was an issue with is pretty poor knowing you’d be driving with children in the car.

Sold as seen unfortunately.

Head gasket was going and temporarily fixed using a stop leak product. Engine will need a rebuild

I’m so sorry this is so sh*tty and the same thing happened to my dh a few months ago. I would never buy off a private dealer for this reason only a garage . There are some horribly dishonest people around unfortunately. You live and you learn .

I think it is unfortunately a case of live and learn 🙁 I just don’t understand how the man could do that (knowingly), as I could never sell anything dishonestly (this is also what my husband is struggling to also understand).

Im guessing a head gasket going / engine rebuild is a costly affair?

You and your husband can’t understand why this man is dishonest? There will always be dishonest people, as sure as eggs is eggs.

If he was a dealer then you might have some comeback. I suspect that the difficulty will be in proving that he is a dealer.
You could get details of his Facebook sales history, but if he remains unhelpful then you will have to take him to court.

You rarely get a decent car for that price. There isn't a lot you can do. Even cheaper cars from garages can cause problems.

Unfortunately cars that have done nearly 100k miles and are 13 years old are likely to need significant work to maintain them. I'd get it checked over by a proper garage.

Did he have a business premises? What paperwork/invoice did he provide with the company details on?

I suspect he wasn't a dealer. I work in the motor industry and there are thousands of these idiots about. They think being a proper motor trader is an easy way to make money on the side. It definitely isn’t. If that’s the case you can’t do anything as essentially it was a private sale so sold as seen.

Next time use a website called carcheck .com Type in the number plate and you'll have access to the cars previous MOTs passes, fails, what was wrong with that car etc...

If the fails were small things like windscreen wipers or tire replacements etc... then you probably have a safe bet.

It really depends on the make and model of car and if it actually the head casket and crack or blown. So worth getting some prices.

Far better to go to the official UK government website rather than a random one. The OP has already been scammed once.

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

OP, ring citizens advice bureau first thing in the morning tomorrow and explain the situation. What does the log book say? Does that show one owner, or two previous owners? If it only shows one, it implies he is a registered trader, otherwise his ownership would show as two ownerships on the log book. I would explain the situation to CAB, and they will be great at explaining what your rights are, if any!

Gosh. Don’t buy any concert tickets on Facebook!

There is a lot of very poor "advice" on this thread. I don't know what it is about second hand cars, bit it always brings about a pile on of people saying you have no rights and trotting out phrases like "sold as seen" (which is meaningless legally). That is simply not true.

When you buy a second hand car from a private individual, your rights are limited. The car must match any description given and the seller must not misrepresent the car. So, for example, if the seller says the car has air conditioning, it must be fitted with air conditioning which must work.

When you buy from a dealer, the above still applies but the car must also be in reasonable condition given its age and mileage. Whether a seller is classed as a dealer has nothing to do with membership of trade associations, etc. If they are buying and selling cars as a business, they are a dealer. If your seller is, as he claims, buying cars, doing them up and selling them, he is likely to be a dealer as far as the law is concerned. That means you have the right to reject the car within 30 days of purchase and receive a full refund. If the seller refuses, you can take them to the small claims court to get your money back. Also, if you paid some of the price by credit card and the dealer refuses to pay up, you can use Section 75 to get your money back from your credit card provider.

If the seller is not a dealer, that makes things a bit harder, but you still have a claim if, for example, the seller's claim that there has only been one previous owner was not true.