Car sold privately - broken down, where do I stand?

[Seb.F]

Not sure if this is the right section, as I've not been here long... so here we go.

New owner bought my car last wednesday night (a 206), to have a (brand new only done 3k miles might I add) clutch fail on him. The symptoms are he can feel a bite as he lifts the pedal up but only for a second as if the clutch isn't even gripping. It apparently happened just as he pulled up to a garage to fill the tyres up with air.

No sounds or smells, just went. I'm taking a guess at clutch cable or auto adjuster, as the gearbox & linkage is fine and still goes straight into gear.

Now, where do I stand on this? The phrase Caveat Emptor springs to mind, am I correct in saying it's not my problem at all, and I shouldn't have to deal with it out my own pocket?

The lad's mother called and said that she has '7 days to find the fault or return the car to get a full refund'.

Is that true?

Can't seem to find much info on it...

Any advice, mechanical or legal appreciated.

Thanks
Seb

[Seb.F]

P-J said:

If you're not a dealer then there's no guarantee with it.

However, how would you feel if it happened to you?

Pretty crap indeed! But I just forked out £170odd for tracking work on my new VX220, as the thing was all over the place when I bought it.

Was pretty annoyed at that, but, crap happens.

[Seb.F]

Tyre Smoke said:

Tell them to do their worst. You've done nothing illegal, so any action they take will be civil and therefore cost them money, which they are unlikely to do given that the car they've bought was hardly expensive (tens of £000's)and they are on dodgy ground.

Cheers, I'd thought as much. The car only cost them £2600.

I'd spent about half of that just having a spanking new engine/clutch/servicing cost done about 3000 miles ago.

[Seb.F]

madala said:

HMMMMmmmmm but you still bought knowing that the tracking was all over the place.....surely you had a test drive?....if not....more fool you.

To the OP....isn't the original warranty still valid on the car if it has only 3000K?

I wasn't insured to drive it on roads, so the only drive I had was in an empty open car park.

The car wasn't brand new, just the engine. It's about 8 or 9 years old, so no warranty on it.

[Seb.F]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I just didn't need the extra hassle. I sold it because I fell out of love as the tuner that I was originally going to use for the engine swap let me down so many times over 6 months I ended up feeling completely unexcited about the whole thing, despite it being an awesome car and beating down other of similar stature but much higher power.

Don't get me wrong, there was genuinely NOTHING wrong with it at ALL when it left. New engine 3000 miles ago, full rebuild uprated cams, springs etc, and new clutch (doh), a fair amount of the bodywork/wheels had been resprayed over the last year. And the thing drove amazingly! I'd spent over 4k on it over the last year or so.

I've got uni exams coming up this week, my current car (VX220) was reversed into last week, so I'm without that at the moment. And to top it all off, work lost £700 worth of stock the other day. Not the best time for this to happen really!

Cheers for your input!

[Seb.F]

The gf's mum reversed into it on the drive, cracked the door, so it's a new door, sprayed, then the driver's side has to be blown over to colour match.

Not loads of damage to look at, but a fair amount to repair, I think it's going to be okay with regards to being written off, I'm just waiting to hear back from the engineer now!

[Seb.F]

Thought someone might pick up on that.

Hard work means you can reap the benefits :P