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YACT: Car sale, guy wants work done after the sale

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Sale is complete, make sure you got that money in the bank then tell him to fvck off.

Just my opinion though.

 
If you do the brakes for him, you'll be setting a precedent where he can come back to you anything something goes wrong.

Nip it in the bud right now.
 
The car is his. Let him maintain it, unless you sold it with a written warranty. I.e., he can go and suck on it.

EDIT: Although even motor manufacturer warranties don't cover consumable parts like brake pads. Tell him to ask the maintenance fairy to do them for him.
 
Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
So we sold my gf's 2001 Saturn L200 to a guy (to his son technically, son bought it, guy arranged it), deal was done tonight and they looked at it first time yesterday.

Told them yesterday the front brakes were coming up on needing changing (56K miles on original brakes), but the pads still had a good amount of material left (no where near wear markers). We were planning on changing them before the car sold, but this happened so quick we didn't have time. After I told the guy we were planning on changing them, he didn't say anything about it.

Fast forward to transaction today. Bill of sale, title, and money change hands. Towards the end, the guy asks what we're doing to do about the brakes. Turns out he wants us to take care of the brakes still :roll: Even though my gf asked him about the brakes in an e-mail last night to check on last minute things (which he didn't answer), he says something about it AFTER the freakin' sale :roll:

So appearing a little unsettled about it, we tell him we can get the pads for about $30 and my mechanic can change it for around $40. He says his son will get in touch with us about it :roll:

So if/when the guy contacts us about this, what should we do? This is on my gf's dime and he got the car for $6800 (KBB Good condition $7100, which was our asking price). She'd rather not even spend the $30 on pads and let them get it installed, just because she's irritated with the guy's gall about it.

I'm not worried about anything he can legally do, he signed the bill of sale saying car is provided as-is with no warranty.

What would you do in this situation?
Click to expand...


all used cars are sold as-is by default, there's no way I'd let someone con me into fixing THEIR car
 
Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Originally posted by: dirtboy
If you told someone you 'probably' were going to do something, then they have every right to assume that you did it. Nowhere did you state to him at the time of sale that you didn't change the pad, so he probably assumed you did it, until he inspected it later.
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A reasonable person would not expect the seller to change the brakes overnight. In this case, the admission that the OP "had been planning" to change the pads before the sale was nothing more than a disclosure of a pre-existing condition that he did not have time to fix before selling the vehicle.

Nowhere did the OP say anything that could be assumed to be a promise by a moderately intelligent person.

ZV
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It's a half hour/hour job in any poorly stocked home garage, wth would'nt a reasonable person expect it to be done overnight?

My guess is it was miscommunication, sounds like the deal happened fast. Seller doesn't think he should do it because it wasn't a solid offer in the first place and buyer didn't respond to the email question about it that was sent the night before the sale. Buyer probably heard it as a solid promise and maybe does'nt check his email that often. Or he didn't want to bring it up thinking it would add more the the selling price.

You're not obligated to do it, but I would. Especially if your girlfriend was willing to hand him $70 to get it done at the time of the sale. This shows that the brake job was included/wouldn't have raised the selling price and intent to have the reapir done/paid for. I understand not wanting to deal with it, as selling a car can be a pain and it's nice to have it done.

I would buy the pads, call him in the next few days and set up the appt to have the brakes done and get it over with.
 
Originally posted by: dirtboy
If you told someone you 'probably' were going to do something, then they have every right to assume that you did it. Nowhere did you state to him at the time of sale that you didn't change the pad, so he probably assumed you did it, until he inspected it later.

Now you are saying he's the bad guy for asking you why you didn't do it. Sounds like you made him a false promise. The honorable thing to do is to own up to your words. However, legally he has nothing, unless he can prove that you intended to change the pads; odds are he can't prove that, unless it's in the e-mail your gf sent him.
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I completely agree. I don't know exactly how you said it to this guy, but how you worded it here "After I told the guy we were planning on changing them, he didn't say anything about it. ", it implies you are going to change them. He finds out after the sale you didn't change them even after you said you were going to (planning on and going to mean the same thing), then I would be more than a little mad also.

Why would he have to say anything about it? You already stated you were going to do it so why bring it up again? I've sold many vehicles and have made comments when selling it like "looks like the interior is a bit dirty, i plan on cleaning it, etc" What this means is, I'm going to clean it up. Doesn't matter if its before the sale, after the sale, etc, the buyer or prospective buyer knows I've said it will be clean. Same thing with the brakes here.
 
The way I see it now, the OP/seller knew at the time of sale he didn't change the pads so he did not offer that information to the buyer. I think the error is on the side of the buyer in this case.

When I have sold used cars in the past, I point out what is wrong with the car, as not to make a misleading sale and then let them drive it. After that, I don't volunteer into. If they wish to have in inspected on their dime, fine. Beyond that, keep your mouth shut.

The moment you said you'd have the brakes done, you made an obligation to him. It's easy to assume you could change the brakes overnight, because they aren't a hard job to do.
 
What a jackass. I hate people like that. It's obvious he wants to buy the car, less the break job, then come back to you and expect you to pay for the break job. If he does contact you or your gf, tell the jackass to fvck off.
 
Originally posted by: senseamp
Tell him to FOAD. It's not your problem. What if tomorrow he wants you to fix something else on the car too?
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Why would he? The OP SPECIFICALLY mentioned he was going to fix the brakes.

The OP did not fix the brakes.

The OP did not fulfill his part of the deal.
 
'plan on' doing something is NOT a commitment.

if he doesn't like it he can take you to small clains court.

when the kid asks just explain it in a nice and clear way.
 
Originally posted by: slag
Why would he? The OP SPECIFICALLY mentioned he was going to fix the brakes.

The OP did not fix the brakes.

The OP did not fulfill his part of the deal.
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No, the OP said that prior to the decision to sell the car he'd been planning to change the brake pads. That is a disclosure of upcoming required maintenance, not a promise to perform the maintenance. That's like when I sold my 914 (bought it back later, not part of this story though), I told the buyer that I "had been planning to change the clutch" before I decided to move and sell the car. It was an admission that the clutch was coming up on a replacement interval, not a promise to perform work on the car and, as my buyer was reasonably intelligent, he took it as such.

ZV
 
Originally posted by: dirtboy
The moment you said you'd have the brakes done, you made an obligation to him.
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Except that the OP NEVER said that he'd have the brakes done. WTF is so difficult to understand about that?

ZV
 
While the buyer may have not handled the situation here, I am really appalled by the comments...as usual car sellers are always jackasses and trying to hose over the buyers.

However, the OP did mention he would give the $70 to the buyer, this is a reasonable offer.

But wow, if everyone handles themselves this way over at For sale/for trade the whole forum would shut down. What if everytime there was a dispute the sellers attitude was "well legally you cannot do anything about so FOFF". Comon now, we wouldn't even have a forum after about two days.

Note to self: Never buy a car off Anandtech
 
'plan on' doing something is NOT a commitment.

if he doesn't like it he can take you to small clains court.

when the kid asks just explain it in a nice and clear way.
 
'plan on' doing something is NOT a commitment.

if he doesn't like it he can take you to small clains court.

when the kid asks just explain it in a nice and clear way.
 
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