Sold my car, broke on the guy on his way home, what should I do?

[Arems87e]

Dude next time you wanna sell a car on CL, try and specify a place where you'll meet the buyer either in a parking lot of some where, close to your job or something but not your job other than your home (assuming the car drives) where the buyer could actually drive it around to test.

I mean, i'll still use CL to sell cars in the future. The last car i sold on CL, i actually ended up dropping off the car at this guys job. but thats if you have the time, but you'll know just from talking to someone either on the phone or by email if they're really serious in buying a car so you dont have to waste your time.
Just ma 2 cents. You sound like cool guy tho, i hope it works out. I would sell and buy from you :)

[mRodiek]

Sorry man but your not even being a nice guy at this point, your being a pushover.

I would have felt bad as well if he was left stranded but just the fact that hes calling you expecting help is sketchy in itself. Your giving him almost 25% of his money back! At minimum he'll learn a valuable lesson

[KennyT]

let me know next time you are selling a car

+1

Sorry man but your not even being a nice guy at this point, your being a pushover.

I would have felt bad as well if he was left stranded but just the fact that hes calling you expecting help is sketchy in itself. Your giving him almost 25% of his money back! At minimum he'll learn a valuable lesson

A valuable lesson in that some people are suckers. If the OP doesn't care about $150 you can give it to me.

[StereoInstaller1]

Hey Vince, give up the guys phone number.

We will convince him to not fuck you over.

[Brian D]

Dude next time you wanna sell a car on CL, try and specify a place where you'll meet the buyer either in a parking lot of some where, close to your job or something but not your job other than your home (assuming the car drives) where the buyer could actually drive it around to test.

I assume you say this so the buyer doesn't know where you live, unfortunately if the guy buys the car he gets the title, which has...your address on it. Showing a car in a public place instead of your home is a good idea, but in this case it won't help.

Vince, I think you've done more than you needed to, but if it makes you feel better then 150 bucks really isn't that big of a deal. Just remember in the future that the bill of sale stipulates "as is" and point that out to the buyer. I think most people here feel a little outrage towards this guy, but comments to you are getting a little rude, don't worry about it. Do what's right for you and move on.

[CHIF8008]

shoot if i sold my lifted offroad mud jeep to a guy and he calls me from somewhere in the hills and says the axle broke. im not giving him money back. heck i might feel like, "man that sucks" but never would i give him money back. you owe him nothing. and he is a girl if he crys about a cheap bought car breaking

[E30FourLife]

People are idiots!

[Conki]

When I bought my E30 I got it home. Next day I drove it to school. After school I tried to go home but it didn't start.
I knew it wasn't the previous owner's business, but I called him up anyway hoping he could tell me where to start troubleshooting, since it was his car for years until the previous night.
I didn't have any tools with me at the school, and I was just standing there clueless.
So I called the PO, who told me the battery was pretty old.
I walked to an AutoZone, bought a new battery, put it in the car, and happily drove home.

I really didn't want to bother the PO with my problem, but calling him once saved me hours of trouble.
(I didn't know anything about troubleshooting and fixing cars at the time)

I wouldn't hold him accountable for what happened though.

[KennyT]

People are assholes!

Fixed.

[briansjacobs]

I think the general concensus is that the guy bought a parts car that happens to be driveable, at $650 he should be happy it made it an hour.

gearbox $400
Longblock $400
Wheels $100
ECU....
Spares....

[Vince30]

gearbox $400
Longblock $400
Wheels $100
eta ECU....
i ECU...
Spares....
2.93lsd...
i manifold...

[Cabriolet]

I had something similar happen with 2 of the cars I sold. With my 91 vw cabriolet. I had replaced the clutch myself, about 500 miles before selling it. The chick that bought it and blew it out the next day. I told them I’d buy the car back for 1/2. She said no and had it fixed.

With my eta sport. i sold it to a guy and he was complaining that the speedometer didn't match the actual speed (maybe 5mph off) and the odometer died after 2 weeks. I offered to help him fix it but or buy the car back at full value of what I sold it to him as. I miss my ES.

Basically you aren't obligated to help him. But you don't want your good name to be tarnished.

[B Randon]

I picked up a 83 320i(had clouth recaros in it), 77 320i (parts car), and a 75 02 parts car for 900 bones one time, the 83 had been sitting for about a year so little juice and a jump start and it was good to go. It needed to have a tune up but wasnt about to drop the cash into that. I had another 75 02 that i was selling to this one guy, and he saw my ad for the 83 and asked if he could get swap the money he had paid me for the 02 over on to the 83 b/c he needed to get a car for his mom. told him yeah and sold it to him for 1100. he comes get it and drives it home, get a call the next day from him saying the alt belt went out on it and he had to keep jumping it off to get it home. told him i was sorry and if he wanted that what ever belts that i had around he could have. He never came after the belts but would call me up from time to time asking about the car (dont think he even knew what a screwdriver was, but he was pulling all types of parts off of it). He sold the car and the next person called me up about the car asking things about it, the guy he got it from had pulled so many parts off of the motor it wasnt funny. That guy wanted to see if i would buy the car from him for over 1500. told him now with it not running and things missing it was not worth more then 300 to me. Never got a call from that one again.

Best thing about it all was i made so much cash out of the other cars and off it it, plus the recaros where swaped out before i posted that car, now they are in my inka 02 lol

[b*saint]

Update

[gofredo50]

You didn't have to do anything, but if helping the guy helped you sleep at night then sleep well. The most I would have done would have been to help him get it home.

Buying a $650 car is just asking to spend at least twice that much on repairs, and often MUCH more. Any reasonable person understands that (even if they don't want to believe it). Sometimes you get lucky and get to drive for a while before things break and sometimes it dumps coolant on the way out of the sellers driveway.