Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

Bad deal!

I bought a car from this guy. He said it just needed a small part, but it turned out that I had to have the engine rebuilt. Plus while that was happening I had a rental car for about 2 months. So I paid around $1,800 for a rental, and around $4,000 to make the car ''road worthy''. It still had problems but ran well.....I say ran because it was recently stolen from me and at that point in time I only had liability insurance, but thats another issue. When the guy sold me the car he said it just needed one small part, but basically the engine was done for. I also paid him for new shocks, which I didn't get! The problem is that he sold me the car through his ''friends'' car lot. so on record it said it was from the lot and sold ''as-is''. I want to take the man to small claims but I'm not sure if I even have a solid case? Any advice will be a GREAT help! Thank you for taking the time to learn about my rough situation.

-Richie


Asked on 9/15/07, 9:16 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Michael Stone Law Offices of Michael B. Stone Toll Free 1-855-USE-MIKE

Re: Bad deal!

This is the type of story that we here on LawGuru call "18 Year Old Kid Buys His First Used Car." The next time you buy a used car, you will have carfaxed it, and had it checked out by your own mechanic, and you will have looked up the meaning of the legal term, "As Is," (drum roll) -before you buy it!- Maybe you will get lucky and discover that the seller is also the one who stole it from you, and it is again up for sale on the "friend's" used car lot.

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Answered on 9/15/07, 10:17 pm
Jonas Grant Law Office of Jonas M. Grant, A.P.C.

Re: Bad deal!

In general, you should pay attention to what's "on the record" (in writing), rather than any oral representations that are made at the time of entering into a contract. Often the written agreement will provide that if it's not in writing, it doesn't count - that the entire agreement is in writing. Even if it doesn't, the difficulty in proving oral contracts genrally makes them close to worthless. Here, you apparently have something in writing that says "AS IS" and an oral promise to the contrary. I think you're going to have so much of an uphill battle fighting what you agreed to in writing that you should count this as a lesson, and pay attention to the contract, not what the seller might say but isn't willing to put in writing.

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Answered on 9/15/07, 10:27 pm


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