Ok, I know this is a chevelle site, but I have a very serious inquiry. One of my friends recently bought a 66 Baby Blue Ford Fairlane with a 390. The guy he bought it off of gave us receipts of a rebuilt engine, transmission, and rearend. Soon, we flushed the radiator, and kept getting small rust flakes in the coolant. Then the freeze plugs began to leak, so he sent the car to a shop to have them replaced. When the mechanic took them out, he had rust sludge and debris everywhere. This engine has never been rebuilt in its life, the tranny is starting to slip (I think its the modulator), and it runs horribly. My question is; is there a way to sue, or get his money back? Now he just wants to get rid of the car. If he can get his money back... cost of car, repair work, time invested, parts, gas, how can we go about making this right? he's only 18, and right now violence could become a factor. Any help is greatly appreciated.

DJ
67 Elco

I would look into this more by seeing if the reciets are from a legit rebuilder or if someone made them up. I don't know if Calif. has any lemon law I would also check into that. Good Luck.

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Scott

They definitely revised the lemon law here in NY recently and it has teeth. Check into it. You got rooked. Without the lemon law apllying to the transaction you fall under the "caveat emptour" rule. He owns it.



[This message has been edited by Gene Chas (edited 07-25-99).]

In Mass we have a 90 day lemon law.. i dont know about cali, but you could probly find out pretty eaisly by calling town officals, lawyer ect. Good luck man.

-Chris

Talk to the local police. While there, ask to see the detective in charge of the "fraud" division. That is their job! At the minimum, they can tell your legal options.

Wes. Vann

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Wes. Vann
Technical Reference & Wagons sections
Gold Member #5

It all may depend on the condtions of the sale. Did your friend buy it "as is". From a private party? Does he have witness's to what the seller claimed? If its just his word against the seller's word, and you can't prove anything then it may be a hard lesson to learn.

Your only recourse may be small claims court, I think lemon laws pertain to new vehciles? I would diffinetly check with the police, this may be a scam artist at work.

I'm no attorney, but I remember from a law class a few years ago that some states have provisions to protect "minors", which may in effect void the transaction and allow him to get his money back. If he was still 17 when he bought it, this may be something to look into with an attorney. (It's for this same reason I'd never want to sell any car directly to a minor, I'd sell it to a parent then they could title it to their kid if they want)

Not being an American or a lawyer, I can only give an opinion based on Canadian law; the reciepts for the rebuild would make a very strong case for misrepresentation and fraud. I don't think caveat emptor would apply in this case because of the deliberate mistatement of fact. My best advice is to get legal advice - either from the police fraud squad or a lawyer. I hope your friend gets his money back - good luck

John is right, look into that. Also, any contract that is based on misrepresentation or fraud is unenforceble. What this means is, if you can prove that he claimed the motor was rebuilt he HAS to give back the money. Contracts do not have to be written, they can be oral or expressed. If he said the motor was rebuilt (even if no receipt), then it has to be rebuilt. There are lots of things that protect the buyer in these situations.

Can you prove that he made false claims? If so, things look good for your friend. "AS IS" does not apply here. If the motor WAS rebuilt and it blew up, that falls under "as is". But this is different. He made claims, those have to be true.

I say go after this swine,when I sell a car or truck the new owner knows all thats wrong,because I tell or show them the problems.Ilike them to know what there taking home with them,even if it does hurt the sale price.I say go after this in a legal manner,If that fails,OOOOOOFF WITH HIS HEAD, just kidding! good luck with this,man 67rat member #199

Ok here we go...well when he bought the car, I was with him, and am his witness. I clearly remember him saying that the engine was rebuilt 3K miles ago. Yesterday, we took it up to see him, and he said "I have reciepts and thats all I have to say" Well to say the least this scum really pissed me off. I mean whats the point of lying? The next generation has to take over at some point, and its people like him that ruin it for kids like us. So now, my buddy has no more money to put into the car, leaks power steering fluid, and coolant, barely any throttle response, and sounds like a head of poop. His father is a Seargent in the San Francisco police force. I guess they're gonna sue the seller on grounds of misrepresentation. I'll keep you guys posted on the news.

Thanx,

DJ

So, what your saying is that he told you he has receipts for all this stuff, but you never got them or saw them when you bought the car. That's a hard lesson learned, if he sold the car what reason would he have to keep them? I also learned this lesson when I bought my car. A lot of stuff about the engine was not what I was told, but it's pretty hard to inspect the inside of an engine. Anyway, good luck.

Chris

There are different levels of an engine rebuild. One can change the rings & bearings and call that a rebuild without ever flushing the engine cooling system. The tranny might have been done in the same manner. It is ALWAYS a wise decision to physically look at the receipts and see what actually was performed. The guy may in fact have paid to get the engine and tranny rebuilt just a very shotty rebuild.

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Good. I hope everything works out for you and your friend. I sell cars for a living (BMW), but I'm not exactly your stereotypical car salesman. This guy sounds like he's the lying, cheating, "gimme-your-money-and get-the-hell-outta-here" kinda guy. I can't stand bastards like that. Anyway, good luck!

BTW, tell your friend to buy a Chevy next time! http://www.chevelles.com/forum/wink.gif

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Jeremy J. Bennett
72 Chevelle
Team Chevelle #298

When I bought my 70 it came with a "rebuilt engine". In less than 2 months the harmonic balancer fell off (they left the bolt off), it took a chunk of the crankshaft with it. I thought I could just drop in a new crank and balancer and be done. Well the rebuild consisted of rings and rod bearing and hand lapped valves. I had to bite the bullet and do it right. I documented my rebuild with pictures and receipts which went with the car when I sold it. I did ask the person I bought it from about the rebuild and he had paid good money for it, so in away the rebuilder got to both of us.

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Philip Valentine
Team Chevelle Member #42 GOLD
philip@chevelles.com

I am a lawyer. All the posts are essentially correct. Problem is that as a practical matter you'll probably be stuck with this lemon without any real recourse. A lawyer will cost you too much $. Most lawyers don't want to fool with such a low $ value case. You can probably go to small claims court and do it yourself but when you file suit his insurance will kick in. Then you'll be arguing against his insurance lawyer. If you win, that means nothing. You still have to collect. That involves even more laws and hoops you'll have to jump through. I hope you win and collect. But usually most people give up when they learn how much work is involved. Even I had a Toyota dealership play some games w/ me one time and I even went so far as to draft the Complaint. But when I thought of all the time, wasted $ and finally all the mental aggravation that I knew I would have to endure, I decided to just let it go. Good luck.