As many of you know, I sell used cars. I try to be fair in price and actions. I normally give a 30 day guarantee but beyond that, an extended service contract would need to be purchased by the customer. This is how things normally are done around here except I am the only one that honors a 30 day guarantee...no other dealers do that. My cars are looked at and repaired by a shop before I put them out for sale.

Back in May of this year, I sold a 2005 Hyundai with about 106,000 miles on it for about $3,200. She was happy with it and all was well. 2 weeks ago she comes in and tells me that earlier that day, the car didn't start. She had someone replace the spark plugs and it was fine. Last week she stopped in and told me again it wouldn't start and the same guy that did the plugs was going to do a coil on it.

Today I had to stop into the shop for something (I am closed Sundays) and saw I had a message. It was her. The car was making some kind of noise today and the guy that did the plugs and the coil said it "might" be the engine. She said on the message that she is going to stop in on Monday and wants a replacement car because this one went bad.

A replacement car? Really? She bought that car 7 months ago. As much as I have them checked over, they are still used cars and there could be things that go wrong in the future. There is no way I can know that in 7 months a car will go bad. Aside from that, how am I to know what she or her "guy" have done with this car?

As a matter of Federal/State (Pennsylvania) requirements, I put "Buyers Guides" on the window that state the car is sold "As-Is" and the customer signs a copy and I am to keep that for my records in case I am audited. My 30 day guarantee is pretty much a hand-shake guarantee but I have always honored it for anything that happened within 30 days. I even honored it for someone that had an issue 5 weeks and 3,000 miles after buying a car from me. But to me, 7 months is out.

Now, from what I understand, I am not responsible for this car legally. Do I understand this right? I mean, at what point, if she took me to court, could the cut-off be for being responsible for a used car?

You have covered all of your bases. There is nothing she could get you for past the 30-day guarantee. How do you know that she didn't put the wrong fuel in the car? Petrol versus diesel that caused the problem? You don't.

If you provide a 30-day warranty, that is all you are legally obliged to cover.

As-Is means as-is. She has no recourse and if she tries suing you countersue for court costs.

Just show her the agreement she signed.

You know, she was always nice enough and I do feel bad that something happened but I tell myself I can't be responsible for a car for as long as someone has it once they buy it from me. I feel that the 30 day guarantee that I give is way more than anyone one else gives and it's pretty much as fair as I can be.

My father was a car dealer, a very sweet and mild mannered one, much as I imagine you are, from the way you respond to posts, and from this story.
SEVEN MONTHS? I'd want to ask her what planet she's from. But I doubt that you will do that. Somehow I know you will figure out a nice but firm way to tell her that she probably didn't take good CARE of her car during those 7 months.
My dad had some doozies. The shortest one was the guy who called him at 3 am because the battery in his used car bought a year ago was dead, and he wanted my dad to bring him a new one.

PA'a lemon law (Lemon Law Information and Help from LemonLaw.com) only applies to new cars. Even if it applied to used cars, she would have had to bring it to your for repairs.

So, I would show her what she signed, point out the AS-IS portion and tell how you are sorry, but you cannot help her. That you have no responsibility to do anything under PA law or your own ethics.

Thanks everyone.

I pretty much know I am right and clear on this but like I said, I feel bad. I have to learn to get over it.

At seven months on an as-is vehicle that only had a 30 day warranty... even the judge would laugh her out of the court... assuming they even allowed it to be heard in the first place.

At one time I was too worried about getting a bad rep here since I am small....a few months ago I learned that no matter what you do, people are going to say what they want anyway. I have taken care of everyone that had a problem and I still hear that some people are talking crap...so why bother?

You get the people that are mad at you because they have a 499 credit rating and your financing company wants them to front 40% for a down payment when they think they should be able to get a car at 2.9% apr with no money down.

You get the people that point out every nick and chip in the paint...on a used car.

You get the people that come in and offer you half of what the car is priced at and act like they're giving you a big deal. Try that at Walmart on one of their TV's...

There's more but it's just crazy and I guess it's time for me to stop caring. Do what I do and move forward.

Exactly... you will always find SOMEONE with outlandish and unrealistic expectations... this was one of them. You can't please everyone, and no matter how hard you try, you simply won't. I'd venture a guess that not many if any people would really trust their judgement. There are really good reasons people end up with credit ratings that low... poor judgement and poor decision making skills.

She just stopped in.

The lifters or valves are making a clacking noise. I find out now that she had her oil changed by a shop less than 2 weeks ago....I told her to take it there.

Bet it was Jiffy Lube and they forgot to put a filter back on it or put oil in it. I know someone that happened to... they also put the wrong oil in my transmission many years ago (manual transmission) and it died about a year later... they haven't touched anything I was driving ever since.

I know it was the wrong oil because as its leaking on your forehead and running through your hair..there is a disticnt and very noticible differnece between hypoid gear oil (it should have had) and much thinner oil. Not in just thickness but in how it smells.

Hopefully that will be the last you hear from them.

I can tell them a mechanic to go to if them changing the oil doesn't solve it but beyond that, forget it.

I thought it was funny though, she showed up with 2 other people like to intimidate me.

I guess I was supposed to say: Oh sure, take another car...your pick! You want the 2007 Santa Fe? Sure!

So they showed up again after changing the oil themselves....noise is gone.

So yesterday jumping me on the phone about owing them a replacement car to today being "oops, sorry...never thought about the oil"....

I have one thing to be thankful for and that is that I was a mechanic for so many years.

Want to bet it was because they were 2 quarts down because they never checked or changed it since they bought it?

I agree your bases are covered. I will go one further and say your customer service is perfectly reasonable as well. Buying such a high mileage car is always a gamble . The price is low even for a used car.

This lady wants the assurance of an $18,000 or more warranted new car for under $4000, and that is not your fault.

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Originally Posted by odinn7

So they showed up again after changing the oil themselves....noise is gone.

So yesterday jumping me on the phone about owing them a replacement car to today being "oops, sorry...never thought about the oil"....

I have one thing to be thankful for and that is that I was a mechanic for so many years.

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More to the point: the customer can be very thankful that whatever was done (or wasn't done) a couple of weeks ago doesn't appear to have caused any permanent damage.

I am getting in here late, but I had a jiffy lube place ruin a older car of mine. Wrong fluids, left plug out. I ended up suing them,

It was an independent shop up the road. They use bulk oil and probably got a bad batch of it. It happened to us once at a place I worked at back in the 90's.


To AK lawyer- That is a good point and ultimately what I meant to say. I was just thankful that I know enough from having been a mechanic that I was able to diagnose this and it was solved with no real issue or hard feelings.

Thanks for the help everyone.