I got jacked by an old man. I need some help.?

Question

I bought a 1998 buick lesabre form an old man. He was like 87 years old. He buttered me up before he sold the car by buying me lunch and talking to me about my personal life and his. I bought the car for 3700 dollars. It drove great for the first 50 miles. Then I took it to get an oil change. About 20 miles after the oil change the engine began to knock loud. I checked the oil and the pressure and they were both fine. Took it to a mechanic and he said the rod is knocking bad and is about to go. Told me for a rebuild it's going to be about 3700 dollars. The cars only worth about that much. So I got screwed. What can I do to cut my losses. The mechanic told me to put some engine honey in it and try to trade it in. The trade in value is blue booked at 3700. I don't want to sell the car to anybody else because I think it is wrong. But I cannot afford to take a 3700 loss. WHat should I do? Any ideas will be appreciated and considered. Thanks.

I have no mechanical experience whatsoever.

Answer 1

Motor honey and a trade-in. Pass the problem, take what you can get, learn from this, and move on.

Answer 2

First off, you're screwed. Sorry. Nothing you can do.

A couple of other observations, though:

1. There is NO lemon Law in ANY state that protects buyers when they buy used vehicles in any form. The lemon law protects new car buyers from problems that a franchise dealer has tried unsucessfully to fix 3+ times, and is otherwise unwilling to resolve.

2. ALWAYS take a prospective car purchase to your own mechanic before you buy it "AS-IS" (which is what all used car sales are, unless some sort of return policy is specifically detailed in writing)

3. If you think putting in some "engine honey" and tryin to steal a decent trade in value from a local car dealer is any more "moraly sound" than selling it outright to an individual...you already have questionable morals.

Every day there is someone on this site wanting to know how to "get their money back" from a dealer who sold him a peice of junk. If you trade this into a dealer and don't tell him about the engine problems, but instead disguise it. How do you expect the dealer to find out about it and fix it before someone else buys it? What will happen is: With a car in that price range, they will probably do some very minor check-over and put it back on the lot. A customer will buy it, then blow the engine and go around slamming the dealer for "knowing the engine was bad" and "selling junk" and threatening to sue, etc. When all the while it was your dishonesty that put that car back on the market.

Its just funny to me that in this circumstance, You feel that the proper justification for getting screwed out of your hard earned money, is to screw a car salesman out of his hard-earned money.

Answer 3

$3700 for a 1998 LeSabre? You got JACKED UP! It's not worth more than $2500 at most.

I'd sell it to Carmax or trade it in ASAP because you don't want to be in possession of it when it doesn't even start. Don't worry about the morality part.... dealer will either fix & sell, junk it or wholesale it at an auction. Those who buy it will be a dealer, so you're screwing a dealer not an ordinary citizen.

Answer 4

I really admire your morality, I swear I do, but you need to sell it, business are business, and 3700 is money, and even if you rebuild it, you'll have lost the double of the original value. So, do what your mechanic is telling you. But if you still feel bad about it, you can just trade it in less of the original value, like 3000 or at least 2500, you'll lose some money but you wont end up empty-handed.
That was a really tricky son of a.., old man, wow, now you cant even trust in elderly people!!!!

Answer 5

You bought the car AS IS, so you have to keep it. But...Talk to friends and relatives, and get a good trusted mechanic, because if they know you don't have experience with cars they will try to get a lot of money from you. You can get a new engine for less money.

Answer 6

i can tell u u have a real problem. as a car expert the blue book is just a guide and i can c u said lesabre not park avenue. this gar as a gem w/ 50k miles would trade 4 no more than 2k. i hope something good will work out 4 u

Answer 7

The old man is not obligated to give your money back, so I wouldn't bother with him. I would put the motor honey in it and trade it in. How are you going to feel guilty about passing the car off to a dealer? Dealerships have never felt bad about taking your money!

Answer 8

Some states have a lemon aide law. Where the lemon law is for people who bought juck cars from vendors, the lemon aide law protects people who bought from other ordinary people. Complete an online search and see if your state has one and what the dollar limit is to see if you can take him to small claims court.

Answer 9

The only thing i can think of is to take the parts out that do work and sell them individually. you can sell the bad parts to chop shops that way you wont feel bad lol.

Answer 10

sell ur car at a cheaper price, and tell the person buying the car, what the problem is....