Sold my Truck, then it broke down

H

HatDaddy

1,000+ Posts
I sold my old truck recently. 2000 Nissan Frontier that I got back from my Dad after my Mom passed away in December.
It was mine first then I gave it to my Dad after he retired.
We had it checked out and some rewiring work was done on January. I drove it about once a week in the meantime while I had it on Craigslist. No issues when I drove it
Guy comes in from El Paso Saturday, checks out the truck and he says it looks okay. We exchange title and cash. He goes on his merry way.
I rec'd a call and email from him stating the transmission went out on his way home and he had to have it towed 500 miles to get home. He now wants me to help pay for a new transmission since he bought the truck in good faith. Well I sold it in good faith. It had no issues the day I drove it.
He says the check engine light bulb was removed. I have no idea how to even get to the check engine light bulb.
How do I know he didn't knock it out of gear while driving?
I realize lemon laws don't apply to private party sales, but should i be concerned about this? Could this be a scam?
 
Not sure about a scam (which is always very possible on CL), but I would say that he bought the truck "as is" and he is SOL. Once the money exchanged hands, he could have been driving the truck out of the driveway and had it broken down and I would tell him the same thing.
 
If he's telling the truth it sucks that it happened, but it's just an unfortunate aspect of buying a used vehicle. If you didn't know of any potential problems like this or withhold something from him then you shouldn't be concerned.

I would tell him I'm really sorry it happened but I didn't lie to you or hide anything about the truck from you.
 
We met at my bank and exchanged cash for the paperwork.
In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't have them come to the house.
 
Ok- but are you worried he could figure out where you live etc?

I think it's a scam, or either way he is SOL- but also nervous on your behalf. Besides- I just watched No Country for Old Men again with the creepy hair cut dude. Just sayin..
 
It might put the mechanic on the hook to YOU for electrical work, but nothing more than that. I think BW is just saying to get a statement from mechanic that he corroborates that HE didn't notice anything wrong with the transmission either. Not that he was asked to inspect it and did so and found it to be tip top. He MIGHT be able to address the check engine light issue and he MIGHT be dirty in that regard.
 
I wouldn't do sh*t man as far as a letter or anything. By doing that you are giving this guy more creedence then he deserves.
 
I think guys are being a little dramatic on thinking some guy is going to come hunt you down or something. You have to think that is highly unlikely. The guy was pissed because he felt like he got taken and his first thought was to go back to you and demand you make it right. But the problem is that the guy should have done his due diligence before he bought the car and he failed to do so. Unless you made some grandiose representations about how this is the greatest car ever and runs like a champ, you have no liability (and even then you probably have none - ever heard of "buyer beware").

When I bought a used car, I took it for three test drives and had a mechanic friend of mine do a complete check of the engine. He had some reservations, so I decided not to buy. This guy should have done the same thing.
 
"check engine bulb was removed"


Uhhh. Ok. I think you Texans have to get an "inspection", and the check engine light is part of that. Further more, the "check engine" light typically lights up when the key is turned on and then goes off if all is well. So the buyer could/should have known that it wasn't working.
 
Caveat Emptor, or Buyer Beware is a thing of the past for the most part. I'm not saying anything about this particular situation, but you have to affirmatively disclose anything you know that a reasonable buyer would want to know. You can't keep your mouth shut and hope a buyer doesn't figure things out that you already know about. It's a really smart thing to do your own due diligence, but the seller still has to disclose problems that the seller knows about. Under the consumer protection statute, the seller is entitled to rely upon WRITTEN information received from third parties like a mechanic and a bill stating the electrical problems were fixed if they were received PRIOR to the transaction. I'm no mechanic, but I have my doubts that a check engine light would come on for a looming tranny problem anyway.

Like I said, I have no reason to comment on HatDaddy's deal, but Buyer Beware is no longer much of a legal concept except when dealing with carnies who have small hands and smell like cabbage.

Fwiw, regard this deal, there is little chance that this guy is going to pursue it if he tries to hire decent counsel. Hard to prove the case and not that much money involved which means the guy will have to pay hourly and risk dollars chasing dimes.
 
Nick, you are aware that I live in California, and CA isn't Texas. So, does TX have a "small claims" court similar to CA?

Out here, any dispute up to $ 5000 can be filed in Small Claims court, where attorneys are not allowed. Just the plantiff and the defendant.

If this case were in CA I would be willing to wager that the buyer would spend the 30 bucks and file this in that court.
 
All valid points, thanks guys.
It would still go back to what we knew about when we were selling it. I was not aware of any sort of transmission issues when we sold it. I would not have sold the truck in that condition without disclosing anything necessary.
He asked if it had issues, I said none to my knowledge and that is 100% the truth. Like I stated earlier, I had been driving the truck and there were no issues when i was driving it.
I would think the Maintenance Required light would come on before the check engine light would for a transmission issue.

I wondered about the small claims court thing as well.
 
Small claims is always an option, but he'd have to do it in the county of HatDaddy's residence. Not terribly practical from The Pass.

Attorneys are not barred from small claims courts in TX, just not really necessary. The biggest problem with small claims court in MY opinion is that if you get banged for the full $5k, you just file about a $10 bond and appeal it to county court where you start the whole case over. It's called de novo. There won't be any record of what happened at the small claims court level. It's very similar to the way that traffic ticket lawyers handle tickets. They don't even bother to show up at traffic court and then appeal the case de novo to county court where the DA's office essentially says "Are you ******* kidding me? I don't do penny ante traffic court ****. I do DWI's and real cases. Gimme 20 and leave me the **** alone".
 
FYI, the check engine light does come on for anything that can affect emissions and a malfunctioning transmission is one of those things. There are codes for transmission problems and there could have been one before that no one noticed because the bulb was removed (if it had been removed).
The check engine light always comes on for a few seconds when you first turn the key on, to check the bulb. A buyer should notice that it doesn't work. It is a used car dealer trick to remove the bulb rather than fix the problem causing the light to come on.
So maybe the bulb was missing all that time and the poster never noticed, but he should have, and the father should have, and the buyer should have, plus the buyer should have taken the car to a mechanic and gotten a "buyer's check" from the shop.
At the time the state emissions is done, the station plugs an OBDII cable into the outlet under the dash to check for codes. I don't know that the light itself is inspected. If there are no codes stored in the computer, the vehicle passes (that's in Austin), other areas have differing standards.
The buyer is going to feel the seller screwed him by removing the bulb and/or because the transmission went out.
Sometimes you use a car around town for short trips all the time, and then sell it to someone who starts going 80 on a long road trip, and something goes out. That may well be what happened in this case.
I don't know that the seller is legally liable for any damages, I would think not. The buyer bought it as is, and no specific warranty was implied. But I'm not a lawyer, and I'm sure the buyer could sue if he so desired.
If the buyer had done a buyer's check at a shop, they should have noticed the check engine light not working, and they should have plugged a code reader into the outlet for that purpose to see if there were any codes. Then he would have known if there was a transmission or other code stored.
 
Busterbrown,

The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices - Consumer Protection Act imposes an affirmative duty to disclose any defects you are aware of. It gives you an out if you provide timely notice of reliance upon written information provided by a third party (mechanic), but you have to give the buyer notice that you are relying upon it BEFORE the deal. Caveat Emptor is a prudent way to go through life as an Emptor. It just isn't the law.

Even common law fraud covers the failure to disclose known defects (and pretty much always has) and negligent misrepresentation might even come into play so you really couldn't be much more incorrect in your understanding of a seller's duties.
 
Just wanted to add that it's always best to get stuff resolved before it comes to dealing with attorneys. The legal information provided herein may influence your decisions, but ultimately this is about people with conflicting views and if you can get things resolved between the two of you, you will be happier in the long run. Not recommending you surrender or anything, but spouting legal issues to an unhappy buyer has a way of sending a "where there's smoke, there's fire" signal. You can always do that later.
 
I agree that Hatdaddy would beat the rap, but you rarely beat the ride. Hence the comment about avoiding attorneys.

Are you really an attorney that had to ask about the DTPA?
 
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