need lemonade?

[nursecarie]

What is the name of your state? Washington
I found this site while trying to get info on my situation, to see if the lemon laws applied.
I beleive since the car I bought was a 1997 it would be far too old.
Ok, here is the situation..
about 4 months ago I received a settlement due to my disability, I found what appeared to be a nice looking,reliable used car.
I bought a 1997 saturn, with tax and license I paid around 7,400.00.
Within 3 months, the car just died on my way to a store, I made it about 2 blocks, after calling someone over to look at it, he found my oil plug (in the pan) had either been loose and worked out, whatever..it was gone, as was all of my motor oil.
The man who owned the car lot was in the process of "selling all" so he could retire.
I have since contacted him, 2x with no luck, since his "mechanic shop" was the last place to change the oil, I figured they would come up with something.
In his opinion, he made it sound like someone had removed it "intentionally" although the car is so close to the ground, this wasnt possible.
Ple4ase, help!!
On social security it woul;d take me another 15 years to save that kind of money, or even pay for a new motor...any suggestions as to liability?What is the name of your state?

[CraigFL]

When the oil pan plug falls out, the car loses oil very quickly. The red oil light should have come on signalling you to shut the engine off immediately. If the car ran without oil for more than a just few minutes, the engine would be toast.

You would think that the mechanic who inspected the car before you bought it may have seen this problem if it wasn't tight enough-- a slight oil drip? In any case, you had the car for three months so you will be stuck with the problem....

[racer72]

Washington lemon laws do not apply to used vehicles. If you bought the car "as-is", you have no recourse.






$7400 for a 10 year old car??? That guy saw you coming from a mile away.

[nursecarie]

Yes, apparently the owner of Olympic motors, Shelton, DID see me coming a mile away, but the fact remains, I am still disabled, will never have that kind of money again, and my life depended on that vehicle.
This is depression, where are peoples sense of human decency?
I spoke to the lot owner again, and he had the nerve to say "I'm not gonna give ya no "freebies..".if you take it in and it does need a motor, I can "help you" by getting it (new motor)at "my cost" and my cost for labour.
The actual freebie here was when I handed him 7400 in cash and didn't even have a car to drive for 3 months!!

[msiron]

You were the fool not him. I have never heard of paying that kind of money for a 97 Saturn... You should have done some research first.

[CraigFL]

Look... I feel sorry for you --- in many ways. That car had a Kelly blue book value of about $3000 to $4500 unless it was one special car.

I see you made 3 mistakes-- all of which YOU are responsible for.
1. You didn't research the value of the car
2. You didn't have the car checked by an independant mechanic
3. You didn't realize the seriousness of maintaining the vehicle and watching for things like low fluids.

You could have checked the value of the car out on-line for free if you wanted to at [url]www.kbb.com[/url] . What I don't understand is if this car was such a HUGE investment to you and so much hinged on it being successful, why didn't YOU take more care. Even if you didn't have the car checked out by a mechanic before you bought it, why wouldn't you have it looked at afterwards? I wouln't have driven that car but a few miles without making sure that all the fluid levels were proper. I also check my fluid leves more than every three months too! You could have bought an extended warranty.

Owning a car is a big responsibility and an expensive proposition. Even in the best of cases sometimes owners end up having to pay big money for repairs that may not even be preventable. Cash reserves are required for things like that.

Why would you think you are entitled to have a small business "donate" money for your repairs when it was clearly not their responsibility. I think it's nice of the owner to even offer to help you at his cost-- you need to thank him for that!

It's time to take responsibility for your actions and use this as a lesson to be sure that you do things better next time.