Screwed by dealer

[PMSanchez]

Hi, I live in New Orleans, Louisiana and I have been screwed by a used car dealer. Back in October I purchased a 1997 Oldsmobile Aurora for about $4000. When I purchased it, I was aware it was overheating, but they (owner and mechanic) told me they checked out the car, changed the thermostat, checked the water pump and coolant and said they were all good and that the only reason it was overheating was because the radiator just needed to be flushed. I was so exciting to be getting the car, since it was the best looking car I ever had. So I bought it, brought it home, flushed the radiator...still over heats. So I thought it may be the water pump, changed it, no help. So I did a little research and found out this car has problems with head gaskets, so I assumed that is what it was since I did have smoke comming out of my tailpipes. At this time I was pretty upset and demanded the dealer fix it, and towed the car to them. They called me about a week later saying that it didn't have a blown head gasket when I bought it and I must have blown the head gasket by driving it hot. That is total B.S. since I had the car I only got to put like 200 miles on it, and that was little drives here and there in like 3 weeks. I never let it get too hot because I was worried that the aluminum block would get warped. So the dealer told me I had to move the car because it was going to be towed. By this time I was already very frustrated and just said screw it, I will take the loss and fix the head gaskets, I assumed it was probably cost me about $1000 to do so, so I just let the car sit until I saved it up. Well, it took me awhile to do so, but I finally got it sent somewhere to be fixed and was so exited I was going to have my car. Well it turns out that the head gaskets arent the problem. The motor is blown. Head gaskets were blown, leaked coolant into the cylinders and warped the block and heads so now the motor wont even crank. ARGGGGG I just don't have the money to buy an engine for this car since it costs more than I spent on it, and nobody rebuilds these engines...I just happen to have the Aurora that comes with the 4.6L Northstar (Cadillac) engine. I can't even find rebuilt engines for this car online. So I basically bought a real winner here.

Well, my question is, is there anything I can do about this? I know it is probably too late to do anything, but there is always hope. If not, I guess I will just be calling the junkyard on Friday.

Thanks,
Paul

[teflon_jones]

The only thing you can do about this is take it as a lesson learned. You took the word of a used car salesman and a mechanic. What did you expect?