Purchased private party used car and Inspection was bogus

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA
My son (18 and naive) just purchased a vehicle from a private party. Of course, the receipt states "as is", but had a brand new inspection sticker on it from the day before. In an email, the seller had told me it was inspected until the end of the month, but that he was going to get it inspected again, because it will sell better. I have been telling my son to have a garage check it out before purchase, BUT since the car was inspected one day previous, he figured the car had to be road worthy. Well, we contacted our personal garage to set up an appt., because there was some rusting that I didn't like on the side. I had a bad feeling from the day he brought it home. PA does not allow ragged rusted edges. Anyway, my mechanic wouldn't even take it for a test drive. The frame was cracked, the gas tank was being held on with bungey cords, there were two gas leaks, the frame was rusted through, a tie rod was hanging loose, etc etc. I want to go after the seller and the garage that inspected. A state trooper who specializes in inspections came, took pictures and is fining the garage, but it the car would have exploded and wrecked with my son in it, wouldn't he have been liable? I feel that someone should refund my son his $1300. He saved some of his Basic Training money for this car, the rest is going toward college. Any advise. Can we take them both to small claims court? Thanks!

As a private party purchase, you have no recourse on the seller. PA law might provide some relief from the inspection station, however I do not have that info.

My gut feeling tells me the garage and the seller were in cahoots (sp) together, but I don't have any proof of that. I have an email from the seller telling me he will give me money towards parts that it needs, etc., but I'm not holding my breath that we will ever get anything from him. I really ticked about the garage owner. He told the trooper that he made a mistake. I hear through the grapevine that this isn't the first time he's done this and it's about time he got caught. This was not a little mistake of overlooking the brakes, or forgetting to check the lights. I just feel the car was completely misrepresented.

I would investigate possibly trying to have the inspectors license removed. My brother in law worked at a dealership and they held a car I was buying and transferring to Ohio, because a brake drum was just under tolerance. Based on that, I would say the state will be proactive on that issue anyway.

Well, the garage is getting fined a nominal fee, but I feel it was a slap on the wrist. The things wrong on this vehicle were well beyond questionable. It wasn't like the brakes were 2 out of 10 instead of 3 out of 10. It was so unsafe that the mechanic was afraid to put it on his life. Again, I feel the vehicle was misrepresented based on that inspection sticker slapped on it one day prior to purchase. I don't know. I know it's personal for me, so maybe I'm not looking at this objectively. Thanks for your feedback.

File small claims against the seller and the garage ( find out from the counties records who's name and address it's under ).

Take a copy of the trouper's report and that the garage was fined .

State that you replied on the auto being safe ( as was described ) to drive by inspections and there is no way in hades the auto could have passed inspection possible even a year earlier .

Let the court decide .

Did the seller retain a copy of the bill of sale stating " AS-IS " ?

If not you even have a better shot .