Buyer is threatening to sue for misrepresentation on used car?

[BigDean817]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

I advertised a 1994 vehicle with 30,000 miles on Ebay. I provided 40+ pictures of the car & had a few detailed paragraphs describing the condition and vehicle overall. He was from another state and had the car shipped to his home. I got a call from the buyer the next day after receiving the car saying it smelled and the AC did not get very cold and asked me to fix it. The following day he called again saying in addition to the other two issues it looked like the car had paintwork done to it and threatened to sue me. I was not and am not aware of any accidents or paintwork on the car but gave him $800 to get the AC fixed and smell removed in good faith. We both verbally agreed this was fair and it would be the end of the situation. Fourth day after our agreement and after he received the money he called again and said he had his mechanic look over the car and said it was in a bad accident at some point in time and had the frame repaired. He sent me pictures of overspray various places underneath the car. Now he wants me to pay $5,000 to repaint the car to make it perfect in his eyes or refund all the money and return the car or he will sue. Carfax and Autocheck are clean with no accidents. He never came to look at the car in person before hand or asked me to get the car inspected. The bill of sale stated as-is. In my eyes the car really does look great and I had received various compliments from strangers saying how nice and new it looked.

 

[justalayman]

well, we have no idea what you said that is seen as a misrepresentation by the buyer. If he believes you misrepresented the vehicle, he can sue you. Heck, he can sue you just because he feels like it if he wants. You will get your opportunity to defend yourself in court. The judge will decide.

 

[BigDean817]

The buyer is saying the car is misrepresented because of the paintwork he found by a mechanic/body shop almost a week after he had the car. I was unaware of any accidents/paint work and described the car as being in great condition "as it was and is in my eyes." He claimed that his body guy found things that obviously the average joe would not have known and would take a trained eye to look for these things as I never noticed any of them. Also, the purchase price was over $10,000 so this would not be small claims court correct?

 

[justalayman]

the guy can find all he wants to find and it make no difference but if he finds something that you misrepresented, then he has a claim that you misrepresented the car.

In your entire response, you never state that he is claiming you said "this" and the buyer discovered "this" was a misrepresentation.


as to what court:

It really depends on what he is suing for. he can sue in small claims but he would be limited by the courts limits.

 

[BigDean817]

Thanks for the fast replies.

In your entire response, you never state that he is claiming you said "this" and the buyer discovered "this" was a misrepresentation.

I just described the car to the best of my knowledge and feel it was described fairly and accurately. The buyer is just claiming that he thought the car was suppose to be "perfect" and he did not receive a "perfect" car even though I never said it was perfect. He is not accusing me of saying one thing then finding out another. He just has this idea stuck in his head that the car should have been flawless and showroom new even though I never said that verbally or in writing. It was sold for more then Kelly Blue Book because of the low mileage and in line with what other low mileage cars are/were going for. I had no idea of any previous accidents or paintwork and I never stated that it wasn't in one or never had any done. For all we know this damage he found could have happened 15 years ago. The previous owner that I bought the car from was the original owner and stated it had never been in an accident when I bought it a year ago.

 

[justalayman]

then all you can do is tell him too bad, he should have had the car inspected before buying it and wish him the best with his new car.


If he sues you, you will have to defend yourself. Other than that, tell him to get lost.

 

[swalsh411]

If he tells a Judge that he actually expected a 15 year old car to be flawless he's going to get laughed out of court. No reasonable person could possibly believe that.

 

[BigDean817]

That is what I was thinking to. He keeps using the word "perfect" and "perfect" is obviously a varied opinion from person to person. I thought I was being more then fair by giving him $800 for fixing the AC and to have the interior deodorized which was only worth a few hundred. I didn't even have to give him that but was doing so out of good will and he was originally happy with that settlement. The rest of the money was just because I felt bad because he was disappointed about the paintwork that we never knew about. It's getting to be borderline harassment from all the emails/calls/threats and I am really losing sleep over all of this. I feel like he is just going to keep coming back asking for more money and finding various things that he does not like about the car every day now.

 

[justalayman]

if you used "perfect" you might have a problem. That is why I was trying to get you to be specific about his claims of misrepresentation. While perfect is a somewhat subjective term, I would definitely not consider car that had frame damage and the work described as "perfect".