Sold a car "as is"; buyer now asking for money for repairs

[warrigal]

What is the name of your state? Texas

I am a private party, and I sold my 11 year old car "as is, with no express or implied warranty" per the bill of sale signed by seller and buyer. For whatever reason, the buyer chose NOT to have the car inspected by a mechanic prior to purchasing it.
3 days after the sale, he calls me saying that he had taken it to his mechanic and that the mechanic told him the transmission would need to be "replaced pretty soon". He calls that night saying the transmission "went out", although it is apparently still drivable. The next day, while I was still thinking over what to do, he calls and says the transmission is being replaced at that very moment, and started hinting at taking legal action against me under the lemon law or any other applicable laws unless I pay for half of the transmission.

A couple questions:
1) Does he have a legal leg to stand on here? He had opportunity to take it to a mechanic (we had let other potential buyers do that, of course). He had heard the loud noises when he test drove it - and the loud noises turned out to be the transmission. He did not ask about the noise at all.

2) Am I opening myself up to future "claims" if I do give him some money back? I do feel badly, and want to help out, although not half the cost of the transmission. With his legal threats, however, I feel I'm being bullied into giving him half the cost of the transmission just to make this go away.

3) What sort of document should we sign if I do give him money? I don't want this to set a precedent that he can go on if something goes wrong with the car in a month.

4) Any other advice you can give me for this unpleasant situation? This is the first time I've sold a car and I feel I'm getting in above my head now that things haven't gone smoothly.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[JETX]

Does he have a legal leg to stand on here?

Based SOLELY on the information in your post, and absent a valid fraud issue, no.

Am I opening myself up to future "claims" if I do give him some money back?

Not if you have him sign a VALID release of claim and further liability statement in receipt for an 'adjustment'.

What sort of document should we sign if I do give him money?

See above.

Any other advice you can give me for this unpleasant situation?

Yep. Tell him that you will see him in court. If he pursues his 'claim' (unlikely), simply present his signed 'as is' statement and the facts of the sale.

 

[warrigal]

Not if you have him sign a VALID release of claim and further liability statement in receipt for an 'adjustment'.

Where would I find a generic "release of claim and further liability" statement, and what would make it valid? Does it have to be notarized? (Hopefully not).

What kind of language should it contain? Something like: "in consideration for this check of $$ I, so-and-so, agree to release any and all current or future claims against [Warrigal] regarding the 19xx vehicle sold to me on x/x/05"?

 

[JETX]

What kind of language should it contain? Something like: "in consideration for this check of $$ I, so-and-so, agree to release any and all current or future claims against [Warrigal] regarding the 19xx vehicle sold to me on x/x/05"?

Absent an attorney-client relationship, that sounds good to me.
There are LOTS of sample forms on the internet.

 

[warrigal]

Thanks for your help!

 

[dallas702]

You sound as though you feel some obligation to give up some of the money you got for the car. If you are so determined you can donate it to the FreeAdviceForums Christmas Party Fund, because you sure don't owe the buyer of your car anything. I'm not sure what kind of car you have or what the "loud noises" were, but if your buyer could hear those "loud noises" it was entirely his responsibility to ask or have them checked.

You can feel empathy for your buyer all you want. You can even be sympathetic. But, unless you just like throwing away your money tuck it back into your mattress and tell the buyer he had plenty of opportunity to say "no".

Then, tell him to look up "caveat emptor". It's a term the judge will use.

Now, how much did you want to contribute to our fund?