But since the vehicle was sold to you "as is", that is without express or implied warranty (otherwise you surely would have said so) in order to obtain a judgment canceling out the transaction you would need to prove that the seller was aware of the defect and failed to disclose it and had you been made aware you would not have made the purchase.
That implies that a seller has an affirmative obligation to disclose all known defects. In many states there is no such obligation for the sales of used cars. Rather, the basic rule is that the dealer may not misrepresent the condition of the vehicle or commit fraud. There are some states that impose an affirmative duty on sellers to disclose at least some information on the condition of used vehicles, e.g. salvage titles, if the vehicle had been in accident, etc. The rules vary significantly here, though most states do not impose a duty to disclose all that much. Moreover, typically the disclosure requirements are only imposed on dealers, not causal sellers of a used car. Few, if any, require a seller disclose
all known defects in a used car. Ohio used to have a regulation under its law prohibiting deceptive trade practices that required a dealer selling any car, new or used, to disclose known defects that would cost more than $300 to repair. That regulation has since been amended, however. In its current form, it only requires affirmative disclosure in the sale of
new cars. Specifically, it provides as follows:
It shall be a deceptive and unfair act or practice for a dealer, manufacturer, advertising association, or advertising group, in connection with the advertisement or sale of a motor vehicle, to:...
Fail to disclose prior to the dealer's obtaining signature by the consumer on any document for the purchase of the vehicle, any defect and/or the extent of any previous damage to such vehicle, retail repair cost of which exceeds or exceeded six per cent of the manufacturer's suggested retail price, excluding damage to glass, tires and bumpers where replaced by identical manufacturer's original equipment. The above disclosure is required when the dealer has actual knowledge of the defect and/or damage and the vehicle is a new motor vehicle as defined in division (C) of section 4517.01 of the Revised Code.
Ohio Admin. Code 109:4-3-16(B). In addition, an annotation to this regulation provides a note on Ohio case law that states as follows:
A violation of RC 1345.02 does not require knowing or intentional deception; therefore, where a supplier sells a “clipped” motor vehicle to a consumer and the supplier should know of the condition of the vehicle, the supplier has committed a deceptive sales practice in violation of RC 1345.02(B)(1) and (B)(2).
Muench v Eagle Savings Assn, No. A-8508744 (CP, Hamilton, 3-30-87).
A number of blogs by Ohio attorneys state the rule of this case as being that a dealer must disclose any “obvious” defects in the car to the buyer whether or not the dealer had knowledge of the defect. I could not readily find this case to determine for myself what the actual holding was and what the reasoning was. Nor could I find any other cases that cited it or stated the same rule, which leads me to wonder how strong a rule this really is and whether the summary of the rule on those blogs is truly accurate.
However, assuming that the characterization on the blogs is right, if the defect is “obvious” then where the customer has had a chance to see the car before buying it one would think that the customer would see the obvious defect, too. If the consumer knew of the defect before he bought it then he was not deceived; he bought it knowing the defect and chose to buy anyway. On the other hand, if the consumer could not readily see it then was the defect truly “obvious”? That might make it difficult to apply this rule in many cases.
The OP might want to discuss this purchase with the Ohio Attorney General’s office as it will be very familiar with the consumer rights laws and it can tell the OP whether it believes the seller engaged in a deceptive trade practice by failing to disclose this defect.