I would insist he puts any claim he feels he has in writing and tell him you will put it in the hands of your solicitor.

Wait until he writes it then go pay a solicitor for 1 hour to write him a letter saying whatever they think your standing is.

If the car was correctly serviced etc and you didn't misrepresent anything I'd agree he hasn't a leg to stand on.

You know he probably thrashed the **** out of it on the way home aswell! Who doesn't?

I don't. I tend to like to get used to the positions and feel of the controls before really thrashing any car.

I don't. I tend to like to get used to the positions and feel of the controls before really thrashing any car.

There always has to be one to come and rain on the parade!?! :P:P

Only real problem here that I can see is that you are a nice guy and feel badly for the other guy.

They bought it as seen, and no warranty included, at a cheap price. Invoice is clear.

There is no way I know of, unless you were a qualified mechanic, knew what you were doing and inspected the cambelt and found it seriously damaged before the sale that you would know it would go on him.

If confronted on that other forum -ask how one would predict that the cambelt was about to go? Didn't they inspect it? Take it for a test drive? They took the responsibility for the car 'as is'.That actually means summat.

Stop feeling bad - you might or might not have felt far worse if it had happened to you, in all honesty.

These things do happen - and it was only a question of timing. But I do bet you that they really floored it on the motorway to see what it had in it.....

Cheers

Bas

don't worry about it, he's been very unlucky and now going to pay the price, don't give him a penny and if he keeps on at you calling/texting/email/fourm keep a record of everything and take it to the police if he gets silly

Sold as seen so it's tough.

I was on the receiving end of something similar with my Aprilia Mille, bought a mint bike, ran great, sounded great, and then after about 100 miles or so the sprag clutch went taking the inner crank case with it.

I was ****ed off, and got in touch with the original owner, and we had an amicable chat, and just put it down to being a fluke, he had not sold me a lemon, I bought it sold as seen (but I am ok mechanically with bikes) so really had no comeback. I bought a used engine, swapped it over, did the dvla paperwork and job done on £400.

You are probably wrestling with your own conscience over it, just relax and as others have said a polite but firm "Sorry, sold as seen" and they will eventually shrug their shoulders, kick the cat and carry on with life.

A good few years back i was in the same postion, i sold a car to a guy i worked beside at the time.

3 days later the engine seized, he wasn't impressed, but it was "sold as seen"

I did offer to help pay, but he knew the deal, and openly stated it was nothing to do with me, so wouldn't take a penny from me.

As the others have said, you sold the car in good faith, with good history which was running perfectly fine.

It's his bad luck unfortunately, just make sure he doesn't pester you !

Good luck.

Used car buying is a risk.

But with every risk there are rewards and pitfalls.

I bought mine without a full inspection :eek:

I needed to replace the front discs and pads shortly afterwards.

But used cars are sold as seen.

Plus you did point out everything you thought could be a potiential problem and all work was documented.

You have done nothing wrong, sounds to me as if the buyer is trying to scam you.

If your unsure of your legal position get in touch with Citizens Advice Bureau they are very helpful.

Or some car insurance policies have free legal advice

Best regards

Has He posted anything on Ed38???

I smell a rat.

Don't delete any emails or PMs between you and the buyer. If he sticks anything negative on the forum about you post it all up and show your honesty, but I guess you'll have thought about all that by now.

At the end of the day he was prepared to come 200 miles to view a seven or eight year old (?) car because it was very very cheap. I wouldn't travel 30 miles to view and old car unless I was very very sure about it (and even then I would go with my eyes wide open). As stated you obviously listed that it had a running fault, so he bought it knowing it had a potentially more expensive fault than dodgy HT leads.

As said, get him to prove Awesome looked at it and quoted that sort of money and get him to post that proof up on ed38 if he's going to do a negative thread. Then offer him your contribution: £30 for a new cambelt LOL Okay that's not funny but there are an awful lot of arseholes on some car forums, I've done a fair few transactions via the classifieds on a few VAG forums and met and dealt with some really nice people. I've also had my fair share of txt spk baseball cap wearing types recently who have the big ideas but not the means, so often my sympathies are a little lacking these days. You sound like the former rather than the latter so my sympathies are with you FWIW.

If what you say is exactly what happened, you have nothing to worry about

BUT

Be very careful what to say to the buyer. If you are too sympathetic or agree that perhaps you might help him in out with the cost or in some other way, this could be taken as an admission of responsibility that he could use against you in court.

You must be very clear that it is entirely his responsibility.

Absolutely nothing you are liable for. Car was sold as seen and there's no obvious way you could have known the belt would have snapped.

Also, a replacement engine (albeit a used one with unknown history) would only be around £300-400 max, if that.

Belt was in tact when it left you, simple as.

Any update on this ?

Hope it's going ok ?