Consumer Fraud Can I take a private seller to small claims court

[stvtill116]

Can I take a private seller to small claims court in Pa? I purchased a car from Craig's list for $1300.00 on 4/47/2009 The cars motor went on 5/8/09. The repair shop said it would cost $4000.00 to fix. The seller said the car was in great shape and there were no problem but a transmission slip.

Can I take them to court? Please this would really help me. I have three kids and now no car or no money to purchase another one.

Thanks you

please respond to stvtill116@gmail.com
Here is the add


Great small car, really good on gas over 30 mpg, you can fill up on average for under $20. Car has around 130K miles, and needs light tranny work, it shouldn't need too much, just having a little problem catching in first gear. 2 door, automatic, 6 disc cd player, pw, pl, sunroof, 4cyl, abs, dual airbags, cruise control. Car has minor dings here and there but nothing too terrible. I will be uploading pics soon. Call Terry for questions

 

[tpajet]

The first question is if there was anything in the bill of sale that said sold as is. If that is the case, then you are out of luck as they are telling you there is no warranty.

Also, the car was working when they sold it to you. There is nothing they can do about it once you take possession of it, and there is a really good chance the seller may not have known of the issue. If he/she had not have sold the car, it would have broken for them too.

Even if there was nothing in the bill of sale about "as is", a judge would probably not rule in you favor because it is an older car with high miles, and it's not unreasonable to expect other thngs to break, especially since there were items known to be not in propper repair (transmission) at the time of sale.

Baiscally unless you can prove that the seller knew there was a problem and "bandaid" fixed it just enough to make the sale, you problaby would not have a case.

 

[vfielder]

First off a car that only $1300.00 has got some age attached to it. If there is no written guarantee that is an "as is" sale. You get what you pay for.