- Jurisdiction
- California
My wife and I were in a bind and needed to get a car because hers was totaled.
We went out and contacted a guy on craigslist, we looked at this 2007 Honda Accord that looked fine, drove fine at the time (and I checked the engine bay and all the systems of the car, it operated perfectly fine and checked out as far as I was concerned)
When I asked for the title and to close the deal, my wife had handed him our cash to count and he handed us a crumpled up Repossessed title that was not current, no registration, and TWO open ended auction papers and insisted to tell us "this is how it comes from auction, I own it"
Not just that, once I checked the car for a scratched VIN, neither of the plates were matching and I wanted to walk away from the deal. The guy had already put the money in his jacket, and was clear he wasn't going to let us leave and take our money even though we hadn't signed anything. He refused to provide any binding documents and also wouldn't allow us to take our money and go, so sourly my wife and I chose to take what we had and go. Luckily I got a picture of his ID.
fast forward a couple weeks, the car starts literally falling apart. This car is the epitome of used car nightmares. I took it to a dealership to be inspected completely and they reported the following:
The car dashboard was removed (torn out), the instrument cluster had been tampered with and most of the indicator lights were cut to not show issues. The gauges were adjusted and hot glued to appear normal.
The rear brakes weren't existent. The E-brake had been taped in place as a temporary fix.
The oil had been topped off right before sale to appear normal.
The A-Arms needed new bushings because they were torn to shreds.
The starter line to the alternator and battery was replaced by some random crap that was stretched
The stereo system was broken, and put into hard non-display mode to appear functional at bare minimum.
After having about $1600 in repairs to the cluster, central radio system (which controls a lot of the A/C,defroster etc) and engine oil problems fixed and getting it smogged, this happens:
The entire braking system went out, they also topped off the fluids and the pedal goes all the way to the wall and won't stop the car. Now I have a unregistered, no-brakes unusable vehicle that will cost probably another $2000 to fix and register and maintain at the end of it.
I tried going to the DMV to get it registered, but apparently one of the previous owners had given the DMV a bouncing check which means it will now cost a total of $550 to register this paperweight.
We can't afford to keep this thing, and we don't have a new valid title, no registration, its nearly non operable.
I have a picture of the guy's valid California Driver's License, which also has his home address. Is there any legal course of action I can take to have this undone?
We went out and contacted a guy on craigslist, we looked at this 2007 Honda Accord that looked fine, drove fine at the time (and I checked the engine bay and all the systems of the car, it operated perfectly fine and checked out as far as I was concerned)
When I asked for the title and to close the deal, my wife had handed him our cash to count and he handed us a crumpled up Repossessed title that was not current, no registration, and TWO open ended auction papers and insisted to tell us "this is how it comes from auction, I own it"
Not just that, once I checked the car for a scratched VIN, neither of the plates were matching and I wanted to walk away from the deal. The guy had already put the money in his jacket, and was clear he wasn't going to let us leave and take our money even though we hadn't signed anything. He refused to provide any binding documents and also wouldn't allow us to take our money and go, so sourly my wife and I chose to take what we had and go. Luckily I got a picture of his ID.
fast forward a couple weeks, the car starts literally falling apart. This car is the epitome of used car nightmares. I took it to a dealership to be inspected completely and they reported the following:
The car dashboard was removed (torn out), the instrument cluster had been tampered with and most of the indicator lights were cut to not show issues. The gauges were adjusted and hot glued to appear normal.
The rear brakes weren't existent. The E-brake had been taped in place as a temporary fix.
The oil had been topped off right before sale to appear normal.
The A-Arms needed new bushings because they were torn to shreds.
The starter line to the alternator and battery was replaced by some random crap that was stretched
The stereo system was broken, and put into hard non-display mode to appear functional at bare minimum.
After having about $1600 in repairs to the cluster, central radio system (which controls a lot of the A/C,defroster etc) and engine oil problems fixed and getting it smogged, this happens:
The entire braking system went out, they also topped off the fluids and the pedal goes all the way to the wall and won't stop the car. Now I have a unregistered, no-brakes unusable vehicle that will cost probably another $2000 to fix and register and maintain at the end of it.
I tried going to the DMV to get it registered, but apparently one of the previous owners had given the DMV a bouncing check which means it will now cost a total of $550 to register this paperweight.
We can't afford to keep this thing, and we don't have a new valid title, no registration, its nearly non operable.
I have a picture of the guy's valid California Driver's License, which also has his home address. Is there any legal course of action I can take to have this undone?
