Sorry to hear your problem, but I would have to say it is your fault. You did buy the car so it would be your responsibility after you bought the car to add some antifreeze, key word *anti-freeze* and you did know there was only water in it.

 

You said you 'knew it had water in it.' You chose not to change it. IMO, your fault. You know water freezes, you know water rusts things. I don't think it is the responsibility of the seller to tell you what will happen when the water freezes - especially when it is sold before the winter.

Also, what were the conditions of the sale? 'As is?' If so, it wouldn't matter too much what was in there.

 

I would not consider it the original poster's fault. Sure, he knew there was only pure water in the cooling system, but he DID NOT know the consequences of what would happen.

No reputable seller should have EVER put pure water in any engine. It kills the water pump (no lube for the bearings) and rusts out the engine...oh yeah, and it freezes!

Yes, the purchaser SHOULD know how a car works but unfortunatly the vast majority of the world DOES NOT. Sad but true.

Now if this person knew that there was pure water in the cooling system and knew the consequence, it's a different story.

 

This is usually due to the fact that any coolant is BANNED on most race tracks.


-Ted

 

water wetter's effectiveness is limited by how much coolant is in the system and it has been proven to cool better than a 50/50 mix of distilled water and antifreeze, they recommend not running any coolant in fact.

this is swaying a little off track though, the point is don't run straight water in sub zero conditions. and imo both parties are partially to blame.

 

one of the first things that you do when purchasing a car is to check fluids..especially coolant and oil..you KNEW that it wasn't Coolant as you Chose not to rectify the fact that the car had water in the cooling system instead of coolant..you chose to Buy the car ..You made a bad choice...(sorry)..I have to say it is your fault for not being aware of this ..and as one of the previous posters said.."caveat emptor"..which is Latin for Buyer beware..i would be wondering WHY there was water in the cooling system..to me it's two things..1 is that the engine was either eating or losing coolant often..and 2 that the seller was cheap,and fed up spending money on coolant..(or he swapped something in/on the cooling sytem and didn't/forgot to put in regular coolant..no matter ..you are stuck with the car now..

 

i want to know who it was...because I'm in NC too

 

myrtle beach here - it's not that guy who builds aviation rotaries is it? I wonder if he's a member here.... ~rich

 

In NC, he is still considered a dealer if he's sold 5 cars in any 12 month period. He might also be considered a used car dealer if his primary business if selling used cars.
If selling cars is just a natural incidental progression of his business, he's not a dealer. What that means is that if he's actually got a business tuning and repairing cars and only sells a few here and there, he's not a dealer.
I couldn't find any law which adressed the used car dealer specifically, so I think he'll be treated as a normal seller of any kind of property without any obligation.

This is all law in NC. I'm assuming you live in North Carolina, if you don't I think you'll be screwed either way. If you live in Pennsylvania and bought the car from him in North Carolina, that would have to be resolved in federal court because you are both from different states. There are a few "long arm statutes" that would allow you to prosecute him while keeping the litigation in Pennsylvania, but that is beyond my knowlege and you'd probably need an attorney to look it over because he's more familiar with the law in your part of the country. The reason federal court is a dead end is because in order to take a case like this there, it must involve an issue of over $75,000. Unless you encountered emotional distress because of this incident that is worth over 75K (I'm sure most of us 7 owners would, but the courts wouldn't understand it) or if this happens to be a rare Isreali built sold gold rotary engine, you're screwed.

 

thats like saying u picked up a car from the classified....u knew the breaks were starting to go bad when u first got the car.....you continue driving on the road and causes an accident months later.....is it the seller's fault?.....fact is, our cars are not new.. u didnt buy it from the dealer with a warrenty...its assumed that parts are gonna need to be replaced...

 

Good example torean. The best thing is that osiris has done is admitted defeat. He's a better man than me and it will save him alot of agrivation to count his losses and fix what he has now while being on good terms with the seller. If he is a good seller he would strongly consider helping you out with your problem.

 

I think for civil cases, small claims, he would have to file in the seller's county which means a trip from PA to NC...

Regardless of warranty, if a case can be made that the guy was willfully negligant about the condition of the car when he sold, I would think the buyer would have some recourse. In this case the buyer could reasonably show that if the seller knows how to work on cars and therefore knows what damage is possible when you solely run straight water, cold weather aside and failed to alert the buyer of the car's condition.

I think he has a case but I'm not a lawyer. ~rich

 

thats whats wrong with this country......

 

or the buyer could get over it, cut his loss, and rebuild

 

I'm with Torean. Sold as is, and, he even told you what was up. You didn't know water freezes?

 

Which? That this kid wants some compensation cause he feels cheated over a big item purchase or the fact the guy who knew better can chump people like that?

Me? I'd rather show up at that guy's doorstep with a baseball bat and some friends and let him make me an offer "of his own free will" but the law doesn't allow that anymore, even in the south. And I know what that kid is going through cause I got chumped by a cracker even worse than he did over my 7.

It may be an honest mistake and the guy might feel bad and do the right thing by helping the kid which is why I advised him to call first and see. But chances are he won't and chances are the kid will realize it'll cost more to do it than he'll receive.

I do not consider buying a car that is advertised to be in good running condition but fails because the person who knew better cut corners to be covered under "caveat emptor" unless explicitly stated as such. ~rich

 

I don't recall him saying he was informed over the condition of the car..did I miss something? ~rich

 

He told him that it only had water in it. He knew about it. His fault.

 

If that's the case then I digress - guilty as charged. Expensive lesson to learn. ~rich

 

Agreed. The fact that he knew water was in the place of coolant and not replacing it causing his housing to crack is just his fault in its entirely. True he could have forgotten but knowing what was going on and not changing the water out for coolant was his bad and is the main cause of the problem.

 

im refering to the fact that u can easily sue someone or bring charges to someone else for your obvious fault and to have laywers encourge u to file suit..when he bought the car it was in running condition right?....and im sure the price he bought it at was much lower than the price from a dealership...so why is it so cheap?....because there is no warrenty..and im sure u gladly took that 500-1000 dollar discount..3rd party transactions means it is sold as is..unless the owner is willing to warrent his work...but if not .its your responsbility to take care of the car after he hands u the title...i can see it now.....2 month from now someone is gonna blow a tire 60 miles away from home just to realize the jack isnt there....of course it'll be the seller's fault cause he shouldnt have chumped someone for a spare jack and leaving non-runflat tires on the car

 

good thing N/A motors can be found for cheap in good condition.

 

Why would he have to compensatae. THe post said he knew about the lack of coolant. Listen to Torean's examples dude.

People like you are so sue happy .

 

If you don't know about cars...you should buy a new one that won't have problems for a while or buy a used one and have it checked out by a specialist. When I first bought my TII, the first thing I did was take it to a rotary mechanic and got a full tune up. Establishing a good relationship with a reputable mechanic is an excellent idea. After you know it's in good shape...then you can start to learn about doing things yourself if you so desire. There is a lot of info on here, but there is also alot of misinformation. If you screw something up, it's good to know someone who can bail you out. Sorry about the car man. That sucks.

 

Don't quote me out of context then label me based on your selective attention span - read the rest of my posts before you step up.

And the original poster said he saw water in the radiator after he bought it but didn't know it would cause problems. Later in the thread it was discovered the seller told him there was only water - big difference and my opinion changed 180.

I'm surprised at the number of people who feel the buyer assumes all the risk. Next time you buy something from the store and it goes bad, get a recall on your new car or even buy something from a person and they dupe you, I challenge you to do nothing and eat the loss. While you're at it, I got some land in florida to sell ya too.... ~rich